It’s been a long, arduous road, my friends. Way back on November 3, 2008, Ken Fergason of Neth Space asked me the question that started the boulder rolling down the tunnel to smash through the stalagtites and stalagmites that are the barriers to success put in place by the face-painted, blowdart shooting publishing industry. You are that boulder. Or rather, your purchases are–or maybe they’re the tunnel. Anyway, I think you all know where I’m going with this.*

It’s December 15.  Do it for Thelma Day. Not since last month has the world watched so eagerly to see if one American’s call for change would be answered by a crisis-weary public. Some day your grandchildren will ask you, Grampa, where were you on December 15? And you’ll want to answer, In a bookstore, of course, buying Pandemonium. And then they’ll ask, Why are you crying, Grampa? And you’ll say, Because I’ve wet my pants again.

So many of you joined the cause and fought the good fight, perhaps not going door to door, as I repeatedly requested, but at least going online. Emily Balistrieri’s Thelma Day Support Group on Facebook reached 82 members. And several of you promised to buy the book if I would just stop calling at night. I thank all of you for your hard work.

But we are not done yet. December 15 is 24 hours long — longer if you count all those time zones. And we have to get a lot of people to the stores and online if we’re going to make this happen. So call your relatives, send email to strangers, and offer to drive that crazy cat lady to Borders. You can even offer to drive her back. Totally up to you.

The important thing is that there’s a woman in Maryville, Tennessee who for 43 years has watched her son fritter away his energy on science fiction. But now, like Oprah telling the nation that they didn’t have to be afraid of Cormac McCarthy, you can show my mother that she has nothing to be ashamed of. How? In the only way that counts in American letters: Huge, Boffo sales.

Do it for Thelma Day is upon us, and her dreams are taking off like Indiana Jones in a biplane.**

* Down hill?

** Thelma also hates snakes.