The Jersey Devil has a special present for Mom and Dad

Folks, here’s the situation: the founding father and Grand Poobah of Jersey Devil Press, Eirik Gumeny, needs new lungs.

Here’s the good news: Eirik’s on the shortlist for a transplant, and he’s within spitting distance of the hospital where they’ll do it once the lungs arrive. And his wife/JDP’s associate editor, Monica Rodriguez, is with him.

But there’s also the other news: lungs aren’t cheap. Even with insurance, there’s going to be hella hospital bills and recovery medical care to pay.

Of course, if we at JDP could foot the bill ourselves, we would, but as you all probably know, literature doesn’t often make you rich, and all the poop jokes in the world aren’t going to cover this thing. But we can help Eirik bide his time while he’s waiting on his lungs, and so our former content editor, Mike Sweeney, has come out of retirement for one special issue of Jersey Devil Press. And he’s assembled an all-star roster of some of JDP’s favorite writers — Danger_Slater, Ryan Werner, Craig Wallwork, Amanda Chiado, Ally Malinenko, and Mike himself — to fill out the issue. We’ve even brought back one of JDP’s most popular covers in a special variation, thanks to cover artist Crystal Elerson.

That’s what we’ve done. Here’s what you can do:

• Donate money to Eirik’s COTA organ transplant fundraiser site. (Any amount helps, gang.)
• Share the COTA site with everyone you know, in case they might have some quarters in the couch cushions, too.
• Do whatever well-wishing you prefer: prayers, mantras, juju, happy thoughts, toasts with whisky.
• Read the special issue for Eirik and Monica. Maybe leave a comment on one of the stories, just to let them know you’re thinking of them.