WTH Wednesday-When the bottom line means more

When a good friend of mine Pam, @SpazP on twitter, began to talk about the hard time she was having with Fresh Fiction and the Readers & Rita con in Texas over a week ago, it made my blood began to boil. See, Pam’s dog Dakota, is VERY sick. I won’t go into all of it but needless to say, Dakota’s vet bills will be astronomical. Pam made the logical choice and appealed to FF to refund her ticket and/or help her find a buyer because frankly, she needs to spend time with her dog. Yes, that’s how sick he is. FF refused to refund her ticket or even help her secure another buyer. Basically, they told her, “Too bad so sad.”

Pam appealed to the twitter community to try and find a buyer. This is what happened. I have copied this from her blog because it is such a joyful post to read and makes me heart my book buddies so much more.

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How the Amazing Book Community Stepped Up To Help Me (When Fresh Fiction Refused To)

This post is a GIANT "Thank You!!!!!" to the Book community I feel so blessed to be a part of.

Originally posted at Wicked Lil Pixie Reviews but definitely deserves to be cross-posted.

I purchased a Readers n 'ritas Friends ticket in August and have been so freaking excited for the event coming up this weekend! It's a book convention here in central Texas, and an opportunity to meet some of my most favorite authors: Vicki Pettersson, Ann Aguirre, and Jaye Wells, to name a few. It is also an opportunity to meet up with fellow book bloggers I'd been dying to meet for the first time, as well as a chance to see some again I met in Philly at AAD.

As you may already know, my first dog Dakota was diagnosed with aggressive terminal cancer last week on Thursday. Putting that personal sob story aside, I've been trying to get in touch with Fresh Fiction, who holds Readers N 'ritas, to cancel my registration and issue a ticket refund of $125 since Friday. I'm about 3 hours from the location, it's a weekend event, and I don't want to lose a minute of time with my dog. And, quite frankly, with our growing vet bills, I really need that money back. Even a partial refund would help.

Four various emails pleading for assistance, and a handful of Twitter DMs later, my request was finally acknowledged today by the Director of Fresh Fiction. To sum up her answer and tone, it went like this: "No Refunds" and "You can sell your ticket and we'll transfer the name of the ticket to the new holder." But this isn't a post on that. This is a post on all of the amazing good that came after that from everyone but Fresh Fiction.

I did what the Fresh Fiction Director recommended, and took to Twitter in an attempt to find someone to buy my ticket. In explaining why I was in such a distressed need to sell the ticket, the response I received was nothing I was prepared for.

Humbled. Overwhelmed. Touched. Warmed. Inspired. Enlightened. Loved. Changed.

These are words that only attempt to describe how I feel right now. I would like to thank the following people for reaching out to me and trying to help me in this crappy situation:

Chelsea of Vamp Book Club for immediately offering to help me sell my ticket. And starting the "If you buy SpazP's ticket I will..." campaign. In addition, thank you for asking me if there were any autographs you could collect for me as well. You are a gem, truly.

Tori for offering up 6 months of undying love if you buy my ticket. I mean... HELLO. This is HUGE. And believe me, this is not offered lightly. You'd be lucky to have just 1 month of Tori's undying love, but 6? This is a major prize.

Amanda Bonilla for offering up a signed ARC of Shaedes of Gray -- holy crap, you guys. This is one of my most favorite books of the year so far. It's been so hard to not talk about it! So I pretty much barfed in excitement over this generosity. You want this!

NAT/WLP...  for generously stating that the buyer of my ticket simply wouldn't be shanked. That is love, people. Also for offering to sharpen my knife, when I needed it. And for successfully making me giggle throughout the day, every day. I am so blessed to have Nat as a Friend.

Synde of Cemetary Cat Designs for offering up 10% off her jewelry and free shipping for a year. Say what now? Some of my most favorite jewelry? Offered at 10% off with free shipping? Okay now I've gone from tearing up to ugly crying.

Sierra Dean for $25 gift card to Samhain publishing's site. Okay stop, just stop. This is seriously too much, I can't handle it! I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy! Sierra is Gold.

Berrin Rae for offering up a free eCopy of Knightfall. OMG. Speechless.

PJ Schnyder for offering up free copies of ALL her current titles, aaaaand now I'm sobbing again...Seriously, PJ is one of those people I feel blessed to know. Not only am I fan of her work, I adore her as a person.

Cherry Adair for reaching out to me privately in email, with very nice words of encouragement and ass kicking sentiments. She even offered to pay for my ticket even if she's not going!

It just doesn't get better than this, right? Well, the gesture that made me pass out, pick myself up off the floor, and then faint again, was by Ann Aguirre who offered to immediately fix this. She insisted on covering my ticket, even if we couldn't find someone to buy it. In fact, since she was leaving for Texas to the R&R con the following day, she insisted she send me the money that night. And she did it. Ann Aguirre sent me $125 to my PayPal account, in a matter of seconds. Something I'd been pleading with Fresh Fiction for days to help me with. I still don't even know how to fully put in to words the extend of my gratitude.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone who reached out to me, said kind words, and offered words of support overall. In the end this wasn't about the money, although let's face it, I really need it for the vet bills. What I walked away with was an experience I will never ever forget, and will most definitely focus on paying all this kindness forward. I am basking in the light.

All my love and gratitude, Pamela AKA Spaz

IF YOU ARE IN THE CENTRAL TEXAS AREA AND WOULD LIKE MY READERS N 'RITAS TICKET FOR THIS WEEKEND, PLEASE CONTACT ME AT SPAZP (AT) ME (DOT) COM.

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Cons are fun but being decent means more. Because of this I will never attend a con sponsored by Fresh Fiction as they have proven the bottom line means more then anything.  FF wouldn’t have lost much being simply human and refunding her ticket or at least offering to help her sell it.

The moral here? Twitter is awesome. Book readers, bloggers, and authors are awesome. Fresh Fiction is not so awesome.

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