River Runners - Special Edition

Supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation for Cancer Research

Price: $10, of which 50% goes directly to LAF.

Background of this book:

River Runners is the first in a series of books that follow the amazing adventures of one young man from his later years in High School through College and beyond.  It began as some ideas that were floating around in my head, little more than a day dream to keep me out of trouble in school, High School in fact.  During the time I was becoming an avid writer of poems and short stories.  They were an escape for me from those rough years known as High School, writing was a creative and positive way to keep myself out of trouble when I was done with assignments in class.  So began the writing of a book, this book, my first book.  Very quickly the short story grew longer, more complex, with a deeper plot and more characters.  And it quickly outgrew the seventy page spiral bound notebook I had been writing it in.  The stories growth and maturity continued for years, through my remaining semesters of high school and into college.  Through countless hours of writing both on paper and on the computer, and many more hours of editing and sculpting the pages I have now completed what I consider the final draft of this book. 

How cancer entered my own life:

I graduated high school in the summer of 2000, and my family and I enjoyed vacation that year at Disney World in Florida.  Upon returning I began to grow concerned about a mole on my right forearm.  A mole that had been there for years, most likely from birth, but was now showing many of the warning signs of skin cancer.  Less than forty eight hours after voicing my concerns to my father we were at the family's dermatologist who made the call to have it removed for biopsy.  The results were not good, but thankfully not as bad as it could have been.  Additional surgery on my arm was required to ensure that they had removed all of the melanoma from my arm, but the cancer had not spread and additional therapy or surgery in other areas was not needed.  I now wear five scars including the one on my forearm from moles that were removed to ensure that no additional melanomas develop.  I have now been cancer free for five years.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation:

The story of Lance Armstrong, having recently retired from professional cycling after winning his seventh Tour de France, has inspired countless people around the globe to achieve their dreams and goals regardless of what stands in their way.  From giving fellow cancer patients and survives the hope and strength they need to endure treatment to encouraging members of every generation take up cycling as a form of exercise and enjoyment, he has had an impact on so many lives.  I believe that regardless of how his name goes down in history in the world of cycling, that the awareness and aid that he has brought to cancer research alone deserves boundless recognition.  I have decided to do what I can, to use what is most precious to me, to help support this foundation and their goals in cancer research.  I am opening up my private collection of writing, beginning with my first book, to aid in these goals.  I can think of no better way to use the hours I have put into my writing than to use it to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

How to get your copy of River Runners - Special Edition Manuscript:

I have put the manuscript into PDF form, with a file size of 605KB and over 140 pages of text.  I am accepting payment for the manuscript through PayPal only at the current time.  If you have a personal grudge against PayPal and would like to get a copy of my book for your own, email me at jon@jonpfischer.com and I will work with you to arrange a satisfactory arrangement.

Important - Please Send ALL Paypal Payments to cuda2k@hotmail.com.  This is the ONLY PayPal account that I currently have setup to accept payments.  Please do not attempt sending payments to jon@jonpfischer.com or any other email address.  Thank you.

Upon receipt of payment I will email you your own copy of the River Runners Special Edition Manuscript.  If the email address you are sending Payment from does not have room in its inbox for the 605KB (Less than 1MB) file, please specify an alternate email address in PayPal message.  I check my mail very frequently (most days I would have to say 5-8 times per day) and will send you the manuscript promptly.  I am going to try to automate the process as soon as I am able and if the number of requests starts to grow.   Additionally, I plan to post the names of all those who donate to this cause on this and / or other pages on my personal website and keep a running total of the amount donated to the LAF.  If you do not want your name added to the donation listing please tell me at the time of payment.  Thank you.

If you have any other questions, comments or anything else you'd like to let me know of, feel free to email me at jon@jonpfischer.com

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Sampling of passages from River Runners by Jon Fischer.

Note: My fiancée claims that I didn't pick good passages from the book and that I should look for better ones to post.  I hope to have time to do so soon.  Until then, read what I have and know it gets a lot better from here.  You'll just have to take my word for it for a few days.

            “You, Fletcher!” a booming voice yelled down the crowded hall.

            “Nolan, just what I didn’t need!”  I turned groaning, knowing from the voice who it was calling my name.  I hadn’t even made it three steps down the hallway and he had already found me.  I looked around for anyone to help, no one... I also knew that I couldn’t run.

            “What in the hell was the big idea yesterday?” he asked, a mean scowl already set on his face.  He had his whole gang of jocks backing him, where I, had absolutely no one.  This wasn’t going to be pretty, at least not for me.

            “I didn’t like the way you were talking to Kristy, and you needed some sense knocked into you.” I said trying not to let him see the fear in my eyes.

            “Oh, well it looks to me like you’re the one who needs the sense knocked into you,” Nolan bellowed knowing where he wanted this conversation to go.

            “Perfect Jon, you always know what to say!” I thought knowing I’d just gave him the opening to a fight.  And with my luck, he’d take full advantage of it, “Nolan, I really don’t want this to end in a fight.”

            “Nolan, if you get into another fight, Coach will throw you off the team.”  Troy warned.  He looked around for any teachers standing near by, none were there to come to my aid. 

            “Just the way it works, Nolan’s about to make me into a punching bag and there isn’t a teacher within a mile.  However the one and only time I cuss, there’s a teacher standing right behind me!” I thought as I looked around again.

            “Shut-up, I’m going to give this wimp what’s coming to him.  And if that means a run in with my fist, then that’s what it will mean,” Nolan snarled. 

            I looked straight ahead, not moving a muscle, he wasn’t going to let me make him look like a loser even if he didn’t get to go to the State match next week, “I wouldn’t count on that Nolan.  I’ve got more behind me than just a few thin punches,” I said trying to fake him out.

            However this didn’t do much of anything, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Troy said, I could tell he was doing what he could to stop this fight.  For what reason I didn’t know.  He certainly wasn’t doing it for me, was he?

            “Nolan!” a new voice yelled from behind me, it was Kristy.  She did not look pleased.

            “Stay out of this girl, or you’ll be next.” Nolan spat.  It seemed that he didn’t know enough to keep Kristy out of this.  I guess that would be his loss.  I certainly wasn’t going to warn him about getting her mad.

            “If you as much as lay a finger on her I’ll tear your head off!” I yelled glaring back at him, my rage building.  There was one advantage I still had on my side, once I got mad; I was unstoppable.  I became tougher and meaner than a rhino, once I was pushed too far.  I just feared that Nolan would see to it that I was a bloody pulp on the floor somewhere long before that ever happened. 

            “John, don’t give in to him, he’s trying to get you to start it.” Kristy warned.

            “He’s going to have to take the first swing, and if he swings your way he’s going to have one hell of a bill to pay, with his pretty face,” I said staring into Nolan’s eyes with my own deathly cold look.  I could see a hint of surprise in his eyes as I stared at him.  I don’t think he was ready for this much resistance.

            I set my alarm on my watch for 6:45 a.m., but we were both up by six readying the raft.  I was the first one up and I knew that Kristy would be awake soon after with as much noise as I was making.  She finally let me know that she was awake when I tripped over a root and fell into Kristy’s tent, “John, could you make any more noise out there!”

“No, but I might try anyway if you want me to,” I responded.  Kristy was out and about a few minutes later and we started on what was sure to be the endless task of getting out of camp.  We were both so hard at work that we didn’t say a word until we nearly finished, “John, I don’t know about you, but I’m taking five.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, I’ve just about had it and we haven’t even started the day,” I responded.

            “Don’t worry about that, we’ll be able to just drift along down the river and we can both get a break from all this work.  I have the raft just about inflated, and it looks like you have everything packed.  For the first day, it looks like the weather is going to be a helpful factor,” Kristy said starting to ramble on.  I could tell that she was trying to say just about anything she could so that she could keep her mind off what was behind this whole ordeal.

We had it inflated, loaded and tied down by the time my alarm went off.  We checked everything twice and got on the river, just after sun up.  We remained silent for the first hour or so, both of us were too intent on watching the shores and the sky to say much.  We knew they would be coming back for us, which meant neither of us would really feel safe till we were on the river and far away from here.

            “John, where are the dry bags?” Kristy asked starting to dig through the gear still loosely packed in the raft.

            “Under my bags, there are five of them, you can use three of them, I don’t have as many things as you,”

            “Thanks, I’ll need all three, I couldn’t find much to leave here.  I know, I know, girls  have a ton of stuff,” Kristy said, “And wipe that smirk off your face mister!”

            The sound of Ashleigh’s yell woke me suddenly.  I could tell instantly that we were nearing white water and Kristy was still at the controls.  “You going to take this one?” I asked looking over the rapid quickly.

            “Yeah, I see a way through right down the middle, what do you say?” Kristy responded.

            “Looks good to me, just make sure to miss that one hole near the end.” I said getting ready to ride the rough water ahead.  Kristy tackled the rapid like a two-ton truck through a flimsy police barricade.  She skillfully skidded the raft sideways to miss a turbulent eddy and missed the only hole by a mile.

            “Way to go!” Ashleigh complemented, but then she shot me a look saying, “I can be nice when I have to be.”  But it was an improvement over fighting.

            “Yeah, nice bit of work Kristy!” I yelled glancing back at the rapid.  “I don’t think I could have done much better.”

            “No biggie, if my leg was better I’d like to take on that 9 tomorrow!”

            “I don’t know about that, I’m going to have a hard enough time as it is getting us through that one.” I said seriously, but if she was healed up and had a little more practice I wouldn’t doubt she could take the 9 on.

            “Let’s let John take that one, OK?” Ashleigh said, a worried tone flowing through her words.  “I don’t like being thrown in to rocks in the middle of turbid water and flying into freezing water.”

            “Agreed, John’s got the 9, and the rest of the rapids today as the case may be.” Kristy said getting up from the pilots seat to let me take over.

            “What’s up next?” I asked settling into the seat.

            “A six, best way through is to hug the right cliff face.  Just don’t get so close you hit it.” Kristy warned.  “We all know what happens next if that happens.”

            “I’ll see what I can do.” I replied loosening up from my nap.  A six wasn’t much to worry about anymore, but that rocky cliff was.  If I was going to take the way close the wall, one missed stroke could put us in the wall and spell more trouble than we could deal with at this point. 

The rest you will just have to read for your self to find out the whole story of River Runners.

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