I found this on Twitter yesterday and it made me smile…and sniffle a little. Author Harry Turtledove was contacted, in a roundabout way, by the best friend of a young man with terminal cancer. The young man is a big fan of Turtledove’s series, the War That Came Early and he was concerned that he wouldn’t live long enough to see how the series ended. His friends got online and through the power of the internet, they were able to do a really terrific thing.

Watching the video below (and you really have to watch it) reminded me of just how life-changing books can be. Here’s a kid who is worried about dying before his favorite series ends — no one should have to live with that! But the fact that the author came through for this kid is just fabulous. (My friend, Maia, tells me that Harry Turtledove is one of the nicest people she has ever met and says this is not surprising at all.) And watch that kid — as another friend said, that smile goes right through to his bones.

So my hat is off to Mr. Turtledove and to all of the writers who touch our lives and who know just how much their characters and stories mean to us.