Via Cheerfully Demented, details of auctions in which winners get the right to be “Tuckerized” in novels by Cory Doctorow, Charlie Stross, Nalo Hopkinson, David Brin, Elizabeth Bear, Julie Czerneda and Mary Robinette Kowal.
Tuckerizing is the inclusion of a real person's name in a fictional piece (according to boingboing). Apparently the norm is to get a minor character who dies a horrible gruesome death.
The auctions benefit charity, which is nice, although the particular charity, The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF) — which funds a delegate(s) from North America to Europe or from Europe to N. America, to attend a science fiction convention — would probably not be in my personal top 100 choices for charitable giving, even though it is certainly appropriate for this auction.
I wouldn’t expect anyone outside the world of hardcore science-fiction fandom to care about TAFF. But it’s actually an impressive piece of ongoing barn-raising, dating back to the mid-1950s and entirely supported by donations and volunteer effort. Teresa and I were its beneficiaries in 1985.
Yes, I’m more the fanatical reader than the trufan type myself. Tor has occupied many many happy hours of my life. Plus many hours reading eight volumes of Steven Erikson, while I try to decide if I’m enjoying myself…
And you can read PNH’s account of his TAFF trip here: http://taff.org.uk/reports/ptnh1.html and here: http://taff.org.uk/reports/ptnh2.html !
i guess its sorta exciting if you read alot of fiction – i can certainly see the appeal!