Life can kick us when we are down. In Shawn Speakman’s case, he is fighting back. Lacking health insurance and diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011, Speakman beat the disease as well as the massive medical debt he amassed from its treatment. He did this by publishing Unfettered, an anthology featuring short stories donated by some of the best science fiction and fantasy writers working today. The fight will not stop there. In an effort to pay forward the aid he received—and to memorialize his mother who passed away from stomach cancer in early 2016—Speakman has again collaborated with celebrated genre authors to publish Unfettered II. All proceeds from the anthology will either help eliminate medical debt for other authors or be donated to cancer research hubs around the world. Twenty original new tales comprise this amazing collection and, as the title suggests, the writers were again free to contribute whatever they wished.