It's a true story. It had to be told.
As to why I'm offering it for free: I was thinking of submitting it to publishers, but comedy is a really hard sell. The problem is that comedy is subjective, so the book can have wide appeal, but you still need everyone in the decision process at the publisher to think it's funny, and that can be hard.
Anyway, my good friend Howard Taylor (schlockmercenary.com) was talking about it at our game one night. He decided that I should release it via the free-content business model (basically, give it away). He's a master of that model and feeds his wife and kids with it, so I figured I should listen to him. Anyway, it can't help but increase the visibility of Final Redoubt Press.
So that's why it's free.