Pimping a Good Cause (and Some Great Writing Stuff too!)

At the beginning of May, Nashville, Tennessee got slammed with more than a foot of rain. (I’m in the Northeast, so that much snow is a light dusting to us. But that much rain? Ouch.) Many lives were lost, and the property damage is appalling. So three writers—Victoria Schwab, Amanda Morgan, and Myra McEntire—organized the Do the Write Thing auction. It’s running for ten days total, and as of this post, there are five days to go.

I generally don’t participate in auctions because I’m a cheap broad. Bidding can get very high, very fast. I like to take my time about purchases. But when I saw website design up for bid, I jumped.

My book comes out in February. I need a website. I’ve researched sites whose layout I like, sidebars, tabs, pages, links—it’s a little intimidating.

Okay, it’s a lot intimidating. I know when I need to call in experts: to fix the dishwasher, to get the slugs out of my garden, and to create my website. So since I did the preliminary research, and that includes pricing, I knew I needed to grab this chance with both hands.

Bidding on this particular item closes at midnight. I'm posting this blog before that time--if only the Day Job didn’t require me to set a 6:30 am alarm, I'd stay up till the bitter end! But I have an ace in the hole—my terrific husband, who has the auction knack (and a later wake-up alarm). I’m taking advantage of his eBay bidding-fu in case one or more bidders start a last-minute posting flurry. This website design will be MINE, MINE, I tell you!

And some folks I don’t know and will never meet will get a few hundred bucks toward rebuilding their lives. Win-win.

Go ahead, click the link above. You may find the signed novel you’ve been dying to read, or the perfect set of book-related swag, or even the chance of a phone call with a writer you admire.

This unashamed pimping brought to you by a Northerner who’s happy to deal with blizzards that dump eight feet of snow overnight. You can always dig out of snow, and it melts eventually. Besides, long snowbound winters are perfect for working out that tricky plot situation. (She says, looking out the window at the tulips blooming in the garden. Finally.)