For the duration of this little adventure I have been amazed and choked up at the generosity of all the authors, publishers, booknerds and other peeps who have donated items, helped me to promote the auction and bid like CRAZY. But at the same time I wasn’t at all surprised: I knew already that Canada’s publishing and writing community was kick-ass. But it wasn’t just Canucks that stepped forward. In fact, the first author to offer up a signed book is from Alaska (big hugs go out to Don Rearden).

While the auction was an unbelievable amount of hard work, it was also a lot of fun. I LOVED watching the bidding wars going on and all the fun comments between bidders, egging each other on (yes Angie, I’m looking at YOU!). I loved that some of the books were hand delivered to the winners. I loved that authors offered up a SECOND copy to auction losers who wanted to pony up the same amount as the winners. I loved that up until the last post I was still getting donations in.

So thank you all so, so much for making this auction a roaring success. Because of you Slave Lake Library now has $4,909 to put towards rebuilding their library.

And that’s just freaking awesome.

Colleen

Book description:

Stories and poems of mischief and humour, revelation and loss, How I Shot My Brother & Other Stories takes you into the lives of twenty-one writers, for a journey you won’t soon forget.

Thanks so much to Prairie Dog Publishing for the donation: http://www.prairiedogpublishing.ca

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open to Canada.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

Book description:

Ten-year-old Susan adopts Tucker, a butterscotch tabby, thinking he is just an ordinary cat. But when Tucker rescues her from the rats and brings her to his magical city deep underground, Susan literally falls head first into a war between the enchanted cats who live under her house and the evil rats who want to claim Cat City for their own.

Hugs and kisses to Patti for the donation: http://www.pattilarsenbooks.blogspot.com/

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open internationally.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

If you win the auction, Jaz will add a personal message on the print, if you want.

Thanks bunches to Jaz for the donation.

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open internationally.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

The books:

Pitouie by Derek Winkler

The independent corporate freehold of Pitouie is a fleck of rock in the South Pacific. It has no industry, no economy and no natural resources. What it does have is a volcano, a glossy brochure and a list of industrial waste producers, whose executives are about to descend on the island’s pristine shores to bid for a hole in the ground.

Otis Wilson, associate editor of Waste Insight magazine, is also enroute to Pitouie. He thinks he’s going to watch an innocent nation reach for the soap in the prison shower of international commerce. What he’s going to find is much stranger and has something to do with events in an Inuit village in the Arctic 35 years ago. Sorting it out will be challenging, even without the distraction of the girl. 

You and the Pirates by Jocelyne Allen 

After witnessing a possible terrorist attack in Tokyo, you encounter an increasingly bizarre series of characters who may or may not be magic, gods or even really there. Only once you team up with a multinational team of marooned pirates does the enigma of what you’ve unwittingly stumbled into begin to unravel.

Thanks so  much to The Workhorsery for the donation: http://www.theworkhorsery.ca

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open to North America.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

Book description:

Some ships, it seems, are ill-fated. Misfortune and disaster follow these unfortunate vessels wherever they go. The stories of nine such ships are told in this exciting collection of shipwreck tales, which feature hope and despair, triumph and catastrophe.

Thanks so much to Carmel for the donation: http://www.carmelvivier.com/

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open internationally.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

Book description:

Susan Glickman is well known for her lithe, rich poetry and brilliant literary criticism. Now she makes a sensational fiction debut with The Violin Lover, a novel set in Jewish London in the 1930s. Written against the backdrop of Hitler”s escalating campaign against the Jews, The Violin Lover tells the story of a secret love affair and its disastrous consequences. Ned Abraham, a successful doctor and amateur violinist, meets Clara Weiss and her son, Jacob. Persuaded to play a Mozart sonata with the gifted 11-year-old pianist, Ned gains Jacob”s confidence and affection. At the same time, he begins a clandestine affair with the boy”s mother and unexpectedly becomes a rival for her son”s attention. Infused with music, The Violin Lover is a moving story in three voices. Delicately evoking the sensations of performing and listening to music, Susan Glickman accomplishes the rare feat of recreating the experience of one art form in another.

Thanks lots and lots to Susan for the donation: http://www.susanglickman.com

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open internationally.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

Book description:

All of these eight wonderful stories are about what people will do for love, and the unexpected routes their passion will force them to take.

An old landlady in Vancouver who alarms the just-married narrator with her prim advice about married life – and “the peculiar threat” of a china cabinet that must be washed once a month – is shown to have conspired when young in a crime of passion. A young mother, at the mercy of the “radiant explosion” that comes when she thinks of her secret life, abandons her baby and four-year old to be with her lover in the story “The Children Stay.” A gruff old country doctor in the 1960s is discovered by his daughter to be helping desperate women, his “special patients.” An impetuous young woman meets a visiting Indian student and conceives on a train from Vancouver to Toronto because of “the fact that you couldn’t get condoms around the Calgary station, not for love or money.” An Ontario farm wife’s affair drives her husband to commit a murder; its discovery, years later, will act as a negotiating point for a new, presumably satisfactory, marriage.

The book is clear-eyed about the imperfections of marriage, the clutter of our emotional lives, and the impermanence of love: “Not that that was the end. For we did make up. But we didn’t forgive each other.” Even the shared memories of earlier times prove to be a minefield, and many of the stories track the changes that time brings over generations to families, lovers, and even to friends who share old, intimate secrets about “the prostration of love.”

As always these stories by Alice Munro are shot through with humour, and are as rich as novels. As always the characters in the stories are easily, sometimes uncomfortably, recognizable as people like us. One quote summarizes the delightful surprises that await the reader: “Did you ever think that people’s lives could be like that and end up like this? Well, they can.”

Air kisses to Lynn for the donation: http://www.canadianauthors.net/

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open internationally.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

Book description:

When noise abatement officers Colin and Tony investigate a complaint one wintry night, they little suspect the culprits are not of this Earth…

Now, drawn into an intergalactic employment dispute, they must fight to save the world – and sort out a barking dog or two 

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open internationally.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.

A bit about On Spec magazine:

In 1989, a small group of Edmonton writers formed The Copper Pig Writers Society in order to fill a niche in Canada. At the time, there was no paying market for literary works that the major American SF & Fantasy magazines deemed to be too “alien” for their audiences.

English-speaking Canadian SF writers were frustrated with having to “Americanize” their stories for the paying markets. We knew there was an audience hungry for thoughtful, intelligent (often unconventional) SF and Fantasy with a uniquely Canadian perspective. After selling out our initial print run of a test issue filled with stories sent to us by invitation, we began receiving inquiries as to when the “next one” would appear. That was nearly twenty years ago!

Our quarterly journal ‘On Spec’ adheres to a strong mandate that has served us well over the years. We discover and showcase quality works by predominantly Canadian writers and artists, in the genre we call “Fantastic” literature. We foster the growth of emerging writers in this genre, by offering support and direction through constructive criticism, education, mentoring, and manuscript development. We try to publish as many new writers as possible, alongside works by established writers, and we also endeavour to support these writings with innovative cover art for every thought and emotion-provoking issue!

Thanks so much to the fine folks at OnSpec magazine for the donation: http://www.onspec.ca/

• This auction will run from today until 11:59 pm Est June 17th and is open internationally.
• All bids will be in Canadian funds.
• Bids must increase by at least a dollar.