A final word and a thank-you

Well folks, that’s a wrap for the Slave Lake book auction. 🙂

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

Auction #103 Signed copy of How I Shot My Brother & Other Stories

This auction is for a copy of How I Shot My Brother & Other Stories signed by ALL the authors.

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.

Auction #102 Signed copy of Cat City by Patti Larsen

I’m so excited about this auction guys! Up for grabs is a wonderful book by one of my writing buds, Patti Larsen!

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.

Auction #101 11X14 print of The Last Unicorn by Jaz D

Guys, this is just gorgeous! I love the detail and the 80s feel to the print.

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.

Auction #100 Signed books from The Workhorsery

This auction is for two signed books from The Workhorsery and a gorgeous, limited edition book cover.

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.

Auction #98 Signed copy of Shipwrecks Off the East Coast by Carmel Vivier

Another delicious East Coast  read!

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.

Auction #97 Signed copy of The Violin Lover By Susan Glickman

Another great Canadian novel that I have yet to read. This auction has made my must-have book list grow by the power of a zillion!

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.

Auction #96 A signed copy of The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro

This auction is for  a 1998 edition, hardcover, brand new, and signed copy of  The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro (aprox value$50)

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.

Auction #95 Signed copy of The Night the Aliens went on Strike (paperback) by Mark White

This novella sounds all kinds of funny AND scary ANd suspensfull. Three very good things. 🙂

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.

Auction #93 Critique of 3 chapters by Rhonda Stapleton

Imagine having a published author AND editor take a look at three chapters of your book. Well, thanks to Rhonda’s donation of her time and brain, it’s possible! Rhonda is a published YA author but she’s also an editor at Carina press.

When it comes to the genre the sky’s the limit: YA, adult, contemp, dystopian, chick-lit, etc. Rhonda`s open to it all.

This is a great opportunity guys. I’d jump on it if I were you. (And I may just anyway).

Thanks so  much to Rhonda for the donation: http://rhondastapleton.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.