Auctioning for a Good Cause

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I just assembled a basket of signed books and goodies. It will be auctioned off at auction basketthe Fur Ball in a few weeks, which is the gala fundraiser of our local Merrimac River Feline Rescue Society, a no-kill shelter, cat adoption center, and feral project.

I love doing this. I get a colorful basket at the discount store and line it with green tissue paper. I sign copies of my books. I include the Fish Nets anthology, which has my short story of murderous revenge, “The Stonecutter.” I slip in bookmarks, a bottle of local beer, a packet of organic salad green seeds, a pair of gardening gloves, and voila!

1980-01-01 00.00.14It’s easy, inexpensive, and could raise a few dozen to a couple hundred dollars for the society. I made a similar basket for the auction at the California Crime Writers’ Conference.

And finally, I drew up a certificate for the right to name a character in the book I’m IMG_2589writing now, Farmed and Dangerous. How fun is that? They want to put that item in the live auction. I offered the same thing at a different auction for a character in ‘Til Dirt Do Us Part and someone named Diane Weaver won it. I met her in person this weekend at Boucheron!

I’m going to put together another basket and certificate for an auction to support our local art cinema, the fabulous Screening Room.

What kinds of things do you bid on in auctions? Have you ever had your name attached to a character in a mystery?

Published by Edith Maxwell

Agatha Award -winning author Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page) and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Dot and Amelia Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries series, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries (all from Kensington Publishing). She lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and cat Martin, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook.

5 Thoughts

  1. Edith, what a good thing to do. We adopted a feral kitty from the vet who had a little family of them that someone brought to her clinic. She took care of them until they were ready to be adopted.

    I bid on old English teapots, cups and saucers, and worn out Lacoste shirts. I bid on an old French racing bike once. The boy who won the bid fixed it up and gave it to me. Naturally I went to senior reception with him. We became lifelong friends. He grew up to be the leading expert on antique bicycles.

  2. It’s a great way to fundraise, Edith, while also being generous because the book is going to bring in more money than you could sell it for and you’ve gifted it to them.

    I was graciously gifted 11 or 12 autographed books,so far, for two fundraisers I’m working on (and they’re only a week apart) – and, of course, you were one of the gracious authors. The organizations are thrilled and I’m sure the authors will pick up some readers who take the bookmarks provide and the information sheets I’m writing for each basket.

  3. This is fantastic Edith! Liz Mugavero and I use to volunteer at MRFRS feral cat spay-neuter clinic years ago. They are an amazing group and as you know we LOVE feral cats and rescue animals =) National Feral Cat Day is October 16th, sponsored by Alley Cat Allies and you can sign up to do a blog, hold an event etc we are both doing an event.Citizens everywhere join to educate and get the word out on feral cats. I am willing to bet MRFRS knows all about National Feral Cat Day =) Thanks for being such a wonderful supporter of animals. #NFCD2013

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