Category: For a Good Cause

I haven’t blogged about this year’s auction yet, so here’s my plug. Multi-published romance author Brenda Novak holds a charitable auction toward the cure of diabetes every year. The auction has raised a lot of money over the years, and this year so far they’ve made $100,000. However, that amount has fallen behind what was earned last year at this point. So if you’re a writer or a reader, check out the auction items. Some items are time-sensitive (IE. only offered for a day or a few days), so keep checking in.

If you bid on an item between May 9 – 15 (which is Brenda’s birthday), you’ll earn an entry into a drawing for a $250 Macy’s gift certificate.

For more information, check out the auction website.

As some of my readers might know, multi-published romance author Jo Leigh lost her husband to cancer this year and is now facing massive expenses related to his illness. To help her offset those expenses, authors Alison Kent, HelenKay Dimon, Larissa Ione, and Stephanie Tyler joined forces to establish the For Jo Leigh—Gifts for Writers and Readers auction. Please visit the main auction page to find out about the items offered for bid and to follow links to the individual auction pages.

I am participating in this auction along with several other members of the 2007 Golden Heart alumni. Five of us are offering a critique of a partial and synopsis for a Historical Romance manuscript while six of us are offering a critique of a partial and synopsis for a Contemporary Romance manuscript. This means that if you win the Historical Romance critique bid from our group, you will receive feedback from a panel of five judges, as per the RWA Golden Heart contest. The Contemporary winner will receive critiques from a panel of six judges.

Here’s who’s judging:

Historical: Elaine Levine, Elizabeth Stock, Maureen McGowan, Marilyn Brant, and Cindy Procter-King (a.k.a Me).

Contemporary: Trish Milburn, Laura Barone, Shelley Coriell, Barbara Tanner Wallace, Gail Fuller, and Robin Kaye.

Critiques will be conducted anonymously through email and returned within a two-month window. Please visit www.forjoleigh.com to learn more our items up for bid and check out the dozens of other excellent items, including more critiques, mentoring programs, and lots of lots of books!

Or, as I like to call it, Extreme House Makeover, Canadian-Style.

• Imagine that you and your husband have nine kids aged 1-24, some with special needs and some adopted.
• Imagine you’d do anything for these children, including opening your home time and again to another soul in need.
• Imagine that you’d adapted your house as much as you could, including changing the living room into a bedroom for some of the children, but space is still at a premium.
• Imagine you finally decided to approach a builder about a renovation. Say, a family room?
• Imagine the builder decides to rally community volunteer and financial resources to surprise you, your husband, and your kids with not only a new family room, but an entirely new house?

Sounds like a familiar TV show, doesn’t it?

Except it’s not.

It’s Project Family Room.

Here is my buddy Crys’s house getting demolished in early September:

 

And it all falls down!

Not to worry, it’s getting built back up again. From the Project Family Room website:

The new house will be a 2-storey plus finished basement, for a total of 3650 sq ft. The main floor will be wheel-chair accessible. There will be 7 bedrooms, an office/guest room, an attached double garage, and enough space for a really big dining table! Their property will also be fully landscaped.

Amazing!

Recently, I asked Crys to describe her feelings about this incredibly generous and humbling experience. I could paraphrase what she said, but her words are so much more eloquent than what I could up with:

Cindy, absolutely nothing surprises me now. Having something this big and wonderful has given us a new perspective on everything.  When you agree to let someone knock down your home, you really do realize how connected you are to other people. Dozens of people helped us move our things to a donated rental house, and once there, we discovered that the house we left was not home, we were a home. The first time I went down to where our house used to be, I stood peering into the hole where our basement once was. The bushes rustled and my neighbour pushed through them. She sighed and confessed that seeing the house vanish in a matter of days had sobered her. We think our homes are solid and a place of refuge and we take that for granted. I know I needed this shake up.

Our place of refuge is our community, our family, our God. The rest crumbles quickly.

She went on to tell me more about the volunteers involved:

There are hundreds of people involved in Project Family Room. Only some of them are builders, contractors and suppliers. Most of them are people like you, who reach out and celebrate with us, care for us and give the best they have. People who have the ability to see clearly something that has not yet been created, and then see a way they can share in the creation. 

We only hope we are able to live up to the vision, that our new home will be full, welcoming and blessed. Give me a call in January and I’ll put the coffee on!

Crys, I think I’ll take you up on that!

Donations to Project Family Room are gratefully accepted. Please visit the website for more information, to view pictures, or cheer them on.

From HelenKay Dimon’s blog:

Dear Friends,

One of our own, author Jo Leigh (aka Jolie Kramer) lost her husband on June 13 after he courageously battled cancer. If you don’t know their story, which is the stuff romance novels are made of, you can read it here and see their wedding picture here.

In addition to being a fabulous friend to so many and a multi-RITA nominated author who has written for Harlequin Blaze, Temptation, Intrigue, Special Projects, Silhouette Intimate Moments and Meteor Kismet, Jo is known across the country for the amazing writing classes she teaches, including one on plotting that is incomparable. She has been incredibly generous to so many in sharing her knowledge and expertise.

Unfortunately, Jo has been left with a lot of medical expenses she will be struggling to cover as they had no health insurance, and we would like to help her out by holding several fundraising auctions. If you have items to donate – books or book baskets/collections, critiques, ARCs of upcoming releases, mentoring opportunities, web or promotional material design work etc., please email the item description to the following email address: forjoleigh AT gmail.com This is the address we’re using to organize the items.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Alison Kent, HelenKay Dimon, Larissa Ione, Stephanie Tyler.