Silent Auction

Last weekend my church had a fancy (well, fancy for us) dinner in the fellowship hall, together with a silent auction, as a church fundraiser.

I contributed two items to be auctioned off: a basket of my books, with fifteen different books in the basket, and an author visit to a school or Scout troop. Both attracted a gratifying number of bids, with competition especially keen for the basket, so much so that at the end of the evening I ended up offering three more similar baskets for the losing bidders, all going at the wining price, with all proceeds to go to the church.

It was one of those win-win-win-win moments. The person who did win outright was so happy to get the basket, but felt terrible that others had lost in the bidding; now she has the fun of the basket without any need to feel sad for her bested competitors. The others got the same item to enjoy, and the two families with young children are going to come to my house after church one Sunday soon to pick out their own selection from my book cupboard: a make-your-own-basket outing. The church gets four times as much money as it would have gotten from only one basket, and also vastly more than it would have gotten had I offered four baskets in the first place, for then each one would have gone for the minimum bid of $50 instead of for the competitive bid of $115. And I get to clean out my book cupboard to make room for my authors' copies of all my new books that are coming out this year and next - five of them times fifteen author copies for each one. I'm getting rid of 60 books to make room for 75 more. So: hooray!

But even better is what I won myself at the auction: a night at the Miners Pick bed and breakfast in Idaho Springs, owned and managed by the pastor's finacee, Vicky. I have never been so excited in my life about winning anything. I am going to go up there all by myself one night midweek, after spring break, and curl up in that supremely cozy spot and write, write, write. And I've heard from reliable sources that the breakfasts are amazing. Oh, I cannot wait, just cannot wait! Of course, I'll post all about it afterward.

Yay for a wonderful silent auction!