Hi everyone,

A wonderful friend of mine, Fatin, who you might know as "mad4rombks" or "mad," has been an integral part of the romance community for years – she owns and runs the RR@H Novel Thoughts and Book Talk blog, is an administrator of the WriteMinded loop (my author loop with Jaci Burton, Stephanie Tyler, Amy Knupp, and Maya Banks,) and is a tireless, generous advocate for romance novels and a friend to so many in this community. On Tuesday, March 8th, she lost her husband in a senseless act of violence, leaving her alone with four children. You can read more about the tragedy here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9233067/

The romance community would like to rally around her. Therefore, we will be holding auctions on Ebay the last week of March. More information on exact days and donations will follow.

If you are an editor / agent / author / Or anyone else for that matter and would like to donate something for the auction – such as a critique, mentoring, lunches at RT or RWA, swag, signed books, etc., please contact me at larissa AT larissione DOT com with your donation items.

Your help is greatly appreciated! Some examples of auction items might be signed books, baskets of fun stuff, critiques, lunches, mentoring, ARCs, pitch help, offers of specialty services like graphics design, etc.

If you don't want to donate, you can help by spreading the word and by bidding when the auctions go live. An account has also been set up for Fatin. Here are the details:

Checks made payable to:

Soufan Family Fund

RBC Bank

2340 Sunset Avenue

Rocky Mount, NC 27804

M-C 000-005-0100

The mailing code is required.