Outside the Box Contest Entry
By
Nancy Marie Bell
Hmmmm, outside the box, eh? Yup, I’m as Canadian as they come. Anyone who knows me knows I am an animal lover. I help out with a dog rescue and have re-homed all kinds of critters over the years. When Laurel’s Miracle was set to release I wanted to do something special to commemorate my first full length novel. What better way, I thought, than to give my royalties from the first quarter sales of the book to a horse rescue.
So I promoted Laurel’s Miracle through Karen Cote’s Writer’s Pen for Charity Lounge, for each comment left one dollar was donated to Dare To Dream Horse Rescue here in Alberta. We raised $150.00 from the comments, and other donations came in as well. I held a book signing and launch at the picturesque Balzac Community Hall with proceeds going to Dare To Dream as well.
I visited the horses at Dare To Dream and promoted the book to the volunteers who give their time so generously there.
My latest release is Christmas Storm, which is a romance set in Longview, Alberta. This one has a scene stealing injured dog who is the catalyst to throw the two main characters together. The outside the box thinking on this one is the fact that the group who sings at a concert Michelle and Cale go to is a real life trio called The Travelling Mabels. They recently won the Group of The Year at the Alberta Country Music Awards show in Red Deer. They graciously agreed to be part of my novel. Eva Levesque kindly allowed me to use lyrics from her song Smolder Blues in the story. The Travelling Mabels will also promote the book on their website and promotional material was distributed pre-release at their concert last June at East Longview Hall. Hopefully this will get my name in front of a whole new sector of the population and will do the same for the Mabels. I recently hosted a contest where the prize was The Travelling Mabels first CD. The dog in the story is based on a momma dog I met who didn’t get rescued in time, Storm is my tribute to her and the countless others who are not as lucky as some. I have a young mother dog and five puppies in my care right now, the puppies are eight days old today. Momma is socializing slowly but well. These are the lucky ones. Please support your local animal rescue.
I have donated a gift basket aimed at the YA crowd to Brenda Novak’s online auction to benefit the Diabetes Foundation. Bidding opens May 1st, 2012. The basket includes a print copy of Laurel’s Miracle, and ebook formats of Laurel’s Miracle and A Step Sideways, which is the second story in the Cornwall Adventures series. There are bookmarks, coffee mug, bumper stickers, chocolate and other goodies in the basket. This is a win win, as it gets my books in front of lots of viewers and benefits a wonderful cause at the same time.
I hope you will visit the auction site and place a bid. And if you feel so moved please look up Dare To Dream Horse Rescue and help the horses.
Thanks for listening to me ramble on about my books and the causes near and dear to my heart.
Nancy Marie Bell lives near Balzac, Alberta with her husband and various critters. She is a member of The Writers Union of Canada and the Writers Guild of Alberta. She enjoys writing poetry and fiction and non-fiction. Nancy is an editor with MuseItUp Publishing Inc.
Please visit her webpage http://www.nancymbell.ca
You can find her on Facebook at http://facebook.com/NancyMBell
Follow on twitter: @emilypikkasso
