Adoption and Fundraising....or a 20k Advance.

Ok, so this post has little to do with writing. But I thought I'd take a few minutes out of your day to discuss my REAL life and what's going on.

For the past year, we've been working toward adopting a son from Bulgaria. We already have 3 kids, but we feel as if we have more room and more love to give to an orphan. Bulgaria is a country in Eastern Europe. Here is a picture so you know where it is.

So in the last year, we've been in paperwork pregnancy. And, let me tell you this: Being REAL pregnant is a lot easier. We've finished our homestudy and our papers are in the process of being translated to Bulgarian. And after that is all done, we get to wait for a referral.

A referral could take from 1-3 years. Which is a LOT longer than the 9 months I waited for each of my other 3 kids. But this is important. Our son is out there somewhere waiting for us. And, as we wait, I ran a few numbers and realized that we still have to pay around 20 thousand dollars toward our adoption.

Yep... You heard me. Twenty THOUSAND dollars. That is after spending over 8,000 this year.

Adoption is expensive.

Maybe I should finish my Middle Grade Book and sell it for some big bucks (cough....any agent out there...cough). Not sure they would do an adoption pity sale though? Probably not.

And we might have 3 years to make that money...or we might have one. (gulp). I figured it would be best to start trying to get the money now. So, I hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd do some fundraising promotions here on OA

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Firstly, we signed up to sell coffee. Just Love Coffee offers fundraisers for people in the process of adoption. It's a good organization, as it doesn't only help people like us, but it also helps those in Africa earn a living.


Check it out HERE.  You can also see a picture of our family (and notice how tall my husband is).

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I've also started an etsy store where I've been working on some handmade jewelry and things.  If you'd like to check it out, and pass the word along--and maybe even buy something so I don't look like such a geek-- that would be really awesome.

Linkage is HERE

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And don't forget, I have a fantasy short story that I self-published a while back to help with our adoption. It's only .99 on kindle and all the profits go toward our adoption. It's a other world fantasy with a native american flavor. 

Link on Amazon is HERE:

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And lastly, our daughter had these bracelets made up. We're selling the green and purple ones for $1.00 and the tricolored ones for $2.00.  Throw in a couple of dollars shipping for those of you who are not near me. If you're interested in them, just drop me an email and we can arrange something. ask.miss.java (at) gmail.com.

Anyhow! Thanks for letting me share and pimp our fundraisers. If you'd like to help by sharing this post, that would be much appreciated!

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And if some publisher/agent wants a great MG boy fantasy novel set in the world of Native American Mythology, that would want to give us a 20k advance....let me know as well. LOL.

Book Giveaway

Recently, I talked about a short story I published to aid in our adoption journey. If you haven't read that post yet, you can catch it here. I do want to talk more about my experience with self-publishing as my journey progresses, but for now I'd like to give some signed copies away. :)

Remember, though I am not world famous author, I do have a book coming out at the end of next year. You never know. Maybe they will be worth something someday. A collector's item, perhaps?? Or maybe not. lol... Still, they are FREE.

I opened a giveaway on Goodreads where I am giving away 3 hard copies. You can find it here. It closes in two weeks, on August 29th.

I am also giving away one hard copy here on Operation Awesome. You can enter by commenting in this post. :) I will announce a winner this time next week.

If you don't feel like waiting for the contests to close, you can purchase a copy on Amazon. The kindle edition is available for a limited time for $0.99. Remember, it does go for a good cause.

And lastly, if you haven't stopped by WriteOnCon...do so now.

Short Story Reveal and Adoption

I know we don't frequently make posts about our personal lives outside of writing. But today I wanted to ask if you would support me on an adventure. My husband and I are adopting. We have three biological children of our own, but we felt led to add one more to our family. We are adopting a son from Bulgaria. However, adoption, especially over-seas adoption, has expenses up in the range of 30 thousand dollars.

So instead of traditional fundraising--which I might do yet, or mass garage sales, or selling cute,  handmade owls on etsy--I decided to use my writing skillz to raise funding. I also wanted to dip into self-publishing, to experience that side of the writing coin. It was something I had considered before my YA fantasy novel, The Emissary, sold to Month 9 Books. And I truly believe that self-published authors sometimes get the short end of the stick from those who are published traditionally. So even though I am being traditionally published myself, I wanted to experience the self-publishing route as well. And besides, a short story like this one doesn't always have an easy road to publication. And I'd love for it to be read.

So if you enjoy fantasy, or know someone who enjoys fantasy, or just want to support our adoption journey (which would be REALLY great) please consider checking out my short story, A Pulse Returned. Please also consider sharing this post with others. A tweet. A facebook link. Shouting it from the rafters. Whichever way you choose. There are links on my website if you'd like to support us, and hopefully be entertained in return. You can learn more about this story and find links to purchase it HERE.

My cover was designed by the incredible artist, Zach Schoenbaum. Please check out his website at www.umbralust.com  He does commissions, if you are looking for someone. And you just might see more of his work here on OA in the near future.

Oh, one interesting thing about this story. I wrote it several years ago and tucked it away. Recently, I thought it would be a great short story to support our adoption. Then, and only then, did I remember my protagonist is adopted as well. Funny how things like that work out, eh?