This One is For My Nephew, Jacob

We're into the 4th month of my give-back program called The Seed Campaign, and in December the goal is to raise money to cure childhood cancer!

What Could be a Better Gift for Kids than a Cancer Cure?

When you buy a copy of my book through my website, www.jeannieralston.com, the commission Amazon gives back will be donated to CureSearch, in the name of my nephew Jacob Ralston (that's him at age 3 in this adorable photo).

In August 2007, at the heartbreakingly young age of 2, Jacob was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer. As you can imagine his parents and his whole extended family were devastated.

For 9 months Jacob kept his spirits up while undergoing chemo and proton therapy, and thankfully today his scans are all clear. We all know how lucky he is and we pray that the luck holds. (Please join in the prayers that on Dec. 3rd his scans come back with "no evidence of disease.")

In the meantime, much needs to be done to find a cure. My sister-in-law and brother think CureSearch is doing amazing work to this end, and that's why in December all funds raised through The Seed Campaign will be donated to CureSearch in honor of Jacob and the fight that he's been waging.

Here's How You Do It

You can help Jacob and others like him by remembering to go to my website first for any Christmas shopping you do on Amazon. If you click on "Buy the Book" on my website, that will take you to Amazon and then you can shop for anything from that point and the Seed Campaign will get a commission for your purchases.

You Can Also Give Directly

If you're not going to be shopping on Amazon this season, but want to help out, you can make a direct donation to CureSearch. Send a check made out to CureSearch to:

Jim and Susan Ralston
P.O. Box 55267
Virginia Beach, VA 23471

In the memo, please write: In honor of Jacob Ralston. Jacob will make the presentation of the checks to CureSearch. THANK YOU!

November's Results: Helping Readers

Also, I want you to know that through your generosity and purchases, the Seed Campaign was able to raise $347 for Literacy Texas in November. Thank you so much for supporting my book and in the process helping others to enjoy reading!

Happy Holidays to all of you.

Oh...if you're in the Austin or Hill Country area, I'll be up your way this weekend (Dec. 5-7) appearing at 3 events. Please check my website for my schedule and come and visit!

All best wishes--Jeannie

The Big Texas To-Do and Other Fun

I'm all bleary-eyed this morning after 12 days on the road, promoting The Unlikely Lavender Queen. An author's work is never done...that's my new motto. I'm exhausted but very happy.

My trip started in Skaneateles, New York, a suburb of Syracuse. I was told to pronounce it "Skinny Atlas," like a very thin volume of maps. It is a gorgeous spot on one of the Finger Lakes and I got there just in time to see the fall colors--something I've sorely missed for the past 17 years living in Texas and Mexico.

I was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the Carol Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. Baldwin is a cancer survivor and most famously, the mother of Alec and the rest of the Baldwin brothers. After hearing the mom speak, you can tell where the sons get their sense of humor. The event--which was put on by a friend Laura Ponticello--raised $2,235 for breast cancer research. I was thrilled to be part of the effort.

There is more good financial news. (Isn't it nice to get good financial news for a change?) Through my Seed Campaign (buy a book via my website and the commission from Amazon goes to support a worthy cause), I raised $1,023 for the John Dau Sudan Foundation. John Dau is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and the subject of the movie God Grew Tired of Us. I was thrilled to present checks to his representatives. The second photo above (the one without any crowns involved) is of me with the movie poster and some of the supporters I got to meet up in the Syracuse area (John goes to Syracuse University).

While up in the chilly north, I got to speak at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. The Newhouse School is a very famous journalism school and I loved meeting the students. Most of them wondered what kind of opportunities they might have when they graduate. I hated that at a time like this, I could think of only one word of advice: Blog.

After New York, I was back in Texas for a couple of radio interviews and two great events--one was a woman's event at a new work-life balance center called Soma Vida, on Austin's east side.

Then this past weekend came the Big Daddy--the Texas Book Festival. What an amazing event. How fabulous to be included and to meet so many other authors that I've admired, such as Alexandra Fuller (Let's Not Go To the Dogs Tonight), Sarah Bird (How Perfect Is That), Terry Thompson Anderson (The Hill Country). I also got to see my old friend Marion Winik (Glen Rock Book of the Dead) and I served on a panel on memoirs with three great writers, Stephanie Klein (Moose), Robert Leleux (The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy) and Stephanie Elizondo Greist (Mexican Enough).

One of my favorite new author-friends is Kathy Patrick, who started a salon/bookstore in East Texas called Beauty and the Book. She also started the Pulpwood Queens Book Club and now there are 200 chapters across the country. She's the author of The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara-Wearing Book-Sharing Guide to Life.

That's a picture of me with Kathy at the very top of the blog. Next time I meet I've got to get my tiara on! And that next time will be in January when I take part in her Book Club Convention/Girlfriend Weekend. Should be a hoot. Find out more about the book-and-fun-lovers weekend here.

More news: My Seed Campaign effort in November will benefit Literacy Texas, a non-profit advocacy group that aims to get everybody in Texas reading. Buy a book via my website this month and the commission from Amazon will go to create more readers. And one thing writers like is more readers!!

I have more fun events coming up in December--all in the Austin area. More details on my website.

Dec. 5th: Book Signing at Beekman Books in Fredericksburg
Dec. 6th: Lake Austin Spa
Dec. 7th: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin

Also: links to some recent publicity.

Dana Roc website
Daryn Kagan website
Growing Concerns on KUT radio Austin

I Love It When Someone Really Gets It

I am so lucky to have been found by Dana Roc, who runs a beautiful website and newsletter devoted to helping people live fuller lives. She featured an interview with me this week in her Inspiring People series, and I have to say that I think she's the inspiring one.

Please check it out. Our talk really got to some of the key themes of the book that I have wanted to make sure people understood. The main one is about control. How we're not in control so much of what happens to us, but we are in control of our attitude toward what happens to us. Such a big lesson in life.

Read the whole interview.

I also want to tell you that we've made great progress collecting funds for October's beneficiary of the Seed Campaign, the John Dau Foundation. One of my readers issues a challenge to everyone who had already bought my book to donate $100 to the foundation and many of you have responded.

We're also trying to track down a used ambulance that can be donated to Dau's clinic in Sudan AND a way to get the ambulance delivered there. So we're working.

I tell you, I thought writing a book was rewarding. But I've decided that finding a way to help people is the most rewarding thing of all. Thanks for your help.

Sharing the Luck and the Love

Wow! What a difference some dedicated readers can make. I launched The Seed Campaign only four weeks ago, and so much has come from it already. As you remember, if you buy a copy of The Unlikely Lavender Queen via my website, www.jeannieralston.com, dear Amazon will give back a commission to The Seed Campaign. Every month I'll be donating these funds to a different cause.

I'm happy to report that through your efforts, I'll be able to give about $300 to St. Anthony's Alliance, which started and still supports the lavender co-op here in Mexico. $300 will go a long way in Mexico toward helping the lavender growers and soap makers in the pueblo expand their business and marketing. Thank you so much for your support of my book and this effort. What's more, by promoting The Seed Campaign, the lavender co-op has gotten more exposure. Several national media outlets are considering stories on the lavender co-op. Let's cross our fingers for that to happen. Also, several of you have written me with ideas on how to do even more with the lavender co-op. One very nice university professor has talked about having a class of hers plan a lavender festival here in the San Miguel area. I'll keep you posted on all of this.

Now that we're in October, The Seed Campaign will be moving on to another amazing organization doing wonderful work--this time in a very different part of the world. I'm sure many of you have heard of The Lost Boys of Sudan. These boys--from ages 5 to 14--walked 1,000 miles to find refuge after civil war broke out in Sudan in the 90s.

One of the Lost Boys is named John Bul Dau; he has written a memoir himself called God Grew Tired of Us and he's the subject of one of the most moving documentaries I've ever seen--also called God Grew Tired of Us. Robb and I watched the movie with the boys the other evening and I swear if everyone--especially children--in the U.S. saw that film I think we would have a different country. You just can't believe what the young men in the film have lived through and how they've come out of it with their spirits intact. John Dau and the other Lost Boys in the film have such gratitude for what they DO have and such commitment to give back to others who haven't been as "lucky." The movie truly blew me away.

I have the great honor of donating to the John Dau Sudan Foundation this month. I got hooked up with John and his work through a new dear friend named Laura Ponticello, who has arranged all kinds of events for me at the end of October in the Syracuse, New York, area. The funds earned through sales of my book via my website will go to a health clinic John has founded in Sudan. I've said before that I think the most important message of my book is making the most of the twists and turns life takes, and John Dau has done that in a way far beyond what I could ever dream of. Please visit the website, www.johndaufoundation.org to learn more about his truly inspiring cause. You can also see the attached video about the Seed Campaign effort.

I do hope you will tell your friends about this month's effort. My goal is to donate even more money from The Seed Campaign this month. If you've already bought my book, I thank you so much. If you haven't, please consider buying my book this month along with the film God Grew Tired of Us. Or just buy the film itself. But make sure you first go to my website and click on buy the book (you can go anywhere on Amazon from my book's home page). The Seed Campaign does not get a commission from Amazon unless you start the process on my website.

I also want to tell you about some upcoming events (details are on my website).

Oct. 10th--San Miguel de Allende; author's sala reading.
Oct. 23rd--Skaneateles, NY; keynote speaker at a cancer research fundraiser
Oct. 24th--Syracuse, NY; speaking at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
Oct. 29th--Austin, TX; evening of rejuvenation at Soma Vida
Nov. 1 & 2--Austin, TX; Texas Book Festival, where I'll introduce November's effort to benefit Literacy Texas.
Jan. 15-17--East Texas; speaker, Pulpwood Queen Book Club Convention

Hope to see some of you along the way. Thank you.

Planting Lavender--and Hope--Across the Border

This summer I was fortunate to have many wonderful events on the tour for my new book, The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming. But my favorite event was held in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where I now live. I turned the book signing into a benefit, with one-third of the price of each book sold going to a lavender co-op in a small pueblo outside of San Miguel. The co-op is trying to become self-sufficient growing lavender as a cash crop, making soaps, sachets and lavender wands in the tourist town of San Miguel. The idea is that if the co-op becomes a success--it's well on its way, with 2 acres of gorgeous purple rows--the many men who leave the pueblo every year for work in the States can stay home instead.

I have volunteered as an adviser to the co-op for 2 years and it's wonderful to be able to use my lavender experience to help such a worthwhile cause. The signing/benefit was the most rewarding event because it was about more than just me (I know that may sound strange--or even suspect--coming from a memoirist, but it's true).

In that spirit, I've been looking for another way to give back, and I've found something amazingly simple and really effective. I'm calling it The Seed Campaign. Here's how it works:
When you buy my book, or ANY Amazon product, by first going to my website, www.jeannieralston.com, Amazon will give 4 to 8 percent of sales back to The Seed Campaign (percentages increase with volume). I will donate each month's total to a worthy organization, a different cause each month. My goal is to raise $60,000 this coming year. It’s important that you go to Amazon through my website, so that Amazon can credit the Seed Campaign.

I started this campaign because my book is about making the most of the twist and turns life takes, and when I realized that the Amazon account was collecting money, I saw it was a great opportunity to reinforce the message of the book—by actually helping other people make the most of their lives.

For this first month--September--I will be donating all funds in The Seed Campaign to St. Anthony's Alliance, a U.S.-based non-profit that started and has continued to support the lavender co-op that I gave the benefit for this summer. This project has it all for me: lavender, Mexico, women, entrepreneurship, family. Money from my book sales will go to a project that truly offers hope and the promise of self-sufficiency through the same flower that did so much for me!

In October, funds will be going to the John Dau Sudan Foundation. John Dau is a Lost Boy of Sudan and the subject of the film, God Grew Tired of Us. I will speak at a benefit for the foundation in New York in late October.

I hope you'll help me out. Together we can grow hope and plant seeds of change for the future. Thank you--Jeannie