Normally I like to wait at least a day between posts here on the blog so that one post doesn’t accidentally bury another.

Fair warning, I’m breaking that rule today. That means if you’re not careful you might miss yesterday’s post that shows all the lovely books my UK publisher donated.

Okay. On to the new stuff. The time-sensitive stuff, we’ve got some auctions and they’ve only got five days left….

Last year when we ran the fundraiser, we had a few donations outside the realm of the free book.

My thought is this, everyone likes winning a free book. Even if it’s not a book you’d ordinarily read, it’s still nice to have. Maybe you try something new and expand your horizons a little. You can give it to a friend, donate it to the library, or sell it on e-bay. If nothing else, you can just put it on a prominent shelf so the world will think you look one book smarter.

But other donations aren’t as universally cool. Manuscripts, for example. If you’re a collector, or a huge fan of the author, odds are you’d love Love LOVE to have one. But if you aren’t one of those things, winning a manuscript is going to leave you with a profound “meh” feeling.

Last year I just threw everything into the lottery because I didn’t have time to figure out anything better. But this year I’ve decided to try a few auctions to see how they work out. Claire Main who runs Doodled Books over in the UK is handling the auctions for me, so I have one less thing to worry about.

This first batch of auctions will be some rare manuscripts and books. In a little while we’ll be posting up some specialized services, like getting your own manuscript read and critiqued by industry professionals.

I’m mostly going to be putting up links and some very brief descriptions here. More detailed information and more pictures are available over on e-bay.

Keep in mind that the auction prices are all in pounds, since Doodled books is based in England.

• An amazing signed original manuscript from Katharine Kerr. The Black Raven, a Deverry novel.

Katharine has already donated some lovely books to the fundraiser, but this is a real treat: the original editorial manuscript of The Black Raven. As you can see if you click on any of the above pages, it’s full of the original copyedits, notes and changes.

There’s only one of these in existence, folks.

To bid and see more pictures you can head over to the auction HERE.

• A signed copy of John Jackson Miller’s Star Wars story – Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice.

This story has only been e-published so far, and it hasn’t been collected into a print volume yet. So a print copy, let alone a signed one, is a bit of a rarity.

A great gift for the Star Wars geek in your life, you can see more pictures and bid on it HERE.

• A signed copy of John Jackson Miller’s Star Wars story – Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn.

Thanks again to John for donating another signed manuscript copy of one of his Lost Tribe of the Sith stories. Remember, these have only been e-published so far, so a signed print copy is a bit of a rarity.

A great gift for the Star Wars geek in your life, you can see more pictures and bid on it HERE.

• A signed hardcover of the illustrated Finnish version of George RR Martin’s A Game Of Thrones. Signed by the Author.

When I was out at Worldcon this year, I ran into my Finnish publisher and we started to talk about my plans for the upcoming fundraiser. They were nice enough to donate one of their new illustrated copies of Martin’s A Game of Thrones. And even tracked him down to get him to sign it.

Just to be clear, this book is in Finnish. But on the plus side, it has some really cool pictures. So even if you can’t read it, you can still enjoy it.

For more pictures or to bid in the auction, click HERE.

• Signed manuscript collection of four Booth stories by Sarah Monette.

These are signed manuscript copies of the four published but uncollected Booth stories by Sarah Monette, including The Replacement. If you’re a fan of her books and haven’t had a chance to get hold of these stories yet, you’ve got a rare chance here.

For more details and pictures, you can head over HERE.

• A handwritten manuscript page from Kristen Britain’s upcoming novel: Blackveil.

(Click to Embiggen and read Kristen’s note yourself.)

Kristen describes the page thusly:

One handwritten, messy, doodled-upon page of draft from the manuscript of Green Rider #4: Blackveil, by Kristen Britain.

Will this snippet of timeless prose make it into the final book? That’s up to the Great Editor. In the meantime, enjoy a sneak preview, *if* you’re the highest bidder.

Link to the ebay auction is HERE.

The clock is ticking on all these auctions, folks. So if you know of anyone that might be interested I’d tell them soon. By next Thursday it will be too late.

If you want to head back to the main Worldbuilders page, click HERE.

As always, with special thanks to our sponsor, Subterranean Press.

(I’m proud I haven’t misspelled Subterranean yet. It’s a tricky word.)