MY DISCOVERY ZONE CHARITY FUNDRAISER

 

“Not the Usual Suspects” seemed like a good idea for a promotional link between my next book in the Bishop Hill Mystery series and Bouchercon’s chosen charity, The Nashville Public Library Foundation. The idea is a variation on bidding to name a character in an author’s next book. Here I’ve picked two portraits from the collected work of Olof Krans, a Swedish folk artist with extensive ties to the Bishop Hill colony and figured that asking people to vote on their fictional fate with their pocket change would be fun and painless.

I thought of the many positive angles: The Discovery Zone, as a new event, would gain some notice; I’d get some attention for my panel appearance and my books; but the biggest deal for me would be Bishop Hill getting some much-needed attention at a time when Illinois state funding is once again on a downward spiral and state-owned historical buildings are suffering from neglect.

Picking the portraits was easy enough. My husband helped out by choosing Peter Helstrom, a cantankerous looking former schoolteacher. I chose the more mild-mannered visage of Olof E. Krans, the artist’s grandfather, who had the potential to add to a backstory I was working on.

Dreaming up inventive ideas to advertise the whole enterprise was fun … and potentially embarrassing. We made up t-shirts imprinted with our chosen portraits with the caption “SAVE ME” on each, we basically turned ourselves into walking billboards for the three days leading up to The Discovery Zone premiere.

All this is brand new for me, so whatever happens or doesn’t happen will make for an interesting discussion at the Taking Care of Business panel on Sunday morning. It might keep me awake and attentive.

The catch, there’s always one, do people carry pocket change any more?

I’m going to have to explore the donation opportunities of Zettle, my credit card reader. It might become an important resource since Gaylord Opryland advertises it is “cashless.” Just one more prepping step to do before checking in for the Bouchercon Conference next week.