Unexpected Event, Sold Five

On Saturday, my youngest three adult children and I worked our church's annual spaghetti dinner.

It's a bit of an unusual fundraiser as fundraisers go: we attract mostly customers who have attended over the last few decades and we raffle off mostly afghans made by one amazing woman in the parish.

This year, to add something different to table, Rebekah suggested I raffle off a few books. Recalling the one visiting priest's dismay that I write vampire literature, I left the trilogy at home and brought some of the cookbooks and children's books.

I gave away a few of each (winners could use either books or afghans; yes, I was thrilled when books were chosen), but that wasn't all.

One woman insisted on paying for one Bertrand and the Lucky Clover and one Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from Bryony, because she had to leave and she didn't want to risk not having her name called.

A friend of hers loves mice, she said, and she really wanted the first book for her. She had also flipped through the second book and found a couple recipes she wanted to try. I tried giving the books to her since we were raffling them off anyway, but she insisted on paying for them. I didn't feel comfortable arguing with her at that point (at the raffle table with people milling around), so I sold them.

The other three sales were made to a former member of the church who attends the dinner once a year. Her first question, when she saw the books, was, "Where's 'Bryony?'" 

I explained why I didn't bring any copies. She then proceeded to put in an order for the Bryony/Visage/Staked! trilogy (she wrote her address on a napkin and went looking for me to be sure I had it) and the proceeded to win a copy of the cookbook and one of Cornell Dyer and the Missing Tombstone. 

Essentially she wound up with five books for the price of three, not a bad deal.

Probably the sweetest moment of the night was toward the end. One of the customers was talking to me, and her little girl kept alternating between flipping through her copy of Bertrand and the Lucky Clover and clutching the book to her heart.

Made my night, that's for sure.

Oh, and I left the event with an idea for the next Bertrand the Mouse adventure. I took photos and even wrote it yesterday. And our small church is a few dollars richer and a few hugs closer. Can it get better than that?

Have a great Monday readers, writers, and vampire fans! :)