Welcome to the 2017 Giftmas Blog Tour!

The Giftmas Blog Tour has been an annual tradition since 2014, but last year we added an extra fundraising layer — raising money to benefit the Edmonton Food Bank and help feed hungry families. We’re continuing that this year and hoping to do even better than last year.

2017 was a very difficult year for a lot of people, so the theme for this year’s blog tour is ‘Shining a Light’. We will be sharing positive, hopeful, funny or otherwise — attempting to shine lights into the darkness. Because every little bit helps.

The tour officially begins tomorrow, but this blog post right here is the main hub. It’s going to be a huge blog post, containing a whole whack of information, but I’ll try not to let it become overwhelming.

The most important part of this whole post, of this whole tour, is this right here:

Donate to the Edmonton Food Bank

Last year we raised $521 so this year our goal is $522!

I’m going to be unrepentantly pushy about that link and here is why — every dollar matters. I’m not exaggerating. Because of their partnerships, bulk-buying and that sort of thing the Edmonton food bank can turn every dollar donated to them into three meals for hungry people. Let me say that one more time:

$1 = 3 meals

Oh, and if you’re American your dollar will stretch even further because all donations made to this fundraiser are in Canadian dollars. At the time of my writing this blog post that means for you every $0.78 = 3 meals.

So if you can manage to donate, even just a dollar, you will have shone a light into three people’s lives. And that ain’t nothin’. And as an added bonus, we’re offering some awesome rewards for your generosity. Check that out below.

If you can’t donate, you can still help by spreading the word, and we’ll enter you into a draw for some awesome goodies for doing that too!

Mmmk. So, in order to try and keep this from becoming super complicated let’s look at this one thing at a time. First, if you can donate, in addition to the warm feeling you will get from the knowledge that you are helping those less fortunate than yourself, I’d like to offer you the following rewards:

Donor Rewards:

The first ten donors (of any amount) will receive a download code for a free copy of Faegotten by Jude Tulli.

If you donate $1 or more you may claim all of the following:

• A personalized holiday card from me, Rhonda Parrish*
• An ebook copy of your choice of any of the Alphabet Anthologies (A is for Apocalypse is already free, so you’d be picking from B is for Broken, C is for Chimera and D is for DInosaur.)
• Giftmas stickers from Stephanie A. Cain

If you donate $40 or more you may claim all of the following:

• A personalized holiday card from me, Rhonda Parrish*
• An ebook copy of your choice of any of the Alphabet Anthologies (A is for Apocalypse is already free, so you’d be picking from B is for Broken, C is for Chimera and D is for DInosaur.)
• Giftmas stickers from Stephanie A. Cain
• Tuckerization in Circle City Magic by Stephanie A. Cain (Stephanie’s choice of either a villain, victim or werewolf from this series will be named after you)
• Homemade winter holiday themed fabric coasters from Rhonda Parrish (set of four)*
• Advance copy of the Magical Menageries Colouring Book (expected release Summer 2018)*
• eARC of E is for Evil (expected release Spring 2018)

To claim your rewards fill out the form below. Include in the body of your message any of your preferences (which Alphabet Anthology you’d like, for example) and if you’d like to receive any of the physical items (which are marked with an asterisk) I’ll also need your snail mail address.

If you made your donation anonymously please also let me know the date and approximate time that you donated.

To claim your rewards for donating to support the Edmonton Food Bank, please fill out the form below or email me directly at Rhonda.L.Parrish@gmail.com using the subject line ‘Giftmas Blog Tour Donor Rewards’.

This is an ugly form. I know it’s an ugly form, you know it’s an ugly form… but it works. :-p

Once you’ve submitted the form or sent me an email to claim your rewards for donating, don’t forget to keep on scrolling and enter the Rafflecopter too!

But wait! There’s more! As promised there are ways that you can help which don’t involve spending any money and which will still give you a shot at some awesome goodies in return.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wow!

Do you need a moment to catch your breath? I wouldn’t blame you if you do. Like I said before though, here is the most important part about all of this:

Click here now to donate to support the Edmonton Food Bank

All the rewards and the prizes are pretty amazing, but they are nothing compared to how good you’re going to feel for helping to make someone else’s holiday’s brighter. Shine a light — donate today.

That’s a lot right? But didn’t I mention something about a blog tour?

The blog tour runs through December 11th and a whack of fantastic writers and bloggers will be working together to bring you a series of great blog posts, all of which are intended to help shine a light.