Fight diabetes and make your cat a star!

It's May, time again for Brenda Novak's annual auction to benefit diabetes research.

As some of my readers know, my specialty as a science and medical writer is diabetes. I've written hundreds of articles about diabetes in magazines, newsletters, and journals such as Diabetes Forecast, Diabetes Advisor, Diabetes Self-Management, Diabetes Care, Diabetes Spectrum, Veterans Health System Journal, Caring Today, and The Bark.

At its best, diabetes is a major annoyance to live with, affecting most choices a person makes during the day. At its worst, diabetes can affect nearly every organ in the body and can lead to blindness, amputation, and early death. An estimated 23.6 million people in the United States have diabetes, and the number grows yearly. (To learn more about diabetes and its consequences, follow links to consumer-friendly information at MedLine Plus here.)

Two of my grandparents died from complications of diabetes, so my interest in diabetes is personal as well as professional. As a result, I urge you to visit author Brenda Novak's auction at http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/ this May.

All money raised by the auction goes to The Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami, a research institute that focuses on finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes often starts before age 20, and affected people must take insulin every day. Last year, sale of items donated by authors and others to the auction resulted in nearly $280,000 going to diabetes research.

This year, many items of interest to authors are up for auction—chapter reads by agents and editors; critiques; mentoring sessions; publicity services; writing of your query letter; lunches with agents and editors; copyediting of your manuscript; even writing convention fees. In addition, you can bid on signed books, ARCs of books that have not been released yet, gift baskets, jewelry, vacations, an iPad, and many other Very Cool Things. For example, if you win item 1711654, your cat will be a character in a future novel by Beth Cornelison.

If you visit the auction, please check out my own donation, the Gilgamesh Gift Basket, item 1773940. You might win a copy of Like Mayflies in a Stream and related swag, including jewelry of carnelian and lapis lazuli, two gemstones favored by the ancient Mesopotamians.