As of today, the Fifteen Weeks of Bees is officially over. We opened its doors on the first of February, and thanks to the concerted efforts of a large number of highly competent and hard-working women (some of whom were not even related to me, although by now they may feel they are) we kept it up for three and a half months: every one of those weeks saw five or more “Mutterings”, a Russell blog post, a contest or giveaway, and a LRK guest blog somewhere in the blogosphere. The web site was totally renovated, two book-related videos added, and a long period of free downloads of the Beekeeper’s Apprentice e-book. Several thousand people are still following Mary Russell on Twitter, which has to be a sign of some kind of severe societal madness infecting the world, and we’ve suggested the first element of next year’s contests, illuminating Russell’s MyStory.
Last night, at an event at the San Francisco Public Library that celebrated the 150th birthday of Arthur Conan Doyle, we drew the names of the last two winners of the Fifteen Weeks.
Among the many who sent me their receipt from an independent bookseller, we drew one name to receive the broadside “A Venomous Death”: that goes to Daniel Medow in Michigan, for a copy he bought in the Book Beat in Oak Park, Michigan.
And of the many who sent $60 or more to Heifer International, helping us raise—ready for this?
$10,000 !!!
was Patricia Toner. Patricia will name a character in The Green Man—Pat, we’ll be in touch.
$10,000 for Heifer International. Wow. Plus the monies accumulated through the Amazon and CafePress stores. Thank you all, for helping support this great cause, and thank you, everyone, for putting The Language of Bees on so many bestseller lists across the country.
I’ll have more to say about various events of the tour and about Fifteen Weeks beginning next week, so don’t think we’re entirely finished with you. And Russell will continue Tweeting, if at a lesser rate.
Bless you all, for having fun with this.