Pages

▼

Monday, May 11, 2009

It Takes Two: Eric's IASPR Fundraiser!


Hi, everyone! Eric here, hoping to raise some on-line capital for IASPR, the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. For only $2, you--yes! you!--can build a sturdy foundation for the Association: a Travel Fund to help scholars come to our international conferences; an Honorarium Fund to leverage money for speakers; a documented base of support beyond our membership rolls that will help spread the word about this new wave of romance scholarship. Give now, and I'll match your donation.

I'm calling this the "It Takes Two" campaign, and here's how it works.

1) Think of your favorite romantic couple, whether real or fictional. (Or your favorite menage: not picky here.)

2) Go to the IASPR website.

2) Scroll down until you see the "Donate" button.

3) Click on it, and donate $2 (or more!) via Paypal.

4) Come back here, and post a comment to this post announcing in whose honor you've made a donation! Grateful tributes, steamy anecdotes, whatever tip of the hat you prefer. If you're on Twitter, post your comment with the hashtag #ItTakesTwo.

To sweeten the deal, I promise to match the first $250 in donations. Hey, I did some extra teaching this winter. What better use for that money?
**UPDATE! As of 5/13/09, we have received exactly $300 in donations! I'm in for the $250, for a total of $550 raised so far. That's not even counting the new memberships, folks. Can we make it an even thousand?
If you'd rather donate by check, you can make one out to IASPR and send it to me:

Prof. Eric Selinger
English Department
DePaul University
802 West Belden Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614

To kick things off, I've just tossed $2 in the pot in honor of my grandmother, Shirley, and my late late grandfather, Manny. She's turning 101 next week, and although he passed away more than a decade ago, I'll never forget his utter and unabashed adoration of her, as though he never could quite believe that a woman like her had married a man like him. (They ran off to Reno to marry in secret, during the Great Depression. The stories she can tell!)

Here's to Manny & Shirley, real life romance hero and heroine, and here's to IASPR!

So, folks--who's in with me?
at

31 comments:

  1. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 02:03

    Cathie Linz is in, via Facebook: "In honor of Emma and Jake from my book SMART GIRLS THINK TWICE. Since she's a sociologist I figured she'd like this (grin)."

    Thank you, Cathie! You're the first to take my challenge. I'll think of this when I read it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. san_remo_ave12 May, 2009 02:05

    Hi Eric --Good of you to lead the fund raising effort!

    I donate $20 in honor of Cole Latimer and Alaina MacGaren from Woodiwiss' Ashes In The Wind. My first romance read. Still a fav.

    ReplyDelete
  3. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 02:08

    I've never read it--but I will now, and think of you!

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Keira Soleore12 May, 2009 04:47

    I donate $5 to Jack Travis and Ella Varner from Lisa Kleypas's SMOOTH TALKING STRANGER.

    ReplyDelete
  5. An Goris12 May, 2009 08:25

    Great idea, Eric!
    I donate $20 in honour of J.D. Robb's Eve and Roarke, one of the greatest romance couples out there.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Laura Vivanco12 May, 2009 09:57

    Eric, maybe this is going to sound really naive, but what's the money needed for? I can see that there might be some money needed to cover expenses related to designing and maintaining the website, but what else is there that needs to be paid for, and why won't it be possible to cover the costs with the money raised from membership fees?

    ReplyDelete
  7. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 14:00

    Good morning, Laura! You don't sound at all naive, and I'm glad you asked.

    This fundraiser has three goals.

    First, I'd like to raise money for an IASPR Travel Fund. If we're going to have international conferences, we're going to have scholars and speakers who need help to get there. This year the Romance Writers of America have generously donated $1500 to help full-time US faculty get to Brisbane, but there are other US speakers who need some assistance, and Australians who don't have travel support. As we start to plan the Brussels conference, we can use this money to leverage additional support: "we'll pay X if we can get Y," I can tell my own administration.

    The same is true when it comes to honoraria. Every now and then we'll need to offer an honorarium to an invited speaker or prominent scholar. If we have a pool of funds on hand, we can use that to sweeten the invitation--again, leveraging our own money to get help from a university or other organization.

    Finally, this fundraiser allows romance readers and authors--people who might not ever want to come to an IASPR conference or publish in our journal--to support the academic study of romance in a small, symbolic way. A dozen supporters might not quite equal one new member, financially speaking. But that's a dozen folks who might mention our existence to the right person at the right time to bring in a new member, or let a promising student know that we're out there! (I've already had two colleagues at work support us without joining, for example, and I hope more will follow.

    So: Travel Funds, Honoraria, and Publicity / Good Will. Three goals of the It Takes Two fundraising campaign.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous12 May, 2009 15:52

    Well, I'm going to get into real controversy here by citing a TV couple-- Buffy and Spike. If any Bangel fans want a throwdown, let's go for it. :)
    Petra

    ReplyDelete
  9. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 16:05

    Thanks, Petra! Any Willow / Tara fans ready to join me?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lauren Willig12 May, 2009 16:30

    Hi, Eric! I've put in $2 for my latest hero and heroine, Robert and Charlotte from "The Temptation of the Night Jasmine".

    I've also posted a contest on my website where ten of my readers will have donations made on behalf of their favorite couples.... I can't wait to see who they pick!

    ReplyDelete
  11. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 16:36

    Thanks, Lauren! We're going viral! (And I can't wait to hear what they come up with, too.)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Karen Henry12 May, 2009 17:15

    This may not be romantic to you, but to me...it's the love story of all time. My $10.00 donation is to Mr. Ella and Mr. Lorenzo...my male bungies who live in a bird cage together and kiss every night. They have found true love in each other (ok...so we thought Ella was a girl until he broke his wing and the Vet told us otherwise, we should have known...he's far too beautiful to be a girl bungie)...Lorenzo nursed him back to health, wouldn't leave his side...and now....Robin Williams would be jealous of our bird cage! To the progessive bungies in my life...people could learn from you! :)
    Karen
    Great idea Eric &...

    ReplyDelete
  13. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 17:18

    Thanks, Karen! Our first m/m couple!

    Are bungies like budgies? Off to Google 'em--

    ReplyDelete
  14. Peggy Dallmann12 May, 2009 17:31

    Alicia Rasley passed along word about all this. I think this is great! I joined for a year's membership. I hope that next year I can afford to become a lifetime member. I also sent a $2 donation in honor of Nora Roberts' love match between Moira and Cian, who fell in love during book three of her Circle trilogy, "Valley of Silence." I have lots of favorite couples from many novels and authors. Right now, these two are no. 1 for me. Although all three "Circle" novels were fantastic, I couldn't wait to find out what would happen between Cian and Moira in Book Three.

    ReplyDelete
  15. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 17:35

    Thank you, Peggy--and thanks as well to Alicia for sending you the news. We're thrilled to have you as a member, with this extra gift on the side.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Angela12 May, 2009 19:28

    Here I am! Leaving a donation in the name of Abelard and Heloise.

    ReplyDelete
  17. ann herendeen12 May, 2009 19:34

    Eric, I took the hint about menage and donated $8.00 (I figured menage is like 2 to the third power?) in honor of...not my central menage from Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander, but the old folks: Marcus Lambert, Lord Isham; his wife, Bella; and their "mutual friend," Lord Rupert Archbold. These 18th-century rascals make the young people of the Regency era look like models of decorum by comparison.

    Good luck with the fundraising.

    ReplyDelete
  18. E. M. Selinger12 May, 2009 19:42

    Thank you, Angela and Ann! I'm very grateful--and you're right, I was thinking of you, Ann (but not ONLY of you) with my hint about the menage. (GH, you know who you are. Who's your fave romantic trio?)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Darlene Marshall13 May, 2009 13:35

    I donated in honor of Mara and Sheftu from Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. First romance novel I ever read, at age 12, still one of my favorites.

    ReplyDelete
  20. E. M. Selinger13 May, 2009 13:56

    Thanks, Darlene! You're today's first donation. We're up to almost $160 in donations, plus several new memberships. Spread the word--

    ReplyDelete
  21. Jen Woolston, IUP13 May, 2009 14:38

    I just joined for a year and also donated $2 for Anne and Lyon from Susann's "Valley of the Dolls." Thank you for spearheading this project, Eric, it looks quite exciting! I am honored to be a part of it, to be amongst so many other romance-loving scholars, and to have helped in my own way!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous13 May, 2009 15:24

    I will put in my vote for Jamie and Claire from the Outlander series.

    ReplyDelete
  23. E. M. Selinger13 May, 2009 15:31

    Thanks, Jen! The IASPR project is really Sarah Frantz's brainchild, but I'm happy to help, and very happy to have your help as well.

    Anonymous, I'm about to go read a draft MA thesis on Jamie and Claire. Your timing is perfect. Thanks to you, too!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Medora13 May, 2009 19:53

    Just donated, in memory of my grandparents, John and Barbara, an Army MP and his British war bride.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Unknown13 May, 2009 19:57

    Medora, I'm honored. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  26. TJWoods13 May, 2009 22:26

    Donated AUD100 for Rina Marlowe and Jonas Cord (The Carpetbaggers) - you gave me the best summer reading of my life (circa 1968).

    ReplyDelete
  27. E. M. Selinger13 May, 2009 22:36

    Thanks, Toni! You're a Goddess. Can't wait to see you in Brisbane.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Bill Gleason14 May, 2009 03:05

    Eric -- What a great idea! I'm in, with a $2 donation in honor of one of my favorite fictional romantic couples: Min and Cal from Jennifer Crusie's BET ME.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Bronwyn Parry14 May, 2009 04:06

    It's taken me a few days to get fingers to keyboard, but I've donated $20 in honour of Barbie Cazabon and Jack 'Fascinatin' Kippilaw, from D'arcy Niland's Call Me When the Cross Turns Over - a classic Australian novel set in the 1950s amongst the gem fields and outback towns of Australia. The Cross of the title refers to the Southern Cross.

    "Her name was Barbie Cazabon, and she was brought up in a man's world. She was dug out of this country and she'd be dug back into it. Some are like that. They belong nowhere else but in the land that bred them."

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous15 May, 2009 19:11

    Eric,
    LOL....my birds ARE flighty...but apparently...my spelling is more so. They ARE budgies....not bungies....that's something you do for the hell of it from a bridge to test your core strength right? Anywho....I'm using IASPR in my dissertation...so when I get more....I'll send more. YOU all are qualifying for a gold metal in my dissertation olympics. the birds? well....they don't have much to do BUT make out and put on a good show in their bird cage. I WISH I could set them free!
    In the meantime.....I hope to promote you MORE during my adventures in dissertation. I AM going to teach a class on personality theory next semester and am trying to figure out how to incorporate this org. into that somehow.
    Luck and Love to all!!!

    Karen

    ReplyDelete
  31. Wendy16 May, 2009 19:26

    I just signed up for a sustaining membership, so, uh, $2 seems superfluous. But I join in honor of Sophy Stanton-Lacy and Charles Rivenhall. "'Charles!' Uttered Sophy, shocked. 'You cannot love me!' ... 'I don't: I dislike you excessively!' he said savagely." (Perhaps this is why I am also a Buffy/Spike fan. ;)

    ReplyDelete