For the last five years, author Brenda Novak has organized and hosted an online auction to raise money for Diabetes Research. The sixth auction opens online on May 1st and will run through May 31, 2010. Last year they successfully raised $269,111 for research and they’ve raised over three quarters of a million dollars over the last five years. Each year they’ve raised more and more for the cause. In the course of the auction, they have one day only auctions, $1 specials, contests and more. There’s something cool, at each price level, for any fans of romance, fiction, fantasy, or those that just want to help a worthy cause and maybe have some amazingly unique gifts for the fans in their lives. The donations come from authors and a variety of others, and cover everything from autographed books; to professional critiques of your own work; to cruises; to large screen televisions and all sorts of other wonderful things.

From the beginning, Yasmine Galenorn has contributed to the auction. Each year, her donations have gotten bigger, along with the value of the items and the size of the bids winning them. As a New York Times bestselling author with one highly successful urban fantasy series (Otherworld) already on book shelves and the Indigo Court series making its debut with the release of Night Myst this June, the popularity of her baskets will surely continue to climb. Yasmine has a significant interest in the cause, as her husband, Samwise, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 27, so they live with the realities of this disease every day. Yasmine, along with other popular authors, like Sherrilyn Kenyon, JR Ward, Heather Graham, Christine Feehan, Diana Gabaldon, Stephenie Meyer, and more, are using their popularity for this cause, so in the end, everyone wins.

This year, Yasmine is again donating two baskets; one themed around the Otherworld series and the other themed around the new Indigo Court series. See the pictures and follow the link to get all the details. Of particular interest to long time Yasmine Galenorn fans (known as Moon Stalkers) will be the custom, one of a kind Maggie the Gargoyle doll Yasmine commissioned from artist JL Anderson, and the matted prints featuring cover art from several of Yasmine’s books, all signed by artist Tony Mauro.

To stay up to date on the auctions, you can follow the Brenda Novak Auction on Twitter and/or search on the hashtag hot link – #BNDA – on Twitter. You can also follow me; among other things, I’m Yasmine Galenorn’s assistant but I’ll be updating people about the auction information as it relates to Yasmine via both of my Twitter identities – as Yasmine’s assistant and as Geek Gyrl Friday.