You may recall a GalleyCat post last month about Jeannie Ralston, a mediabistro.com success story whose debut memoir, The Unlikely Lavender Queen, was enjoying a great deal of attention. Ralston emailed later to talk about her newest project, which came out of a hometown book signing in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico back in June. "I gave one-third of each book sold to a lavender co-op in a poor pueblo near San Miguel," Ralston wrote, enclosing some pictures of the farm—that's her on the right, with head farmer Aucencio Domenzain Martinez and project manager Maria Fernanda Rebora. "The co-op is growing lavender as a cash crop, to help support the community while so many of the men are gone to the States to work," Ralston continued. "Their fields are beautiful and they're making gorgeous soaps, sachets and lavender wands to sell in San Miguel. The hope is that one day the men won't have to leave for work in the States, which means families stay together."

Ralston has been advising the farm in a volunteer capacity for years, but she wanted to do something more—so now, whenever visitors to her her Amazon-affiliated author website buy a copy of The Unlikely Lavender Queen, Ralston will donate the commission to a "Seed Campaign" which will make contributions to a different charitable organization each month. St. Anthony's Alliance, the non-profit that helped launch the lavender farm outside San Miguel, will receive September's funds, for example, while the next month's proceeds will go to the John Dau Sudan Foundation. She hopes to raise $60,000 in the first twelve months of the program.

Ralston hopes that other authors might launch similar initiatives through their own websites: ""Our words can have great power," she says, "even beyond what's on the printed page."

(photos: Holly Wilmeth)