Literary agent Irene Goodman founded a nonprofit called Publishing for Vision & Hearing (PubVH) in honor of her son, Rob, who suffers from Usher Syndrome.

Currently, PubVH is hosting a charity auction.

Those who are interested can place their bids until the end of December. Some of the items up for grabs include a picture book critique by veteran editor Nancy Paulsen (who now presides over her own imprint at Penguin Young Readers Group) and a partial critique by Movable Type Management co-founder/president Jason Ashlock.

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This week novelist Shiloh Walker sealed the deal on three new paranormal novels with Berkley. Irene Goodman from the Irene Goodman Literary Agency sealed the deal, and Cindy Hwang at Berkley bought the books.

The first title is Thrill of the Hunt, a paranormal contemporary romance about a werewolf pitted against a vampire who works as a killer-for-hire. Intrigued by her Twitter posts, GalleyCat caught up with Walker to find out how she landed her most recent deal.

The veteran author outlined her pitching process: “While I spazzed out (spazzing out is my normal MO), the actual pitch itself was easier than the first one, easier than the second … gradually, I think it just gets easier and easier as you get used to working with one particular editor.”

She continued: “Now, last year was a different story altogether. I write paranormal for Berkley, but I’m a fast writer and I wanted to branch out and explore romantic suspense with another publisher. So I put together a proposal for a new publisher. Pitching that one? I think that was even harder than when I’d originally first pitched an idea to Cindy.”

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In December, agent Irene Goodman will auction off 25 critiques for partial manuscripts–a chance for fledgling writers to donate to a worthy cause and polish their work for the agent search.

The auction will run from Dec. 1, 2009 and ends Dec. 15, raising money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Deafness Research Foundation. Her 22-year-old son (pictured, with Goodman) suffers from Usher Syndrome, a genetic disease that causes progressive loss of hearing and sight. She explained: “when you are 22 and you are losing your sight and your hearing, you want the cure to happen NOW. All this costs a lot of money, and that’s where your dollars will be spent.”

Here’s more about the quality of Goodman’s advice: “I believe that nicey-nice doesn’t really help you. Honesty does. If you can accept well-meant feedback from someone who has built a lot of best-selling careers, then this is for you. My track record in this regard astonishes me when I look at it. There are dozens of books that sold for sizable advances as a direct result of my feedback to the authors. When you are hungry for information that will really make a difference, not waste your time, and respect your goals, you need a real industry professional who has walked the walk.”