Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts

December 1, 2014

A Gift for You - A Free Anthology!

No mischief today - just a little giftie from me to you guys! I've got a Fido-friendly fictional short story coming out in an anthology, called A Cup of Christmas.*

The anthology will be FREE (!) from Tuesday, Dec. 2 and for the next 3 days. Thereafter, it will be priced at $1.99, and ALL proceeds will go to First Book, a children's literacy charity.
"Cindy Lou" from my story

October 19, 2014

Your Dog Ate What?? A Guide to Edible Hazards

In my debut novel, What the Dog Ate, there's a lotta mischief going on. In fact, in the first sentence, we find out that both Maggie's dog and hubby have been up to mischief: "The vet handed Maggie Baxter a plastic specimen bag containing a pair of size-tiny lavender thong panties extracted from her dog; but they were not hers."
"Panties. Yum!"
When you write a book about a Lab with a "the-world-is-my-smorgasbord" attitude, folks tell you stories about the odd things their pets have eaten. (Note that all these dogs ended up being fine!) Like the dog that ate the zipper on his bed. The zipper! Or a friend's cat that ate the prescription pill her husband dropped. (I thought it was impossible to get a cat to take a pill??)

January 14, 2014

Blog the Change for Animals: Take a Chance on the Best Friend You'll Ever Have!

The shelter where I volunteer, Helen Woodward Animal Center, has a pretty good turnover rate for the dogs. But, once in a while, we'll get a dog or two that are there for months on end. I know those dogs gets lots of good care and loving from the staff and all of us volunteers... but still... it would be nice if someone would take a chance on them. 

So today, for Blog the Change for Animals, in honor of one of the dogs that's been at Helen Woodward for a while now, Lilo, -- as well as all the shelter pups out there -- I present: "Take a Chance on Me," with lyrics appropriate for a pup waiting for their furever buddy, set to the tune of Abba's classic hit:

June 13, 2012

Happy Kampers

The End of K9 Kamp!
 
"Rita, stop being a couch potato!"
K9 Kampers were left to their own devices this week -- it was Kamper's Choice for our final week. The four weeks have gone by fast. I decided to mix in a little of everything from K9 Kamp into this week:
  • Friday: I did weights and threw Rita's squeaky toys for her between sets
  • Saturday: We walked to the park, where we found a tennis ball and played Monkey in the Middle.
  • Sunday: We went for a nice long, fast walk at the beach
  • Monday: "Don't Be a Couch Potato Day" - stretched/rough-housed on the floor during the hockey (As you can see by the pics, Rita loves to watch TV.)
"But, Mom, it's Charles Osgood!"
  • Tuesday: "Make Up a Game Day" - we used to play a fun game at our old house with Abby that we called "Around the Island." We'd run around the stairwell/part of our kitchen and get her to chase us. So, I tried a similar thing that involved running through my office, out the sliding glass door, then back in the other door, and looping around again. It was fun, except that Rita (like Abby used to do) would cheat and just stop chasing and wait. I also tried to make up a game involving burpees, but the burpees were just Too. Damn. Hard. Plus I wish they had a nicer name. 
  • Wednesday: "Two-walks Wednesday" - planning to squeeze in a second walk tonight
  • Thursday: Tomorrow I'm planning to include a bit of running on our walk, which will be necessary because I'm going to the Del Mar Fair later in the day and want to be able to eat a deep-fried Girl Scout cookie (or three) without a lot of deep-fried guilt. 

I can't believe it's the end of K9 Kamp already. It's been fun, and hopefully Rita and I will keep up our extra-exercising ways. (Well, I know Rita will... so the "hopefully" really just refers to me.)
 Team Captain in his uniform

The End of Dodge Ball
Last week was also the end of the dodge ball tournament at Mike's work. I'm sorry to say that Dodgey Style did not in fact win the whole thing and bring home the big trophy. But...they did manage to come in 2nd! So at least he came home with a medal.
"Whaddya mean we didn't win?"
"Second place?? Aw, man. That sucks."





Mini Max, next to his pages in the Tripawd Heroes book

Our Latest Creation
My sister, Terry, and I needle-felted a Max. Max was a gorgeous Tripawd who, like Abby, was taken too soon by stupid osteosarcoma. I must say, he's been one of the hardest ones we've done - he had such a beautiful multi-colored coat and those piercing ice-blue eyes. Max's mom was one of the first folks on Tripawds to reach out to us during our cancer journey with Abby and both Max's parents were there for our Tribute to Abby day, so Mini Max was just a tiny thank you for all their support.

Writer/Book News
In What the Dog Ate news: first of all, I'm working on a print version. Hopefully it will be out soonish - maybe in a few weeks or so?? I'll keep you posted!

Also, I got another really nice review, this time from Roxanne Hawn on her Champion of My Heart blog. She's had a rough go of it lately with her mother-in-law passing away and her pup, Lilly, having a very bad reaction to her rabies vaccine, so I really appreciated her taking the time to read/review the book. She wrote that she started the book...

"...during our recent hospice vigil. The novel held my attention at a time of great upset and distraction, and, I think, that says a lot about What the Dog Ate."

I was happy to provide a distraction during a rough time. In other "makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside" news, I got an actual email from an actual reader saying how much she liked the book and is looking forward to the next one. So, that was fun! And... I got my first payment from Amazon. It was a small payment - but still, I got $$ in exchange for WORDS that came outta my wee little head! Whoohoo. Feeling like a real writer.

Better go do some work on my next book - can't keep up the "real writer" feeling if I don't write!

This is a blog hop! 

May 4, 2012

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo-Eve. As you can see, our Margarita Rita is ready to celebrate!
Cinco de Mayo is a funny "holiday." Much like St. Patrick's Day, it's one of those days where Americans make a much bigger deal about it than the folks in the country of origin. And it's not Mexican Independence Day, like many Americans think it is. (That's actually in September, and it passes with barely a Corona being raised in salute.) Cinco de Mayo is a remembrance of the Battle of Puebla. But at any rate, it's as good an excuse as any (as if we need an excuse around our house!) to have a margarita (or two), so we will definitely be participating in the celebrations on Saturday.

Rita says, "Just don't over-celebrate!"

I entered the photo above of Rita (the one where she's sniffing the bottle with that "It smells like...home" face) in a little Facebook photo contest for "Cinco de Meow" (oddly named since it's almost all dogs. Plus a turkey. Or a really ugly dog...). She's so funny. She was asleep, so I set the bottle down next to her, thinking she'd get up and walk away, but nope - she struck these two funny poses. Maybe she has a little of her angel sister Abby's modeling ways in her! Anyway, if she wins we are donating our winnings to Tripawds. Right now she's in 1st place so hopefully she'll win and the Tripawds coffers will be $100 richer!

A Reminder
Don't forget, you have until Friday May 11 to leave a comment on my friend's blog and be entered for a chance to win a copy of What the Dog Ate.

Have a happy Cinco de Mayo! Don't overdo it!

March 22, 2012

Canine-related Creative Endeavors

As you know from previous pics I've posted of our felted wool creations, we generally like to felt dogs, such as Casanova, pictured here in his "gladiator suit":

In fact, here is our latest project: spirit Gayle, a beautiful, inspirational Tripawd who was "sister" to my friend Charon. We miss you, Gayle! As Charon said, we know Gayle and Abby are together having a great time at the bridge, gossiping over margaritas.

In other endeavors, when I draw, I generally like to draw dogs, like Lou or Abby.

The other day, I even made a sculpture out of dogs. (My Facebook friend, who is a creativity muse, posted a challenge to quickly craft a "sculpture" from things around the house.)
"Plethora of Pups Pyramid"

And when I write, well, I don't always write about dogs, but I do include them in my stories quite often. Which brings me to my big news (which most of you already know), that I e-published my book, What the Dog Ate, this week! It's available via these links on Amazon and Smashwords.

I'm very excited about the book finally getting out to readers. That is my friend Ellen's tripawd Charley on the cover. Isn't he handsome??

Now, just so you don't think I am a crazy dog-obsessed lady, I also like margaritas and professional cycling, and neither of those things involve dogs. (Although those things aren't "creative endeavors"... well, unless you feel more creative after a couple of margs...)

Of course, having said that, I remember several times when dogs have been involved with the Tour de France, such as this instance below. It's usually not pretty when a dog gets involved--at least for the rider who goes down--but this time wasn't too bad:

That led me to wondering about dogs and margaritas and a little search turned up this:
Yep, it's the Bark-a-rita dog food bowl...
Rest assured that I am not ordering one of those for our own little 'Rita! But I hope you will consider ordering What the Dog Ate -- it costs less than a box of dog biscuits!