Meet the newest Brewer

This is a cute story about spring training, the Milwaukee Brewers and a stray dog. If the embed doesn't work, here's the link. Enjoy.

There's also this story in USA Today if you want to know more about Hank! So happy this little guy found a team and organization to not only take care of him, but love him!

Dog Showing Once Again

Yesterday, I found myself somewhere I hadn't been since August...a dog show! Mackenna's shoulder surgery is healing and getting stronger so we decided to go to Albany, Oregon for a small show. Rose and Chaos were signed up for Junior Showmanship. We expected Cato to be the only Norwegian Elkhound in the breed ring since our friends dropped out the day the show closed due to not hearing that anyone else had signed up.

Well, Cato wasn't alone in the breed ring!

A bunch of out-of-state folks decided to show up, eight dogs on Saturday and seven on Sunday! That many Elkhounds rarely show up anywhere unless it's a specialty show. Boy, was it fun seeing them all.

Hubby took the Saturday shift. It was a great day! Rose and Chaos placed second in Jrs. Mackenna took Cato into the breed ring and won: Winners Dog, Best Winners and Best Opposite Sex! He ended up with a couple more points toward his championship, too!

We split kids and dogs, yesterday. He did the morning shift. I took the afternoon one! By the time Mackenna, Cato and I arrived, the place was pretty empty. Hubby and Rose were finished so they left Chaos with us and headed to Mass nearby.

Unfortunately Sunday wasn't as good as Saturday results wise. Rose didn't place. Cato was Winners Reserve (no points.) Just what happens with dogs. But still a fun day. Though a long one.

Oh, and our breeder has another set of new puppies. Astra, who Mackenna has shown both in juniors and breed, had her second litter! I can't wait to see pics so I can share them with you!

Have a great Monday!

Trish

I didn't get a blog up yesterday morning. I woke to the news that a dear friend and talented author Trish Jensen had died. The news wasn't unexpected. She'd been moved to a hospice, then back to a hospital. I knew what was coming, as I did with my friend Elizabeth who had breast cancer, but the news still hit hard.

I met Trish on the old GEnie forums back in the mid-nineties when we were both unpublished authors. She was a funny, caring, generous woman who wrote romantic comedies for Harlequin and Belle Bridge Books.

Trish loved animals—dogs, cats, birds, you name it. She was a supporter of no-kill shelters. She was one of the first authors to jump in and help my then-foster cat Miss Mousie when she needed surgery. You can read the post she contributed to the blog here. Trish wrote this about her cat Foxy:

It's been a few years, but she's forever in my heart.

And Trish will forever be in mine. RIP my friend. You are already missed.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you have a wonderful Friday whether you're spending Valentine's with your loved one or if you're on your own this year!

I've been playing around with a new app and came up with this for you:

Random Wednesday

My week is completely messed up from the snow day on Monday. Having Friday off didn't help. I keep thinking it's the wrong day. So just a few things for you today while I keep reminding myself it's Wednesday.

• 4 days of unable to go or do anything, right? Monday night, Rose tells me she needs Valentine's for her class party. No worries, right? Drive to Target, buy a box, sign them, we're good. Wrong. She wants to make them like we did last year. So last night we went to the Dollar Store and Walgreens. Managed to get everything we needed except gumballs. That will be my quest today. 300 gumballs. Don't ask.

• If you're looking for an act of kindness to do, send Colin a birthday card for his 11th birthday. My youngest just turned eleven in January. Colin told his mom he has no friends so there was no need for a party. Colin has Asperger's Syndrome. Here's the article with the story from ABC. Here's the Facebook page his mom set up. You leave a birthday greeting or you can find out where to send birthday cards or you can do both. Let's show Colin he does have friends, lots of them!

• The men's halfpipe? Where you as surprised as me by the outcome? At least we had gold in the Slopestyle. Nice to see a US Woman medal in luge. Watching that German speed skater get disqualified for false starts was heartwrenching. I missed all the skating. I was writing.

Anything random you want to share?

Norwegian Elkhound Puppies - The Next Generation

I've lost track of all the Norwegian Elkhound puppy posts I've made so I decided not to number this one. These pups are from our breeder Jan Herinckx in Hillsboro, Oregon. We feel a special kinship with this liter because the mother is Grand Finale, who we had for a short time to socialize when she was a pup, and the father is Nash, who we had for several months last year when Cato went to live with Jan so she could work with him.

It's no wonder these are such cute pups! Add in the recent snow and well, I'll let you see for yourself!

Adorable, right? What better way to start the week than with puppies!

Have a great day! We have a snow/ice day here. No school!

Mini-giveaway Winner

We're snowed in! You'd think that would mean I have plenty of time to pick the winner of Monday's mini-giveaway contest, but no, I've been enjoying the snow, writing and resting. A pretty perfect day!

But here's the winner!

Random.org said:

Here are your random numbers:

4 

Timestamp: 2014-02-08 06:22:39 UTC

Quilt Lady was the fourth commenter so she wins backlist eBook copy! Congrats! And thanks to all who entered!

Hope you had a great Friday!

Throwback Thursday - Memo: The Billionaire's Proposal

For the past two weeks, I've been posting backlist titles on my Facebook page as part of a #ThrowbackThursday or #TBT promotion some writer friends are doing. I decided to add that to the blog today and I knew exactly what title to start with: Memo: The Billionaire's Proposal.

You see, when my kids had the flu in January (before I caught it) we watched a lot of TV, mostly on-demand and their favorite shows. One of those shows is Castle. My son and I were theo only ones downstairs when he asked me to watch an episode with him. He said he really thought I'd really like this one.

He was right!

Take a look at this short clip (If you want to see the entire episode we found it via Comcast On-demand):



Talk about art imitating art.

Eric Vaughn in the Squab and The Quail episode = my hero Drake Llewelyn. You see, the actor Ioan Gruffudd playing Lancelot in the movie King Arthur inspired my character years ago. Now seeing him as a billionaire with that sexy British accent...thud!

Some tidbits about the book:

•  I wanted the book to open in a castle with the hero dressed like a knight in shining armor. I also wanted him to have facial hair like Lancelot.

•  Chaney, my heroine, was the name of my son's Little League coach's wife. I asked her about the name, heard the story behind it and knew I had to use it in a book someday.

•  The book was nominated for a RT Harlequin Romance Reviewer's Choice Award. 

•  The manuscript was moved up in the publication schedule so I never had a chance to check the page proofs. I've received more complaints from readers about typos in this book than any other book. Unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it. So buyer beware! If typos drive you crazy, please skip this one!!!

• There's a booktrailer for this one courtesy of Goddess Fish Promotions:



Happy Thursday and happy reading!

Writing the Bestseller

I don't blog much about the actual craft of writing. Unless you're a writer (and my intended blog audience is readers) it's pretty boring. But I wanted to tell you about a new writing book that was just released because I contributed to one of the sections! Needless to say I'm so excited!

The book is put out by the Tule Publishing Group. They're the ones who published Home for Christmas and Mistletoe Magic. They asked their writers to share tips, advice and techniques. The result... Writing the Bestseller: Romantic and Commercial Fiction

The book is available in Kindle format for $3.99 on Amazon, and will soon be available in print.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

A Post and an eBook for You

Did your team win yesterday? Mine wasn't playing. But I live where everyone is a 12th man and the number 12 flags fly everywhere. Fireworks and shouting were going on like it was New Year's Eve. I felt so bad for Chaos. She doesn't like noises like that!

One of my critique partners, Lisa Creane, who is brilliant and doesn't let me getaway with much (okay, anything) when she reads my chapters, wrote a great blog called House Tone that combines Harry Potter and parenting. Worth a read!

Lisa is a mom-extraordinaire, a psychologist and writer, a woman who wears many hats. I'm honored to work with her and more importantly, have loved getting to know her. Click here to go to her blog.

If you happen to be a Harry Potter fan, you might be interested in the link on Lisa's post that sorts you into the four houses from the book.  If you take the test, I'd love to know how you were sorted.

As part of my Valentine's Giveaway (click here to enter), I'm doing random contests on the blog and Facebook between now and Valentine's day. Today's prize is an ebook from my backlist. To enter, post a comment. I'll randomly pick a winner and post the name on Friday so if you'd rather not leave your email where I can contact you, just check back on Friday to see if you won.

Good luck! And have a great Monday!

Valentine's Day Giveaway

From today until 8 am on Valentine's Day, I have a giveaway going on!

The prizes are:

• $10 Amazon eGift Card
• $10 Starbuck's eGift Card
• $5 Amazon eGift Card
• $5 Starbuck's eGift Card

You can enter using the Rafflecopter below or the one on my Facebook page! Thanks for reading this blog and my books! I have the best readers! Love ya lots! xoxox

a Rafflecopter giveaway