For Readers
Behind the Scenes
A look at what goes on in my writing world
July 16 2022
This person tried to get the balloon up but it kept sinking. It didn't appear to be a good day to fly!
Seeing hot air balloons is nice bonus of living up "north"!!
That's north Alabama…
This person tried to get the balloon up but it kept sinking. It didn't appear to be a good day to fly!
Seeing hot air balloons is nice bonus of living up "north"!!
That's north Alabama…
February 2022
2021 ended up being a busy yet sad year. The busy part? My husband and I moved from south Alabama to north Alabama. From a small town to a metropolitan area. From no interstate highways to two several interstate highways. From warm to COLD.
The sad part? We arrived with three dogs and only have one now.
Millie was abandoned 4 February 2020 and joined our family that morning. (Her 10 week old puppy was with her.) A pretty golden dog maybe 4 years old with the cutest underbite, she had not been well cared for. With medical attention and a good diet, she soon looked great. Unfortunately, in November we discovered she had a heart problem, a tumor that caused congestive heart failure.
In memoriam: February 4, 2020 - December 29, 2021.
In memoriam: February 4, 2020 - December 29, 2021.
Sadie was found by a nice family who were unable to keep her. She joined our family in 2010. According to our vet who had experience with the breeds, she was a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Hound and a Treeing Walker Hound mix. She had one brown and one blue eye and could actually climb trees although I only saw her do it once.
2021 not kind to Sadie either. She was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. Two days after we lost Millie we were in the vet ER with Sadie who had pancreatitis. The next few weeks were up and down with her as she lost weight, suffered a stroke or seizure, and in general did not fare well. An x-ray also showed serious spinal issues.
In memoriam: October 1., 2011 - February 2, 2022
2021 not kind to Sadie either. She was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. Two days after we lost Millie we were in the vet ER with Sadie who had pancreatitis. The next few weeks were up and down with her as she lost weight, suffered a stroke or seizure, and in general did not fare well. An x-ray also showed serious spinal issues.
In memoriam: October 1., 2011 - February 2, 2022
This is Daisy the day she was abandoned with Millie. Both their coats were dull and rough.
This is Daisy all grown up.
December 2020
And now there are seven again! A newly arrived neighbor brought some ducks from her father's lake and now we have 3 Khaki Campbell ducks added to the duck family we already had.
2 Mallards, 2 Pekin, and 3 Khaki Campbell. Only the Mallards can fly. The other ducks are domesticated and the most they can do is a few feet of low level flying.
Mr. Mallard, Will-I-Am, Baby Dee, Huey, Cher, Chet, and Clarice. Yes, I name them!
I would have never guessed it'd be almost a year before I added a photo of the ducks I mentioned in my last update. But it has been. Here are the ducks. Their numbers are dwindling from the seven Pekin ducks (white) someone dumped on the dam about 5 years ago. Two didn't make it through the first night and it was obvious none of them had been raised near a lake.
We started feeding them waterfowl food because they had no idea how to find food. Three years later two mallards joined the flock, drawn by daily feeding and females!
We started feeding them waterfowl food because they had no idea how to find food. Three years later two mallards joined the flock, drawn by daily feeding and females!
One of the white ducks, Baby Dee, is the only duckling to hatch and survive. Her sibling decided to swim around the lake quacking loudly. My husband claimed she was saying "Snack! Snack!" A nearby hawk heard her (or him) and the duckling disappeared.
In addition to designing bookmarks, I've been hard at work updating my website. Romance Writers Report will be publishing my article on mobile friendly websites. It seemed a good idea to get my ducks in a row! I actually take care of some ducks–guess I better get their photos in here for all to see…
This is the bookmark for my two writing skills books. Again, a lovely job! The Tassanoxie (below) and the one above just arrived. Absolutely can't believe how well they turned out.
Here's my newest bookmark for my Tassanoxie books. Most of them are in digital format, but two are also available in print. Su and I came up with this idea of how to showcase their differences by grouping them on different sides of the bookmark. Since I publish ebooks, I really like framing the books so readers can tell whether or not they are ebook only or print. These are on order for a book signing in December (2019). Should be here soon!
I've been working with Su at Earthly Charms to update my bookmarks. Didn't she do a lovely job with my Victorian era historicals?
We did this one when Butterfly Bride was published in January 2019. As you can see, both my Regencies will be listed. I love the idea of showcasing them as ebooks since most of my books are currently in that format.
Way back when I started the Tassanoxie stories, I thought it would be nice to have a logo to put on the books.
Although I never used it, here's what Su of Earthly Charms created for me.
I'm still trying to figure out how to use it. Ebooks don't lend themselves to something like this because covers are pretty small at the distributor outlets.
It's already July, 2018. I lost most of June trying to untangle a computer knot that meant I couldn't upload website updates to my host server. What a headache!
I enjoy quotations from writers and posted this one on my Facebook page not long ago. I thought I'd share it again.
I put all my covers together to make a Facebook banner.
This origami swam is a folded manuscript page taken from my next release, Butterfly Bride, Regency historical romance.
Isn't it darling?
This is our snowfall from last week (January 17, 2018). As you can see, we didn't get much. Sierra, our Beagle girl is checking it out. My husband says all we really got was a good coating of sleet. Which meant a lot of ice on the roads and a lot of car accidents as folks skidded into each other. Southeast Alabama isn't exactly known for snow or sleet.
Su (of Earthly Charms) has been helping me update my "look" to include a new website banner as well as some new covers for my books. I've spent most of the summer revamping my website and updating the interior of my ebooks as well as redoing several covers. The latest covers to join the party are these. Enjoy!
The idea for new covers started with Stealing Destiny's cover. I couldn't figure out a way to give Ransom's Bride a similar look. The books have some common characters and I wanted readers to know they were related stories.
As you can see, I think we've achieved that goal.