Birthdays!

Back!

Wonderful trip. Hope you all had a great time without me. Sorry I only missed you a little, but the granddaughter more than made up for all the great people here. When I get the pics downloaded, I will bore you with a few.

In the meantime, it's birthday celebration time! While I was gone, I missed Michelle Reid's. So, very sorry, Michelle, but you were thought of. And I'm glad you got your revisions finished and are taking a deep breath and -- I hope - resting between books.

And happy birthday to Mitch who was FIVE yesterday (and no, not months, though sometimes he acts like it!). We'll celebrate today, Mitch!

Also, happy birthday today to my wonderful daughter-in-law Marie who made me so welcome these last few days. She and son and granddaughter gave me a memorable vacation with them. I wish I'd been there to babysit tonight so the adults could go out to dinner and the granddaughter and I could hang out (except she goes to be with the chickens, so I wouldn't get to play with her much in the evening -- unless I was corrupting her! -- and I wouldn't want to do that because she's a very good sleeper and her parents have worked hard at it.

And a special and wonderful happy birthday to my dear friend Kate Walker who shares Marie's birthday and thus proves that May 7th must be a stupendous day to be born. Kate, too, just survived the revisions process and is recuperating. So enjoy your book-free days, my dear. Though I know you are still very very very busy!

Anyone who wants to leave birthday greetings for them here, I'll be sure to pass them along -- and they may get here to see them themselves. Certainly Mitch will!

Gunnar's Choice

I sent Gunnar off with The Prof and a jar full of treats and little slips of paper with names on of everyone who commented this past week.

It was their job to decide on a winner. I gather that they went through some complicated ritual that allowed Gunnar as many treats as possible while still remaining upright. And they returned with a winner of this past week's five books.

So . . .

Chris, if you are out there -- you are the winner!

Congratulations! Gunnar seems to think you're the perfect choice. (It's possible he had to eat through all the treats to get to your name. I don't know the means they used to make the decision.)

I realize from reading your comment that you have already read Tempting, so if you would rather have another book from my bag, I'll substitute another one for that and hope you haven't read it. If you do want a substitute, I'll include Tempting with next week's books.

Please go to my webpage and click on the contact link and send me your mailing address and I will send the books out to you on Monday.

Thanks to everyone who commented this week. I'll be putting up more books in the week to come and Gunnar will pick a new winner next weekend. So keep on commenting!

* * * *

Seb says to tell you that he's cooperating and that we're getting the details and he had no idea 'scratching' could be so interesting.

I'm not precisely sure what he's referring to.

As he's being particularly close-mouthed at the moment, I wonder what he knows that I don't know -- yet.

I wish he'd get his nose out of the newspaper and hurry up and tell me.

Tempting!

That's the name of Friday's book by Susan Mallery.

And tempting it is, too.

In this year of political campaigns, if you can't get enough of them, you'll have a blast with Tempting, which is the story of restauranteur Dani Buchanan who discovers she's the biological child of Senator Canfield -- who just happens to be running for president!

Unaccustomed to being someone's 'secret' Dani makes the acquaintance of the Senator and his wife and their family -- all children they've adopted and one, in particular, extremely suspicious of her. That would be Alex, the oldest, his father's campaign manager, who has his suspicions about whether Dani's story is true or if she's trying to stir up trouble.

That would be bad enough, but the attraction that springs up between them is worse.

Dani has been around in several of Mallery's other books about the Buchanan family. And they get back in here to form Dani's support group and prove to her that being family isn't a matter of blood. Not that she ever thought it was.

Tempting is far more tempting than reading about the real political scene, if you ask me. Someone (Gunnar hasn't picked yet) will get to enjoy it next week.

So, there you have it -- this week's 5 Give-Aways:

• Dark Lover by J R Ward
• The Education of Mrs Brimley by Donna MacMeans
• Spellbound by Nora Roberts
• Brighter Than the Sun by Julia Quinn
• Tempting by Susan Mallery

Gunnar will be picking a winner of this week's books from among those who have commented on the blog this week.

* * *

I'm back in Twyla Tharp mode and "scratching" for bits and pieces of Seb's book.

It's what she calls the part where you go looking for those bits of inspiration that will give you something to build on to get the finished book.

The idea is there, lots of the story arc is there. It's the concrete details I need now to hang the story on -- or the handholds I will be scratching out of the mountain this month as I work my way to the top.

Right now, though, I'm thinking a space break looks appealing!

Remembering Roy

In honor of Gunnar, the Proust-reading Flatcoat Retriever, I got involved in "Flatcoat Rescue" a number of years ago.

Flatcoats are fabulous dogs, but they aren't, say, Golden Retrievers. Flatcoats tend to have an agenda, an attitude, and generally, in their opinion at least, a better way of doing almost anything you want them to do.

This makes them occasionally 'a challenge' to unsuspecting dog owners who may think they are getting a Golden Retriever in a black fur coat.

Wrong.

So, in order to make sure any rescued Flatcoats from our area went to homes which would understand them, I ended up dealing with a fair number of long-haired black dogs. Most of them weren't Flatcoats, but we found them good homes, anyway.

One of them found a home with my oldest son. His name was Roy.

Roy could jump a four to five foot high fence just by standing and looking at it, then bunching his muscles and springing straight over.

He could dance. He did the most amazing four-footed shuffle and hip wiggle you ever saw.

He was incredibly strong. He could pull me off my feet when he was a youngster without even trying. He weighed around 100 pounds. And it wasn't all fur. It was solid dog. Solid Roy.

Suffice to say, Roy wasn't a flatcoat.

He was part Newfoundland, according to a vet and Newfoundland breeder, and part something else. Maybe Golden. Maybe elephant. Maybe small house.

No matter. He was the sweetest-natured dog in the world.

My son loved him dearly, but after three years his living circumstances changed and there wasn't room in his tiny house for all his family and Roy The Big Black Dog.

Also, they were gone a lot and Roy needed companionship. So, as a stop-gap, he came to live with us. But we had four dogs (three Goldens and Gunnar) at the time and they were all, if not as big as Roy, pretty close. It was like having an entire suite of living room furniture that rearranged itself at will.

And while I would have loved to keep Roy here, there wasn't space (particularly in our bed during thunderstorms when Roy thought that if he lay on top of you, that still wasn't anywhere close enough, and could he just get inside your skin, please?).

We had friends who had recently lost their beloved Golden Retriever, Chase, and we knew they would be fabulous parents for Roy. So Roy went to live with them.

Going to live with Chuck and Susan at The Hancock House Bed and Breakfast in Dubuque was the best of all possible worlds. For Roy. For Chuck and Susan. And for the many many people whose lives Roy touched. Let's face it, there are some dogs meant to be 'public ambassadors.' That was Roy.

Despite the fact that he could shed for Newfoundland, Roy was a perfect B&B dog. He never met a person he didn't like. He was unfailingly friendly, cheerful, and always willing to be hugged. He thrived on the attention. And Susan and Chuck's guests thrived on knowing that this great big black dog thought they were absolutely special because they had come to visit him.

It was a perfect match.

Every time I went to visit, I got to be Roy's Grandma and he always came and leaned against me and butted his big head into my knees or laid his head in my lap and looked up adoringly, as if to say, "You found me the best home with the best people in the whole world."

I know they would say he made their lives as wonderful and rich as they made his.

Yesterday Roy crossed the rainbow bridge. We wish he could have stayed here forever. But we're glad we had him in our lives as long as we did.

He had ten and a half years in which he made the world a better place.

God speed, Roy. Thank you for loving all the people in your life as much as you did.

Twelfth Night

It's the twelfth day of Christmas.

That means it's the last day you can sign up to enter the Twelve Days of Christmas contest on my website. You don't even have to know anything -- you just have to sign up.

Then tomorrow Gunnar will choose a winner from the entries and the lucky winner will get TWELVE books!

Which twelve? I'm so glad you asked.

Of course there will be a signed copy of my very own most recent title, The Boss's Wife for a Week. Here are the rest:

• To Rescue A Rogue by Jo Beverley
  
• Reunited: Marriage in a Million by Liz Fielding
• The Naked Marquis by Sally MacKenzie
• Cents and Sensibility by Maggie Anderson
• Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington
• What Price Love? by Stephanie Laurens
• Over Hexed by Vicki Lewis Thompson
• The Forbidden Mistress by Anne Mather
• Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell
• A Game of Chance by Linda Howard
• Lady Jane's Nemesis by Patricia Oliver

How's that for a stack of great books? A few contemporaries, a few historicals. A few chick-lit, a few single title, a few series. Even a little mystery.

So stop by my website today, click on the contest logo on the left sidebar, and submit your entry!

Gunnar says he hopes there are a lot of entrants. More treats for him, thank you very much.

Christmas -- a movable feast

Missed me? I missed you guys. But there was just no time to blog this week.

First, of course, there was Ellie and her parents. That was time-consuming enough. And better time was never spent. Of course I'm prejudiced, but she's such a cheerful, pleasant, happy baby. She reminds me of her aunt, my daughter. They have the same 'what's not to love about me?' personality. They expect the best to happen and, generally, they get it.

Ellie's dad is like that, too, come to think of it. Boundless energy and boundless optimism. Nice to be around.

The twins came, too. They're three now. Busy doesn't begin to describe it. They've had haircuts and are beginning to look like individuals rather than clones of each other. That said, it still takes a long look for Grandma to tell them apart. And what fun they are! I'm sorry the older boys weren't able to get here as well.

Thought I'd provide a pic of the dogs to say Merry Christmas to all of you!

Can you tell we had a good Christmas?

And it isn't even officially Christmas yet!

Still . . . it was lovely and I'll have no problem celebrating 10 days early every year. We did that with Thanksgiving one year when the middle son came home in October. It's a movable feast anyway. So we moved it to celebrate when he could be with us. Great fun.

So I took them back to the airport on Monday night to catch a before dawn flight Tuesday morning, then stayed there with my mother to take her to an eye doctor appointment the following day at the major university clinic nearby. She had a corneal transplant last year. She sees better than I do! (Not that she admits it).

And then yesterday we drove home through FOG. Like that stuff that prevented us going to Texas when we tried to get out two days before Thanksgiving. It was thick and soupy and generally impenetrable. I was glad to get home safe and sound.

Now I've heard from the ed that the tweaks were all that PJ and Ally needed and they are in the 'Modern' schedule for next November, and the Presents schedule is "TBA" and the title is, I think I may have mentioned, Antonides' Forbidden Wife. November seems like a long way off. I presume that means hardback in September, though. We shall see.

I'm supposed to start thinking about books and dates for next year's delivery. Hmmm. Got any ideas????