Ally's Winner

Carolin, who posted eloquently in the comments section of the Pink Heart blog about a number of things in her 'well' that have inspired her creativity, is the winner of Antonides' Forbidden Wife.

Mitch and Micah thought that she could have included Golden Retrievers among her inspiration, but they loved the idea of her twenty-year engagement (go read the post!), so they forgave her the lack of Goldens.

I found all the comments really interesting -- and a little scary, as in Michelle Styles's recollection of the drunken Icelander who tried to abscond with her son. Yes, that would make a book opening, Michelle. But I wouldn't want to relive it all the time! At least confining it between the covers makes it manageable.

Ditto Kate Hardy's tale about her baby daughter's illness. It's interesting that we use romance fictioin to 'escape' the difficulties of life quite often. But at the same time we also use it to exorcise the grittier moments of our own lives.

I'm glad to know that Sid and Kate found Melody's quilts inspiring. And I will see about making Sid my version of his very own personal quilt (a dead tree in winter quilt, eh, Sid?) for his sleeping comfort.

I would love to hear more about the bits and pieces of your lives that have inspired you to do something creative. So don't stop here. Keep sharing, please.

Maybe next time we can talk about 'inciting incidents." Or is that a double positive? Things that inspire that initial, "I think I'd like to write a book about that" (or poem or short story or knot garden or quilt) moment.

Who wants to go first? Well, Michelle already did with her drunken Icelander. But who else has a good inciting incident?

Micah and Mitch are tussling over the treats. They want another contest. Hmmm.

Why I Don't Have My Revisions Finished, II

The real reasons I haven't got my revisions finished:









:








Enough said?

Meet the Grandpuppy

There is a new puppy in the family.

A two month old Golden Retriever, he has been long anticipated and will be greatly loved. He came home last night and today he got a name -- Beau.

He will be my 8 year old granddaughter's best buddy for years to come. Lots and lots of years, we hope. My daughter, a deeply devoted dog person, is thrilled -- especially because she's heard there are now under-the-tongue allergy meds. As someone who has endured allergies for the joy of having dogs in her life, this may indeed be a blessing.

Beau is, according to his father, a great puppy with a nice, easy-going personality. He tries to eat tennis balls but, so far, his mouth isn't quite big enough to do more than barely get around them. No room for chewing.

Tomorrow he is apparently going to his first softball tournament because he and my son-in-law are on their own this weekend. He missed the golf tournament today, but I can see he's going to have a full athletic calendar.

I'm looking forward to knowing Beau better. Hoping to get to meet him in person (in dog?) sometime in the fall.

Mitch and Micah are delighted to have a new nephew.

Micah and Mitch have picked a winner!

Micah and Mitch were up early and practicing so they would be sure to have the 'picking a winner' for my New Look Contest down pat.

The 'up early and practicing' entailed following me around and looking hopefully in the direction of the treat jar until I allowed them to sit and wait, then pick them off the slips of paper containing the contest entries. They are both very good at sitting. The 'waiting' is a bit tricky. I can assure you they have mastered the eating treats part.

The other bit is, they have to agree.

And this takes more treats and more sitting and less waiting, though still a fair amount of discussion (mostly, I'm sad to report, about more treats).

But at last, they have a winner!

Laurie of Florida is their unanimous choice. So, congratulations, Laurie!

Your goody box of books, including Savas' Defiant Mistress, and chocolate -- and a plush frog! -- will be on its way to you this coming week. I hope you enjoy them all.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to match my books and their heroes and heroines. You are all winners in my book. There will be further chances down the road -- I'm thinking of a Mother's Day contest -- to win back list titles and, perhaps, another frog. Not to mention chocolate. So I hope you will all enter then.

In the meantime, I hope you've all had a great St David's Day and that the spring flowers are peeking up where you are -- unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere, where I hope you're finally getting cooler weather.

I'm looking forward to spring. But this winter has been so much more pleasant than last winter that I'm still not minding the bit of snow underfoot. How about you?

Last Day for Contest Entry!

If you haven't entered the contest on my website to win a copy of the upcoming Savas' Defiant Mistress, you can do so until midnight tonight. That's just one of the goodies in the Goody Box the winner will receive.

There's my Year of the Frog plush frog and a few other books (not just mine) and some chocolate and, hmmm, maybe another surprise or two.

To enter, just go to the contest page and match the book titles and the hero and heroine of each book. Answers are scattered all over this blog, so it's not rocket science.

Sunday Micah and Mitch will be picking the winner. They've been licking their chops in anticipation for the past two weeks.

The book pages are coming along slowly but surely. A few are up -- but lots more will be along during the next week or so.

Merry Christmas!

I didn't really vanish. I just got absorbed in revising and throwing out and revising and throwing out until I thought the ripple effect was really an undertow, and I was done for.

Happily, I don't think it is. I still have work to do -- but it's not going to get completely finished until after the first of the year. My new year's resolution is going to be one of patience. I hope my editor's is, too!

I have seen Antonides' Forbidden Wife in one store so far, so I know it exists -- just in time for Christmas stocking stuffing (I hope). At least for those who are doing their shopping on Christmas Eve.

We are celebrating the lovely news that yet another grandchild is expected come summer. The 4th of July, they tell me. An auspicious day, to be sure. And the birthday of my grandfather as well, which makes it even more special. We've also just learned that the baby due in April is a boy. All very exciting.

Must get busy and write the next book so I can go visit these new little people and their parents without deadlines hanging over me.

But first -- revisions.

I wish you all a very happy holiday season. May you find joy in the celebration and be in the company of people you love this year.

Meanwhile -- the dogs wouldn't sit still for a photo. They sent stand-ins ( see below). Happy holidays to all of you from all of us!

Blogging and blogging

I never blog but it pours.

Or something.

I have these revisions, which are not yet done. Sigh. And I need to be doing them -- this weekend. But I also have commitments to blog -- and so I've spend a chunk of today trying to figure out what earth-shattering things I have to say.

In the face of revisions, I opted for the easy way out tomorrow (Saturday) on the Tote Bags 'n' Blogs site where I'm sharing a couple of seriously tasty recipes for the holidays. If you are a fan of cranberries in baked goods, stop by. If not, stop by anyway and tell me what recipes you like. You could win a copy of Antonides' Forbidden Wife.

Then Monday I'm going to be blogging at Fresh Fiction, which meant I had to write it today. And you know when your mind goes blank from having been on overload for way too long -- well, that's the way mine was today. And so I fell back on the tried and true.

I talked about where I get my ideas! People are always asking, aren't they? Well, Monday you can find out the answer -- briefly -- at least as it applies to where I got some of the ideas that led me to write Antonides Forbidden Wife.

Where did PJ and Ally come from?

No, I'm not giving you a birds and bees lecture. I'm talking about literary conception, nothing else.

But stop by on Monday for a visit at Fresh Fiction if you're interested. I'd love to see some friendly faces. Or read some comments from people I know.

The other thing I'm doing is waiting for a very appropriate memorial to Gunnar, which I will share when it arrives. It's the only thing that doesn't make me cry whenever I think about him. It makes me smile. We're getting there. And I know he'd love it.

Pictures and words

Kate Walker posted a lovely blog about "a very fine dog indeed" on Monday -- a tribute to Gunnar that I appreciate more than words can say.

Everyone has been so kind in their support and their comments that I just want to say thank you all for your care and your concern for me and my family and for all the nice things you said about Gunnar (who would say that he certainly deserved them!).

I indulged myself today briefly by playing with Wordle, making word pictures of my blog about him, trying to find one that spoke to me. They all do, really. But I guess I like this one best:

Micah is mastering the art of keeping my feet warm, so I suspect he will be an important part of the revision process. And Mitch is putting his head on my knee as I write. They are both wonderful companions and doing their best to darn a patch of sorts over the hole Gunnar left.

Again, thank you all so much. It's true that you meet the greatest people writing books!

The Quality of Life

When my youngest son was 10 he wanted a dog. All his older siblings had decamped and he didn't much like being an only child. The cat didn't count.

There were stipulations. He had to take care of the cat for a year before he could have a dog.

He did. He got a dog.

The dog, a great big three year old Golden Retriever, called AJ, had a head like Rushmore and a personality like a saint. He is responsible for the procession of dogs who have come through our lives since.

It is a tribute to AJ, truly a god among dogs, that we have opened our hearts to so many others since he arrived.

When AJ died the week after my son graduated from high school, there was a huge hole in our lives.

No matter that the cat and the two remaining dogs were still here. Lovely as they were, they weren't AJ. No one was.

Enter Gunnar.

Gunnar wasn't AJ, either. Not even close.

He was small and he was black. He was a retriever, yes, but a flatcoat -- at least mostly (even a flatcoat breeder said so).

He walked like a flatcoat; he talked like a flatcoat (I have him on video giving a speech); and like most flatcoats, if you told him what to do, he had a better idea.

The first day he arrived as a four and a half month old puppy, he jumped through the dining room window. It wasn't open at the time.

To say he brought joy and challenge into our lives was not to overstate the case. He was noisy, rambunctious. He grew, but he was always lean and somewhat wiry. He was also tough and opinionated and he had legs like springs. You should've seen him bounce.

He never met a tennis ball he couldn't shred in two minutes flat -- but he'd much rather make you throw it nine hundred times first.

He was something of an intellectual. For example, he was a student of nature. He and Goliath, the cat, spent countless hours lying on the bed in the guest room, staring out the window at the birds. We used to call them The Audubon Society, though I'm sure they were more interested in recipes involving avians than in counting and identifying them.

He was a student of human nature, too. He loved everyone except the mailman and boys with skateboards -- and the man in our neighborhood with the green umbrella.

What precisely annoyed him about the man with the green umbrella, I don't know. But whenever we saw TMWTGU on our walks, we had to cross the street. Otherwise Gunnar acted like he was giving serious consideration to going for the throat.

As Gunnar was a good judge of character, I have always wondered what he saw the rest of us didn't.

Suffice to say, Gunnar made life interesting. To echo my son's words after AJ's advent into our lives: "He really did improve the quality of life around here."

So did they all.

But especially Gunnar.

Gunnar has spent the last twelve years at my feet while I wrote books and blogs. He tucked himself in under the desk and hummed while I worked.

He was there this week while I worked on my revisions -- up until yesterday when it was too much of a struggle to climb the stairs.

Last night he slept downstairs. This morning he climbed up on the sofa to look out the window, then he lay down and watched me do my 35 minutes on Wii Fit (which he found endlessly baffling -- why is she stepping on and off that plastic board? Why is she tipping and tilting and teetering and tottering? Especially when we could be going for walks).

But the past two weeks we haven't been able to go for walks. And this morning, on the sofa, he closed his eyes and breathed his last.

The quality of life dropped fast.

It will improve again, I know. There are ups and there are downs. And there are days like today which really are the pits.

But I would go through today again -- and again -- for the joy of having him in our lives for so many years. And he will be in our hearts forever. We might not have him here anymore, but we will always have that.

He trained Micah and Mitch to do the contests (a forward thinking dog, our Gunnar). He taught them how to sit under the desk or behind my chair to trip me when I get up. He taught them the fascination of watching me twist and turn and step on the Wii balance board.

He taught them to look suspiciously at the mailman, the FedEx lady and the UPS guy (though neither barks with quite the warning he did). And heaven help the man with the green umbrella should we happen to see him out walking.

Mostly, though, he taught us all about love. He gave it unconditionally. I hope in turn we gave him the life and the love he deserved to have.

God speed, Gunnar. You were the best.

GUNNAR
1996-2008

Up to my neck . . .

Apologies for the lack of posts which is not intentional.

There is the general holiday preparation stuff which normally goes on at this time of year. But there are also the book revisions which are making me rethink the first third of the book and recast it in a slightly different form.

I like the suggestions my editor made and the changes I've done so far have made it a better and stronger book, I think. At least Christo and Natalie seem to think so. They want me to get on with it faster. I will.

But presently I am also dealing with a very very sick dog. As he has been a member of the family for twelve years -- and the outcome does not look promising -- I am rather distracted and spend a lot of time with him. So bear with me, please.

Gunnar is a very special guy. He's has definitely, as my youngest son once said about our first dog, "improved the quality of life around here." Right now his quality of life sucks. But we're doing the best we can.

If you want to read something cheery -- or at least more entertaining than this -- there are some great blogs on my sidebar and if you aren't already going to several of them, do check them out.

I have good news about my website which has been in limbo for much of the past year. It seems that it is about to get a serious update -- and a lot of content that's been missing since the old site was 'revamped.' I'll keep you posted on that.

And, of course, keep an eye out for PJ and Ally's book, Antonides' Forbidden Wife, coming later this month (so it won't get lost in the Christmas rush). Julie Bonello wrote a lovely review of it over on the Cata-Romance site.

RT had nice things to say, too. Michelle Reid very kindly sent me their review a couple of weeks ago. I meant to post it, but there's the small matter of not having any time.

On my way . . .

I'll be heading off across the pond on Thursday. I've been getting bags (well, one) packed and unpacked and the things I'm taking whittled down. I hate heavy luggage and I always pack too much.

Fortunately Greenies don't weight much. So Sid and Flora and Dylan, Kate Walker's cats, are going to get lots of treats. I couldn't go see them without the requisite Greenies.

Ever since the late lamented Bob Redford Walker discovered Greenies, they have been at the top of every packing list I've got.

I haven't done as much on Christo as I'd hoped to do this past week. I'm going to be working on some family history articles, too, and so I spent plenty of time going over the catalogue for the Cornwall Record Office to be sure I used my time there wisely.

There's never enough time -- so I need to make best use of what I get.

Consequently Christo has taken a back seat this week. But I expect him to accompany me on the plane. And now that I've figure out how to shut my wireless off, he can talk his head off and I'll type and type and type.

In case you haven't met my friend, the eeepie, it's a great little computer from Asus that has accompanied me on several jaunts this past spring and summer. It's the 900 version with the slightly larger screen than the original.

But it has the same footprint. And it's sooooo much smaller and easier to take along than a full size laptop. I love it. This is its first trip abroad, though, so I'm eager to see how it likes the trip.

My son's Asus eee pc just came back from Italy and had a marvelous time, so I'm hoping Eeepie will do as well.

On the getting things cleared up before I leave, I want to tell Avi that her books went out today. Avi, I hope you get them sometime in the next week (not sure how long it takes to get to your part of the world).

I'll check in and write on the blog when I can get wireless. You should hear from me from Kate's house. And then, with luck, from Cannes. After that, we'll see. Not sure where I'll run into wireless in Cornwall -- at least I don't know how likely it is where we're staying.

Behave yourselves while I'm gone. I'll send pix of the cats -- and anything else I think you'd enjoy.

Here's your friend to keep you company while I'm gone.


Oh, you thought I meant Hugh.

Right. Well, just because you asked --

Meet Bruno!

Pink has chosen a winning name for his new pup from all the wonderful entries. He says his new buddy is going to be Bruno!

So, thank you, Avi J, for giving Bruno his name. Go to my website and click on the contact Anne tab and send me your snail address and I'll send you two of my books.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. There were so many great entries that Pink spent part of the morning telling me he needed more dogs! Frankly I think he would soon have had 11, like you do, Avi, if I'd let him.

But he only gets one -- Bruno.

Check The Pink Heart Society to see who else Pink is going to visit -- and what other great presents he's getting.

Happy Birthday, Pink!

Happy Birthday, Lil Pink Dancin' Guy

September is the anniversary month of The Pink Heart Society blog. The PHS mascot (besides Hugh Jackman) is the lil pink dancin' guy who is traveling around to a variety of blogs this month to celebrate.

He's stopping here on Monday (which will be in a couple of hours Greenwich Mean Time, which is PHS time) so I'm hauling out his birthday present to go with the cake he is getting.

I figured you needed a friend, Lil Pink, so I've got a pup for you to share your travels. Gunnar, Mitch and Micah, my own pups, helped me decide on the perfect friend.

So here's your present, Pink.

And for everyone else who stops by, you get to help Pink name him (or her) and enter to get a present, too.

Make a suggestion in the comments section, and if Pink chooses your suggested name for his new pup, you'll win two back list Anne McAllister titles.

Pink will be deciding before Tuesday because I have to get ready to head off across the pond.

Happy birthday, Lil Pink! And best wishes for many more.

1000s of words

These are a few of the pics from the week when I wasn't working. I wasn't blogging. I wasn't doing anything but reading and relaxing and basking in the smile of a certain granddaughter.

She'll be one tomorrow, so it seems only fair to put her front and center.

I would write more, except I already wrote (well, ranted really) today on the Tote Bags 'n' Blogs site.

Drop by and comment and win a copy of a book -- your choice if you win (as long as I can find it).

In the meantime, here are pics of Lake Chelan in Washington.

View across the lake from the park.












View from the front porch.














The grand-dog.












The dock.














Dad and daughter at the park.














Dad and daughter on the water.

Up, Up and Away

Everyone who is going to the Romance Writers of America conference in San Francisco is probably already there. I would be, too, if Sister Camp hadn't intervened.

And frankly, despite loving to see folks at RWA, I'm glad it did. I get to see my sister far less often.

But Friday morning The Prof and I are flying out to SF, then after the conference, to Seattle to see sons and families and do a little R&R on Lake Chelan.

Never fear, Christo and Natalie are coming along. It's a 'working trip.' But I'm going to enjoy the change of scene. I'll be back by the 13th, I hope -- and planes willing.

Meanwhile Gunnar and friends will be holding the fort with their favorite dog-sitter, Keith. They are never really sad to see us leave (well, not much) because Keith is very high on their list of wonderful people. He's on mine, too, since he takes such good care of them.

I'll get in here as I can. No promises except to see you round about the 13th. Maybe earlier. Be good. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Here's someone to keep you company while I'm gone.

Mom Camp on the road

We took Mom Camp on the road yesterday, going to Galena, Illinois for the day.

Galena sometimes calls itself "the town that time forgot" because for about 100 years no one except the locals seemed to know it was there.

But then people from Chicago discovered it was a nice distance for a weekend getaway. And then more people discovered it was a step back into what small-town America used to be like (ideally) and they came.

It's also where Ulysses S Grant lived before heading off to fight in the Civil War, so there is a local "Grant's Home" claim to fame. In other words, there's lots of stuff to see and do and antique shops galore to prowl around in.

These days it's pretty much wall-to-wall tourists during the summer months.

We went there last year and wandered around, had a great lunch at Vinny Vanucchi's and wandered a bit more. So this year we did the same.

The food was possibly even better than last year. The wandering was just as enjoyable, though I don't quite know why Galena is always so much hotter than Iowa (at least where we live). Maybe the breeze just doesn't blow down Main Street.

Anyway, we had a great time. And no one lost any teeth.

Today is Micah the dog's 6th birthday. We are celebrating with Greenies and rawhide sticks. He's quite pleased as he thinks food of any sort is cause for celebration.

And then we are making Jeremy Jackson's sinfully rich Chocolate Sink Holes to be shared by those who join us after dinner tonight. Dinner itself is going to be at the local Japanese restaurant. I love watching someone else cook!

We are not getting any slimmer this week, that's for sure. Maybe next year Mom Camp will have to be Anti-Fat Camp.

My daughter has gone off now to revisit the Girl Scout camp she attended for many years. As a leader herself, she's intrigued to see if her memories reflect at all what the reality is.

"I remember it being soooo big," she said the other day. She's afraid it will be far littler than she recalls.

Doesn't matter. The memories are big and have lasted a lifetime.

Did you go to camp? What do you remember? Have you been back to see it as an adult? How did it compare to your recollections.

My husband has wonderful memories of a camp he attended every summer in western North Carolina. He became a counselor there when he was old enough. I never went to camp. But I remember watching Spin and Marty and thinking I'd like a camp like that!