Hop, Hop, Hopping along

Well, you know frogs. They don't do rows.

But they're gone!

Wrangling Frogs

The ducks were easier.

But only because they're finished. It's while you're rounding them up that they seem so difficult. Now I sit back and think, "Ducks? Get 'em in a row? Easy. Piece of cake."

Frogs? Different story.

The chapter eight frog -- who took his own sweet time showing up -- was an absolute angel when he got here. It's chapter nine who is cutting up rough and making me nuts. So I've taken him to task and we've had a long chat.

I even brought in a frog counselor to discuss his errant ways with him. Now we've figured out his issues -- he has to learn to trust -- and I am hoping we can go on from here.

Actually I'm confident we can go on from here. I have my airline ticket to prove it. So excuse me while I go finish the book. I'll be back when I have.

In the meantime, think positive things about frogs on the march.

Not quite Missing-in-Action

He's here!

Chapter Eight has put in appearance and I know why he was gone. He's The Love Scene. And of course he was a little embarrassed to be doing his thing in public, as it were.

So he very circumspectly waiting until I, too, discovered what was going to happen in Chapter Eight -- and then he deigned to show up.

Today we've been finishing up Chapter Eight and both the frog and Seb and Neely are pleased. Little do they know that Chapter Nine will send everything sliding right downhill again. As it does, of course, when the Black Moment arrives.

Chapter Nine, eager to be of help, turned up early to prove to me that all was not well that seemed well (provided S&N actually got that far). And justified, he's now gone out to lunch while Eight and I get things sorted and polished up. Ten, of course, is rubbing his flippers together and saying, "All's well that end's well," and other such platitudes.

Except I'm inclined to agree. Not only that, but it looks like they'll be packing their bags and heading off to Richmond right on time. Bless their amphibious little hearts.

I'm packing my bags, too. Though I must say that I was a bit annoyed today when the airline sent me an email telling me that if I wanted to take a second bag it was going to cost me $25 extra dollars.

What's up with that? First they take away food. And now they charge us more for luggage? Not that I was planning on taking two bags anyway -- I'm only going for four days -- but it's the principle of the thing.

These are the same people who, when we were coming home from our son's wedding, couldn't see fit to send a second crew to our departure airport when they knew the first crew who'd arrived the night before were required to have eight hours off before they could fly again and that all of us would miss our connections.

Remind me again why I'm flying with them? Oh, yeah. Cheap airfares. Well, not so cheap apparently.

Or maybe I'm just testy because of my almost but not quite finished book which is in the throes of The Love Scene (and while Chapter Eight did his bit by showing up, now I have to do my bit and write the blinkin' thing). Ah, but there is the granddaughter at the end of it.

Definitely at that point all will be well.

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If you haven't already been to The Pink Heart blog for Temptation Tuesday, stop by. I'm blogging there (it's already up because it's Tuesday in half the world already). Post a comment (you guys know how to do that). Win a copy of Spence and Sadie's book.

Or just say hi and tell me where you'd go to "get away from it all."

You all know where I'm going!

GBGA -- This Week's Winner

This week's winner of the Great Book Give-Away is Lidia!

Congratulations, Lidia! And thanks to all the rest of you who commented this week!

Lidia gets the five books promised, but if Dina, Ellen, KimW, Mads, Mags, and Christa will also go to my website, hit the "contact Anne" tab and send me a mailing address, I'll send along a book for each of you as well. Some of you have won earlier, but all of you have been faithful in the extreme. Thank you for that.

So, send me your address and I'll send you a book from the GBGA bag.

Today I went to my genealogical conference which was excellent. Colleen Fitzpatrick spoke on "forensic genealogy." It's fascinating and she has a really interesting website if you're interesting in taking investigative skills and such to the genealogical and local history front.

I'm blown away by some of the information she can get out of a photograph or a database.

In life on the writing front, tomorrow the MIA Chapter Eight frog will be making his appearance at last.

I know now why he's been missing so long. I don't want to spook him, though, so I'm not commenting until he's here and things are under control.

Gunnar says thanks for the treats to everyone who entered. He hopes we'll do it again -- soon.

And I hope you'll keep coming back and commenting anyway because it's not as much fun talking to myself.

They're predicting a 50% chance of snow tonight. Good grief!

Regency Romp

I love regency novels. Of course Jane Austen is a favorite -- particularly Persuasion and, of course, Pride and Prejudice, though I've never felt the same warmth for Emma.

I'm also extremely fond of Georgette Heyer and have a collection of the new Arrow editions of her books (which are not in my bag of 'finding new homes for'). Sorry about that.

But today's book is a delightful regency romp by talented, clever, witty NYT-Bestselling author, Stephanie Laurens, called Four In Hand.

And no, she's not referring to horses.

The title refers to the four stunningly attractive, perfectly delightful Twinning sisters -- including the irresistible Caroline -- whose guardianship it befalls Max Rotherbridge, the Duke of Twyford, to inherit.

Max, a regency rake of the first order, is not given to "guarding" women's virtue. He would very much like to bed, not wed, the delectable Caroline. But even a rake like Max knows that isn't in the cards.

On the contrary, it's his duty to protect her from men such as himself. It's his duty to protect all the Twinning sisters from unprincipled men and bad alliances. Max has his work cut out for him.

I found Four in Hand to be absolutely delightful. If you like regency romps, I'll bet you like this one.

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Lovely HM&B medical author Margaret McDonogh has just sent me a picture of a frog she stumbled across.

She says that, given the look on his face, he could be my Missing In Action Frog #8.

Margaret has a good eye for resemblances. It is my frog indeed. Though why he also reminds me of Jack Nicholson, I'm hard pressed to say.

Oh, and IF I get my book done by May 1, I get to go to visit youngest grandchild who is now crawling like a Marine from room to room. Such a talented girl.

Brick Walls and Mazes

No, I'm not talking about writing novels, though I could be.

There are times when writing Sebastian and Neely's story has felt like I've been wandering around in a maze, and that the only way out is to scale over a brick wall, but someone keeps moving it!

Fortunately it wasn't like that today. Today Seb and Neely and I had a very good day, and I've left them happily liplocked for the moment while I come over here to announce that today's book is a hardcover copy of Charming Grace by the talented amazing Deborah Smith.

If you have read Deborah's books, you already know how great she is and you need no introduction. If you haven't, you should. And Gunnar will try to see that you win this week because Deborah is an amazing writer. Charming Grace is an amazing book.

Grace is dealing with enough pain in her life for any ten women -- most of it suffered when her dearly beloved husband Harp was killed in the line of duty as a member of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation while protecting a hospital's patients from a killer. Harp is a hero -- and someone wants to make a movie of his life.

Grace is not thrilled. And she's even less thrilled when she comes face to face with the man making the film and his bodyguard/sidekick/enforcer ex-con buddy, Boone. Grace has issues. Boone has issues.

And Deborah Smith does inter-personal "issues" better than anyone. She never skims the surface of her characters. They are real and flesh and blood, and if you look closely you can see them bleed on the page.

I love her books because she doesn't shy away from tough stuff. Smith's characters never get to take the easy way out. You will laugh with them, cry with them, and cheer for them to find their happy ending. And chances are it won't be exactly the ending you expect.

Great book. Comment this week and get in the drawing.

I spent the day when I wasn't with Seb and Neely preparing and then giving a talk on Brick Wall Ancestors and various ways to trick them into telling you what you need to know about them. It's surprisingly like writing, really. You have to sneak up on them, come at them from where they least expect it. And never give up.

It works lots of the time -- for both genealogy and writing books.

And thanks to all who asked, the frogs are mustering. Making great efforts to get themselves properly aligned before send-off. Of course frog # 8 is still MIA, but I have hopes he'll turn up shortly.