National Dog Day – a day for our canine companions

National Dog Day

How will you and your canine companion celebrate National Dog Day? Did you even know there was such an occasion?

National Dog Day
Image by grafikacesky from Pixabay

Over the years, we’ve had many dogs. And every single one who crossed over the rainbow bridge broke my heart more than the one before.

These are the last two dogs who shared their lives with us.

National Dog Day

This fine looking dog was Jingles. He was a cross between a Corgi and a German Shepherd. And like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, he had bounce. He could jump straight up from all fours and still propel himself forward. And in the photo above, is the way he liked to sit in my lap.

And in the photo below, this handsome boy was Jake. Both dogs lived with us at the same time. Ear infections plagued this poor boy from the time he was a small puppy. He broke the blood vessels in the flap of his ears on more than one occasion, too—a costly trip to the vet.

National Dog Day

Jingles and Jake both loved lettuce. If I was preparing a salad, I had both dogs, one on either side of me waiting their turn. So it was a leaf for one, a leaf for the other and finally a leaf for the salad.

The year we planted lettuce, Jake stomped into the garden and ate it. A fence blocked off the entire garden, but he found a way through and munched more.

Jingles disappeared one night and never returned. To this day, we have no idea where he went. Off to die? Perhaps.

Jake, we ended up having to put him down. He was old and had difficulty walking. He fell frequently, and when he did, he lost control of his bowels. It was no life for him, so we made the decision.

Did you know that in each book in my It Happened series, a dog plays a role? A matchmaker, if you will.

Tori, the black lab pictured below stars in the first book of the series, It Happened on Dufferin Terrace.

 

 

Tori

 

Xena, the German Shepherd, didn’t have the right stuff to become a police dog with the Vancouver Police Department in It Happened in Gastown.

National Dog Day
Xena

Frankfurt’s Champion Beauregard, aka Buddy, the Dachshund, stars in the third book, which I’m currently writing, It Happened at Percé Rock.

National Dog Day
Buddy – Image by mystic_oneness0 from Pixabay

The plan is to have six books in the series, featuring the Scott and Layne families. For everyone to tell their how they met – how “It Happened”, I need that many books.

Wolfgang, the Great Dane, will star in It Happened at Lake Louise. I’m thinking of the Fort Mac wildfires as the backstory and how pets were rescued from people’s homes and taken out of the danger zone and reunited with their humans later.

I’m torn between having a Corgi or a Whippet in It Happened at Niagara Falls. Thankfully, this book is further down the pipeline, so I’ll have plenty of time to make my final decision.

A stuffed Scottie dog will star in the last book of the series, It Happened ?? I’ve not decided on a location for it yet.

This wee guy will be sitting on the empty seat beside Amy Scott either on the train or bus or some method of public transit. A young man will ask if he can sit there, and she agrees, not paying much attention to him. He picks up the stuffed toy and reads the tag and pronounces the name on it as Sea-u-mus. She looks at him and rolls her eyes and tells him it’s pronounced Shaymus.

I hope you’ll take a look at my books starring dogs. Roxanne St. Claire also has a couple of dog series in the works – The Dogfather series and The Dogmothers. Check them out, too.

Box Set Blurb – How do you write yours?

Creating an enticing back cover blurb is difficult enough, but when you’re trying to come up with a box set blurb for the first time, it’s even harder.

With Amazon, you want to be able to pack as much of a punch in as possible before the reader has to click on the “read more” link.

box set blurbs

I’ve wanted to sell A Shadow in the Past and Shadows From Her Past together as a box set in ebook format for quite some time. Anyone who has seen me at various events knows I sell the paperbacks together at a reduced price. When you’re talking face to face with folks, it’s easier to convey the subject matter without going into a lot of detail and postcards and other promotional material on hand also helps.

But in the big, bad online world, you don’t have that personal touch.  You’ve got to get your blurb, single title or box set right or people aren’t going to see your product … and then there are the dreaded keywords. That could be another post on its own.

This is what I’ve come up with so far for my box set blurb.

Past and present collide in the Sarah Shand time travel romance series – a dual-timeline romance set in contemporary and Victorian-era Scotland.

Book 1:  When Sarah Shand plunges back in time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past.

When she realizes she has fallen in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, she faces an agonizing decision. Does she try to find her way back to 2010 or remain in the past with the man she loves?

Book 2: When Sarah Shand finds herself back in the 21st century, the people and the life she knew in the Victorian era are Shadows From Her Past.

This year, the winter solstice and lunar eclipse occur on the same day. Will a trip to one of Aberdeenshire’s stone circles, located on the family farm, during this combination of events create the magic Sarah needs to return to 1886 and her family there? Or, will she remain in the present and make a life with David, himself a descendant of the man she fell in love with in the past?

A Shadow in the Past brought a unique new voice to time travel.

A charming time-slip love story with vivid description and authenticity throughout!

Shadows From Her Past is a wonderful story of love and life, both modern and in the past.

Melanie Robertson-King has a special touch when creating her characters. The author weaves a mystery, a romance, and a family that you hope will find happiness in their lives.

box set blurbs

I’m not completely happy with what I’ve written thus far, so I’d appreciate any suggestions you might have.  Please leave your ideas in the comments.

Thanks!

 

August 13 is left handers day! #lefthanders #southpaw

left handers

I’m happy to say that I’m one of the ‘elite’ left handers of the world. Yup, I’m a leftie and proud of it.

This year, left handers day snuck up on me so I didn’t have a great deal of time to put together a new post, so I resurrected a previous one and updated it.

Authors who are left-handed include Hans Christian Anderson who was most famous for his fairy tales, Compton MacKenzie who brought us Whisky Galore and Monarch of the Glen, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells and me *apologizing for being cheeky*.

Okay, I might not be in the same league as these aforementioned writers, but still, I’m an author of nine books and a number of magazine articles.

left handers

I hear you saying, there are only seven books there and two have the same title. Well, there’s a reason for that. I don’t have my two children’s books in the stack, nor do I have my collection of short stories there.  And, I wasn’t bright enough to retain a single copy of the first edition of my debut novel, A Shadow in the Past. All of my books are here on this page, except for the first edition of my debut novel.

Other famous left handers

Did you know that Drew Carey, Howie Mandel, Don Rickles, and Jerry Seinfield are among the list of left-handed comedians?

And then there are the less savoury elements of society – the criminals. Billy the Kid, The Boston Strangler, Jack the Ripper, John Dillinger to name a few.

See, there’s good and bad in all of us. #lefties happen to get a bad rap because it used to be thought that being left-handed was a sign of the devil – it was evil.

How many left handers out there were forced to change from your left to your right hand by your teachers or even your parents?

Feel free to leave a comment with your left handers experiences.

 

It’s National Book Lovers Day!

Today is National Book Lovers Day!

National Book Lovers Day
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

How will you celebrate, participate?

This year on National Book Lovers Day, I currently have two books on the go – one fiction, one non. Thunder Bay by Douglas Skelton is a crime novel set in Scotland.

The non-fiction is Marketing Matters by Wendy H Jones. Right now, I need all the help I can get in this department.

In addition to reading, I’m also working on Book 3 in my It Happened series set in the village of Percé on the Gaspé Peninsula of the province of Quebec.

Since the COVID-19 lockdown, I’ve struggled with writing, but my reading has flourished. According to my 2020 Goodreads challenge, I’m nine books ahead of schedule. That should give you an idea of how I’ve been spending much of my spare time.

Some of these books were already on my TBR (to be read) list having languished on my shelves or Kindle for some time. Others were new purchases that I just “had” to get. Still, others were review copies.

What to read?

There are many genres out there to choose from – crime, romance, erotica, YA, memoirs, creative non-fiction, and the list goes on.

All these main genres have a multitude of sub-genres as well, so there is something out there for everyone’s taste in reading.

I write romance, primarily, although YESTERDAY TODAY ALWAYS has a psychological thriller element included. It’s probably my darkest work yet. I remember when I was having the computer read it back to me, my husband entered my ‘writing cave’, and the particular segment scared him. I guess I nailed the creepy, unnerving bit.

You can check out all my books on the novels page on my website. Perhaps, you’ll find a little something to your liking.

What format do you prefer to read?

Are you a hardcover fan? Paperback (trade size or mass market)? E-book (kindle, kobo, nook, or other)? Or do you read from a combination of all of the above?

Leave a comment staying what your favourite genre and format is. I’d love to hear your thoughts and preferences.