UPDATE: The winner is…Kerry Jo!
*~*~*

I’ve written about different animals in my books. Some have been shifters, some pets; some were best friends, and some were dangerous menaces. There was a polar bear attack in Gun’s Mission and a bear attack in Cyrus. Butterflies were part of the theme in my sexy horror story, Lost Souls. My many cowboys have ridden horses and herded cattle. I’ve written a couple of dragons along the way (Dragon’s Desire, Arctic Dragon). I’ve had dogs working as partners to heroes (Big Sky SEAL, Guarding Hannah). And yes, I love writing shifters and trying to blend animal with human traits. But I’ve truly loved showing the bond between a dog and his handler, as in Guarding Hannah. Pierce was the hero of that story.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell what animals you’ve enjoyed seeing featured in the books you’ve read. Enjoy the puzzle!

UPDATE: The winner is…Elaine Swinney!
*~*~*

Five Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

📺 — Watch The Quiet Man

🍲 — Eat corned beef or Irish stew

🍺 — Drink a Guiness

🟩 — Wear Green

☘️ — Wish someone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift car, tell me which of these suggestions you might use today, or give me another suggestion!

Report Card

Last week…

1. I sent out a notice to authors that I need to line up next quarter’s authors. Thank you to those who responded. I still have openings!
2. I completed one author’s edits and began the next project! Woot!
3. I’ve given up on completing Ignition before my surgery at the end of the month. I’m just too busy with edits and administrative things… 🙁
4. I’ve been painting every day as part of #the100dayproject. I had particular fun painting on my “smush” cards. You have to have been following my FB friend page to know what those are. LOL! Anyway, I had fun!

This next week…

1. I will complete one author’s edits and begin the next set of edits this week.
2. I have more administrative things to do this week to “get my affairs in order” before surgery.
3. I’m attending a local political gathering this week. As an older person and a veteran—and the grandmother of a child with special needs—I have to let my concerns be known.
4. I’ll continue working on #the100dayproject.
5. If I have time, I will work on putting together another Ultra collection of my short stories for publication. No promises, though.

Open Contests

Be sure to check out these posts and enter to win the prizes that are still up for grabs:

1. 1. Learn What Your Name Means Day (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
   2. Word Search: First Signs of Spring (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win a FREE book!
   3. Flashback: Baby, It’s You (Contest–2 Winners!) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
   4. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Nostalgia in Old Photos + Open Contests! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
   5. Gabbi Black: Writing to a Cover (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
   6. The Key to Happiness (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
   7. Happy Alfred Hitchcock Day! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
   8. It’s Jewel Day! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
   9. Flashback: Fun with Dick and Jane (Contest) — Win a FREE book!

Yesterday was a very sad day for our family.

We lost our horse, Kansas. She was very, very old—so her passing wasn’t unexpected. Above is a picture taken of her yesterday morning with the 20-year-old who loved having the chore of feeding and currying her. The sixteen-year-old loved to feed her slices of apple. She roamed our pasture with her three Mini-Mes—our goats—who loved her and followed her lead always when hunting for nice grass or sheltering from a storm.

I called my ex-husband to talk about Kansas because he knew her history well.

He told me she was raised by a little boy in the Smoky Mountains, but after a while his father decided he needed a bigger horse, so she was sold to a horse dealer and in turn sold to a family whose daughter wanted to become a barrel racer. Together with Kansas, she raced all over the region and did very well, qualifying to go to the nationals. However, the girl decided she didn’t want to barrel race anymore, and Kansas ended up in the hands of a friend of my ex-husband’s in Tennessee.

He’d go there to ride. She kept a lot of horses, and the one he preferred to ride wasn’t available one day, so he pointed at Kansas. His friend warned him that she didn’t like men and wouldn’t let them ride her. However, my husband is an “animal whisperer”—any animal really, but especially with dogs…and horses. Yes, he preferred bigger, flashier horses, but there was something about this little “foundation” Indian pony, a sturdy appaloosa, that he liked. She was called Kansas because of the white tornado on her face. You can see it in the picture above.

When he first rode her, he noted that she’d get “high-headed” and purposely bump people, but she let him ride her. They got along well. Afterward, his friend said she needed a home and gave him the horse.

He kept her for years and rode her in the North Georgia mountains and the Smoky Mountains with groups of horse riders who liked to trek through the wilderness in wild places with mininal established trails. He said she was a “go” horse, who just loved to go fast—a little powerhouse. She’d easily go up or down mountains on those long treks, and when they’d head for home, he’d pin a glow stick to her tail, drop her reins, and let her guide the rest of the group down the mountains.

He trained her to do a lot of tricks because she was very smart. He quickly had her doing sliding stops, backing up, and allowing herself to be mounted from either side, and more. She was never fond of men, other than him, but loved children. She’d grow a full wooly coat in winter and would break the ice for his other horses when the troughs or pond would freeze.

However, she got old, and he wanted her to find a place to live out the rest of her years in peace, well cared for. That’s how she came to us about thirteen years ago. The oldest girl, when she was younger, rode her for a little while, but for the remainder of her days, she lived in our pasture and woods. She was forty years old; her teeth were worn to nubs and her back was swayed with age. However, during her annual checkups, the veterinarian would marvel over how healthy and active she still was. The farrier would comment on how calm and gentle she was. She was a friend to our three goats, who followed her around like she was their mother.

Yesterday, the 20-year-old said she was off her feed. When she walked around behind her, she noticed something protruding from her vagina. We called vets all over the state to come check her out. One came in the afternoon. She had a prolapsed vagina due to cancer. With our blessing, he euthanized her in the field.

When he left, the goats stood in a row nearby, unmoving, as though they were at a funeral, giving their last respects to their friend. My son-in-law buried her nearer the woods. Then last night, we had a terrible storm and we lost power for eight hours. There were tornadoes in the area, but the only damage we had was to the goats’ pen. A limb fell on it, but they were unharmed. I figure the storm was Kansas, with her white tornado marking, leaving us.

I have a puzzle for you below. It’s of a group of horses. The one that’s second from the left is how I imagine she would’ve looked in her youth, and how I imagine horse heaven, with her in it, would look. RIP, Kansas.

UPDATE: The winners are…commenters 1-11!
*~*~*

Besides my series, I have written some very sexy standalone stories, too! I forget about them because I’m so busy trying to keep up with series, but I shouldn’t. In fact, when I get back to writing after my surgery, I should look at my workplan because I deserve to write something completely fun and one-off!

If you haven’t read the books below, now’s your time to peruse, and I’m including an excerpt from one of them so you can sample some of the fun. Several of them are menage stories, so if that’s your thing, be sure to check them out!

Contest

For a chance to win your choice of one of the books below,
tell me your weekend plans!

  

  

  

Click on any cover to learn more about the story!

Excerpt from Fun with Dick and Jane…

Tuesday

They were going at it again, and he was gonna get arrested. Which would be pretty damn embarrassing, considering he was cop.

Like clockwork, the couple across the alleyway started banging the minute his car pulled into the garage.

The street along the back of the parallel rows of one-story houses wasn’t much of a buffer. Driveways spoked off the narrow, paved road. Only twenty feet separated his garage from the bedroom window across the way.

Last night, he’d loosened the garage light bulb to make sure it didn’t give him away when the door slid up. Tonight, he flicked his car’s overhead lamp switch off so that the light wouldn’t beam the moment he exited. Carefully, he closed his car door, pushing it with his hip to muffle the click as it locked, walked around to the back then sat with his butt against the trunk to watch the show.

They had to know anyone walking by could see every damn thing—every drop of sweat, every short curl of pale blonde hair. She faced the window, clutching the bottom windowsill, her breasts bouncing every time Boyfriend slammed her ass.

God, her tits were Grade-A prime. Cherry nipples, topping creamy mounds.

Her blue eyes closed, her mouth rounded, and he knew when she came because she always wore the same expression—her cheeks growing rosy, her eyebrows drawing together tightly and the corners of her mouth curving like the cat that licked the cream.

And if the wind hadn’t been whistling through the alley, he would have heard the whimper she gave when Boyfriend milked the last little contraction of her orgasm.

Fuck. He needed his own woman. Maybe she had a twin. Because he sure as shit wouldn’t be satisfied with anyone who wasn’t her, Jayne Peabody—Jayne Hotbody as he’d begun to call her. He’d had her plates run so he’d have a name to assign the woman who’d played a starring role in all his fantasies this past couple of weeks.

They’d finished, and Boyfriend was pulling her into his arms, wrapping them around her belly and cupping those beautiful breasts as she snuggled against his chest.

It was time to leave. The show was over for the night.

Then her eyes opened, and Garret Masters could have sworn she looked right at him. He cussed softly, straightened and raised his arm, pulling down the garage door and shutting off the sight of her mouth stretching into a wide grin.

UPDATE: The winner is…Laurie Gydesen!
*~*~*

I know. Two holidays, two days in a row, but yesterday’s Hitchcock day was something I could get behind—but so is Jewel Day! It’s a day to celebrate all that sparkles!

I love jewels. Actually, my love of jewels is based on my lifelong love of rocks/geology. When I was a kid, I kept notebooks of little “book reports” I wrote about things like plate tectonics, volcanoes, geysers, earthquakes, and how rocks were formed naturally. This was when I was in grade school. I collected shoeboxes of rocks: agates, crystals, Apache tears, round river rocks, raw topaz, raw turquoise, fossils, and so many more. I once had a rock tumbler, but I didn’t like seeing my babies ground into smaller bits, so I continued leaving them in their rough, raw form.

When I got old enough, and had enough money to do so, I stared buying jewelry with gemstones I love. My first piece was a pretty Aquamarine ring with the stones forming a flower. Now, I have several rings with lovely topaz, sapphire, garnet, ruby, ametrine, amethyst, etc. I’ve gifted my daughter and the 20-year-old with some of my pieces because, as you know, I can’t take it with me.

Anyway, all this to say, I love sparklies. I also love stones that aren’t as precious—jade, aventurine, pretty agates, amber and the like. Rocks are endlessly fascinating to me. It’s why I love making jewelry, using semi-precious beads.

My favorite jewel is a red ruby. My mother, after she passed, left me a gorgeous, gaudy, huge ruby ring, along with a couple of diamond rings I treasure. I also love pearls, which aren’t exactly stones but are somehow considered jewels. It’s my birthstone, being a June baby.

So, my question to you is, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card is, what’s your favorite jewel or your birthstone? Do you have a piece you treasure?

UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
*~*~*

Another obscure holiday to celebrate! I’m a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. My favorites among his long list are in the puzzle. The first one I ever saw was The Birds when I was just a child, and it’s remained my favorite over the years. Tippi Hedren was so elegant and beautiful. Rod Taylor was a ruggedly handsome man. The story had a slow-building dread that holds up to this day.

Just the other night, I re-watched North by Northwest with Cary Grant. I loved this movie because he didn’t start out as a hero. He was handsome, loved the ladies, and didn’t take life very seriously, but circumstances, and a mysterious woman, had him stepping up. It was so much fun to watch!

My second favorite has to be Rear Window. The way it was filmed was so unique—the drama unfolding before the Jimmy Stewart’s eyes as he’s laid up with a cast. The tension again was a slow, steady build.

Hitchcock is one of two directors whose films I adore–the other being Christopher Nolan. I haven’t watched every Hitchcock film—there are so many! He had a TV show too, and I remember an episode where police were trying to find a woman’s missing husband, and she served them a lovely dinner with a very tasty meat… Yeah, that one stuck in my mind.

Anyway, today’s a day to celebrate a remarkable director, who never earned an Oscar, despite his huge, wonderful catalog of films. Maybe pick a Hitchcock movie and watch it tonight. I haven’t watched The Birds in a few years. I’m overdue.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what your favorite Hitchcock movie is! Enjoy the puzzle!