UPDATE: The winner is…Ani Stubbs Jacob!
*~*~*

My SIL had a nice long vacation from work with the PD, but today’s his first day back to work. Did he and my daughter go anywhere? Only to the local hardware and feed store. They spent his vacation doing “projects”—all those things around a small farm that have to be taken care of, and some household things as well. He was certainly busy. He built the nesting boxes for the chickens, cleaned out garden beds, and built a shelf into the wall of one of the bathrooms. It’s a very clever design btw. A leak occurred in the space behind the shower wall, which he’d previously had to fix by removing drywall. He built the shelf so it can slide out if that ever occurs again. And it’s pretty! He accomplished so many tasks it’s impossible to list them all. He and my dd were busy, busy. And surprisingly, they both enjoyed the work and the time together very much.

They’ve adapted well to rural life with our menagerie of animals that grew again when we worried that the single duck my step-grandson showed up with would be lonely when its big enough to put into the small pond. So, back to the feed store and six baby ducks later…

I’m trying to count how many animals we have: 1 ancient (35-years-old) horse, 3 goats, 8 dogs, 4 cats, 1 rabbit, 21 chickens, 7 ducks, 3 guinea hens. They’re steering clear of pigs and cows because they know they’d just get attached, and the animals would have a forever home.

Kelly wouldn’t grow a vegetable garden because she’s so busy with the animals, but she bought herbs to grow for the chickens. Yup.

Anyways, today’s puzzle picture is a shot she took of Kimi the goat. I swear it looks like a glamour shot. Solve the puzzle, then tell me what your “special projects” list might look like if you got ambitious for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Sara D!
*~*~*

I have a ridiculous number of contests still open between this website and the Collections website. Some are ending soon, so be sure to enter those while you still can. The links are below the puzzle. Pace yourself. LOL

But it is Saturday, so you know what that means…

The Saturday Puzzle-Contest

Solve the puzzle then tell me what spell she’s weaving for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Open Contests

1. A Quick Note & a Word Search: Male Stars I’ll drop everything to watch! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Getting to Know Rhonda Lee Carver (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book AND a gift card!
3. Saturday Puzzle Contest — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Getting to Know A.J. Harris (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
5. Sometimes, Messy is Best (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
6. Getting to Know Natasha Moore (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. The Perfect Day (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
8. Getting to Know Sukie Chapin (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
9. Gabbi Grey: Why I chose to write my first Sapphic romance (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
10. Getting to Know Reina Torres (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
11. Getting to Know N.J. Walters (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
12. Getting to Know Ava Cuvay (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
13. Getting to Know Ava Cuvay-2 (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
14. Getting to Know Aurora Russell (Contest) — Win a gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Deb Brown!
*~*~*

Whew! I had two editing jobs I finished this week. Both were squeakers! Meaning, I got them done just in time! I’m rejiggering my work schedule now so I can fit in some ME time for a couple of days. The dd wants to hit the flea market today, and our entourage of flea markateers (ages 9, 14, and 18) is eager to roam the stalls. It’ll be a fun time, and I’ll get a chance to stretch some muscles other than those in my fingers.

I’ll have fun today then it’s back to business on Sunday. I have a short story to write, and I want to get some major pages done on the book coming your way in May! So, no time to drag my feet, although I really feel like I need a vacation. Oh! And there’s the theme for today’s puzzle. A vacation. Anywhere you want to go. If you had the money and the time, where would that be?

Saturday Puzzle Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me where you’re going!

UPDATE: The winner is…Joy Boutwell!
*~*~*

Just so you know, in case you don’t frequent my Upcoming/Coming Soon page, I have three books coming out in quick succession!

1. Danger Zone releases next Tuesday, April 18th!
2. Silver Soldiers: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology releases May 9th!
3. Cold Hard Cash, the first in the We Are Dead Horse, MT, series releases May 23rd!

And that’s my Public Service Announcement for the day! If you haven’t already pre-ordered your copies, do so now! *I will pre-order. I will pre-order. I will pre-order.* Did my mesmerizing skills work? 🙂

The Saturday Puzzle-Contest

 First, solve the puzzle. Then, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, tell me if this was a scene from a horror or sci-fi movie, what would happen next?
Don’t think too hard! Have fun with it! 

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

I have a boxed set coming out on April 18th! Or at least the Kindle version is arriving then. If you prefer print, it’s ready now! This is a previously released series, a complete series, being offered in a single boxed set for a savings of $5.98 if you were to purchase them separately.

Pre-order the eBook version!
Order the print version!

Danger Zone includes the following stories…

Dangerous Liaisons
Pampered travel agent, roughing it at an anti-terrorist training school, escapes through the jungle with an undercover DEA agent when a drug lord mistakes her for a rival’s daughter.

Mutiny’s Bounty
A former Navy SEAL races to rescue the passengers aboard a luxury yacht after it’s captured by pirates, but first, he has to rescue the woman he’s trapped with inside a shark cage on the ocean floor.

It Takes a SEAL
A travel agent visiting friends in the Bahamas is stranded on a desert island with a sexy ex-SEAL after their private pleasure cruise is interrupted by men who mistake her lover for a reclusive billionaire.

And that’s my sales pitch! They are fun, very, very sexy, adventure stories with super-hawt alpha males. That’s all you need to know, right? I hope you reserve your copy!

Contest

Keeping to the action-adventure theme, here’s your Saturday Puzzle! For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what my hero and heroine are trying to escape?

UPDATE: The winner is…Sara D!
*~*~*

Solve the puzzle, then tell me a little story for the chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! What would you wish for?

UPDATE: The winner is…Joy Boutwell!
*~*~*

It’s finally Spring here in Central Arkansas. And with Spring, we have new animals here on “the farm.” With the egg prices soaring, we decided to take the plunge. Keep in mind, we already have quite a menagerie of animals: 9 dogs, 4 cats, 1 betta fish (my Loki!), 3 goats, and 1 35-year-old horse. *Eeks. I forgot about our rabbit, Oreo!* Now, we have a ton of chickens.

Our first batch of 14 chickens are teenagers now. This week, we got 7 new baby chicks, and my dd had some fun with photos. They represent a bunch of different breeds because we love the variety of colored eggs they’ll produce. These eggs aren’t real, of course.

They are adorable, right? But my dd and SIL had to do quite a bit of work to get chicken house ready for them. We had an old unused tin shed they cleaned out and built a box for the babies with a light above it to keep them at the proper temperature until they grow their feathers. We have nesting boxes ready. In the meantime, my dd, the 14-year-old, and the 9-year-old are the “bird masters,” and they constantly clean up after them and check them several times a day—and play with them. (Here are Jesus & Alana! Jesus is my granddaughter’s boyfriend’s name.)

They assure me they have distinct personalities. And they have names. (I don’t know all the names.) Below is one of the teenagers from the first batch. This one’s named Barbara.

And another. They’re not pretty at this age, but they will be!

In a week or so, they’ll be adding guinea hens–not for eggs, but because they’re great “guard dogs”—they SCREAM when they’re upset, so hopefully, they’ll alert us if critters get into the pen.

I have one more picture to share—the cutest she took—but you have to solve the puzzle to see it!

So, solve the puzzle and tell me whether you’ve ever raised chickens or any other kind of farm animal. And let me know what you think of her photos for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!