It’s Saturday, and I have a list a mile long of things to place in my rear window. So, here’s a quick puzzle. The topic came to mind because…I’m hungry. 🙂

Solve the puzzle, then let me know what your favorite fast foods are for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

I’m late posting today! I had some administrative things to handle before I could move to fun things!

I have a puzzle for you. The theme is Favorite Book Hero Jobs! I listed some of mine.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, list yours!

UPDATE: The winner is…Amy Beck!
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Happy Saturday, y’all! We’re one day into Spring, and we can sure feel the difference in Arkansas. Looking at the forecast, we’ll have temperatures rising into the seventies and nearing eighty in the next couple of weeks. Whew! I’m getting geared up for surgery on the 1st, so I’m trying to get some things done ahead of time and close out some editing gigs I have to get back to authors before I go under the knife. I’m feeling a little squeezed for time. But, one bite of the elephant at a time… I keep telling myself that. Now, if I could just keep the distractions to a minimum. That’s going to be hard to do with the kids being on Spring Break. LOL

Anyway, it’s Saturday, so it’s puzzle time! For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle (it’s so pretty!), then tell me about any plans you have to enjoy the Spring!

UPDATE: The winner is…Kerry Jo!
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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!

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 winner is…Diane Sallans!
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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!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
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I have a guest scheduled for tomorrow, so I’m cramming the contest list in with today’s puzzle post. I thought that for today’s post we might head down memory lane again.

In this age of digital photos, it’s gotten so convenient to store photos on a cloud. I know that, personally, it’s only a rare photo that I bother to have printed to put into a frame. And my old photo albums? I gave them to my daughter for her to sort through them for anything she cares to keep.

I do miss holding an actual camera in my hand, knowing I had only so many shots on a roll of film. I had to work hard to get everything right so I didn’t waste the shot. Then I had to wait until the photos were developed to know whether I’d been successful or had accidently overexposed the film. I took photographs of places all over Europe. Some looked like postcards they were so good. My prized possession was an old Minolta, which I loved, and traveled with it slung over my shoulder. After many moves, I no longer have the negatives of those old pictures, so a lost photo is forever gone.

My daughter inherited our family’s photos as well, of all those relatives we never met. She had to go to family online to figure out how they fit into the family tree. My mother kept boxes of photos that my dd is still sorting through.

So, I wonder if anyone misses the old albums or shoeboxes of photos. Do you still own an analog/non-digital camera? Do you still use it? Or does it gather dust like my collection of old cameras that lives at the top of a shelf? Answer for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Enjoy the puzzle!

Open Contests

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

1. Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Gertrude Bustill Mossell, a Multi-faceted African-American Woman (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Story Cubes — Tell me a story (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Tell a Fairy Tale Day (Giveaway) — This offer ends tomorrow night! Get your FREE story!
4. February into March (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: On this day…Yellowstone National Park! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Learn What Your Name Means Day (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Word Search: First Signs of Spring (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
8. Flashback: Baby, It’s You (Contest–2 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!