Sunday, February 21, 2010

3 Chapters posted

To keep the excitement and suspense going for our fans, I posted 3 chapters this week for our novel, "The Quest for Nobility." These chapters deal with our trio finding the lake and possibly the underground enclosure of the legendary Lady of the Lake.

There are only a couple of chapters left in the book so hang in there and all will be revealed within the next two weeks.

Our author pages can be found here.

Friday, February 19, 2010

A Day in the Life

I thought I'd share a short story I wrote a few years ago when my cat Isabelle was 16 weeks old. Enjoy.

"The Isabelle Factor"

I could have avoided trouble that day if only I had remembered to close the window completely. Leaving the living room window opened two inches with a rambunctious kitten running around was clearly testing fate.

It had been an uneventful start to my typical day, checking on our feline family, five adult cats and one 4 month-old kitten before I went to work. Locating any of the cats since Isabelle joined us, was not a difficult task. Our house had become a racetrack of flying furry bodies.

Isabelle has made it clear to her feline companions that she was in charge of resetting the old rules for those lazy, lounging days. Her agenda every day is to play, and to play hard. Her secret formula was to chase, jump on or stalk the other cats relentlessly until total exhaustion set in all around. It is not unusual to come home and find an obstacle course of sleeping cats as I made my way to the kitchen.

As I left that morning, all seemed relatively calm. Three cats were sleeping on the bed having carved out their favorite spot on the comforter, one had bolted past me heading for the sanctuary of the basement while Isabelle rode bare back on the gray tabby trying to engage her in fun and games, Isabelle style. Little did I know, that today would be Isabelle’s greatest adventure.

Apparently, driving five adult cats to total exhaustion was not enough to satisfy this little one’s spirit for adventure. Spying the open window, she wiggled her little kitten backside and sprang into action. Anyone who has ever had the privilege of owning a kitten knows first hand how fast those little legs can run, and she had to run fast enough to give her the momentum to jump into the window. The problem with too much momentum, however, is that it carries you beyond your target.

Isabelle managed to squeeze through that two-inch opening, but was not so coordinated to stop once she landed on the windowsill. She banged into the screen and it promptly fell out of the window taking her with it to the ground below. I can only imagine what happened next. Only Isabelle knows and she isn’t talking.

As luck would have it, it was trash day. My mother dutifully dragged the barrels around to the garage doors, and to her horror, found the window screen on the grass. She ran back into the house only to discover that Isabelle was nowhere to be found.

Panicking that she had lost the kitten on her watch, she called my husband who works at a local motorcycle shop. When she reached the receptionist, she was near hysteria with worry. She asked to speak to my husband only to be told that mechanics were not allowed to come to the phone unless there was an emergency.

“This IS an emergency,” she screamed. “The baby is missing!”

My husband was quickly located and brought to the phone. He listened to the sobbing mother-in-law story, and thought it best to drive home to survey the situation first hand. After searching outside for nearly 30 minutes, he finally located Isabelle under the front porch. Trekking back into the house to find her favorite feather toy, he spent another 15 minutes coaxing her close enough to him to grab her.

When I returned home that night, my mother immediately cornered me and relayed the harrowing story of Isabelle’s escape and what it had done to her nerves. My husband proceeded to tell his part of the story and somehow I felt responsible for everything that they had gone through, like a mother’s guilt over a misbehaving child. I soothe everyone's nerves and went to check on the kitten myself.

I found Isabelle sound asleep on the sofa, her little kitten body sprawled across the cushion blissfully unaware of the turmoil she had caused earlier in the day. My heart melted as I gently stroked her soft fur reminding her that she was a lucky little girl today. Any number of disasters could have befallen her out in the wild outside world. A higher power was looking out for her although I did make a mental note to check for open windows from now on.

Everything in our lives is ruled by the Isabelle factor now. What we will do next summer when it is a sweltering 95 degrees and we still can’t open the windows is anyone’s guess.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

News Flash from the Land of the Clueless

Hang on to your hats, ladies and gents, you are about to enter the IDIOT ZONE:

IDIOT SIGHTINGS:


We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, 'NO, it's not.' Four is larger than two.' We haven't used Sears repair since.



My daughter and I went through the McDonald's take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, 'You gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes Iknow, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back. She sighed and went to get the manager, who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said 'We're sorry but we could not do that kind of thing.' The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change.


Do not confuse the clerks at McD's.



I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

Happened in Birmingham, Ala.


And my personal favorite:


How would you pronounce this child's name?

"Le-a"


Leah?? NO

Lee - A?? NOPE

Lay - a?? NO

Lei?? Guess Again.


This child attends a school inKansas City, Mo. Her mother is irate ecause everyone is getting her name wrong.


It's pronounced "Ledasha", When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said, "the dash don't be silent."


SO, if you see something come across your desk like this please remember to pronounce the dash.


If dey axe you why, tell dem de dash don't be silent.



Who says the USA lags behind the world in education???????

Monday, February 15, 2010

The End is Near

With Chapter 36 posted over at our author pages, Otharia.com, the climax to the book, "Quest for Nobility" is near. There are only a few chapters left.

Now that Eclair has discovered the map, will he find the location of the underground enclosure? And what if he does find it? Will the traveling crystal be there? And what's up with Munroe? Will he be able to convince Cat to help them pinpoint the location on the map?

Time is running out for our trio. If they don't make it back to Otharia soon, Avikar's plan to steal the Telkur throne will become a reality. Will Ty be able to convince the gypsies to come forward and reveal what they know about Avikar before it's too late.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Chapter 35 is posted

Head on over to our author pages, Otharia.com, to read the latest installment in the saga of the Telkur twins and their friend Eclair.

There are only 6 more chapters left to the exciting climax. Will the trio find the traveling crystal in time to get home? And can they reach Otharia before Avikar worms his way onto the Telkur throne?

Stay tuned.....

Friday, February 5, 2010

Amazon vs. Macmillan STILL

Any writer whether or not you are published should be following the kerfuffle about the publisher Macmillan and Amazon. There's plenty of good posts out there to get you up to speed in case you haven't been following it.

Author John Scalzi's Whatever post here. He also spends several other posts talking about the issue so head over to Whatever and search through them if you want to read them all.

Agent Nathan Bransford expresses his opinion here.

Agent Kristen Nelson here.

Agent Jessica Faust here.

AND it didn't take very long before the comics jumped on the whole affair. The Onion has posted a video poking fun at whole debate in a serious of fake interviews. You can find the link on Galley Cat here.

In the end, it doesn't matter if you're for Team Amazon or Team Macmillan, it seems to me that the people getting hurt by all this posturing is the authors themselves. Without the "buy" buttons activated on Amazon, it's the authors who miss out on sales and authors today can least afford to bear the brunt of this issue. I buy all my books from Barnes and Nobles and there are plenty of other places to buy your favorite author's books. So make sure, a deactivated "buy" button on Amazon doesn't stop you from going to the next site to buy a book. Your favorite author will thank you.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Chapter 34 is posted

Head over to our author pages at Otharia.com to read Chapter 34 - The Mansion. Eclair and the twins have made the decision to trust Munroe to get them into Blackheart's mansion to look for the traveling crystal. Sneaking in went fairly smoothly with a slight glitch, but as promised Munroe led them to Blackheart's artifact room which was filled with antiques from Earth and artifacts from Otharia. How is that possible that a crime lord has so many Otharian pieces?

With senses on high alert, the trio start their search. What happens next is not in the plan....