Father's Day

I am sneaking in a blog to see if this will go to the goddess blog. For reasons known only to the Blog gods, my last goddess post went to www.anita-birt.blogspot.com This blogspot turned up on its own. I didn't request it and it has totally screwed up all of my last week's blog on my personal blog.

Each day last week I blogged about my five books with CP with a snippet from the first chapters. Titled, Back To the Beginning, Blogs, I, II and III were okay but the last two IV V went to that new blog along with my brilliant goddess blog. I titled it, My not-so-famous writing career. If you are madly interested in reading it, check the new address above.

The trials and tribulations of working in cyber space.

I wish you a pleasant Father's Day. Our son, Martin, phoned from Toronto and our grandson, Fraser, phoned from London, England, to wish Bill a happy day. I am making his favourite dinner, back pork ibs baked in a barbeque type sauce. I don't barbeque, I do them in the oven. I guess barbeque should be spelled barbecue or BBQ. It's the Canadian in me, I guess. We mix up French and English in our various spellings.

Thanks for stopping by.

Anita

Gaining Hope

The release of the Legend anthology from Total E Bound is just around the corner and in it is the second book in The Debtor’s Daughters series, Gaining Hope. I love this series and hope to finish the third book soon. I hope that you enjoy this one as much as you have the others!

Gaining Hope
By Lacey Thorn


Shawn O’Grady had no idea what fate awaited him and his best friend Tommy. First there was the discovery of the bottle with the note and the necklace, followed almost instantly by the blonde beauty with fear in her eyes. She called to everything that was dormant inside them until they were the ones with fear. Fear of falling in love, fear of letting go. Fear of gaining hope.


Excerpt:
Hope almost gasped out loud at the words of the man who was lifting her into his arms. Just what had she gotten herself into? Were they gay? Damn it! Why were all the gorgeous men either gay or married? And if they were gay what did they want with her? What did he mean that he wouldn’t touch her without knowing that she would have them both? And why were her nipples growing hard at the mere thought of having sex with both men?
He eased her down on the bed and pulled one of the blankets over her. He ran his fingers down her hair, smoothing it away from her face and she wished that she had taken the time to really do her makeup before she left earlier in the day. But she hadn’t wanted to waste any of the precious time that she had left. Escape was all that mattered.
“What are you running from little one?” he murmured and Hope prayed that he was only talking out loud and didn’t realize that she was awake.
Her legs had fallen asleep and she had wanted to stand up and shake the feeling back into them. She hadn’t been in the closet too long and she wasn’t sure why her legs were already going numb. Must have been the way that she was sitting. But when she had reached up and tried to use the bar to pull herself up, the worst thing possible had happened. Instead of her going up everything else had fallen down. Right on top of her. Bringing the people on board right to her. And they weren’t even the nice older couple that she had envisioned seeing earlier. No, it was two of the hottest guys that she had ever glimpsed. Hope sighed with frustration. She hadn’t seen nearly enough before she decided to close her eyes and feign unconsciousness. What the hell else was she supposed to do? She needed time to figure out what the hell she was going to say to them.
She’d wait until she was certain that the other guy had motored them far enough away before she suddenly awoke. Only she had no idea what she would do when they finally confronted her and asked just what she was doing on the boat. Something had pulled her to this boat in particular. Out of all of the boats docked her eyes had kept coming back to this one again and again. Maybe it was the name, Irish Dream, that called to her. Whatever it was she just had to maintain the hope that these two men would help her get away from the future that awaited her on shore. And pray that she hadn’t caught herself in an even worse situation.
She did let out a sigh of relief when he finally moved from where she lay on the bed and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him. What should she do now?

Coming Soon from Total E Bound Publishing
Gaining Hope by Lacey Thorn
Legend Anthology

Lacey Thorn
It’s your world…unlaced.

A trial of sorts

I blogged on our blog on Friday and it turned up on my personal blog, www.anitabirt.blogspot.com I blogged with the Goddesses about my books and made a suggestion about a communal blog for we Goddesses and they all came to my blog. I told you about a dog eating a cane toad in Australia.

I am at my wit's end. Not a happy place to hang out. I'll see where this blog goes.

No. No. I'm not guilty

Goddesses. I wrote a blog. I really did. I put up all my covers. I wrote interesting things. And guess what. I wrote it on my own blog.Tears are streaming down my guilty face. Please go to my blog and read it. www.anitabirtstoryteller.blogspot.com

How can I make amends? Don't ask me to run into the garden and eat worms. I can't touch a worm. It's a phobia from my childhood. When I was a little girl (my mother told me this) I was out playing on our front lawn. It was summertime and I had on a sun dress. A neighbor boy came by and dropped a big earth warm down my neck. That did it. Not only am I phobic about worms, I'm not crazy about snakes either. We sometimes have grass snakes around the garden but they retreat when they hear me coming.

I pick up frogs and toads. Not adults, little baby frogs and toads.There was a story in the paper recently about a dog in Australia who accidentally swallowed one of their ghastly cane toads. The dog owner rushed the dog to the vet where they induced vomiting. At the second vomit, out popped the cane toad and hopped away unperturbed. Cane toads are poisonous so the dog was in grave danger. Now aren't you tickled pink I told you about the dog and the cane toad?

Please read my goddess blog on my blog because I suggested we goddesses get together and create a super blog that will be picked up by some big publisher and we'll all get rich.

It's Friday the Thirteenth! That's why I blogged on the wrong blog.

Anita

BookExpo 2008 LA

If you haven’t been to the BookExpo and you get the chance go. It’s huge and amazing, hard to describe. The goal of the event is to bring publishers, authors, booksellers, librarians, and other book industry people together. It’s basically hour after glorious hour of talking about books, looking at books, and getting free books—usually signed.

The first day I was in LA I spent the afternoon driving around in this sweet Nissan 350Z. Ahhh…. This picture was taken on Mulholland Drive at sunset on the way to Santa Monica Pier for some very silly, touristy sightseeing.

I spent the entire next day at the BookExpo, signing books at the Ellora’s Cave booth and zipping around chatting with anyone and everyone. Highlights included:

Talking with booksellers. They amaze me; they remember everything.

Taking a picture of William Shatner. I have to confess, I did not stand in the hour + line to get my book signed, I just cruised by and snapped a shot with my cell.

Getting a signed picture of Ziggy from Tom Wilson. He signed it LOVE, Tom Wilson; I have a sense he signs them all that way, LOL.

Quick meeting with my agent. New projects in the works…

Eating lunch in the Ellora’s Cave bus. The food was yummy, the company the best!

A Taste of A Serial Novel

Here is a taste of the Serial Novel I am writing on my regular blog.

The novel is titled A Rose By Any Other Name

Zna moved, twisted first one way then the next, stretching in preparation for the hunt to begin. There always seemed to be something that delayed the beginning of the hunt. Sometimes it seemed the broadcasters did something purposefully to increase their viewers. Suspense! Anticipation! All the elements of drawing in a larger audience. She glanced at the hunter, Lovac. He seemed as nervous and edgy as she was. Zna wondered what went through a hunter’s mind prehunt. She slightly shook her head. No, she didn’t wonder what went through hunters’ minds, only this hunter’s mind. She watched as the referees discussed something in low tones. She caught herself just before she reached for the key Tosca gave her. She couldn’t give away the location of the key.
The Minister of the Hunt appeared on the floating vidscreen hovering over the starting gate.
“We at the Ministry of the Hunt regret to announce that due to the lack of audience each night, we must cut back on expenses. As such we will be eliminating certain positions.”
Tosca and the other Handlers walked quietly onto the staging platform. Tosca had a look of resignation on his face, uncovered by his mask. The other Handlers looked confused, a little frightened. The referees moved away from the platform.
A light flashed brilliantly.
Zna blinked, partly at the light, partly to keep the tears from falling. Her feline eyes adjusted to the light immediately. She knew the humans, the referees, the hunter, all were blinded for several seconds. They did not see the bodies destroyed, disintegrated by the light ray. Rather they only saw the empty platform when the light cleared.
“We no longer need the Handlers. They have been transferred to another place,” The Minister announced over the vidscreen .
Zna heard the humans in the audience murmur in understanding. Those standing on the platform had been moved from one place to another place where they would be useful. Zna resisted the urge to extend her claws, leap into the audience and rip the throats out of the people. They are so stupid. They choose not to see the truth. Some day the government will turn on them. Leana will have her revenge someday.
The Minister of the Hunt bade everyone a good night. The vidscreen shimmered and changed to the view of the first lap of the hunt. Cheery lights and popular music danced around the staging area.
The hunt was about to begin.

If you would like to read the entire serial so far visit www.charleneleatherman.com

Just for Fun - 16 babies

The Sichuan Wolong Panda Protection and Breed Center is dealing with the results of a breeding boom -- 16 pandas have been born since July, 2006. The brood in cludes five sets of twins. The cubs are weighed and measured every five days . The heaviest tips the scale at just over 24 pounds, while the lightest weighs about 11 pounds. Once weane d, the panda cubs will attend panda kindergarten. In the meantime, more little ones are expected at the c enter since 38 giant pandas were artificially impregnated.