Taking a breather…

I spent my three day weekend writing up all the posts for my Blog Book Tour for (get ready for shameless self-promotion here) my murder mystery MURDER FOR HIRE: The Peruvian Pigeon.  By me.  Dana Fredsti.

Google alert?  Are you paying attention?  Pingoat?  Say you’re there!

I have not had such a focused period of writing for ages.  It felt great, but dang me, my fingers hurt!

I’m saving my big thank you email till the end of my tour, but I just have to say that my blog hosts and their blogs are all awesome.  Or is ‘awesome’ too late ’70s/early ’80s an expression?  Oh well, too bad!  ‘Cause they are.  Please scroll down a post and check out the tour schedule, bookmark those blogs and visit them often!

I’m currently reading Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff.  She writes urban fantasy/supernatural..er…not romance, but…well…okay, I don’t know what genre this is.  But she’s now up there with Barbara Hambly as one of my favorite writers.  The books are funny, horrific, smart, and just plain fun to read.  My favorite line to date in reference to a character who’s a vampire (I’m paraphrasing here ’cause I left the book at work):  ‘Henry wore his blandest expression; blood wouldn’t clot in his mouth.’   I laughed out loud when I read that.  On the Muni.  People moved away from me on the train.

I just finished Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement and give it two thumbs up for mystery afficianados and animal lovers alike.  It’s easy to tell the author has spent a lot of time with dogs and cats and an equal amount of time honing her writing skills.  Can’t wait to start the second one in the series!

Speaking of series… Time for me to get to work on MURDER FOR HIRE: The Big Snooze!

Upcoming Blog Tour

Yes, that’s right.  I’m actually going to DO this blog book tour I’ve been dropping hints about for the last month!  It’s going to start the Monday of the third week of January.  If I had a calendar nearbye, I’d give you the date.  but I don’t and I have felines lounging on me and can’t get up to check.   Does this make me lazy?  Perhaps.  Or does it make me a good mother?  I prefer to look at it that way.

So I’m gonna be doing interviews and guest posts at…six different blogs, hosted by six diversely talented writers and bloggers.  Still working out the logistics, but we will be having several drawing for free copies of my book, MURDER FOR HIRE: The Peruvian Pigeon.  If you win, you’ll have to bake your own chocolate chip cookies to eat while reading it, but the book itself will be free.

I will be posting a schedule with the dates and urls of the blogs I’ll be visiting and hope you’ll stop by all of them and check it out!

Bye, Trapper…

Baby TrapperI just got an email that Trapper died. Trapper was a Canadian lynx at EFBC/FCC, just a few years old. The following is from the EFBC/FCC website:

In the fall of 2007 we noticed he had some balance issues, occasionally had trouble walking straight, and couldn’t jump as well as he used to. We moved him to a smaller cage with less chance of him injuring himself. He was brought to the vet for an MRI in October. The news was not good. His condition is called a Chiari-I like malformation, syringomyelia C1-C3. Basically in the back of the skull the cerebellum is being pushed against the skull, blocking fluid from draining down the spinal cord, which caused the neural tube to expand with fluid. This is a congenital defect, sometimes seen in humans, and often in a breed of dog known as Cavalier King Charles spaniels.

A veterinarian who has performed the same surgery on dogs operated on Trapper in November. The back of Trapper’s skull was removed to allow the cerebellum to expand, and the top of the C1 vertebrae was removed to allow fluid to escape.

Dr. Berry then placed a wire mesh titanium basket over the back of the skull to protect the brain.

He evidently came out of the surgery okay, but…well, he didn’t make it. I don’t know the details. It’s heartbreaking. Trapper was special. I mean, all the cats out there are special, whether they’re people-friendly or totally wild. Trapper was a sweetheart. I can’t stop crying right now.Trapper

Short hair and a jumpsuit do not a tough spacer chick make

For reasons still unclear, even to myself, I’m watching ALIEN RESURRECTION, the fourth in the ALIEN series. You know, the one AFTER the movie where Ripley falls to a fiery death with her arms outstretched in classic Jesus Crucified pose while alien baby bursts out of her chest. David Fincher’s dark, nihilistic, irritating and ultimately dull film, however, at least did not have seal-eyed Winona Ryder trying to portray a tough mercenary spacer gal.  I hate this movie.  Even the presence of Signourney Weaver (whom I worship as a goddess) as a semi-psychotic alien-woman mutant (half woman, half alien, half alligator!) in leather, looking as sexy and tough as any woman can look, did not save this movie for me.  And when Ripley gets teary-eyed over her alien baby…fer crissake, woman, it’s not like it’s a kitten!

I do this to myself a lot, though.  Watch movies that probably melt sections of my brain.  It’s  a disease.