Whole Bunch of Stuff Relating to March

March roared in like the proverbial lion, a not-uncommon phenomenon in SE New Mexico. However, unlike more civilized parts of the country, we expect the weather to keep roaring up to and perhaps including summertime, more’s the pity. You see, spring is what we call our windy season, sort of like we laughingly call summertime our monsoon season. I’m sure folks in India and Pakistan would scoff. Heck, even we’re scoffing, since we don’t expect to get any more rain this year than we did last, which was approximately half our normal yearly boon of around thirteen inches. I know, I know, I live on a desert. But jeez Louise, we’re accustomed to SOME rain, even on our desert! Mayhem, indeed.

On a slightly less mayhemly note, I got some gorgeous covers for three of my e-books from Melissa Alvarez, who does masterful work and has a website at bookcoversgalore.com. These covers are for my three “Land of Enchantment” books (ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS, A GAMBLER’S MAGIC and A GAMBLER’S MAGIC) originally published by Dorchester (and am I ever glad they dumped me when they did! At least I got paid royalties for the books they published and got the rights back on my old Emma Craig books, which is more than many of authors can say since Dorchester went belly-up). Melissa gave them smashing covers, which you can see for yourselves. Here’s a handy link for all my e-books: http://aliceduncan.net/page5.html If I ever have any money again, I aim to get more covers from Melissa.

Speaking of which, the winners of February’s contest for SIERRA RANSOM (Penny Tuttle and Sandy Olubas) will receive copies of their book approximately when the winners of March’s contest for CACTUS FLOWER (Kimberly Maynard and Carole Price) will get theirs. You see, I couldn’t work for about two months because of the surgery I had to correct a detached retina. Then I worked like mad trying to catch up. Unfortunately, I work in publishing, writing and editing. I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you guys this, but publishing time and geological time are approximately equivalent, with publishing being the slightest bit slower than the latter. However, I finally got paid last week! Therefore, everybody’s books will be sent out next week. I’m so glad—both about being paid and about being able to fulfill my commitments. Finally.

As for the rest of the month, Heidi is holding her own! She’s finally eating consistently again and, while she’s still seems mighty skinny to me, she seems to be doing ever so much better than she was for a while there. Daisy is still blind and bumps into things, but she’s okay too. As for me, my left eye remains really blurry, but I see the local eye doc in May. Then he’ll tell me if I need to have the cataract removed (you always get a cataract after retinal surgery. Sort of a bonus, I guess) or merely need a new prescription. I’m hoping for the latter.

And then, in June, something truly magical will occur! My younger daughter Robin will marry her long-time beau Gilbert, and I get to house- and pet-sit while they honeymoon. This means I get to go to California and see all my friends and eat all the food that isn’t available in Roswell, which is . . . well . . . not exactly the center of the universe. Fortunately for me, my wonderful neighbors, Ann and Barry Lasky, will dog-sit for my pack while I’m pet-sitting for Robin’s and Gilbert’s much smaller pack.

So things are moving along. And a good thing, too! If you’d like to enter this month’s contest, during which I’ll be giving away two copies of PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL, a funny historical mystery set in Roswell (called Rosedale in the book), New Mexico, in 1923, please send your name and home address to me at alice@aliceduncan.net . This book was a finalist in the New Mexico Book of the Year Awards, although I’m not sure why.

You can see a photo of the lovely book cover for PVR and read the first chapter on my web site: www.aliceduncan.net  Thank you!

Review of February, a not so hot month, but not as bad as it might have been.

Oh, my, it’s already March. I don’t know why time flies so much faster the older I get, but it does.

As for February, it was a mixed bag. Both magic and mayhem reared their heads at different times. Probably the best thing that happened to me personally was that the blankety-blank gas bubble the eye surgeon placed in my left eye after reattaching the retina finally disappeared completely about two weeks ago. Yay! I still can’t see very well in the left eye, but that problem will be fixed eventually. Either the vision will resolve itself, my local eye doc will have to remove the cataract that formed there after the retinal surgery, or I’ll get new corrective lenses. Life can kind of be more pleasant slightly blurred sometimes anyhow, so I can live with fuzz in the meantime.

Then there’s Heidi, not such a happy story, but one that seems to be getting better. Heidi is a twelve-year-old dachshund, a black-and-tan piebald, and one of the core members of my erd. Heidi stopped eating all of a sudden while I was half-blind. When this went on for a week or so, I took her to the vet, where she weighed in at 8.5 pounds. This was a loss of more than three pounds! As she started out at 12 pounds, it was a catastrophic weight loss for my precious Heidi. She’s been to the vet’s office on and off all month long, and I finally picked her up yesterday after she’d spent five days at the vet’s office, being force-fed part of the time. But they finally found a food she will eat, and on the morning of February 29 she not only ate her breakfast, but she had THIRDS! Unfortunately, she’s back to not eating again. Sigh. We’re all hoping she’ll gain enough weight to be able to take heart meds, since she’s developed congestive heart failure. I just hate it when one of my wiener dogs gets sick! Please send strengthening thoughts for Heidi.

On the book front, not a whole lot is happening. I sold PECOS VALLEY RAINBOW, Book #3 in my Pecos Valley series, to Five Star, so come March of 2013 Annabelle Blue will be stumbling over more bodies in Rosedale (aka Roswell), New Mexico in 1923.

Other than that, my muse seems to be taking an extended leave of absence. I’m hoping s/he will return one day because I’d really like to write more books. My books might not make me any money, but they do give me a sense of satisfaction. Sigh. Any cures for missing muses gratefully accepted!