Alice Duncan's Newsletter

 

October Again

 

Wow, another year is all but over. Pretty soon Halloween will be upon us, then Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 2018! 2018???? Unbelievable!

However, on to the blog. There almost wasn’t one this month, thanks to an infected left hand on my own personal body. As with most of the weird stuff that happens to me, this began with a dog; or, more specifically, a dog bite. I tried to break up a fight between Cookie and Bella, reached the wrong way, and Cookie nailed me. Hard. So I cleaned the wound, disinfected it, put antibiotic gel on it, bandaged it, and it got better. The wound healed and everything seemed fine and dandy. Then, two Thursdays ago, the hand began to get extremely sore. I could hardly move it. Then it swelled up. Then it got blue. Then it was Saturday morning, and I went to the ER. The doctor concluded I had tendonitis and an infection, and he gave me antibiotics and a Velcro splint. The swelling went down, but the hand continued immensely painful. So I went for a follow-up visit to my regular doctor. She told me to get a tetanus shot and gave me a prescription for steroids. Boy, those steroids worked miracles. Within one day, the inflammation began going away, and today, October 1, the hand almost doesn’t hurt at all. In fact, I just allowed several of the hounds to take me for an afternoon drag, and the hand lasted quite well. Mind you, I kept the splint on it for safety’s sake, but I actually think I’m going to survive this infected-hand thing. Oh, and I got the tetanus shot.

Then I sprained my ankle. It's getting better.

Then the lower left side of my face began to swell. It got better, too.

Sheesh.

As for September, a few good things happened in the world of what I laughingly call my writing career. For one thing, I finished Daisy Gumm Majesty’s 12^th adventure, SPIRITS UNEARTHED, and turned it in to my publisher. The book begins with Daisy, Sam Rotondo (her fiancé), and Daisy’s dog Spike (a dachshund, naturally) visiting Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California. While they’re all there, Spike finds a vagrant shoe. Unfortunately for all concerned, the shoe contains a foot. Thus begins the mystery of to whom the foot belongs, why it was in the cemetery, and what happened to the foot’s owner. If one can be said to own one’s feet. I don’t know why not.

The second good thing was that I began writing Spirits #13, SHAKEN SPIRITS. Ouchily for Daisy, the book begins with her being hit by a car. It hurts. Poor Daisy.

Then the third good thing was that Denise Stradling, who narrates my Daisy Gumm Majesty books for audio, finished reading SPIRITS REVIVED! Nina Paules, who has done all the wonderful covers for my Daisy Gumm Majesty series, even did the cover art for it. SPIRITS REVIVED is technically the 7^th in my Daisy series, but the cover of this book says it’s #6 ½ because I don’t have the e-book or print rights back to the book yet. Eventually, I’ll get ‘em back, but I expect it will remain # 6 ½ in the series. What the heck, the cover’s already made and all. I adore this cover:

 

 

So a bunch of people have won copies of SPIRITS REVIVED in its audio form, and I’ll be in touch with them all individually.

This coming month, I do believe I’ll give away BRUISED SPIRITS, Daisy’s 10^th adventure. I have a particular fondness for this particular book, because it’s based on a woman’s actual experiences. They weren’t happy. But everything turns out all right.

A word about my monthly contests. I love giving my work to people; however, I found out quite by accident a few months ago that sending books to Great Britain, Australia, and other countries outside the United States is beyond my monetary capability. If a resident of a nation other than the United States has an e-reader, I’ll happily supply that person with an e-book. If a person doesn’t have an e-reader and still likes to read book-books, he or she is on his or her own. I’m sorry, but what I laughingly call my writing career hasn’t made me wealthy yet. And it probably won’t, but let’s not get in to that because it always depresses me. So. That’s that.

If you’d like to enter the contest, just send me an email (alice@aliceduncan.net) and give me your name and home address. If you’d like to be added to my mailing list, you may do so on my web site (http://aliceduncan.net/) or email me (you won’t be smothered in e-mails, because I only write one blog a month, and that’s an effort). If you’d like to be friends on Facebook, visit my page at https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925.

Thank you!