Cautiously Optimistic

 

Very cautiously. Seems as though I’ve been sick with one thing or another all year long, and the various things have taken a toll on this elderly body. Probably the gastric bleeds did it. I expect there’s not much blood left in me so I’m anemic and, therefore, tired all the time. Whine.

And that’s enough of that disgusting subject. Blech. July was nominally better than June, although it wasn’t great. But the narrators of two audio renditions of my books finished their jobs, and the following two books will be available soon (I hope):

 

 

 

Not sure when they’ll be ready to purchase at Audible.com, but I’ll let everyone know.

Also in July, a box set of the first three Daisy Gumm Majesty books (STRONG SPIRITS, FINE SPIRITS, and HIGH SPIRITS) was produced. For a while it was only $0.99, but it’s up to $2.99 now–but for three Kindle or Nook books, that’s still a darned good price!

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XJ5T2DE/?tag=entbrgnbkpst-20

The winners of June/July’s ARC contest are Peggy Matsuya, Prentiss Garner, Tim Younger, and B.J. Simon. I also owe two winners of May’s contest copies of THANKSGIVING ANGELS, which I promise I’ll mail soon. I’m not kidding when I say I’ve been under the weather (is anyone ever over the weather?) Well, never mind.

If you’re interested in entering August’s contest, during which I’ll be giving away three copies of SPIRITS ONSTAGE, send me your name and home address to alice@aliceduncan.net, and I’ll toss your name into Bam-Bam’s special contest doggie dish.

If you’d like to visit my web site, the URL is http://aliceduncan.net/ and if you’re interested in being Facebook friends, please visit https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

Thanks!

 

I’m Sorry!

 

This is going to be a very short blog. Not only was I sick during the entire month of June (the specifics are disgusting, so I won’t go in to them here), but my computer got sick, too, and in order to get better had to have its operating system re-installed. Therefore, while I got all my documents backed up, I lost all my emails. All of them. Including the names of those who entered June’s contest.

Therefore, since I don’t know who you are, Bam-Bam, my winner-picking wiener dog, can’t pick a wiener for June. So I’m holding the same contest for July, only you’ll have to re-enter because . . . well, see above. If you’re interested in entering July’s contest, during which I’ll be giving away copies of old advanced reading copies of my various novels, send me your name and home address to alice@aliceduncan.net, and I’ll toss your name into Bam-Bam’s special contest doggie dish.

If you’d like to visit my web site, the URL is http://aliceduncan.net/ and if you’re interested in being Facebook friends, please visit https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

 Thanks!

Time Flies Too Blasted Fast!

　

I can’t believe it’s already June. I swear, my dogs and I were lounging in bed and watching the 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade the day before yesterday. Oh, well.

The only mayhem going on in my life at present is the replacement of the other half of my fence. Nobody ran into this part of the old fence in order to force me to replace it, but Jessie, the guy up the street who put up the west side of my fence after a drunk in a blue Hyundai crashed into it, is replacing the east side now, so they’ll match.

In truth, that’s not the only reason. The real reason for the new fence is that Cookie, Jazzy’s companion animal (how many dogs do you know who have their own companion animals? Well, Jazzy does) can get out of the yard on the side with the old fence. With the new fence, she won’t be able to escape, so she can exist without her Kong! I think that will make her happy. Me, too. Here’s Cookie in her Kong, lounging with Jazzy at the neighbors’ house. They go there occasionally for play dates. On this particular day, the weather was warm, so they just sat around drinking Mai Tais:

 

The only other thing that happened in May, and this was a good thing, was that Stephen Campbell interviewed me for Crime Fiction FM. During the interview, we chatted about THANKSGIVING ANGELS and a few other things. It was fun, and the interview wasn’t too frightening. Here’s the link if you want to listen: http://crimefiction.fm/alice-duncan/

My daughter and her hubby will be visiting soon, and I’m looking forward to that. Robin and Gilbert have two pound-puppies and Gilbert’s blind, longhaired, double-dappled wiener dog, Melody. Melody is a beautiful dog, but Gilbert saved her and her sister, Harmony (now, alas, deceased), from certain death as puppies by adopting them. Double-dappling (mating a dappled dachshund with another dappled dachshund) is a recipe for genetic catastrophe. Harmony was born w/o eyes and deaf. Melody is blind, but she can hear. Actually, my own darling Jazzy, who was found running along the highway to Ruidoso, is a blue-and-tan dachshund, and her coloring also carries with it genetic problems. For instance, she’s losing fur due to alopecia that came to her through injudicious breeding. She’s sure a beauty, though! She and Cookie, and Robin’s George and Gracie, will have a jolly time visiting with each other during Robin and Gilbert’s visit. Actually, Gracie will probably lie in wait in her mommy’s arms and only race out to bite Jazzy or Cookie on the butt as they tear past her. She’s not the most friendly pup in the universe. George, however, loves to play. Should be interesting.

If you’re interested in entering this month’s contest, during which I’ll be giving away copies of old advanced reading copies of my various novels, send me your name and home address to alice@aliceduncan.net, and I’ll toss your name into Bam-Bam (my winner-picking wiener dog’s) special contest doggie dish.

If you’d like to visit my web site, the URL is http://aliceduncan.net/ and if you’re interested in being Facebook friends, please visit https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

Thanks!

 

Too Many Books (and a new fence)

Okay, I have too many books. I know, I know. People say you can’t ever have too many books. I’m here to tell you that’s not true. I have too many books. Mind you, I’m talking about books I’ve written. I’ve been in the writing biz for more than twenty years now, have had more than fifty books published, and I have multiple copies of most of them (except my Emma Craig books). I also have a small house and no more space.

So I’m asking people to give me the names and addresses of charitable organizations that might be interested in old but unread, yellowing, historical romances. Most of these books contain sex scenes, although not awfully hot ones, so keep that in mind. Just email me at alice@aliceduncan.net or message me through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925) Thanks!

As for the fence, here it is in all its shining glory. Mind you, in case you don’t recall, a probable drunk driving a blue Hyundai (2005 or 2006, according to the policeman working—oh, very well, he’s probably not working—the case) took out the fence on the west side of my property in the middle of the night. No one heard a thing, although from the mess made, and the car parts and fence fragments left behind, there must have been a dreadful crash. I mean, why do I pay all these stupid dachshunds if they aren’t going to bark when someone drives into my fence, you know???? However, from the following, you can see the transformation:

 

Nice, huh? And it only cost me several thousand dollars. Sigh.

Anyway, the month of April was filled to the brim with medical appointments, procedures, eye appointments, laser treatments, etc., and my vision is once more as good as it ever was, which is pretty bad, but at least I can see through my glasses again. And I also know that my feeling lousy all the time and other problems (which I won’t go in to because they’re kinda gross) were caused by diverticulosis and esophagitis, and I’m being treated for both conditions and feel marginally better. Mind you, because of these two new things wrong with me, I can’t take Ibuprofen for back pain, so my back hurts like the devil all day, every day, but one can’t have everything, I guess. As soon as my guts are under control, I’ll begin physical therapy in the hope I’ll be given an exercise program that will, with luck (which I don’t have much of) reduce my back pain.

April also saw the publication of a Daisy Gumm Majesty mystery (SPIRITS ONSTAGE), in which Daisy gets to play the role of the mean and nasty Katisha in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, and solve a murder or three. THANKSGIVING ANGELS, in which Mercedes Louise "Mercy" Allcutt is forced by her parents to spend Thanksgiving week with them in their new mansion in Pasadena, was also published in April. Poor Mercy. Not only is she subject to her overbearing mother’s snide comments, but she also witnesses a pretty gruesome murder (which she then manages to solve in spite of herself).

Here are the book covers and links to Amazon’s buying pages, but they’re also available on Barnes & Noble:

Buy from Amazon

 

Buy from Amazon

 

If you’d like to be entered into this month’s contest, during which I’ll be giving away a couple of copies each of THANKSGIVING ANGELS and SPIRITS ONSTAGE, just send me your name and home address at alice@aliceduncan.net

If you’d like to visit my woefully out-of-date web site, the URL is http://aliceduncan.net/ and if you’re interested in being Facebook friends, please visit https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

Thanks!

Two Books, a Book Cover, and a Crash

April will be a banner month for two of my heroines. Daisy Gumm Majesty will make her eighth (it’s actually her ninth, but who’s counting?) appearance in SPIRITS ONSTAGE, which will be available for all e-book formats and in trade paperback on April 4. In this outing, Daisy is more or less forced to take a part in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Mikado. She’s not happy, and she’s even more unhappy when folks begin to drop dead. SPIRITS ONSTAGE is already available for Kindle, so I’ll give that link:

 

Get your Kindle copy here

 

Then Mercy Allcutt spends a challenging almost-week with her parents in their new mansion in Pasadena. Mercy is horrified that her ghastly Boston parents have actually bought a home in Pasadena, but she’s even more horrified when her mother commands her attendance at the family Thanksgiving dinner. THANKSGIVING ANGELS will be released on or about April 20. Daisy Gumm Majesty puts in an appearance in THANKSGIVING ANGELS. Even before Thanksgiving arrives, someone falls from the Allcutts’ fancy wrought-iron balcony railing and lands, splat, on the parquet flooring below. Mrs. Allcutt demands that Mercy call Ernie Templeton to solve the crime.

 

Amazon Link

Barnes & Noble Link

 

I also received the charming cover art for Daisy's next adventure, UNSETTLED SPIRITS, which will be available in December (providing I can finish it. Naw. I can finish it):

And then, as sort of a last gasp to the month of March, 2015, since there hadn’t already been enough excitement in my life, someone driving a blue Hyundai drove (probably drunk) into my fence. Just try getting people to give you estimates for fixing fences if you live in Roswell, New Mexico. Go ahead. I dare you. Sigh. Oh, and we know it was a blue Hyundai because great big parts of it were left behind in the rubble.

April will be awash in medical stuff for me, which I’m kind of looking forward to because I want to know what’s wrong with me and how to fix it.

Winners of last month’s contest for SPIRITS REVIVED are Ella N. Strattis and Shirley Orio. Congrats, ladies. I’ll send your books ASAP.

If you’d like to be entered into this month’s contest, during which I’ll be giving away Kindle or Nook copies of SPIRITS ONSTAGE and hard copies (two of them) of THANKSGIVING ANGELS, just send me your name and home address at alice@aliceduncan.net

If you’d like to visit my woefully out-of-date web site (gotta get on that!), the URL is http://aliceduncan.net/ and if you’re interested in being Facebook friends, please visit https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

Thanks!

Um…

February turned out to be a month filled with loss, and crammed with infinitely more mayhem than magic. Three people of whom I was fond died in February (well, four, if you count Leonard, Nimoy, and I certainly do). My cousin died. Pat Browning, a dear cyber-friend and longtime journalist died. But the one that got to me the most was when I learned of Wallace J. Swenson’s death.

Most of you have probably never heard of Wally Swenson, but if I have my way, the entire world will know about him and his wonderful books soon. I had the honor of editing three of his books for Five Star’s Frontier Fiction line: BUELL, PINE MARTEN, and CARLISLE. Wally had more books in the works (I believe they were all written, actually) and Five Star aims to publish them. I will be proud to edit as many books as Wally had lying around at the time of his death.

Wally’s dream was to be a published writer of western fiction. He didn’t rely on the Old West shoot-‘em-up myth, but told stories about people who felt like friends, and he put them into situations that might actually have occurred. Don’t know how many of you have seen "Deadwood" on TV, but that will give you an idea of how Wally’s books worked.

Well, Wally died before he could even hold his first published book, BUELL, in his hands. Broke my heart, as well as the hearts of his many friends and family members. Perhaps you have to have had a dream like Wally’s in order to truly appreciate what a cruel loss his death was. I still feel like crying.

Here’s the cover for BUELL, which will be published in August of this year:

 

 

Wally chose this photograph for the cover of his book, because he says this guy looks just like Buell, and I agree with him. Please buy this book when it comes out. You won’t be sorry. And it’ll be available electronically, too, so you don’t have to spend a bunch of money. The book itself is worth a bundle, but e-books are nice like that.

As for me, eh; life goes on. I’ll be in touch with the winners of February’s contest, so they can tell me which of my books they want me to send them.

And for this month’s contest… um… well, I dunno. How about I give away a couple of copies of SPIRITS REVIVED, Daisy Gumm Majesty’s six-and-a-halfth adventure? If you’d like to enter my contest, please send me your name and home address in an e-mail to alice@aliceduncan.net

If you’d like to learn more about my books, please visit www.aliceduncan.net and if you’re really a sucker for punishment, check out my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

Thanks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yes, I know it’s already February, but January got clean away from me, so here’s my first blog of the new year.

Lucky me, I got to spend Christmas in Southern California with my family and a ton of friends. It was fun. After Christmas, I dog-sat for my younger daughter and son-in-law’s dogs while they went traveling up to the wine country and San Francisco.

What’s more, visiting my old stamping grounds seems to have dissolved the writer’s block I’ve been suffering from for a couple of years. Yay! I finished SPIRITS ONSTAGE, Daisy Gumm Majesty’s ninth adventure, which will be published soon. Then I’ll need to write another one. The only problem now is time. But I’ll find it somewhere.

But the best part of my trip was eating. I love food. And Southern California has restaurants of all shapes and sizes. I got to eat Middle Eastern food, East Indian food, Japanese food and good Italian food! And Gilbert, Robin’s hubby, fixed a magnificent prime rib for Christmas dinner. But I’m home again, and cooking for myself. Feel free to send condolences. Not that I don’t like to cook, but I can’t do tempura or falafel and stuff like that. Well, I have done both, but they seem to taste better when someone else fixes them.

Here’s a photo of my younger grandson, Riki; my good pal, Barbara Masters; my late friend Sara’s daughter, Cathy; my daughter, Anni; and me at Pinocchio’s Restaurant in Pasadena. Yum!

And here’s Stephanie Cowans and her son, Colin, at another meal (have I mentioned I love to eat?) Steph and I used to dance and sing together back in the Good Old Days:

 

But all good things have to come to an end, I reckon, so on January 3, I boarded a plane (at 7:30 a.m.) at LAX and flew to Dallas. You see, in order to get anywhere from Roswell, you have to fly to Dallas first. Same thing on the way home again. So when I left Roswell, I flew to Dallas and then to Los Angeles. Going back, I flew from LAX to Dallas, and waited. And waited. And waited. Weather delays from all across the country had trapped people in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, some of the poor things for days. But I eventually managed to get home at about 8:30 p.m., where I discovered my hounds, who had been well cared for by Ann and Barry Lasky, delighted to see me. I was delighted to see them, too, but boy, was I tired.

However, things are zooming along this year. Already I have a new audiobook out. I know it’s after Christmas, but if you should find yourself in dire need of a heartwarming Christmas story, check out CHRISTMAS PIE:

 

Buy it!

I’ll be holding a contest again this month, and I’ll be giving away copies of . . . oh, heck, I don’t know. I think I’ll let the winners select any old book they want, providing I have a copy on hand. If you’d like to enter, please send me an e-mail including your name and home address to alice@aliceduncan.net At the end of the month, Bam-Bam, my winner-picking wiener dog, will select as many winners as he feels like picking.

Also, please visit my web page at www.aliceduncan.net and my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

Thanks!