There are two different and very distinct groups of women who go to my local park every day. There are the moms, who bring their children to play in the playground, and the dog people, who bring their dogs to run around off-leash in the field ( Read more... )

...guest-blogging on Lindsey Leavitt's blog as part of her Impact Initiative, writing about my wonderful first dog, Nika, and the random act of kindness that brought us together.

I hope you enjoy the entry, and please do leave a comment over there if one occurs to you, because Lindsey is giving away copies of her (really fun & funny) book ( Read more... )

I think everybody who knows me knows this: I am dog crazy. When I was in undergrad and couldn't keep a dog in my dorm, I walked dogs as a volunteer at the local shelter, just so I could get that fix of canine sweetness.* Much more embarrassingly - oh, this almost hurts to admit out loud - occasionally? When I went on long walks at night through the ( Read more... )

Well, as anyone who reads my Twitter account may already know - I loved, loved, LOVED Maureen Johnson's book 13 Little Blue Envelopes, which I finished reading a couple of days ago. It's such a perfect novel for any American - especially, I think, any American girl or woman - who loves or has a yen for European travel. The heroine races all around ( Read more... )

Drumroll, please... Yesterday morning, I FINISHED Draft 2 of Kat by Starlight!!!! Wooooooot! Ohhh, this makes me happy. I'm going to wait a few days for Patrick to read through the new versions of the last few chapters (to make sure I haven't introduced any huge & glaring logic issues or major inconsistencies) before I send it off for other ( Read more... )

Remember the sweet, stray black lab puppy that Amy Sisson found? Well, Amy just got a call from the shelter saying that not only has no one adopted her, but that she may have kennel cough. Now, kennel cough is NOT a problematic disease - Maya had it when we adopted her, it wasn't a big deal, and all it took was a shot of antibiotics and a little ( Read more... )

I wouldn't normally post 3 entries in a day, but this is too important not to pass on. Yesterday, Amy Sisson, a Houston-area writer, found a beautiful, friendly black lab mix puppy, who has been a stray, is now at a shelter where she'll be euthanized if she isn't adopted soon, and desperately needs a home. Here's what Amy says:
This little girl ( Read more... )

Lately I've been finding myself listening obsessively to my opera CDs. And not my 18th-century comic opera favorites, either - no, I've been listening to and melting over all the huge, overblown 19th-century romantic opera arias and duets that I used to primly think (back when I was younger and way, way more uptight in my musical tastes) were just ( Read more... )