Escape to the Country by Patsy Collins - Free!

 Escape to the Country by Patsy Collins is free today and tomorrow on Kindle!

Runner up!

Thanks everyone who downloaded my Colonel book and thanks to those who bought the short story book too.

A while back I put a link on here to win a Kindle with Animed (where I buy a lot of Indy’s meds, syringes etc). It was a caption competition and I was so chuffed to be one of the 50 runners up.

The prize arrived and it was a pack of dog treats, which judging by the ingredients will be fine for Indy, plus a game for him. It’s like one of those little square things with all the tiny squares that you have to move to make up a picture, except this one has 9 big squares with little wells beneath each one.

He already has a treat ball which he loves to play with. But he keeps leaving it in the garden and last time he brought it in, a slug fell out! Because it’s got so wet inside, I can’t put food in there any more, so this new toy arriving was timely.

I put some of his food in the wells and slid the covers over to hide it. It took him all of one and a half seconds to figure out how to move the covers using his paw or his nose. I can arrange it so it’s more complicated, but it’s definitely a hit.

He’s always been very clever when it comes to things like that, but leave a door ajar and him on the other side and he is completely lost. Tilly used to open doors for him – either by pushing them or by pulling them open with her paw.

This picture makes me smile. It is so typical. Indy so spotless and Tilly… well it’s a good job she used to love her baths! 

And funnily enough, a new lady has moved into our close and she has cats – and one of them looks very much like Sammy. It feel so strange – and so nice – to see a ginger cat around again.

This was Sammy when he was 10 – a few years before all his health problems started.

And here’s a picture I found of The Incredible Threesome (one of the stories in You Can’t Love a Stranger & Other Stories) – plus one! Sweep on the left, Tilly at the front, Indy on the right and my daughter’s dog Oakley (who has also appeared in lots of my stories) at the back. Sweep was 12 in this picture, the same age as Indy is now – and the other three were about a year old.

Why were they all sitting so nicely and looking so serious and attentive? They were waiting for their dinner which was up on the side! 

Dogs, Colonels and a Giveaway!

At last I’ve got round to publishing a new short story collection. You Can’t Love a Stranger & Other Stories is now out on Kindle. The twelve stories all have animals in them – mainly dogs and I have to say Indy appears in one guise or another at least three times. Tilly too, most notably in The Incredible Threesome as Millie - my favourite story in the book for three very good reasons.

Indy's on the cover too, with my lovely Tilly - one of my favourite pictures of the two of them because they were both caught having fun waiting for me to throw a ball!

And I’ve also published another novella which was a Woman’s Weekly serial in a previous life. The Colonel & His Daughter is a light-hearted tale about Trudy, a lady of a certain age, who is adept at sorting out the problems in everyone else’s life, but ends up with a broken heart of her own. You know me though – there’ll be a happy ending. And there are, of course, dogs!

The Colonel & His Daughter is free to download on the 24^th and 25^th November.

Angel All Year - free download

Isn’t this a fabulous cover? Angel All Year by Sally Clements is free to download today and tomorrow. Just click here. I've downloaded my copy and I can't wait to read it!

And the paperback of Writers for Animals can now be ordered from Amazon, Waterstones and WHSmith. But if you can't wait, it is also available on Kindle.

Writers for Animals

This week the anthology Writers for Animals which contains a mixture of fiction and true life stories is published by Bridge House Publishing.

All profits will go to three animal charities.

Right now you can buy it on Kindle – here - but it will be out in paperback later this week.

Anyone who knows me will know how much it means to me to have one of my stories included in this book.

And it feels even more special because it is a year today since we lost Tilly. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her and miss her. I was going to post a photo, but, you know – tried looking through photos and found it too hard, even now.

So on this chilly foggy day, here’s one from earlier this week that I took with my phone. Not great quality, but the day really was that stunningly blue.

Computer shop or stationery shop?

I know – what a daft question!

Beloved had to make a mercy dash to PC World for a spare part and granddaughter no. 3 (who is aged 3) and I went along too.

PC World is right next door to Staples.

“Which shop shall we go in?” I asked. “The computer shop?”

“Or the pens and paper shop?”

Well what can I say? There was no hesitation, no thinking about it – I was so proud!

PC World didn’t have the part he needed so he came into Staples while we were still browsing to see if they had it. They didn’t. So he went off to Curry’s.

We carried on browsing. She insisted on checking out every single aisle, poor me - not.

By the time we came out, he was waiting in the car. Had he been waiting long? Probably. But where stationery is involved, time loses all meaning.

This is some of our loot! I didn’t buy any notebooks (Izzy bought the tiny notebook), but I did treat myself to some gel pens.

Then when we got home five Chinooks flew over one after another. I grabbed my camera quick, but couldn’t get a decent shot. They’re a rare sight here.

And we had the tree done last week. Poor thing is completely denuded. Not a single leaf left.

This was the best picture I got while it was being done. 

If you look closely you can just about see a man. There were two of them and I didn't dare go out and start taking photos in case I distracted them so I took this one from my office window!

They did a great job and cleared up every last leaf which means, this autumn at least, we won't have to!

Two Lovely Awards!

I haven’t been around much on the internet, just dipping my toe in here and there. I’d like to say I’ve been busy writing, but it wouldn’t be true. I just feel a bit withdrawn at the moment.

But in good old Blue Peter tradition, here’s one I sort of prepared earlier. I used an old washing up bottle, some oddments of wool and lots of sticky-backed plastic (I didn't really - I just used some words, some pictures and some links).

Thank you Rosemary and Patsy (where there is news of a free Kindle book) for the Top Commenter Award.

And thank you Liz for the One Lovely Blog award.

I’m afraid I’m going to be very lazy again and pass these awards to everyone who comments here, but whether you accept or not, I hope you’ll visit the lovely ladies mentioned above.

As part of the requirement for the One Lovely Blog Award I have to tell you 7 random things about myself, but I’ve run out of things to say about me, so I’ll do it about Indy.

1.  He had his second (at home) glucose curve on the Sunday before last which means hourly blood tests from the time we get up, until we go to bed. The results were pretty good and his insulin dose is staying the same. I’ve changed him over to Burns High Oats (you can enter a competition to win a year’s supply of Burns food here) which is better for diabetic* dogs and we’ll do another glucose curve in four weeks to see if that has given us further improvement, plus he’ll have another Fructosamine blood test.

2.  At one point one of his white paws was red with blood. No, not his, mine! I fumbled with the lancet device and not only managed to knock the protective cap off, I also hit the button to activate it, stabbed my finger and sliced at the same time. Lots of blood. I had to get a plaster before I could continue. Yes, Indy laughed. But on the plus side, it didn’t hurt, which made me feel better about doing it to him.

3.  He has lots of lumps and bumps as – ahem – older pooches do, but there was one on the side of his face that was worrying me. Tom said he was sure it was nothing to worry about and did a needle test. Just a cyst. Phew.

4.  There is little he is afraid of. Being cold, being hungry and Chihuahuas are three things that scare him.

5.  He was having a cuddle with Lachlan the other day and Lachlan said he was worried about cuddling him because “he is delicate”. Indy has been called a lot of things, but I think delicate is a new one.

6.  He dislikes baths, brushes and scissors.

7.  When I sit in the back of the car with him, he has to stand on my lap. It doesn’t matter where I sit; he has to stand on me.

*Indy has asked me to point out that he is not overweight and has only just put the weight back on that he lost! Very sensitive about his weight he is!

As I said, please do take an award if you comment here – if you want to of course. I won’t twist your arm. 

Go on go on go on go on....