!!! CONTEST !!!!!

Current Project: bodyguard book
Status: struggling

I am joining the promotional bandwagon. The prize is a three month old puppy (photo above).
All you have to do is read one of my books. Like the next one, for instance, although since it's not out until October, perhaps you'd rather read an already published book. Well, maybe category isn't your bag. In that case, go ahead and read someone else's book. If you're too busy to read someone else's book, then a magazine will do, and no, silly, I don't mean the whole magazine, just an article. That's fine. Or the caption under one of the political cartoons. Yeah, that's good. What? No magazines at your house? How about cereal. You have cereal, don't you? Everyone has cereal. Go ahead and read something on the cereal box.

If I'm still striking out and you are reading this blog, then that will do. You are officially entered into the Puppy Prize Contest. All you have to do to win is show up at my house (or maybe I could meet you half way. Bring thick gloves, ear plugs and treats.) * Keep in mind promotional prizes are non-returnable.*

We chose to get a puppy on such an emotional level that in retrospect, I can hardly believe it. Suffering from the loss of our beloved pet, we wanted a dog that looked almost exactly like her. Having lived through an old dog's degeneration, we wanted a baby, we wanted vigor and life and challenges. We got it.

But looks are a tiny piece of any animal. I assumed when you bought a certain breed you would get that breed's characteristics and that's why we chose a lab. But this puppy didn't read the lab handbook. She is what she is, a separate and unique individual and I think if we can live through the next two years she'll be a terrific friend (this, btw, is the daily pep talk my dh and I give each other every afternoon about four o'clock.)

For instance, the dh was watching this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v4QrX1GOR4
with the volume turned way, way up. Bonnie, in another room, heard the puppy sounds in the first few seconds, ran into his office, jumped up to watch the screen and then tried to jump on the desk to get to the puppies. You could almost hear her shouting, "Friends!" Pens and papers and books went everywhere and she escaped with a permanent marker which we (thank heavens) retrieved before she figured out how to get the lid off. And this was one of the cute things she does. However, since I am running a contest here, I will end with cute. You don't need to know about the howling.

Seriously, I am dragging you through this blog to get to this point. People chose cars, clothes, lovers and pets for reasons, and many of the those reasons are emotional (if you chose shoes solely for comfort, why would you buy four inch red stilettos?) Think of a current or recent h/h and give them a pet and tell us why they chose that particular kind of pet. Can anyone forget Stephanie Plum's hamster or the Golden Retriever named Bob she shares with Joe Morelli? Your h/h pet doesn't have to actually show up in the book, but what would appeal to them or would it have just happened -- for example, inheriting a grandmother's toothless, onerous toy poodle named Ignatz and trying her best to give it a decent home would say a lot about a heroine. It might say even more about a hero.

As for me, I'm off on a whirlwind blog tour promoting my new contest. Don't forget to read something.