Dog Care

Photo from Sled Dog Central.

The following are a few great organizations that promote the responsible care of sled dogs and the special relationship between musher and dogs.

Mush with P.R.I.D.E (Providing responsible information on a dog's environment)

Sled Dog Central

Fourteen angel's foundation

Minnesota Responsible Animal Owners Alliance

5 days until Iditarod

You can find lots of great photos on the Official Iditarod site. The Junior Iditarod is off and running right now. Awesome.

Fun Fact:

Despite common usage in annoying commericals or movies, mushers do not say "Mush" to their dogs. One theory as to how this term came to be, is that the French trappers were overheard saying "marche" to their dogs. The term to mush and musher stuck though, and are used to describe someone who runs sled dogs.

Mushers will say, Hike! or All Right! to get the dogs to pull, however, it's not generally needed. The dogs pretty much ALWAYS want to pull. I said, "Ready? All right!" to get my dogs attention and to start in unison.

google images

Magic Under Glass, under rocks, and on the Yukon Quest

Thanks to Larissa at Larissa's World blog for hosting the contest. I WON a copy of Magic Under Glass! Woo! And it's the pre-controversial cover too - a collectors edition.

Check out this awesome shot of the Yukon Quest taken by my friend, Karen of North Wapiti blog. Mugs up to all those who raced this year. Hans Gatt won the 1,000 mile race finishing in a record breaking nine days. And a big congratulations to Hugh Neff - one of the teams I sponsored, came in third place!

Things are back to normal around here - adventuring around our lake we found some cool "magic under rocks"

Adventures in South Carolina

Myrtle Beach photo montage and short list of cool things:

• the southern accents. Couldn't understand the waitress - but tres cool
• being introduced to a little store called Books a Million
• hand feeding the enthusiastic ducks at Broadway at the Beach
• discovering what the heck GRITS are anyway
• learning about the forest ecology at Brookside Gardens
• having a snowball fight
• watching the pelicans swallowing wiggly fish - that's gotta hurt
• spending time with family - lots of laughing
• the Myrtle Beach Aquarium
• my brother missing the return flight home - heh heh heh heh
  
  Thank you everyone for all the vacation well-wishes and condolences on the weather. We didn't mind the snow one bit - but the annual marathon was cancelled!

Myrtle Beach saw us coming

Back from our Myrtle Beach vacation, and I have to say, there's not much difference in temperature here. I'm thinking the beach knew we were coming. Wanted to make us feel at home by laying out not the red carpet, but the white one.

More to come on our fantastic time there - but this little gem of my man at the beach, I couldn't wait to share with you.

Heading for vacation

During my parents' Christmas visit, I do confess to abusing them with some harmless snowshoe-cliff-climbing. However, they are still inviting us to visit them while they vacation in Myrtle Beach to help celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary!

I'm taking a blogging break - but I'll be back with tales of adventure, I'm sure. Perhaps as payback, I'll be forced to shop or play golf.

Ever wanted to mush a dogteam?

This is the first time I've ever posted a video - but in this case, it needed doing.

Thanks to North Wapiti blog, and Richard Todd, you can now do the next best thing to actually running your own team (besides reading my upcoming novel Dogsled Dreams, 4RV Publishing 2011)

Karen's B string means these dogs aren't even her main racing dogs. Wow!

work station Monday

Apparently, today is the chance to show off your workstation and surroundings on your blog. Here's my little corner. And our deck which is much colder than it looks today. The birdfeeder shown in the photo normally has two or three squirrels hanging off it, but I was just entertained watching them get ripped off by the hurricane winds outside.

Contest Winner!

I'm pleased to announce the random-draw-from-a-hat winner of my mega book give-away is Natalie Bahm She also has a fabulous writerly blog. I'll be sending out this enormous package in the mail as soon as I get your address Natalie.

This was so much FUN reading all your comments and title suggestions! Thank you everyone for joining in. And welcome to my new followers:

Shelby

Laugh. Write. Play

Lady Tink

Anna

Stephanie

Mystery Robin

Mary Whitsel

Kiki Hamilton

Jon Arntson

J.A. Palermo

Susan Mills of A Walk in My Shoes

Larissa's World

Shannon O'Donnell of Book Dreaming

Reading on a Rainy Day

Delilah, the unruly helpmeet

I'll be hosting more of these contests in the future (I buy waaay too many books) so please come back!

After much deliberation over all the awesome title suggestions, I am giving my work in progress the working title of ICE DOGS. You are all so totally creative with your suggestions.

I have an illustrator!

I've been lurking on your blogs this week, but sadly had little time to stay long. I'm neck-deep in revisions on DOGSLED DREAMS with my marvelous editor. Just a quick announcement today that I have an illustrator for my book - Willow Raven

Here is one of her fantastic book covers recently released by my publisher 4RV.

I am so thrilled - I think this is an awesome book cover! I'm also strangely nervous now. I can't wait to see what she'll create.

I'll be announcing the winner of my mega-book giveaway contest on January 31 and the working title of my latest WIP. A few more days to enter.

Featured at Edited to Within an Inch of My Life

Please join me in the conversation over at Heather Kelly's blog, Edited to within an inch of my life. She's asked me great interview questions and done an amazing job with all the links. I'm very lucky to be the Friday Feature.

Agent update

The agent that asked to see the full manuscript of my current young adult adventure, has responded. (my current is my second novel - my first being published in 2011.)

No, I do not have an agent...yet. But I will be venturing forth into a rewrite with an impressive list of things to fix. This is my first rewrite request so I'm slightly pumped about it.

I'm also pumped about some of these fabulous words of wisdom and thought I'd share:

• Agent compared my ms. to some amazing books like - ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS! (which was my favorite childhood book and I almost choked on my own tongue when I read that)



• Agent said a certain plot twist was "sort of lame". How cool is an agent that will say "sort of lame" ? Awesome.



• Agent says the setting in a book should be like another character. I have previously been light on description in favour of more action. Another lesson learned!
  

Between this rewrite and working on revisions with my fabulous editor, I'll be missing a few planned snowshoeing adventures in the near future. What sacrifices do you make for writing?

Indie-debut group interviewed - Write About Now

My uber-awesome group, Indie-debut, has been spotlighted on the fabulous, Sherrie Petersen's blog - Write About Now! She's managed to interview us all, with insightful questions that writers want to know. And she's somehow put it all together in a format that flows. What an honor to be on her blog.




To read what debut authors have to say about small presses - the benefits and the process, go check it out.



Part one here.

Part two here.

Dog Writers Association of America

To continue with my series of spotlights on the associations I'm involved in - today I'll discuss the Dog Writers Association of America.

The DWAA has an impressive membership list of dog writers, canine behavior specialists, veterinarians, trainers and dog lovers from across Canada and the States.

Benefits include:

• a monthly newsletter (this is December's)
• a forum where members can discuss doggy things and pass on tips for writing markets
• a yearly conference
• and their main event - the dog writing awards held each June. The categories include dog books, magazine articles, newspaper features and blogs or websites

Author Jo Ramsey

Fellow author Jo Ramsey ,from the rockin' Indie-debut group I belong to, is celebrating her debut book launch today! Connection is available as an e-book today and in print form on January 29. She will be on Book Bites for Kids Blogtalk Radio Friday January 15 at 2pm Central time.

I'm so excited for Jo! And here she is as my guest in my first author interview.

1. What's your book about?

Connection is about Shanna Bailey, a girl who's had a rough life. Her mother is abusive, her father mostly ignores her, and the kids at school constantly harass her. She's terrified of starting high school, but on her first day she meets Jonah Leighton, a junior who is also teased a lot. Despite that, Jonah's confident and friendly, and Shanna quickly discovers that he knows things that alter her entire perception of reality. It's the first of a 10-book series called Reality Shift.

2. Where can we buy it?

It's available from the publisher, Jupiter Gardens Press, at http://www.jupitergardens.com/. It's also available from Amazon.com, and can be ordered through any bookstore. We're working on having it stocked in bookstores in at least the Northeast, where I live.

3. What are you working on now?

I have a double life as a writer, so right now I'm working on something as my romance author alter ego. I'm also making sure the second Reality Shift book is ready to submit.

4. Any advice for writers trying to sell their manuscripts?

Take time to learn your craft before you consider submitting. Make sure you have a firm grasp on spelling, grammar, etc. Publishers have editors, but it's still the author's job to make sure their manuscript is the most polished it can be before it's sent off. Find a beta reader or critique partner, too; sometimes as authors we miss mistakes because we've looked at the thing way too many times. Another set of eyes is good.