Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

May was a pretty bad month for me, with much more mayhem than magic, although a couple of good things happened.

The absolutely worst, most horrible thing to happen in May that my half-brother, Elbert H. Duncan, Jr., passed away. Al died on May 9. He was a wonderful man. A truly good person. He was already grown up when I was born, and my mom used to tell me that when I was a baby, Al would say, “Screech, Alice!” and I’d screech for him. Then we’d both laugh like maniacs. Drove my mom nuts, but it shows his sense of humor. Sigh. He was the last male of the Duncan line, at least this branch of it. I feel particularly bad for Al’s widow, Connie. Al and Connie were married for tons of years. More than forty, anyway. They were a wonderful couple, and I’m sorry Connie has to go it alone now, although the rest of us in the family are available for her any time. Al is going to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on June 14, and I’d dearly love to go to the funeral. Unfortunately, further events during the mayhemly month of May will prevent that.

The next bad thing that happened was that my grandsons’ second-to-last Japanese relative died. Junko was their aunt, their late father’s older sister, and both Dai and Riki were saddened by her passing.

And then I learned that a childhood friend of mine, Chris Wolford, died. Chris had suffered from multiple sclerosis for several years, although her husband said she seemed to be doing pretty well. But the MS interfered with her breathing one night, and she died in her sleep. Chris had suffered many losses in her life, including that of her son and her first husband (who died of a stroke). But she and her second husband had twenty-two happy years together, and they fostered many, many children. I’m sure Paul and the kids are floundering without her.

All of that happened in one single week, one of the worst weeks of my life. Phooey.

Also, the author copies of my May release, FALLEN ANGELS, have evidently been abducted by aliens, because I don’t have them yet. I’m scheduled to appear on a panel in Rio Rancho on June 7, and I don’t know what I’ll do w/o the books. By the way, if you happen to be in Rio Rancho, NM, on June 7 and want to pop over to the Esther Bone Memorial Library, the panel will begin at 6:30 p.m. The address is 950 Pinetree Road, Rio Rancho, NM, and the phone number (should you want to check up on this) is 505-891-5012. I’d love to see a person or two there. I’ll bring some other books with me if FALLEN ANGELS doesn’t arrive on time.

And THEN I went to have a bone-density scan, they measured me, and I’ve shrunk THREE WHOLE INCHES! What the heck???? The results of the scan were good. My bones are as dense as iron rods. But where did those three inches go? Heck, I started out at only 5’3”. Now I’m barely five feet tall. Ain’t fair. Must be the degenerative disc disease, huh? Sheesh. No wonder my back hurts all the time. I’m falling apart from the inside.

Not only that, but my darling Daisy, who’s been my winner-picking wiener dog for lo, these many years, is now blind as a bat. I’m going to have to train a new winner-picking wiener dog. Giblett can’t do it, because he’d gnash the entries to death, and I’d never be able to read them. Skipper can’t do it, because he’d just stand there over the special contest doggie dish and whine for food. Maybe Rosie can be the new winner-picking wiener dog. She’s got cataracts, too, but she might be able to fill in for a while. I suppose Scrappy could pick the winners, but he’s not a wiener dog, and that will never do. There’s always Heidi, but she’s a little bit of a drama queen, and I’m not sure she’d be a perfect fit. Poor Daisy. She’s in pretty good health (although she’s getting her teeth cleaned next week) except for her cataracts. I guess cataracts happen to all of us if we live long enough.

One good thing happened. Naturally, it was followed by another bad thing. I got a really big (for me) Kindle royalty payment in May. The very next day, my hot-water heater went kaput, so all but $36 of that Kindle payment went to buy a new hot-water heater. Which means, of course, that I don’t have enough money to attend my brother’s funeral. Sometimes life just sucks.

Anyhow, here’s hoping June is a better month than May was. Couldn’t get much worse, I guess. I’ll be giving away copies of some Rachel Wilson (Rachel’s me in disguise) paranormal historical romances in June, so if you’d like to enter my contest, feel free to e-mail me your name and home address at alice@aliceduncan.net

I’ll get copies of May’s contest book, FALLEN ANGELS, as soon as I get my copies!

Oh, and every single one of my e-books is on sale during the month of June! You can get any book of mine you want for $0.99! You can get them for your Kindle (http://aliceduncan.net/page5.html) or for any other e-reading device you have—Nook, Sony, Apple, whatever (https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/aduncanzianet). Heck, you can buy all 32 of them, and only spend $32.00. Whatta deal!

Visit my web site at http:aliceduncan.net to see all about my books.