Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

Oh, my. You know how some months have great stuff in them and also some awful stuff? I guess that means there was both mayhem (galore) and magic (some) in my own personal September.

To begin with, I’ve been fortunate to be getting more independent editing jobs recently. This is a Very Good Thing, because otherwise I’d be living in abject poverty. As it is, thanks to the independent editing stuff, I live in mere poverty. The independent jobs pay ever so much better than my work for the book packager. So that’s been marginally magical.

Also, and this is a minorly magical thing, my January book, PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL, is a finalist in the New Mexico Book of the Year Awards. Yay, me. And thank you, Mike Orenduff, who’s the one who entered the book in the contest to begin with. Heck, I didn’t even know there was a New Mexico Book of the Year Award, which goes to show how on top of things I am. Sigh. My particular book is a finalist in the historical fiction category. I’m actually kind of a double finalist, since a book I edited, THE FAERIE HILLS, by Susan McDuffie, is also a finalist. So yay, Susan, too! And yay, Mike, whose THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED EINSTEIN is a finalist in the contemporary category!

However, a couple of hugely mahem-ish things happened only this past week. The first was sad: my oldest wiener dog, Skipper, died sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning. Skipper was my first “foster failure” with New Mexico Dachshund Rescue. A “foster failure” is when you’re fostering a dog and decide to adopt him/her yourself. I adopted Skipper because he was such a sweetheart. The first time I saw him was when I picked him up from the veterinarian right after he’d had his shots and been neutered. I figured the poor doggie would be in a good deal of pain after what he’d been through, so I expected to be very gentle with him. The vet’s assistant had him in her arms, and she handed him to me. As soon as I took him, he looked up at me and pretty much said, “I love you,” with his big brown eyes. I mean, who could resist after that.

Skipper was cremated, and his ashes will be scattered in the Sacramento Mountains, which couldn’t be a lovelier place for anybody, human or canine, to spend eternity. Well, I suppose he’s crossed the Rainbow Bridge by this time and is frolicking with the rest of my late wiener dogs, including his particular pal Dandy. I tell you, when my time comes to cross the bridge, I’m going to be run down by a pack of dachshunds!

And then, on Tuesday, my computer gave up the ghost. It’s taken all week long, but I finally have a new computer. Now all I have to do is figure out how to use the stupid thing and reconstruct all my contacts and web sites, etc. Sigh. I just hate it when computers act up, mainly because I don’t speak computer, and I feel like a total idiot when I talk to people who do know what they’re talking about. But I’ll get over it. And with luck, this new computer will be better than the old one, which pretty much stank from the beginning.

Speaking of PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL (not that we were), I’ll be giving away a couple of copies of that book (since it’s downright almost famous now – that’s a joke) at the end of the month. Actually, I won’t be giving them away until early November, because I’ll be in California at the end of October! Yay! What’s more I’ll be signing books at the Pasanita Dog Obedience Trials on October 30, in Brookside Park (that’s where the Rose Bowl is), if you happen to be in the area. I know; probably not, huh? However, if you want to enter my contest, just send me an e-mail with your name and address to alice@aliceduncan.net, and I’ll toss your name into my special contest doggie dish. Thanks!