Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

Oh, my, it’s already March. I don’t know why time flies so much faster the older I get, but it does.

As for February, it was a mixed bag. Both magic and mayhem reared their heads at different times. Probably the best thing that happened to me personally was that the blankety-blank gas bubble the eye surgeon placed in my left eye after reattaching the retina finally disappeared completely about two weeks ago. Yay! I still can’t see very well in the left eye, but that problem will be fixed eventually. Either the vision will resolve itself, my local eye doc will have to remove the cataract that formed there after the retinal surgery, or I’ll get new corrective lenses. Life can kind of be more pleasant slightly blurred sometimes anyhow, so I can live with fuzz in the meantime.

Then there’s Heidi, not such a happy story, but one that seems to be getting better. Heidi is a twelve-year-old dachshund, a black-and-tan piebald, and one of the core members of my erd. Heidi stopped eating all of a sudden while I was half-blind. When this went on for a week or so, I took her to the vet, where she weighed in at 8.5 pounds. This was a loss of more than three pounds! As she started out at 12 pounds, it was a catastrophic weight loss for my precious Heidi. She’s been to the vet’s office on and off all month long, and I finally picked her up yesterday after she’d spent five days at the vet’s office, being force-fed part of the time. But they finally found a food she will eat, and this very morning (February 29) she not only ate her breakfast, but she had THIRDS! We’re all hoping she’ll gain enough weight to be able to take heart meds, since she’s developed congestive heart failure. I just hate it when one of my wiener dogs gets sick! Please send strengthening thoughts for Heidi.

On the book front, not a whole lot is happening. I sold PECOS VALLEY RAINBOW, Book #3 in my Pecos Valley series, to Five Star, so come March of 2013 Annabelle Blue will be stumbling over more bodies in Rosedale (aka Roswell), New Mexico in 1923.

Other than that, my muse seems to be taking an extended leave of absence. I’m hoping s/he will return one day because I’d really like to write more books. My books might not make me any money, but they do give me a sense of satisfaction. Sigh. Any cures for missing muses gratefully accepted!