The Joys and Travails of April
Springtime
in New Mexico, unlike springtime in other, more civilized parts of the world,
is windy. Really, really, really
windy, complete with dust storms and accompanying ickiness. Heck, I even wrote
a book about the wind once (Cooking Up
Trouble, available for a miserly $2.99 on Kindle and Smashwords). As we’re in
the second year of a ghastly drought, this April’s winds have been particularly
heinous. Parts of the state have also been overrun with moths. Go figure. If I
were a moth, I wouldn’t want to live in a dry, windy state like ours. Heck, I’m
a human, and I don’t much want to
live here. Ah, well.
The
month did bring a bit of magic, however, beginning with the simply smashing
e-book cover for the third of my Mercy Allcutt books, Fallen Angels. Mercy Allcutt is a rebellious Boston Brahmin, who
has come to the wicked city of Los Angeles, where her sister Chloe lives with
her wealthy movie-mogul husband. Mercy has secured a job (gasps of horror echo from her mother in Boston) as secretary
to private investigator, Ernie Templeton. In this outing, one Persephone
Chalmers is foully done to death, and Ernie ends up the prime suspect. Mercy
isn’t about to let Ernie burn (California used the electric chair in 1926, when
the book is set) so she investigates on her own. Her investigations lead her
many places, including the Angelica Gospel Hall, run by the charismatic Adelaide Burkhard Emmanuel. I shamelessly borrowed both the Hall
and Sister Emmanuel from the Foursquare Church of God founded by Aimee Semple
McPherson, in case anyone cares. Here’s the cover, created by the
multi-talented Melissa Alvarez (www.bookcoversgalore.com):
And
then Bella the Pekinese came into my life. Of course, she never would have
except that I’d been fretting about finding a suitable outfit to wear to my
daughter Robin’s wedding in June. Trust me when I tell you Roswell, New Mexico,
isn’t a shopping Mecca. Heck, it isn’t even a Meccette. Therefore, when I got
word that a four-month-old Pekinese puppy needed to be picked up in Artesia
(approximately 45 miles southish from Roswell) and then driven to Santa Fe
(approximately 200 miles northish from Roswell), I thought to myself, “Santa
Fe! They actually have stores in
Santa Fe!”
So
I picked up Bella in Artesia and took her to my house in Roswell. I worried
that Giblett, my bully wiener dog, would try to murder her. Needn’t have spared
the matter a thought. I guess Pekinese used to be guard dogs in Chinese
temples, and Bella clearly takes her background seriously, because when Giblett
growled at her, she took off after him, screaming doggie obscenities (I was
shocked a dog her age knew so many of them), and scared him into my office and
into his crate, from which he didn’t emerge for a full hour. When he did come
out again, he tried to recoup his dignity, but Bella would have none of it, and
they hollered at each other for what seemed like hours and hours. And hours. Lord.
Bella had my entire herd trembling in its boots—or she would have, if they’d
been wearing boots.
Anyhow,
as much as I love Bella because she’s sweet and cuddly and as adorable as a
puppy can be (except when faced with a Giblett), I wasn’t sorry when I loaded
her in my car the following morning and drove the 200 miles to Santa Fe, where
I dropped her off in the wonderful care of Marguerite Wood, who operates Santa
Fe Small Dog Rescue. According to Marguerite when I checked on the 25th
of March, Bella is doing extremely well, gets along fine with the other dogs in
her care (none of whom are bullies like Giblett) and will eventually be placed
in an excellent home.
What’s
more, I actually found an outfit to wear to Robin’s wedding in Santa Fe! Mind
you, since my spine had squashed three whole inches from my frame, I’m not
shaped like I used to be, and it’s difficult to find clothes that fit right,
but I think this outfit will work. I’m not going to show it on this blog,
because I loathe having my picture taken, but it’s pretty.
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