Guest Blogger: Alice Duncan

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To help welcome 2018 on a jolly note, here’s the Gnu Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqgPyqyh4X4

As for 2017, I’m glad to see its hind end. It was a rough year for a lot of folks, including me. My best friend died and so did most of my household appliances, computers, etc.; and the various hounds required repairs of their own, so the stupid year was expensive as well as icky. As for my physical condition, it continues to pain me, but I’m more or less healthy. The surgery I had in 2017 was the least painful I’ve ever experienced. I never anticipated that I’d ever compose a sentence like that one. Sigh. Hoping for a better year in 2018 for ALL OF US!

Now for a little catch-up. First of all, thanks to everyone who downloaded HUNGRY SPIRITS when it was on sale for 99 cents. I appreciate all the downloads, and I’d appreciate reviews on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, too, if you feel so inclined. The winners of my November contest, whom I failed to acknowledge in December, are as follows:

Shirley Malatino won a copy of THANKSGIVING ANGELS

Julianne Sparks won a copy of PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL

Edward Washington won a copy of HIGH SPIRITS

Margaret (Lynn) Lind won a copy of SIERRA RANSOM

I will attempt to get your books sent out the first week in January, everyone!

Now for December’s contest:

Carolyn Booth and Jackie Stieghorse each won a copy of UNSETTLED SPIRITS

Vickie Shaw and Debra Guyette each won a copy of BRUISED SPIRITS

Congrats! I’ll attempt to get these books, too, sent in the coming week.

Okay, so what else is new? Um . . . not a whole lot, actually. I finished my next Daisy book and sent it to the publisher, but I have no idea when SPIRITS UNEARTHED will be published. Now I have to write SHAKEN SPIRITS. Whoopee. Can you tell how excited I am about writing book after book and having so very little to show for it? Well, I sure am.

However, now is not the time to whine. It’s the time to announce January’s contest! Let me see . . . what should I give away at the end of January? How about a few more hardbacks? At the end of January, I’ll have Bam-Bam, my winner-picking wiener dog, pick two winners of GENTEEL SPIRITS and two winners of THANKSGIVING ANGELS! I’m fond of both of those books, although, thanks to my brilliant idea of having Daisy and Sam show up in Mercy Allcutt’s book (THANKSGIVING ANGELS), I can’t get Daisy and Sam married until after Thanksgiving of 1926. Sometimes I wonder where (and why) my wits go begging. Oh, well.

Here’s a note about postage and my monthly contests. I love giving my work to people; however, I found out quite by accident a few months ago that sending books to Great Britain, Australia, and other countries outside the United States is beyond my monetary capability. If a resident of a nation other than the United States has an e-reader, I’ll happily supply that person with an e-book. If a person doesn’t have an e-reader and still likes to read book-books, he or she is on his or her own. I’m sorry, but what I laughingly call my writing career hasn’t made me wealthy yet. And it probably won’t, but let’s not get in to that because it always depresses me. So. That’s that.

If you’d like to enter January’s contest, just send me an email (alice@aliceduncan.net) and give me your name and home address. If you’d like to be added to my mailing list, you may do so on my web site (http://aliceduncan.net/) or email me (you won’t be smothered in e-mails, because I only write one blog a month, and that’s an effort). If you’d like to be friends on Facebook, visit my page at https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925.

Thank you!