In addition to the paperback version available through Amazon.com and the STOLA Store, Wild Wings of Danger, second book in the Junior Handler Mystery Series, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, and all devices which can run the Kindle App.  This means you can read it on any PC, Mac, and most Smartphones!

Related posts:

1. Wild Wings on Amazon
2. New Kindle Version and Now On Nook
3. Exciting “Wild Wings” News

Just a brief update to let you all know that Wild Wings of Danger, the second novel in the Junior Handlers Mystery Series, is now available on Amazon.com!

Related posts:

1. Wild Wings of Danger Author’s Proof
2. Wild Wings on Kindle
3. Exciting “Wild Wings” News

The author’s copies of Wild Wings of Danger, second book in the Junior Handler Mystery Series arrived in today’s post.  I guess I don’t have to tell anyone how exciting that is!

I’ve already pretty much got all of these copies assigned homes, but that’s okay.  There are plenty more where these came from.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of the paperback, or of the first book in the series, The Corpse That Wasn’t There, just click the image.  That will take you to the STOLA Store, which is premiering the book.

By purchasing through that venue, you’ll also be donating a portion of the proceeds to help Salukis in need of new homes.

Merlin would like that.

Related posts:

1. Wild Wings of Danger Author’s Proof
2. Exciting “Wild Wings” News
3. “Corpse” Author’s Copies are Here!

Wild Wings of Danger, the first sequel to The Corpse That Wasn’t There, is now available to purchase in paperback format from the STOLA Store.  A portion of all sale profits goes directly to STOLA Saluki Rescue if you choose this option to purchase.

Watch This Space for availability on Amazon.com in both paperback and e-book format, Barnes and Noble for Nook, and other online sellers as well.

Visit the STOLA Store to purchase, or browse around at their other lovely items.  The Corpse That Wasn’t There can still be purchased through that site as well.

Related posts:

1. Wild Wings on Kindle
2. Wild Wings of Danger Author’s Proof
3. Exciting News! New E-book from Gayle

Well, he thought to himself, At this point in your life you’re always either too hot or too cold. He geared himself up for the first day of his favorite time of year. There was a bright smile beneath his bushy white beard: Let’s do it for the kids!

His favorite Elf, Lucy, who was an aide at the retirement home where Charles now lived, called out, “Merry Christmas!” and took the chain off the entrance aisle.

Charles and Lucy had been doing the Santa gig together at the local mall for over twenty years. For the past ten, the beard had even been real. The local residents said that Charles was the best Santa the mall had ever had, and he lived all year long looking forward to this event.

He looked out along the line of happy faces waiting to see him, grinned his best Santa grin, and shouted, “Ho Ho Ho!”

His third “Ho” rather fizzled out, though, because the large dark eyes peering up at him from the first child to climb the stairs were filled with tears. The little girl stood silent as the tears leaked out and ran down her already-streaked cheeks. She pulled a crumpled tissue out of her left mitten and wiped her nose before it started leaking as well.

“Well hello, young lady, what’s your name?” Santa-Charles asked, and reached out his arms to her.

“Ashley,” she said shyly, as he lifted her into his lap.

Unused to kids who arrived to see him in such a sad state, Charles wasn’t sure what to do. The child’s tears continued to fall. He glanced over at the Mom, who stood off to the side, looking worried.

The woman shrugged slightly and mouthed, “Sorry about that—“

Charles smiled through his beard, and patted the little girl’s back.

“Would you like to tell Santa what you want for Christmas, Ashley?”

She nodded. “I want my Chloe back,” she said, her little voice dipping into a whisper. She sniffled, and wiped her nose again with what was left of the tissue.

Lucy rushed over to hand the little girl a fresh Kleenex.

Charles glanced at the mom, but her eyes were closed, and she looked defeated.

“And who is Chloe?” Santa-Charles asked quietly.

“My kitty. She disappeared on my birthday and I want her back for Christmas.”

Charles had no clue what to do or say, so he asked, “And when was your birthday, honey?”

“Three days before Halloween,” Ashley said, and wiped her nose again. “Santa, can you find her and bring her home for me for Christmas?”

Now Charles started to worry he might cry, too. He caught the mom’s attention and motioned her up onto the dais.

“We thought bringing her to see you would cheer her up,” Ashley’s mommy whispered as she approached. “Finding Chloe is all she’s thought about for months. We couldn’t even get her to write a letter to San… to you, because she became upset when we explained that Santa brings toys, not lost kitties.”

“But Santa’s magic, Mommy, I keep telling you! You can do it, can’t you, Santa?”

Charles glanced toward Lucy for help, but she had her back turned to him and to the crowd, and he could hear her sniffling.

He gave the child a hug. “Honey, some things even Santa can’t promise. “

“Won’t you even try?”

“Well,” he said, choking up as the child’s tears grew larger, “Of course I’ll try, but—“

“Oh, thank you, Santa!” Ashley threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

All the rest of that day, despite the dozens of happy children who crossed his lap, all Charles could think of was Ashley.

When he got back to the home that evening, Charles went right to the home’s computer room. He found the local free-press paper’s website, and sure enough…for many issues back there was a running ad about a missing cat. It included a photo of a pretty shorthaired calico, and the ad said that Chloe was fourteen years old and had escaped through a door which was inadvertently left open. It had been a cold, wet Autumn, and there had been snow. The hopes of a fourteen year old cat surviving in that….

Charles didn’t want to think about it. That evening, he took a stroll out in the garden of the retirement home. There was snow drifting down, like sparkling diamonds from the heavens. Charles had not been much for praying most of his life, but he said a few prayers that night, his heart haunted by little Ashley’s giant tears.

On the way back in for bed, the wind picked up and the flakes increased. He stopped just outside the door, surrounded by such a sudden wild squall, that he was disoriented. He could see nothing but the snow, hear nothing but the wind in his ears. It whistled and whispered like voices in the white-out blindness, soft voices, high voices, like angels singing.

As his vision and his thoughts cleared, Charles shook his head and rushed through the door into the warmth and light. He was losing it in his old age—he must be! He scowled as he walked slowly to his room. He could have sworn he heard those snow-angel voices say, “Santa is magic.”

***

December Twenty-fifth. Charles sat in front of the fire in the retirement home great room, his feet cozied up in brand new wooly slippers his grand-daughter had given him. His belly was full, his heart mostly happy. Family had visited all afternoon, taken him out for a wonderful dinner, and Charles was feeling fairly content.

It had been a good Christmas…except….

For the last few weeks, a dozen times a day, the face of little Ashley had come back to Charles’ memory. He couldn’t help wondering what her Christmas morning had been like. Had her Mom and Dad bought her new dolls, a shiny bike, a video game? And had she turned away, weeping, because her beloved kitty was not under the tree?

He sighed as the clock struck seven, and returned to the book in his lap. Another Christmas gift from family, a murder mystery by his favorite author, but Charles hadn’t been able to get past the first page.

He tried to read a few lines, and gave up, closing it to stare quietly into the fire. It was bright and warm, sending soft crackling sounds to surround him like a lullaby.

“Charles?”

He started awake. Lucy was smiling down at him. She had tears in her eyes, but they sure looked like happy tears.

“Huh? What’s up, Lucy?”

“You have visitors,” she said, and stepped aside.

He looked past her, and gasped. There was the mom from the mall, and a handsome, tall man standing beside her. They had broad smiles on their faces, and Charles immediately knew why.

Before them stood Ashley, her face bright with smiles. She held in her arms a cat: an old cat, a happy, purring calico cat. The kitty wore a harness and leash, old and worn, which had obviously had a lot of use over the years. Charles had no doubt that it was the same cat whose photo had been in the newspaper ad.

“Thank you so much, Santa! But I didn’t know you lived here! I thought you lived at the North Pole!”

Charles was speechless, but Lucy giggled. “This is just a rest stop,” she said, sending Charles a wink.

“Oh! I knew you could do it, I knew you could find Chloe for me for Christmas! Mommy and Daddy kept telling me not to get my hopes up, but I told them Santa was magic!”

“Where did you find her?” Charles asked, and reached out to stroke the purring kitty. She was skin and bones, but obviously happy.

Ashley blinked, “Why…right where you left her, of course! Under the little pine tree with the lights on it, by our front porch!”

“Um, well, I—how wonderful!”

Lucy pulled chairs up and the family sat close by, where they could talk about Chloe and Ashley’s reunion.

“It really is a miracle,” Ashley’s mom said, as the little girl stroked the cat in her lap. “Ashley got a new sled for Christmas, but of course there was no Chloe under our tree—“

“Our inside tree!” the child interrupted.

“Yes, under our inside tree. It took some convincing to get Ashley to agree to go outside to try her new sled. She was trying to be happy but—“

“I thought you couldn’t find Chloe.”

The father continued, “Then, as we finally went out the front door, we heard this hoarse meow.”

“And there she was!” Ashley picked the cat up, hugged and kissed her, and settled her back into her lap.

Chloe squinted her eyes at Charles, purred, and began kneading the child’s knees.

The dad chuckled. “So, we’ve spent the rest of Christmas Day at the emergency vet. Chloe’s been pronounced in surprisingly good health, though she’s gone hungrier than she really should. The vet thinks she should be okay, though, after some recovery time. We sure wish we knew where she’s been!”

“We were going to take her right home once they were done,” Ashley’s mom said, “But Ashley insisted on stopping at the Mall to see if Santa was there. We just couldn’t dissuade her.”

The dad laughed, “The mall office told us where we could find you. When this child makes up her mind about something–”

“Yes,” Charles said, and scratched Chloe’s head. “Yes, I can see that.”

***

No, Charles really wasn’t much for praying, but that night he prayed quite a bit before he went to sleep….

…and every prayer was a Thank You.

Related posts:

1. Creature Thoughts, December 2011

The author’s proof of Wild Wings of Danger, the second installment of the Junior Handler Mystery Series arrived in today’s mail.  I’m so excited.  Artist Jenny Hawkyard’s artwork is absolutely fantastic, and I can’t wait to go through it, check for glitches, fix a few formatting issues, and report back to the publisher, Fehrman Books. When the first book, The Corpse That Wasn’t There, came out, it didn’t take much time at all between the proof and the actual printing.  Before we know it I’ll be reporting that “Wings” is on the bookshelves!

If you haven’t read “Corpse”, you may enjoy knowing that this series is about a group of kids, Junior Handlers, and their multi-talented show dogs.  Not only do readers get to follow the kids’ adventures in the dog show world, a certain cream Saluki named Merlin drags them through all kinds of other excitement as well.

In “Corpse”, we first met the kids and Merlin’s owner, Ree, began to realize the full extent of Merlin’s talent for sniffing out mystery and trouble.

In “Wings”, the Saluki hound takes that talent to a whole new level!  The kids meet new friends, and face new dangers, and learn about the fascinating (and sometimes risky) world of wildlife rehabilitation.

If you’d like to know more about the Junior Handler Mystery Series:

• Series Category here on Gazehound.com
• The Corpse That Wasn’t There
• Junior Handlers Mysteries’ Facebook Page

Related posts:

1. Exciting “Wild Wings” News
2. Wild Wings on Amazon
3. Wild Wing’s Author’s Copies

“The Leg” seriously dislikes the heat, so when the temperatures soar close to and above 90°, I head for the bedroom, the only room with air conditioning.  Since the computer is an old desktop sitting in the hottest corner of the house, that means that my time at work is limited, and of course the priority is time given to speaking with the many wonderful animals (and their humans) who come to me for help.

This means, naturally, that emails fall by the wayside, my writing time suffers, website jobs get put on the ever-growing to-do list in the “undone” category, and frustration abounds.

Then, within the past few days, serendipity crossed my path in the form of a laptop computer.  It’s not here yet, but will make life much more pleasant and productive on those hot days.  It still has to be paid for, of course, but the deal was a very good one, and the cause was just.  (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)  Being able to get more work done, more books finished and “out there”, and other beneficial endeavors will certainly see the new addition paying for itself in the long run, after all.  And my leg won’t cook in the process.

Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

The book I’m almost finished with at the moment is another novel, one unrelated to the Junior Handler Mysteries.  It was actually first written in the 1990s, and may still be a bit on the “dated” side in some ways, but I have done my best to minimize that.  I’m just waiting for a certain talented young artist who is very dear to my heart to finish the cover art, and I’ll be putting it through the publishing process.  “Watch this space”.

I have several others in the works, as well as rudimentary ideas for another non-fiction animal communication/animal wisdom book on a more focused topic.  I’m currently noodling over the best approach, but it’s looking more and more as if it will come to pass.  I’m liable to need some audience participation on this one.

The daylilies I moved up the hill in the spring, though they’re only a portion of the whole, are doing well.  They seem to like the new location.  A couple that were pretty but not overly enthusiastic down the hill are going strong up here.  I haven’t seen so many blooms, for example, on Wisest of Wizards before, and South Seas, which previously only put up a couple of blooms each season, has five thick, healthy scapes.  That is a later variety, and flowers haven’t opened yet, but the mid-season cultivars are now in full swing.

So, without further ado, some more photos for my fellow flower fans.  And yes, I realize the Hollyhock is not a daylily, and the sunset’s not even a flower, but I hope you enjoy the pictures anyway.

Related posts:

1. Daylily Pictures, July 14th and 15th

Daylily Season has just begun here in upstate New York.  In the spring, I began moving some of my daylily collection up here to Pop’s house, where we moved after his death.  Our other house, where my daughter and her partner now live, was the long-time victim of my obsession with Hemerocallis, the lovely Daylily. I had over eighty varieties, and probably close to a hundred actual clumps, planted down there.  I managed to get about twenty-something moved before my health fell apart again.  Gladly, those twenty seem to be doing well (better than their Mom, LOL), and are beginning now to bloom.  So, below, I’m going to begin sharing pictures for your enjoyment.

Getting photos has been a chore, as thanks to the leg and the fact that the leg threw out my back, until today I haven’t been able to get down the deck stairs to get decent photos.  Thus, a lot of these were taken from the deck with a telephoto lens!  Today, however, I did manage to make the arduous four stair climb to the yard, and H. Primal Scream, H. Demetrius and H. Siloam Double Classic (which opened it’s first flower as a single bloom) had their pictures taken from several angles.  Primal Scream’s first flower didn’t open in full splendor–that is one of my all time favorites, and when opening in its normal state, it’s a gorgeous, huge spider-like UFO form.  Still, I love it, and love the colors, so couldn’t resist getting some shots of it.

I’ve been doing some cleaning up of the website lately, because a recent WordPress update (which runs this website) broke several of the plugins I have used for a while.  One of those was the image gallery plugin, which I’ve not been able to fix no matter what I do.  Therefore, I’ve had to uninstall that photo gallery viewer, and have been going through old posts, finding spots where I’d used it, and replacing photos using WordPress’s internal image gallery function.  It’s not as fancy-schmancy, but at least people get to see the pictures.

In the process of those edits, I came across a number of my knitting journal posts, and realized that, due to one thing and another, it’s been quite a while since I picked up my needles.  That led to the thought that it’s July, and I had promised myself during last year’s rush to get stuff knitted for Christmas that this year I was going to knit all summer long and stockpile home made gifts.

The best laid plans….

The thoughts got me itching to knit again, though.  I’m most likely going to start by getting out the sock pattern I like so much, and brushing up on the process of knitting socks.  I hope the old muscle memory kicks in before I mess up too many pairs!

Maybe I’ll post some pictures as I go along.  It was fun looking back at my earlier efforts.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far, and that my U.S. friends had a nice Independence Day yesterday.  Devon and I spent the day home, due to me not getting around all that well quite yet, but Joe, Jess and Chris were at two different fireworks celebrations, and had a great time (even though Joe was working).  We did catch the Macy’s show here at home on TV, though.

Related posts:

1. Daylilies on a Cool July Morning
2. Doctors and Daylilies..and Birdies
3. Recent Knitting Projects

These bookmarks, four to a sheet, are in the form of a PDF file that you can print yourself. Feel free to save or print them as you like; they look good on both cardstock and photo paper.

Click Here to Download or Print

And if you would like to purchase a copy of the book::

Through Their Eyes, The Nature of the Beast

(E-book and Paperback)

For Amazon Kindle

For B&N Nook

Paperback Now Available!

Related posts:

1. Through Their Eyes Author’s Proof
2. “Corpse” Author’s Copies are Here!
3. New Kindle Version and Now On Nook