Miss April In Paris Has A Fan

 

Skipper likes April's Diary!

 

 

 

Writers like to hear someone has enjoyed their story. I am no exception. So I was thrilled to get the following e-mail (see below) from a stranger who loved my latest book and let me know. Thanks so much, Sharon Gilbert, for my lovely review and the pictures of Skipper. April is smitten with him! Sharon won a copy of my book while I was on a blog tour with WOW! Woman on Writing. I treasure this note.

 

Remember, proceeds from the sale of A Dog Dreams of Paris go to animal rescue. Available on Amazon.

 

 

Barbara,

 

Thank You so much I received my book today that I won from Oh My Dog (Maggie Marton) contest! I had to sit right down and read the book before I did anything else. I LOVE LOVE your book A Dog Dreams Of Paris. The pictures are so magnificent. The story from Miss April's view was so amazing. I have triplet grand children and next time they are in town and I going to read the story to them.  Two of them are girls and they will love the pictures of the dogs with hats.  They love wearing hats. I am sure the boy is going to laugh his butt off when I read them about the dogs sniffing butts.  They have 2 black lab/great pyrenees (they are rescued siblings - girl and boy) and they are always sniffing butt. I have 2 Vizslas and 1 is a rescue.

Again Love your book!

 

You are an amazing writer.

 

Sharon Gilbert

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Sharon and Skipper! You made our day.

 

                                                                      Barbara and Miss April In Paris

 

 



Celebrating Bastille Day Doggie Style

Miss April in Paris

 

 

 Welcome to the Writer With Dogs Bastille Day Blog Party

 

This post is part of A Dog Dreams of Paris blog tour with WOW! Women On Writing. Click here for the kick-off interview on The Muffin and the remaining stops on the tour, which ends July 24th.

 

 

 

 

Miss April in Paris has enlivened this household of one human and six dogs. The human stays active, but six dogs are pretty much couch potatoes. The excitement of the publication of April's diary has caused a stir with the hounds. They have been following her blog tour and wonder if perhaps sometime down the road they will each have their own book. Time will tell on that one. However, time is important today. . . . Party time that is, as the dogs plan to celebrate Bastille Day!

 

"I've never heard of Bastille Day." Chloe, the alpha Chihuahua, exclaimed as soon as the party was brought up. She was slightly preoccupied with her fake mustache. It tickled her nose.

 

"It's simple," Diva dog Miss April in Paris explained. "Bastille Day, the French national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille, which took place on July 14, 1789, and was the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a prison and a symbol of the power of Louis the 16th's Regime. By capturing this symbol, the people signaled that the king's power was no longer absolute: power should be based on the Nation and be limited by a separation of powers. The French celebrate Bastille Day each year on July 14th, with parties, parades,  food, drinks, dances and fireworks!"

 

"Do we get dog bones?" Bray, usually reserved and shy, was excited at the thought of more food. He slipped into a pair of cool shades and helped himself to a frosty beverage.

 

"Yes, and special drinks. Now, doesn't that taste yummy?" Diva April snorted, a very unladylike gesture. Perhaps she had already had a few of the special party drinks.

 

"I love music," Annabelle stretched on the couch, her big belly pointing up at the ceiling. The sound of a favorite pop song Uptown Funk got her up and moving. "I can make a run to the store if we need anything." While she didn't drive, Annabelle loved to ride in the car with the radio blasting tunes into the universe.

 

Rascal's eyes rolled. Her blue eye (for she has two different colored eyes) winked at April. "Are you wearing that old pink hat again?"

 

"It's my Diva hat. It's the hat that started my story. And yes, I am wearing it. You can have one of those silly party hats on the table."

 

"Gladly," Rascal yawned, then raced across the room to grab a hat and a party drink.

 

"Count me in, too!" Bertha rambled over to the table to find a pair of party glasses, both to wear and to drink from. "Let the party begin!" Bertha was especially social. She looked at her drink and wondered if perhaps she should have put the lime in the coconut. Then she barked, a loud piercing sound and shook her head, her funny mustache mixing with saliva dripping off her chops. Bertha took a sip out of her coconut and toasted the day.  "Viva La France!"

 

Before the party gets too rowdy, the dogs posed for their Bastille Day portraits.

 

Chloe

 

Bray

 

Annabelle

 

 

Rascal

 

Bertha

 

 

Wishing all a happy Bastille Day. Party On!

 

Martha Conway, Author of Thieving Forest, and Her Dog Nico

 

Nico, Martha's golden doodle
 

Meet author Martha Conway and Nico today on Writer With Dogs. This post is part of the author's book blog tour for Thieving Forest with WOW! Women On Writing. Link back to Martha's original interview on The Muffin and follow the tour, dates and stops listed below.

 

Nico and Mini Me

I still have dreams about Willie, my childhood dog, who went with me to deliver papers on my paper route and often got tips (usually bones) from my customers at Christmastime when I did.

Willie was a mutt; my current wonderful dog is a golden doodle named Nico, whom I think of as a mutt, too. Sometimes she looks more like a teddy bear with her overgrown curly fur (technically hair, I guess), which nearly covers her eyes. As a city dog, Nico isn’t allowed to run down the sidewalks without a leash, which is fine because I don’t deliver papers anymore. But like Willie, Nico is as kind and loyal a dog as you could want.

About three years ago when I broke my leg skiing, I had to lie on a couch for two full months, and then for two months after that I still used crutches and couldn’t drive. I was basically housebound for four months. Having Nico lying on the carpet next to my couch every day for sure saved my sanity. I rigged up my laptop and bought a lot of music and worked non-stop on my novel, feeling a little like Margaret Mitchell when she wrote Gone with the Wind. (Apparently she grew up with a collie dog named “Colonel” after Teddy Roosevelt.) 

There’s no better way to write lots of pages than to be forced to stay sitting for hours on end. However, during that time I couldn’t get up and do research, like go for walks in the swamps and woods of northern California (my novel takes place mostly in the wilderness). But in a way Nico was my research. My novel has lots of animals in it —wild animals, for the most part, and very unlike my lovably cowardly dog— but animals that I needed to think about and describe. I spent a lot of time watching Nico: how her nose quivered when she was trying to work something out by smell (her first line of questioning); how her ears lay back when she was looking at a bird out the window; the way her muzzle dripped after drinking water.

 

I think I may have even added a few more animals to my narrative because of her!

 

Both Nico and I were overjoyed when I was able to take her out for walks again. Nowadays she will wait pointedly at the front door if I let too much time go by before I take her on her morning walk.

 
However, broken leg or no, during the day Nico is still my “mostly companion,” as Eloise at the Plaza Hotel said of her nanny. I truly feel that my dogs, both Willie and Nico, have always taken care of me. Nico barks too much and she jumps up on people coming into the house, but I can live with that. She knows when to lie by my side and give me that needed sense of companionship, and she wags her tail whenever I enter the room, even if her back is to the door.

 

I wish I could do that.


About The Book:

FIVE SISTERS. FOUR ARE KIDNAPPED. ONE GOES AFTER THEM. ALL THEIR LIVES ARE CHANGED FOREVER.

 

 

 

Buy On Amazon and Kindle

 

On a humid day in June 1806, on the edge of Ohio's Great Black Swamp, seventeen-year-old Susanna Quiner watches from behind a maple tree as a band of Potawatomi Indians kidnaps her four older sisters from their cabin. With both her parents dead from Swamp Fever and all the other settlers out in their fields, Susanna makes the rash decision to pursue them herself. What follows is a young woman's quest to find her sisters, and the parallel story of her sisters' new lives.

The frontier wilderness that Susanna must cross in order to find her sisters is filled with dangers, but Susanna, armed with superstition and belief in her own good luck, sets out with a naive optimism. Over the next five months, she tans hides in a Moravian missionary village; escapes down a river with a young native girl; discovers an eccentric white woman raising chickens in the middle of the Great Black Swamp; suffers from snakebite and near starvation; steals elk meat from wolves; and becomes a servant in a Native American village. The vast Great Black Swamp near Toledo, Ohio, which was once nearly the size of Connecticut, proves a formidable enemy. But help comes from unlikely characters, both Native American and white.

Thieving Forest explores the transformation of all five sisters as they contend with starvation, slavery, betrayal, and love. Fast-paced, richly detailed, with a panoramic view of cultures and people, this is a story of a bygone place sure to enthrall and delight. 

 

 

Meet The Author:

 

 

 

Martha Conway has taught fiction at UC Berkeley Extension and at Stanford University’s Online Writer’s Studio. She tweets ten-minute prompts and exercises every day on twitter (#10minprompt, #WritingExercise) via @marthamconway.

Martha’s first novel 12 Bliss Street was nominated for an Edgar Award, and her short fiction has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Mississippi Review, The Quarterly, Folio, Puerto del Sol, Carolina Quarterly, and other publications.

She graduated from Vassar College and received her master’s degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She has reviewed fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Review of Books, and The Iowa Review, and is a recipient of a California Arts Council fellowship in Creative Writing. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she now lives with her family in San Francisco.

See Martha's Blog Tour schedule below and links to her website, Amazon site, and social media.

Martha Conway Blog Tour Schedule (as of 9/4)

October 13 at The Muffin  http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/  interview and giveaway

Oct. 14 at Writer with Dogs http://writerwithdogs.blogspot.com/ guest post

Oct. 15 at All Things Audry http://allthingsaudry.blogspot.com guest post

Oct. 16 at Book Talk www.barbarabarthbookblog.blogspot.com/ author showcase

Oct. 17 at Deal Sharing Aunt http://dealsharingaunt.blogspot.com/ guest post and giveaway

Oct. 19 at Writer Unboxed www.writerunboxed.com guest post

Oct. 21 at Katherine Hajer http://www.katherine-hajer.com/ guest post

Oct. 22 at Caroline Clemmons http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com guest post

Oct. 23 at Renee’s Pages www.reneespages.blogspot.com guest post

Oct. 24 at A Writer’s Devotion http://www.awritersdevotion.blogspot.com/ interview

Oct. 27 at Katherine Hajer http://www.katherine-hajer.com/ review

Oct. 29 at Words by Webb http://jodiwebb.com interview and review

Nov. 3 at Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com interview

Nov. 6 at Escaping Reality Within Pages http://escapingrealitywithinpages.blogspot.com/ guest post, review and giveaway

Nov. 11 at The Lit Ladies http://www.thelitladies.com/ interview

Nov. 12 at Kathleen Pooler http://krpooler.com/blog guest post, review and giveaway

 

 

 

 

Links:  Amazon     Amazon Author Page   Author's Web

 Twitter  @marthamconway      Pinterest      Facebook

 

The Writing Process Blog Hop Tour

Australian writer, children's author, and poet, Helen Ross has tagged me in a Writing Process Blog Tour.  Helen is also an educator and workshop presenter. Check out her site and learn more about this talented lady from down under. You can read her post, on which I was one of those tagged, on the blog tour here .

Helen's children's books were featured on Book Talk on June 20, 2012. You can read that post by clicking here . I met Helen in cyber space when I found her delightful blog Helen Ross Writes in 2010, right after The Unfaithful Widow was released. I asked  her to review my memoir and we have been cyber friends ever since. I'd love to meet her one day in person and chat over Margaritas. Thanks Helen for tagging me in this tour. I am honored to be included!

(Do you think Helen's sweet kitty looks a little nervous to be on a Writer With Dogs blog? We are pet friendly here and embrace cats and other author pets too.  Here kitty, kitty . . . you are purr-fectly charming. ) 


So what is this all about?

The Writing Process Blog Tour is simple. I answer four questions about my writing and then tag other authors to continue the tour and answer the same four questions on their blogs. Then they tag authors they know and it continues on . . . You can see who I've tagged at the end of the post. I am so pleased to bring this tour to the USA!


The questions!


1. What am I working on?

I am not moving as quickly with my writing as I usually do. I've become distracted like a pup with its head out a car window, smiling as the breeze blows across my face,  just enjoying myself, going nowhere in particular. Perhaps my excuse is it's summer. But then . . . other seasons have their own sirens. Maybe I am just a bit tired!

Writing my first novel was exhausting for a gal who is used to short essays. Danger In Her Words was released February 2014. I've completed a month long blog tour with WOW! Women On Writing to promote my book online.  It required different interviews and one-of-kind posts I had to write on topics such as; the healing power of dogs, girlfriends, how to make a book trailer.  I've just revamped the format for this blog. I've updated my website.  All of that is very exciting - but it is not pulling together the books I see ahead of me. Writing marketing material is not the same as completing a new book, but it is equally as important if you want anyone to see your work.

I still dream big. I believe your heart and mind should be full of possibilities - in doing so wonderful things are accomplished. My dreams include my dog memoir, a children's book, an odd little series on my Chihuahua Chloe,  and another novel with a sixty-five year old heroine designing her destiny. My goal is the dog memoir by mid fall. I have six dogs that are waiting for the moment of fame and I promised them their stories would be told. Perhaps I will stop sniffing the air out my window, as intoxicating and refreshing as it is, and get back to the business of my dreams . . . tomorrow. Today I want to be Scarlett, tomorrow I will want to be a writer again.


2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

The one thing I focus on  . . .  dogs. My personal essays are chock-full-of-dogs. I've written short stories that revolve around dogs. My novel had a very spunky little pup that helped save the day. Perhaps my work is overrun with canines more than most.


3. Why do I write what I do?

Non-fiction memoir - It's cheaper than therapy. It clears my head. It's a social process. I live alone with six dogs so writing is my way of communicating with the world. I started writing when my husband died and found that it gave me purpose. I think writing from the heart, be it about sorrow, or joy, or dogs, is a way to reach out to others and form friendships that would never have been made in my daily life. Nothing makes me happier than to have someone comment on what I've written or contact me directly. Those are the perks of writing I love. I live a fairly simple life - which sounds bigger than it is on paper - but I like to journal about it. As one who talks about everything - writing about everything - seems very natural. I write because I have to, it brings me pleasure and I hope my stories do the same for others. Fiction is a different critter for me and I am trying to get a leash on it.


4.  How does my writing process work?

I don't have a schedule - and I mean any schedule. I am retired from my career with the federal government and my time is my own - except for the doggie demands. In the morning after I run them into the yard - because they gang up on me about 7am for breakfast - and are relentless until I get up - I grab my coffee and sit at the computer. Most mornings I work on my blogs that promote other authors or do PR of some sort. My personal writing is more an evening thing - a late evening, early morning thing. I am up usually until 3am.

The most amusing aspect of my writing (to me and I recently discovered this about myself, although I knew it, just didn't acknowledge it) is that when I write my personal stories - I have to post them somewhere. That is why I have so many blogs - both public and private. I write on my blog, correct it until I am happy with it, and have to find graphics to go with the post. I was just part of a 24 Day Health Challenge  - where we were to keep a journal. I couldn't write until I set up a private blog, gave it a header, backdrop, and illustrations to go with each entry. That is when I realized I was blog crazy. The good part - my blogs are my online files - so when I need something - I know where to find it.

Writing fiction - short stories- or my first novel - is all done in Word and kept in files in my Dropbox.


Next - Tag you're it!

The authors, artists who write and illustrate, and more below - have been featured on my Writer With Dogs blog or will appear here soon with their favorite canines.

I am stealing the lovely words of Helen Ross to take the pressure off those I've tagged. As she so gently wrote when she tagged me : Please do not feel you have to participate – quietly ignore if you wish. And if you are happy to participate, just do when you can do.

Tag and Go:  Valerie Connors, Beth Rommel, Jayne Martin, Kerry Alan Denney, Barbara Techel, Elizabeth Cassidy .

Remember the rules - take the four questions above, answer them on your blog, and tag more writers to do the same!

Thanks again Helen for including me in the tour!


 

Author Jayne Martin and Dixie

Dixie

 

Small Packages

 

Her name is Dixie.   She is a seven-year-old, 5.08-pound Chihuahua and yes, I’m one of those goofy owners who, on occasion, have been known to dress up their dog.   What can I say?   I was denied a Barbie as a child.  
 

Unlike me, she does not need an IV of coffee to wake up in the morning.   Her eyes spring open and she’s ready for the day.   It’s usually about 7:00 a.m.   I hear her stir and try to stay still as I can.   I do not want her to know I’m awake yet, hoping to get a few more minutes of respite from an increasingly crazy world.  I can feel her staring at me from her perch on my pillow, her breath at my ear, then her tiny tongue ever so lightly on the tip of my nose – and I’m screwed.   Just a one miniscule twitch, but that’s all it takes.   She pounces:  “I know you’re in there!”  I roll over and duck my head under the covers, but to know avail.  When the Chihuahua is awake, everyone is awake.  
 

Finally, I give in and out we go for her morning potty.   Dixie was very easy to potty-train because every time she peed or pooped I would always clap and shout “Yay, Dixie!”  I sometimes wonder what my self-esteem level would be if every time I peed someone would clap and shout, “Yay, Jayne!” but I’ve yet to find that kind of devotion.  
 

Into the kitchen we go to get her breakfast, Dixie prancing at my feet.   I get the can from the refrigerator, scoop out a large tablespoon onto a saucer, and stick it in the microwave for nine seconds -- no more, no less -- so that it is just the right temperature for the princess.   The sound of the timer going off sends her into a dizzying twirl of anticipation and joy known as the “Happy Dance.”   Dixie is the very definition of joy.   She’s exploding with the stuff.   This can be hard to take when you’re a natural born curmudgeon like I am, but damned if she isn’t winning me over.  Still no coffee and yet here I am smiling.  
 

As a puppy, Dixie was highly influenced by my elderly cat, Chelsea, who slept most of the day.  So Dixie eats her breakfast, then back to bed she goes leaving me to meander into my office to begin my day’s work.   For most of my life I was known as a “cat person.”   I preferred cats over dogs for the same reasons many do not – their complete indifference to what you think of them:  Feed me, clean my sand box and maybe, when and if I’m in the mood, I’ll let you pet me.  That’s something I can relate to, and yet another possible reason why I’m single.  But, somehow, this tiny creature has totally stolen my heart and I live to do her bidding.   
 

My work day ends promptly at six.   I know this not because I have a clock, but because every day, at just that moment, Dixie will bring her toys, one-by-one, into my office.  First, the purple bear.   She looks up at me with it in her mouth, her big brown eyes telling me it’s time to play now.   If I fail to respond, this will go on until her toy basket is empty -- the pink flamingo with one foot chewed off, the little yellow chicken with the broken squeaker, the “Grrrrrona” beer bottle complete with stuffed lime in the top – until finally I shut off the computer and engage in a rousing game of fetch.  
 

“Goooooooo get it!” I shout, followed by a shrill and rapid “C’mere, c’mere, c’mere, c’mere, c’mere…”  She never tires of this.  I will collapse before she does.  

 

Dixie also enjoys watching TV, mostly reality shows, “Underdog to Wunderdog” being her favorite.  I pick her up and she crawls up my chest, comfortably settling onto “the boob shelf.”  There is something about loving a little dog that is so visceral, especially when she is sitting right on top of my heart, her breath rising and falling with mine.   I cannot begin to describe how calming it is.   Okay, not a few glasses of Chardonnay or a couple of Xanax calm, but pretty damn near.   And you can still drive if need be.   

 Jayne Martin

 

Jayne Martin’s book of humor essays, “Suitable for Giving: A Collection of Wit with a Side of Wry,” is available in paperback and digital formats.  Her short story “The Heart of the Town,” won the Fall 2013 WOW-Women On Writing Flash Fiction Competition.  Previously, she wrote for television.  Credits include “Big Spender,” written for Animal Planet and available on Netflix and Amazon.  You can find her daily at injaynesworld.blogspot.com.

 

 

 

Available on Amazon and Kindle

 

 

 

Screenplay written by Jayne Martin

Buy on Amazon

 

Links:

 

Author's Blog

 

Amazon "Suitable For Giving"

 

Author's Amazon Page