Teaser Tuesday

I am beginning a new weekly series entitled Teaser Tuesday. Each Tuesday, I'll be providing a short excerpt from one of my books.

This week's teaser is from Secrets of a Dangerous Woman. Irishman Dylan Maguire, a CIA operative, is speaking with Vicki Boyd, his lover and a CIA psychic spy.

"What was that text message really about?" Vicki asked.

"Sam," Dylan said. "I'm on standby tonight."

"For what?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I never know what he's gonna have me do. Sometimes I'm injurin' a man just to hear him talk. Other times I'm pretendin' to be someone I'm not..."

"We need to talk."

"Ooh."

"Why'd you say that?"

"I didn't hear m'self say anythin'."

"Yes, you did. You breathed strange."

"Are we micromanagin' the way I breathe now?"

"No."

"Okay, then."

"There's something on my mind."

"Ooh," he said.

"There you go again."

"It's just when a woman you're livin' with says there's somethin' on her mind in that tone o' voice, it can mean only three thin's. She wants a ring. She wants a baby. Or she wants somebody to move out. And it's usually not 'er."

Monday Musing Maggots

Like so many people I know, I've owned dogs just about my entire life. I grew up in a time before heartworm medicine, before a monthly flea treatment really got rid of fleas, before tick medicine prevented ticks. It was a time when we bought flea powder at the grocery store...

Yet, we always treated our pets like they were family. My dad used to make an ice cream cone and then held it while his Scottish terrier licked it. I would ride my bicycle across town to pick up five cent cans of dog food for my cockapoo. And they never, ever had bugs in their food.

So in mid-October when I was at PetSmart in Wilmington, NC - 87 miles one-way from my home - I picked up a 34-pound bag of Pro Plan. It cost $43 on sale so it was far more expensive than the Sam's Club five minutes from my house charges for Member's Mark.

And it never occurred to me that it would be filled with maggots.

I have those specially designed dry dog food bins where I pour the food in and it closes with a seal-tight fit. I opened the bag, wrestled with it (since it was 34 pounds and bulky) and poured it in.

When I was finished and ready to put the lid on, I saw the maggots swarming in the food - and some with wings were trying to fly out.

I immediately enlisted my daughter-in-law's aid to hold the bag while I poured the dog food back into it from the food bin. You can see the maggots in the food and crawling over the lid in this video we made.



I called PetSmart who told me if I couldn't drive 87 miles back to their store (and spend $32 in gasoline to return the $43 bag of food) then I should contact the manufacturer.

I contacted Pro Plan and explained what happened. Their response:

Maggots are not harmful to dogs and it won't hurt them it they eat it.

Their factories were sanitized and the maggots didn't come from them.

However, they offered to send me a coupon for the next time I wanted to drive 87 miles to buy another bag of their dog food.

I went to the local pet store who does not carry Pro Plan. They gave me 10 pounds of Eukanuba for FREE so I could try it with my dogs and see if they liked it. I came back two days later and bought their largest bag. Now my dogs are eating Eukanuba.

I still have the 34 pound of Pro Plan in my garage, taped into the original bag and then into a plastic bag. The bin is outside drying after I spent thirty minutes cleaning and disinfecting it.

Lesson learned.

An Excerpt

Here's an excerpt from Secrets of a Dangerous Woman:

Brenda was taller than her sister. His chest touched her back as he leaned on the door, her hair brushing against his face and flowing downward nearly to the top of his jeans. She smelled of Vicki’s shampoo and Vicki’s perfume.

“Where the bloody hell do you think you’re goin’?” Dylan said.

She didn’t answer but continued facing the door.

“Put the gun down, Red,” he said calmly.

“Since you remember me,” she said, still with her back against him, “you know I didn’t have a gun.”

“I know that you’ve got me gun in your right hand. And I know as soon as you turn around, that gun is goin’ to be pointed at me chest.”

“Let me go, Irish. Don’t make me shoot you.”

“There are two things I won’t be allowin’ to happen. First, you’re not gonna shoot me with me own gun. And second, they won’t be catchin’ you with me gun on you. They won’t be tracin’ you back to me.”

She remained motionless and he could almost hear her mind racing. “I’m bad news, Irish. You and I both know it. It’s better this way.”

“It’s better that you stay here. You’re safe here.”

“What are you saying?”

“I think I just said it.”

“I’m turning around,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “And I’m handing you the gun.”

He moved slightly away from the door, dropping his arms from around her head as she turned around. He took the gun from her hand and set it on the kitchen table beside them.

“I wish I’d met you before she did. We would have been good together.”

His eyes followed her jawline, her full lips, a slightly wide, upturned nose, her high cheekbones, and a mountain of copper hair a man could get lost in. Then his eyes moved to her perfect brows, one raised slightly, coquettishly, before stopping to peer into her mesmerizing amber eyes. “We would have been dangerous together.”

Devotion

Today's guest at Book 'Em North Carolina is Marianne Evans, the award-winning author of Christian romance and fiction.


Evans’s novel, Hearts Communion, earned Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year honors in the Romance category and readers have lauded her work as ‘riveting’, ‘realistic and true to heart’ and ‘compelling.’ Evans has also won acclaim in such RWA contests as The Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence where she has been a finalist twice, and the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence.

A lifelong resident of Michigan, Evans is active in a number of a number of Romance Writers of America chapters, most notably the Greater Detroit Chapter where she served two terms as President. She’s also active in American Christian Fiction Writers and the Michigan Literary Network.

I hope you'll pop over to Book 'Em North Carolina and read an excerpt from Marianne's book. Then leave a comment -- Marianne will award 4 autographed print editions of Hearts Crossing, her award-winning novella and book one of her Christian inspirational Woodland Series (US/Canada only) to four commenters from this tour and her review tour, and a $25 Amazon gift card as a grand prize to one commentator from both this tour and her review tour.

Truth or Fiction

I am often asked how much of my own life goes into my writing.

I have to admit, more and more of it as I continue with Black Swamp Mysteries. Here are a few:

(1) I began keeping angelfish when I was writing Vicki's Key. I made Vicki's front as a CIA operative that of an angelfish breeder. Then my own angels began to breed - every time I wrote about it in Vicki's Key.

(2) One of my rescue dogs, a gorgeous collie named Simone, makes a cameo appearance in the Black Swamp Mysteries series as Sandy's dog (the next door neighbor.)

(3) I wrote in Exit 22 several years ago about a woman walking her Jack Russell and inadvertently getting in the way of a hired assassin - a year later, I would adopt my first Jack Russell, Eddie.

(4) Vicki's and Dylan's favorite place to eat in Lumberton, NC is The Village Station, which happens to be my favorite place here, also.

(5) I love the house that inspired Aunt Laurel's home in the series. And like Vicki, I would probably see ghosts there. Which is why I didn't buy it when it was recently for sale.

(6) The information about the tribal leader in Afghanistan in Vicki's Key standing up to the men who repeatedly robbed them "in the name of Allah" was based on a true incident.

Do you prefer a story that is completely imagination? Or do you like knowing the back stories and true inspirations behind the characters and scenes?

On Writing

Today I am visiting Lisa Haselton as I continue my book tour for Secrets of a Dangerous Woman. Lisa asked me some interesting questions, including where I feel my muse the most; what the greatest challenge is in writing my current Black Swamp Mysteries series; and what I am working on now.

I am often asked if I get writer's block and I can honestly say that I never have. The ideas seem to come from everywhere: every person I meet, every news story I read, every place I visit.

Do you ever experience writer's block? What does it take for you to feel your muse?

Please visit me at Lisa Haselton's, read the interview and leave a comment!

Cuddle Buddies

If only people could be more like dogs. What a wonderful world it would be!

Two of my dogs are Jack Russells: Lucy (with the red collar) and Eddie (with the blue collar.)

I adopted Eddie almost three years ago. He was found in a local dog pound by a Humane Society volunteer who combs the pound each week looking for dogs to rescue. He was limping and it was thought that he might have twisted his front leg. It turned out, he'd been shot.

After adopting him, I took him to a surgeon in Cary, NC, who reconstructed his leg and inserted a metal plate. He now acts as though he'd never been injured at all.

Eddie was the first to teach me how loving a dog can be even after having been brutally abused. Because of that, I am perhaps over-protective of the little fella.

Lucy is a new addition, having joined us this past summer. She was found by the same Humane Society volunteer. One day after rescuing her, she came down with parvo. Fourteen pounds when she went into the animal hospital, she was ten pounds when she came out more than a week later, having been fed intraveously as she fought for her life.

They are now the best of friends.

They sleep on my bed, one on either side of me. And on chilly mornings, I awaken to find one cuddled at my back and the other nestled against my stomach - and both under the covers.

I wouldn't have it any other way.