10 Reasons Why Every Writer Needs a Dog
Katie is my baby...well, she's actually a Bichon Frise, but as far as I'm concerned she's my baby. She loves me unconditionally, pines for me when I go out and jumps for joy when I return. Okay hubby loves me, but doesn't miss me if I’m gone for hours, nor does he jump for joy when I return.
Katie is thrilled with a piece of bologna..., hubby, not so thrilled.
Katie is content to sit beside me while I work...hubby prefers to watch ballgame.
Now let me share a secret, Katie is a replacement dog. She was adopted from a rescue center after my first Bichon died at the ripe old age of 18. My first dog was the love of my life and after I lost her, I was heartsick.
Although I had no interest in buying another dog, I finally decided that I could at least give a less fortunate pooch a home. While her predecessor was fluffed, puffed and adorable, poor Katie was shaved, newly spayed and looking like she'd just escaped a concentration camp ...how could I not compare this scraggly creature to the adorable dog I'd just lost? But God in His wisdom gives dogs something that people sometimes lack...the ability to keep on trying to win your heart regardless of rejection. Within the week I was hers.
Now, here are the Ten Reasons Every Writer Needs a Dog
1) A dog needs to
pee, so you are forced to take periodic breaks from the computer.
2) A dog happily
listens to that revised manuscript as many times as you want to read it.
3) On a cold
afternoon a dog in your lap keeps you warmer than a space heater.
4) A dog does not
expect you to actually cook dinner...a slice of bologna or take out is fine.
5) You’re always #1
on your dog’s best person list.
6) A dog doesn't
punch a time clock, they'll keep you company for as long as you work.
7) A dog will join
you in a lazy day nap, or stay in bed beside you if you're sick.
8) A dog will prevent
you from getting fat (they get half of every cookie!)
9) A dog eliminates
the need for a doorbell.
10) A dog will teach
you what unconditional love actually is.
But a word of
warning...once you fall in love with a dog it is a forever thing! I know. Trust
me, I know!
Title: THE TWELFTH CHILD
Author: Bette Lee Crosby
Date Published: May 2012
Be prepared to be swept away into the life of a girl who will tug at your emotions while never leaving your heart. Crosby has crafted a story that will enchant readers. Steena Holmes, bestselling author of Finding Emma
Trust, love and friendship—Abigail Anne Lannigan searched for these things all her life. Now, when she is at the tail end of her years, she teams up with a free-spirited young woman. A nobody from nowhere, who suddenly moves in across the street. This unlikely friendship comes under suspicion when a million dollars goes missing and a distant relative, claims embezzlement. Abigail knows the truth of what happened, but she’ll never get the chance to tell..
Reminiscent of Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes, the unlikely friendship of these two women is sure to settle in the soft spot of your heart.
THE TWELFTH CHILD
by Bette Lee
Crosby
(Excerpt)
Abigail Lannigan
Born – August, 1912
I was
barely thirteen years old when Mama died and left me and Will in the care of
Papa, a man who’d think nothing of shoving a dose of castor oil down my throat
just so he could watch my face turn inside out. “It’s good for what ails you,”
he’d say; yet, I noticed he never gave Will the same big dose. Papa didn’t say
it in precise words, but he made it clear enough he wouldn’t give two hoots if
all the girl babies in Chestnut Ridge, Virginia, were in the graveyard along
with Mama. Of course with him being a staunch Methodist, I don’t believe Papa
was capable of taking a butcher knife and slicing off heads or anything; but he
surely knew how to destroy people from the inside—a sliver of spirit, a piece
of pride, a chunk of heart—until one day there’s nothing left but a walking
around shell to do the cooking and laundry.
It’s a roundabout story, but Papa’s blind-sightedness is
the very reason Destiny Fairchild may end up in the Women’s Correctional
Facility—which is a fancy way of saying penitentiary. Everybody’s life could
have been a whole lot different if Mama hadn’t died before she got a chance to
set things right. She was the one to tell Papa there were two sides to every
story and he should have the fairness of mind to hear them all the way through.
Will, bless his heart, wasn’t the least bit like Papa; nonetheless, we’d get to
scrapping over something—who was smarter, who slacked on their chores, who said
what and who didn’t—and that’s when Mama stepped in. She’d make us sit at the
kitchen table and tell both versions of how the tussle got started. After
everything was all explained, she’d generally say we should be ashamed of
ourselves, fussing over such a bit of nonsense when here we were twins, born of
the same seed, a brother and sister, linked together for life. More often than
not, she’d dole out a punishment that involved standing in opposite corners of
the room and thinking things over for a while.
Unfortunately, Destiny didn’t have Mama to see to the
fairness of things before they got out of hand; besides, in her case there were
three sides, hers, Elliott’s and mine. Problem is, no one’s ever heard mine—not
even Judge Kensington.
Born in Detroit and raised in a plethora of states scattered across the South and Northeast, Crosby originally studied art and began her career as a packaging designer. When asked to write a few lines of copy for the back of a pantyhose package, she discovered a love for words that was irrepressible. After years of writing for business, she turned to works of fiction and never looked back. “Storytelling is in my blood,” Crosby laughingly admits, “My mom was not a writer, but she was a captivating storyteller, so I find myself using bits and pieces of her voice in most everything I write.”
Crosby’s work was first recognized in 2006 when she received The National League of American Pen Women Award for a then unpublished manuscript. Since that, she has gone on to win several more awards, including another NLAPW award, three Royal Palm Literary Awards, the FPA President’s Book Award Gold Medal and most recently the 2011 Reviewer’s Choice Award and Reader’s View Southeast Fiction Literary Award.
Her published works to date are: Cracks in the Sidewalk (2009), Spare Change (2011), The Twelfth Child (2012), and Life in the Land of IS (2012). Life in the Land of IS is a memoir written for Lani Deauville, a woman the Guinness Book of Records lists as the world’s longest living quadriplegic.
Crosby newest novel Cupid’s Christmas is scheduled for release in early October and following that, What Matters Most will be released in early 2013.
Website
Twitter - @betteleecrosby
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1 comments:
I loved this book as well...my post is up on November 15.
Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
http://silversolara.blogspot.com
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