Darlene's Digest

Regular readers of this blog may recall that Diva #Dachshund Dodi was entered in the Halloweener Derby last year, an annual fundraiser sponsored by Climb for Cancer Foundation. Her performance was memorable. We practiced for weeks, racing up and down the hall at the squeak of her favorite ball. She was in top form, fighting trim. Comes the day of the race Dodi is weight matched against another doxie, I'm at the finish line with treats and toys to lure her, the announcer says "Go!" and they're off like a shot. One dachshund, anyway. Dodi sits on her furry little butt and looks around. People are yelling and laughing and I'm at the finish line calling, "C'mon, Dodi! Treats!" and she just sits there enjoying the view. I must admit, it was mortifying. But I was willing to try again. We signed up for the race, began our training regimen (cue "Rocky" theme...) and I knew this year she'd bring home the gold. A year older, a year ...

The pups were in the scullery and Mattie sat amidst them on the floor as they frolicked about her looking like animated snowballs. Their mother watched them closely, but Daphne came over and hummed to her, scratching her behind her ear, and the dog relaxed. Coquette’s coloring was more varied than Pompom’s, as she sported dark tan ears, a pattern carried over onto some of the pups. Most of them left Mattie to mock-fight among themselves, but one, the smallest of the litter, ran at Mattie, pounced on her gown, then jumped off. He hunkered down on his chest with his bottom in the air, tail wagging as he yipped in joyful play. Mattie scooped the little clown up and covered him in kisses as he squirmed in her hands and tried to lick and bite at her chin. She looked up at them then, her blue eyes wide over the dog’s head. “Oh look, Papa! Look, Miss Burke! It is our puppy!” Lydia leaned over and said in St. Armand’s ear, “ I am not going to tell her she can’t have that puppy.” --The Pira...

We were blessed to have our previous dachshund, Yofi, for 16 wonderful years. You can find older posts in this blog where I refer to Yofi as "my muse" because she'd sleep in my office, and tolerated my reading my manuscripts aloud to her. She'd also help me break through sticky plot issues. We'd take long walks, and this freed up my mind to explore new directions with my writing. Sometimes I feared I was rushing her home to get to my keyboard, and I had images of her flying behind me like a wiener dog shaped kite. Now we have Dodi, nine months old (picture) and settling into her routine. Today on our walkies I suddenly saw a whole new direction which includes pirates  for troublesome Book #9, and I knew where I needed to go with this story. It's good to have my muse back again.

It was a strange morning. Now that I've got  three books in my backlist available again ( Captain Sinister's Lady, The Bride and the Buccaneer, Smuggler's Bride ) and I have What the Parrot Saw under consideration by TPTB, I started work on Unnamed Book #9. Kind of like the unnamed Tropical Depression #9, but my book won't be called "Ian" or "Hermine". Anyway, I started to jot notes on the as yet unnamed hero and heroine for Book #9. Spent a good hour working on personality traits, location notes, what the MacGuffin is, etc. Then the diva dachshund disturbed me with her tennis ball. One must obey the doxie directives, so I got up to toss the ball a few times and (ha!) wear her out. After about the fourth squeaky ball event, I found myself thinking about a totally different novel. One I'd thought about a few years ago. One that linked to my other Regency Pirate books ( The Pirate's Secret Baby, Castaway Dreams , etc.) Suddenly, I knew what...

I'll be honest. I didn't want a rescue dog. Our beloved Yofi, who passed away in 2014, came to us from a family breeder. We could meet the mama and papa doxies, see the littermates, observe her at play. We knew she came from good stock. With a rescue, I'd be taking a chance. However, I felt an obligation to at least check it out. So a year after Yofi's passing I submitted an application to Florida Dachshund Rescue . I was immediately impressed by their rigorous vetting process for new doxie owners. We had to have references, a home visit, and answer questions about dachshund care and ownership. This was a far more comprehensive process than I'd have received from some breeders. I could be specific in what I was looking for: smoothcoat, under 15 lbs. grown, female, all doxie. After our application was processed I was put on a waiting list, and I knew it could be a while before I found my match. Sadly, older, sick dogs all too often end up at rescue organizations....