The PUParazzi are HOUNDing us...

My dogs, Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald, have been a bit full of themselves the last few months.  Okay, so longer than that.  They were the inspiration for Curie and Clara in Everything But a Dog.  And when I was asked about covers, I sent the picture on the left along and the cover artist came up with the cover on the right.

Everything But a Dog

Every since they became cover models, they've been convinced they're celebrities.

I thought I finally made them realize they're just dogs, when there was a piece in USAToday's Happily Ever After Blog, a couple weeks ago.  They felt that proved that the PUParazzi were indeed hounding them.

According to my daughter, the dogs and I might be having a bit too much fun with their second brush with fame!!

Holly

PS.  Watch for my next novella, 13 Weeks, on October 26 and my next novel, These Three Words, November 24!

  

 

 It's snowing this morning…it really sets the stage for my newest release, Christmas in Cupid Falls!  Cupid Falls, PA is a fictional small town between two very really towns here in Northwestern PA, Union City and Waterford.  I love showcasing my region of the US.  I live in Erie proper.  Our city sits on the shore of the Great Lake that shares our name.  

Most of my books have been set in and around Erie.  I'm so excited to start a new series in a new town here.  As I wrote, I fell in love with Cupid Falls.  It's a small town with a big heart.  And I brought a readers' favorite in for a cameo…Nana Vancy from the Everything But… series.  In the final book of the series, Everything But a Dog, she adopts two dogs…dogs who were modeled after my dogs, Ethel and Ella.  They used my dogs as models for the cover of the book.  Yes, my dogs are cover models.  They've developed a rather overinflated view of their fame.  They keep waiting for the PUParazzi to start hounding them!  LOL

So here's a sneak peak at Nana Vancy's cameo in Christmas in Cupid Falls:

They reached the coatrack and all three of them pulled out their coats.

Nana Vancy smiled at him as she slipped hers on. She looked as pleased as if he’d aced a spelling bee. “Yes, my friends. I adopted Clara Barton and Madame Curie to help match Annabelle’s second cousin’s daughter by her third marriage once removed. Bela was so mad when I came home with the dogs, but they stole his heart. There have never been two dogs so loved. And when I decided that matchmaking people might not be my calling . . .”

Kennedy’s laughter couldn’t be contained at that. “From what you told me, there were a few glitches.”

Nana Vancy grinned as she nodded and admitted, “Just a few, kedvenc, but I did help bring together some very happy couples. But when I matchmaked Annabelle’s second cousin’s daughter by her third marriage once removed, who was a veterinarian—”

Kennedy laughed as she interrupted, “—with a man who was allergic to dogs.”

Nana Vancy said, “It all worked out, didn’t it? And I discovered my true calling was matching dogs to their forever homes. And with help from family and friends, I started Everything But a Dog Foundation.”
That was a long story made longer, Mal thought but didn’t say out loud as they walked out onto the sidewalk. He glanced to make sure that Kennedy had zipped up her parka against the cold.

She caught him at it and glared at him. He didn’t need the words to know she was telling him she could look after herself.

He sighed. This time it wasn’t only Kennedy who looked at him, but Nana Vancy, too. She pointed down the street at a big man with two dogs. A large black one and a much smaller white one that had a very sausage-like build.

Mal looked at the big man smile as the tiny woman approached him. He wasn’t a romantic by any stretch of the imagination, but when Nana Vancy’s Bela joined them with the dogs, Mal could see how much love there was between them. It reminded him of Clarence and Joan. Or his grandfather and grandmother.

Nana Vancy walked up to the big man and their bodies brushed, as if drawn together like magnets.

“Kennedy, Malcolm, this is my Bela.” There was pride in her voice . . . and love.

“Bela Salo,” he said, shaking their hands.

“And this is Madame Curie.” At the sound of her name, the black dog sat down and offered them her paw.

Kennedy knelt down awkwardly and took the paw. “Aren’t you a beautiful girl?”

The little white dog, not to be outdone, jumped up at Kennedy, anxious for some affection, too. But Kennedy’s center of gravity was extremely off because of the baby. The small dog hurtling in her direction was enough to topple her, but Malcolm sprang forward and grabbed her under her arms, steadying her.

She looked up. “Thank you,” she said, then turned her attention to the demanding sausage-like white dog.

Nana Vancy shot him a look that made him feel like a bug under a microscope, then she said, “And that rude dog is Clara . . . Clara Barton. She has no manners and very little brains.”

Bela looked slightly insulted on the dog’s behalf. “But she is all heart, that one.”

As if to prove his point, Clara was busy kissing Kennedy, who hadn’t asked Mal to remove his hands, so he continued to steady her as she continued to kneel by the small dog.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!  And that it's filled with love, family and a whole lot of fun!

Holly

Truth in Fiction

Blasco Library, Erie, PA

National Library Week is April 14^th through the 19^th.  I've been invited to talk at our local library as part of 

their celebration.  I’ll confess, I am thrilled.

I’ll be talking about incorporating fact into my fiction.

Here’s the thing, I love including fact in my fiction.  Most of my books are set in, or around Erie.  Why?  Because I love Erie.  I love bringing my hometown onto a national, sometimes even and international stage.  My new series talks about the Lake Erie Wine region.  Yes, I had to do research…lots and lots of arduous research. 

But more than settings, I write about subjects and issues that touch me.  Many of my books have dogs in them.  I have dogs.  I know dogs.  Most days I like dogs.  (My dogs were the stars of my December book, Everything But a Dog…they keep waiting for the PUParazzi to hound them.  Alas, they haven’t been hounded yet.)

So many of my books have babies and kids in them.  I have kids.  I know kids.  Most days I like kids.  

Family. 

You Are Invited...
SuperRomance, 4/13

I think that’s the most common theme in my books.  Even when there are no kids present, family always is.  Maybe it’s a hero or heroine’s parent(s).  Maybe it’s friends that have gone beyond mere friendship and moved into the realm of family. 

When I’m asked why I write romance, I say, it’s about the relationships.  It’s fascinating to take two people and watch them find their way to each other, overcoming all obstacles in their way…and there are always obstacles.  I make sure of that. (This is where I insert my very evil writer laugh, bwah ha ha.)  But so does life...it's a big element of truth in fiction.

April Showers
SuperRomance, 5/13

I think that’s why family is such an important theme for me…I love watching the dynamics of how those families function and how they impact that hero and heroine’s journey to love.  My new Valley Ridge trilogy is a great example of that family reality in fiction.  In the first book, You are Invited... the heroine loses a friend who is definitely her family.  She needs to form a new family with her friend's children...and the hero.  In the second book, April Showers, the heroine forms a bond with an elderly man.  He starts out as her landlord, then becomes a friend, and finally becomes family, as surely as those people who share her DNA.  And finally, in the third book, A Walk Down the Aisle... Well, if I tell you how I explore family in that one, I'll be giving too much of the story away.  Suffice to say, yep, it's in there.

Going back to my mention of libraries, the heroine in my December book, the fourth Valley Ridge book, A Valley Ridge Christmas, is a librarian.  I’ve been lucky to have so many wonderful librarians who impacted my life.  I wish I remembered all their names, but I do remember the librarians who came on the Bookmobile every few weeks.  They discovered I was a bookworm and would frequently have a book or two stashed away for me.  And then there’s Miss Kitty.  She was the story lady at the children’s library when my kids were growing up.  All four kids remember her with such fondness.

A Walk Down the Aisle
SuperRomance, 6/13

Truth in fiction.  It’s in every one of my books.  Both the comedies and the dramas.  There’s settings.  There’s exploring what a family is and how it functions.  There are even dogs and the occasional cat.   But mainly there’s love.  And at the heart of all my books, that’s the main theme…love.  Love of town.  Love of pets.  Love of family.  Love of that one special person who despite all the odds, you’re destined to be with.

Holly