Archive | January 2015

Computer Virus–and First Day of Real Obedience Training

First, I hate people who create computer viruses. I know, we shouldn’t hate, but I HATE people who do that. I wish there was a magical thing that we could erect on our computers that if someone created a virus, for every computer they infected, the person who created it and sent it out to the world would end up with a human virus. So that means that they would  have millions of viruses wracking their body. Yep, If I could create such a weapon, I’d do it. They would be in the bathroom for days and weeks and months, depending on how widespread their computer virus was.

Now I feel better while I’m on my laptop, that is great for trips, but a pain to use at home because I don’t have a great way to sit and write on it, and I don’t know half my passwords, so when I go to create my blog for blogger for a multi-author blog I’m on, I don’t know what the  password is, etc, etc, etc. And I don’t want to create a new one, forget, and then have the same problem on my main PC.

Second, Max and I have been working with THE collar. We had a full day–on and off–every time we had to go outside to potty. And in the house on some commands.

The trainer told me that we don’t say ZAP the dog, but “touch.” Bull. You zap the dog. Lightly, if he doesn’t pay any attention to you and keeps pulling. A little higher setting to get his attention, etc. If he’s listening, I lower the setting. So when he’s moving with me and he’ll look up to see that I’m still beside him and he’s doing the right thing, the setting is going down. I’ll start it out low this morning, and when he doesn’t listen, I’ll increase the setting until he finally responds. What’s neat about this program is that their dogs are off leash and just stay with the trainers. They don’t run off and that’s one of the things you should be able to train them. It might take a while, but I think Max will get it sooner than later.

As for going for his dog poop, I was prepared. I still had it on the lower button setting, but at the highest number because he’s so quick that I had to react quickly and with enough of an emphasis to tell him no. He went for it. I zapped him, pulled him away, not hard, just enough to get him out of reach, but he was already moving away from it. So we’ll have to keep after it until he realizes I mean no on that nasty habit.

So he pulled, like he usually does. Balked about sitting, which he’s always been good about, but he doesn’t like the zapper, I mean, collar, to tell him to do it. But after the last time of going out last night, he was really good about following my lead. He tends to rush for the door to get inside, so we were practicing stopping, then starting so he knew that I was the one in charge of when he goes in.

Inside, he sat for me a few times with just the command and the collar. They said to use the collar always, even for commands he knows. Outside, I had to gently force his bottom down, which I’ve never had to do. *sigh* I’m sure it’s because outside there is a high level of distraction.

So we had to practice Come, as in walking the dog and getting it to follow my lead and stay on one side of me always. That’s fun. NOT. Because I also have to have Tanner on the leash. So I’m trying to get them both to stay on my right side and not criss-cross in front of me or get behind me.

Max is very white and has some silver and black

Max is very white and has some silver and black

We had to do: Sit, by command and collar. We had to practice Place. That’s where you have something slightly elevated off the floor and the dog gets up on it.  We practiced it on the individual lesson on top of a metal briefcase since the trainer forgot his cot. It was slippery and Max didn’t care for it, but I stood next to him and every time he’d climb down, I’d guide him back up with his leash, the command, and a collar….nudge.

I’m going to get a cot, because it will be more convenient at the dog training. But at home, I think I’ll do a variety of things so he gets used to if I don’t have a cot with me, and use anything, if I tell him that’s the Place, he’ll have the message down pat.

So at home, I brought out the Christmas wrapper box that is under a bed. I knew it would be slippery too, so I put the Christmas rug on it that has a skid free bottom, and perfect.

Place was not happening. Soooo, I tried place and then a treat. Now, I’m training Max, right? Tanner got what I wanted immediately, and jumped on top of the box and then Max. They were so cute. Both waiting for their treats.

Place, dash for the box, get on top, Sit, wait for treats. Then I did it a few times with no treats, and Come, so they’d come to me, Sit, and Place again.

For me, their kibble is as much a treat as a treat. So rather than feed them tons of treats, I can feed them their tiny piece of kibbles.

But it is funny when I see them both training and Tanner getting it first. I’ll do collar training with him later when Max has this all figured out. 🙂

As to my computer virus, hopefully Best Buy will have it fixed by Sunday.  I was REALLY hoping they’d have it fixed today since he said it would be easy to do.

Okay, off to work on edits. I’m so behind because I really can’t write on my laptop all day. I just don’t have a good set up for it at all.

Have a super Saturday!! 🙂

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

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Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Can You Really Do It?

I loved Yoda in Star Wars when he said, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

I always think of this when I’m writing a book. Not for me, but often for my characters. I’ll have where they’re going to try to do something, and then, no, they are doing it. Not trying. Oh, well, sure, sometimes they have to try because the doing might not happen.

But I love the concept.

My dad always said, “You can do whatever you put your mind to do.”

It’s true. We had so many daunting feats to accomplish when I was in training in Army ROTC. Scale walls without a ladder, when I’m just a little over 5’4″ and I’m not sure how tall the walls were, but they were LOTS taller than me. Now, before anyone says, women! We had guys who were just as short as us and we had to do buddy work to ensure everyone made it over. Or cross a water obstacle with only three boards, none of which were long enough to use, without getting wet. If you were the leader for those exercises and you left a man/woman behind just because he or she was too short to make it…or if you didn’t try to use the best resources available on the water obstacle challenge, ie, always ask the engineer student in the group and hope he or she had a clue, you were marked WAY down.

Now, we weren’t training to be elite forces, just in how to be leaders, because many of us were going into support roles, like me as a personnel officer. So no climbing tall walls in my normal line of work.

But if it’s really worth doing, then keep working at it until you get it done. Now sometimes, it’s just really, really not worth the effort. And then? Regroup and do something that is.

Training the puppies in proper behavior is my goal. If I don’t deter Max from eating his stool, he does it!!! I know it’s because the breeder just let all the dogs go out a dog door and he wasn’t ever supervised. So he was hungry, he’s always hungry, and hey, it’s his meal, fully processed. I know, totally gross.

I looked it up, love the Internet, and experts say that puppies will often do this. Tanner doesn’t. But I’ve always had him on a leash, and he does what a dog–in my estimation–should do, he does his little backward kick at the grass to “cover” it up and then he’s off to explore.

The problem with Max is that though I clean up the yard CONSTANTLY, at oh-dark-thirty in the morning and after 7 at night, it’s too dark to see where he’s gone. So in the morning in the dark, I try to take them to spots that they haven’t been the night before, because it’s again dark and I can’t tell what’s where. But I also have to really keep hold of Max’s leash because he’s ready to whip around and get his morning meal if I don’t yank him away from it. ugh.

And then there are the times that I think I’ve cleaned up everything, it’s hard to tell sometimes, and he finds a tasty treat. It doesn’t matter how much I shout at him or try to force him to drop it, it’s gone as quickly as he swallows his food. He’s so cute here. How can he be so gross? He’s a DOG, I remind myself. It’s perfectly normal to him.

Max and Down Training (2) (612x640)

*sigh*

I’m sure the collar training, a zap every time he grabs a piece, will deter him. Still waiting on the trainer to call for first training. I try working with him with just verbal good dogs when he comes with me and doesn’t go for the smorgasboard, but that’s so rare, that it’s just not working.

However, I WILL succeed! I have to. I will not try. I will do. Because it’s just too gross not to win in this battle between puppy and the poop.

Have you ever had something you have to do, and you feel you can’t do it? What have you done to keep after it until it’s finally accomplished, and you tell yourself, “See? I knew I could do it!”

Writing a book can be like that too. Daunting.

I have: Chapter One done. Just the Chapter heading.

Word count: 2

Words needed: 79,998

Where do I go from there? But deadline’s looming and I WILL write all the rest of those words before deadline, edit it a million times, turn it in, and start all over again.

Today, I will be at 55,000 on A SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble. I won’t try. I will be there. What a wonderful number that is compared to when I began with the two easiest words. Chapter One. And yet, I still have 25,000 words to go. Oh wow, now that sounds really great. I was thinking it would be more. Yes!!! I can do it! And I’m off to do it!

Have a super wonderful Tuesday. Mine just got even better!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

 

It’s Just Wrong…

Have you ever picked up the wrong food by accident? Or picked up something you thought would be similar enough because your regular brand is out? Which still makes it wrong because it just doesn’t taste right. Or the texture isn’t right?

I have some cereal like that. I’m eating it because I bought it and it’s edible. But it’s not like my regular brand. I think I picked it up because the other was out of stock for several days.

But one day I picked up chocolate milk by accident. Now, when I was a kid, I LOVED chocolate milk. Kind of like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Not today.

My daughter said, “Didn’t it look like it was chocolate milk?”

Some covers are more illuminating. I was mainly looking for low fat content. 🙂  But no, it wasn’t a chocolate container with big chocolate words and a chocolate dairy cow on it. 🙂

Now, sometimes covers can be downright deceiving. I buy the store brand/generic tomato sauce. Tomato sauce connoisseurs can probably taste the difference. Not me.  I did a taste test once. Tried all kinds of different fancy brands. They all were the same, as far as I could tell, or care. But all of the cans–tomato paste, sauce and stewed tomatoes have the exact same label. Exact same.  So you have to learn to read. 🙂  Because the title is the only thing that will clue you in. And the font is the same. So you really have to pay attention. I don’t like stewed tomatoes. 🙂

Now, I find that store/generic brands for canned fruit can make a difference. Sometimes the canned fruit for generic is hard and not cooked as well, I guess. Or not ripe enough, or something. So I buy the better brands of that, when I do. Or buy fresh.

And what brought all this on? My cereal. It’s awful. And I can’t wait to eat it up. I live too far out to bother returning chocolate milk to the grocery store, and I even tried to use it on my cereal, which is what I mainly use milk for. But….yuck.

🙂

And now I’m off to work on my word count. My puppies have learned if they sit at the makeshift gate, they get to go outside to potty. But they also sit there to tell me, “FEED ME.”

Training them to nap in bed

Training them to nap in bed

puppies and chew toys 014 (640x590) (2)Getting ready to go out

But if they sit by the fence, they go out. I’m not sure they’ve got it. I feed them when it’s time to feed. Not when they want to be fed, because that’s ALL the time.

Hmmm, I wonder if they’d like my yucky cereal?

Have a super great day!!!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

 

 

Not Everything is Black and White, but Sometimes Black and White is Just Right!

Not everything is 50 shades of gray, either. But, I often talk about how people truly aren’t all black and white. They aren’t all good or evil. They are all different.

I like color. Different shades and hues. Like a forest with millions of different colors of green.

When I see photographers take pictures and turn them into black and white works of art, I think it’s so cool. I’m not good at doing that.

Max Rubberbanded 006 b and w

But I decided to turn Max’s photo into a black and white, because he is black and white and when I take pictures of him in the house, they always turn him more cream colored. Or oftentimes.

So here is Max, before Tanner was chewing on his whiskers. Max’s hair is still in his eyes, but as it gets longer, it should be better. Thanks to Lin, who sent Max some smaller rubberbands that work much better.  🙂 <3

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Allergies…Argh!

I think we should have no allergies when it’s winter. Why shouldn’t the cold weather freeze out the allergens?

I think we should have no allergies when it’s raining. Rain should clear the air of all the allergens.

I think we should have no allergies when we take allergy medicines. The medicine is supposed to clear up the allergens plaguing our bodies.

As I have a sneezing spell–the puppies get excited whenever I sneeze because they think I’m playing–I know that none of this is true.

As tears run down my cheeks–not due to writing an emotional scene in a book–I know that all of the above is wrong.

As I can’t breath, or I use up box after box of tissues, and Tanner, if he’s on my lap, tries to grab one to play tug of war, I know that something isn’t right.

But just like any hero or heroine in my book, I must push through the tears, sneezes, and struggles with breathing and fight the more important battle. Writing that next scene and the next and the next.

Then when spring comes? Omigosh, that’s when the pollen count is supposed to be in force.

Right.

My property is totally flooded from the monsoon-like rains we had yesterday.

And this is how my puppies looked as we went in and out of it all day long. I learned: my waterproof raincoat isn’t waterproof. My jeans are more like a sponge. My feet get cold when exposed to 35 degree chill factor and constant rain. And that two puppies wrapped in towels on my lap, sleeping, while I made my word count for the two days in one, makes for a very wet dog smell, and made me even more damp.

Wet puppies on a Wet day

Wet puppies on a Wet day

Today it’s supposed to be dry out. Well, after the flooded land dries out. We had more accidents yesterday or near accidents, puppy style, because, though they wanted to go out, as soon as they remembered how wet and cold and windy it was, they’d change their minds. Not that that was going to deter me. I took them out anyway. They just didn’t want to stay long enough to do the 2nd business of the day. We did manage to go out a few times and get it right. I think it was only Tanner that had the accidents. I caught Max right before he did once.

The pink inner ear belongs to Tanner. Max is mostly on the chair, his head on my lap.

The pink inner ear belongs to Tanner. When Tanner gets bigger, there won’t be room for both. 🙂

And that was my wild and wooly day yesterday. I predict: Today will be much better. 🙂

At least I got caught up on my word count, Phantom Fae is out and I need to work on the print version, and it’s the start of a brand new day. 🙂

If you have dogs, are they fair weather, and when it’s nice out, they’re happy to explore, but when it’s nasty out, that’s better left to the wolves–that are used to that kind of weather?

And if you have allergies, are you suffering too? Or is it just me?

Terry

http://www.terryspear.com

http://www.celticbears.com

New Release: Phantom Fae!

Phantom Fae

Human turned phantom fae Brett has to survive mage trials when he has only just learned he’s a mage. And dragon fae shifter Ena is warned that the dragon fae kingdom is in turmoil, something that she vows to help put to rights.
When Brett is forced to fight alongside the phantom fae, which means take a stand against Ena and her kind, he’s not doing it. She will always have his loyalty, though when she learns he’s one of her enemy fae, and a mage on top of that, she might not feel the same about him.

Still, Prince Grotto is their common enemy, and if it means fighting him, maybe they can work together. Yet, Brett wants more than that with Ena. Will she ever see him as more than just a human fae seer she took as payment for rescuing the kingdom’s princess?

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SKCY59C

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/512923

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/phantom-fae

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/phantom-fae-terry-spear/1121100973

All Romance Ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-phantomfae-1732037-143.html

Google Play: Coming

Normally, I like to have a story that is ended, no cliff hanger because it frustrates readers when they don’t know when the next book is coming, and I never know when I can finish a book when I have so many other deadlines that absolutely have to be met: ie for a publisher.

With Hawk Fae, book 5, it had to be left like it was or it would have been two books in one. And truly, I loved the way it was ended, with resolution, but with something more devious going on coming up.

With Phantom Fae, book 6, resolution. I have two covers for two more fae stories, no idea where I want to go with them at the moment, or titles for them. But when I have some time, I’ll share.

Because I worked on finalizing this up all day yesterday, I didn’t have time to work on SEAL, so I’m behind, but I’ll hopefully catch up on word count today. I will be working on the Phantom Fae print version soon, but needed to get my word count for SEAL because it’s so much harder to manage when it gets really behind. Hopefully, I’ll be at the halfway point today, if I get caught up.

It’s been raining a lot, which is unusual in the winter, but we so needed the rain again. I slipped on the wet pavement when I went to take the dogs out at 4:45, so need to find a different pair of shoes that hopefully are less slippery, or figure out something else. I have a conference to go to in a little bit and I don’t want to be running around in airports on crutches.

Oh, and I had asked my editor if they’d be interested in a historical wolf story series some time ago because I love writing historical, but she said no. My wolves also have long lives, so often I slip some of the historical aspect into them. So I thought it would be neat to have two series, the historical ones and the contemporary ones. But when she said no, that was fine with me. A rejection means an opportunity to excel. With today’s publishing options, I can just smile and say, “Okay,” and go on my merry way and write the books of my heart anyway.

A couple of years ago I listened to a NY Times bestselling author who was writing a historical series, and she had this idea for a really cool Irish historical romance series. She was so excited to write it and her agent said if she tried to push it, he’d dump her. Now, she was a highly successful author and he was making a ton of money off her, but he was afraid if he didn’t squash this far out notion, she wouldn’t make any money and he wouldn’t. So she dumped him and got a new agent, sold the series, and made bestseller status on those books. We have to write what our heart tells us and hopefully our readers will love them every bit as much.

I wonder if the agent is regretting his decision. Even if the sales hadn’t taken off, the author had to do this. It’s what we do. Create. From the heart. And if that creativity is squashed, we end up hitting a brick wall of writing block.

Editors and agents will sometimes steer us in directions that aren’t right for us because they think that’s what the market wants. But we’re still creating the stories and we have to be able to write what we can to an extent because otherwise the story just won’t come.

So here is the cover, still need to come up with a series name and title, but I think for series name: Highland Wolf Clan. Not sure on title. It will be historical, wolf, Highlands.

And I thought this was such a fantastic cover, I had to buy it for the first book. 🙂

wolf Highalnder cover

That’s it! I’m listening to the rain, and it’s pouring out, typing this up, working on making the changes to SEAL that I worked on when I went to bed last night and then I’m off to write.

Have a super great Thursday. Puppies are sleeping on my lap and all is well.

🙂

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Obedience Training–the Consultation

Since Tanner is too little, until he has shots, to do the training just yet, I took Max. Now, we were early. Remember the: if you go early, you’ll be even earlier than you thought scenario? My GPS said it would take me 41 mins to get there and we were supposed to be there 15 mins early, just in case.

I was there half an hour early, and the trainer was talking to a man about his dog, so I took Max on a walk through the park. I could get used to that. Taking the dogs for a walk, especially once they’re more trained. Max looked like a bloodhound, Havanese style, nose to the ground, yanking this way and that. I knew that wasn’t acceptable, but the training I had taken in ye old days was to yank the dog back firmly and tell him to heel. I wanted to wait to see what the trainer said.

So as we were walking, Max didn’t notice the people, well, two kids bouncing balls, but he just looked at them, no barking. Yay! That’s one of his problems. Barking at people and dogs if they’re anywhere near us. So then as we were walking, OMG, a HUGE dog, couldn’t tell from the distance, but he was in a backyard and saw Max bouncing along, and the other dog starts his HUGE barking. He probably was a great dane. Anyway, Max immediately stopped whatever he was doing, looked around, didn’t see the monster dog, but decided he wanted in my arms. As if I could protect him. LOL

Anyway, the dog quit barking, Max was confident he was safe from harm and went back to walking.

Then it was time for the talk. Oh, did I mention he got car sick again? Argh. Poor baby. I hope they get over it soon.

Max is very white and has some silver and black

Max is very white and has some silver and black and a little tan

Anyway, so she said in their program they use a training collar. It zaps them just a bit to get their attention. Even though it might be a little scary to them, to me it’s better than constantly yanking them physically hard to get them back to your side as in the other training I had taken.

It truly was a miracle. He kept yanking away from her, nose to ground, at least he wasn’t scared of her. But then she’d send a message through the collar, and he’d turn to look at her. At first, his tail was tucked between his legs, but then it was riding high on his back, happy as can be and every time she used the collar, he’d turn, then return to her. She’d praise him, she’d let him go off, use the collar, and he’d return. It truly was amazing.

Okay, so then about the barking. At one point, she was beginning to very slowly bring him back to me, just a few steps, stop, and he was frustrated because at that point, he really wanted to get back to me. He was lunging, woofing, and she kept after him. And he would be fine, until some kids ran by with a dog, and Max started barking. So she used the collar, told him, “Quiet,” and it worked. She had to do it a few times, and then he was fine.

When we were sitting at the table, Max was on the cement floor next to me, and a family set up a picnic and of course they had a dog. So Max began to bark. She used the collar trick, he behaved right away. Then her dog, that was in training, lying on a mat, stretched and caught Max’s eye, so of course Max barked. She used the collar and he was quiet, and for the rest of the time we were there, he watched the dogs but was quiet. Then I lifted him into my lap and he curled up and went to sleep.

That was Obedience Training–the Consultation.

I enrolled him in 6 months of lessons. It was only $100 more for 6 months as opposed to 3, so I figured I’d do it longer. Now, hopefully I can work this in and my word count, etc, etc, etc. Tanner was too little to go to the park, not having all his shots yet. So I’ll probably take him later. He’s got a real problem of barking when I’m not in the room with him.

And that’s it! Off to work on Phantom Fae edits so I can publish this and then off to work on SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble word count!

Have a super great Wednesday!

Terry “Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.” http://www.terryspear.com Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble

Max is doing great! We had a good day yesterday. Some fans mentioned not to have rawhide chewies from China, and though the puppies never seemed to have a problem with them, I checked, and sure enough 2 packages were from China. One is from Brazil. So I threw away the ones from China. The one package, they never would chew on the sticks, too big. The others were perfect size, so I’ll have to find a substitute. Word count. One thing about writing action/adventure/conflictive scenes is that they are sooooo much fun. And I get a lot of word count because I’m in the scene, fighting the situation as the hero or heroine and having a blast. 🙂 So, that was lots of fun. And it’s a scene that I will love revisiting, whether it needs editing or not. And that’s how all our scenes should be.

This is where the puppies should be.

This is where the puppies should be.

This is where they are.--my lap

This is where they are.–my lap

Even so, I still have not caught up on my word count. Getting there and the other work is stacking up. So if I can get my word count today–I keep whittling away at it and today is only 4500 because I wrote a lot yesterday, so each day it’s closer to my daily goal–then I need to put out my newsletter about the new release and print out Phantom Fae to read and edit again so I can get it ready to publish. And that’s it! Oh, and while I’m writing a new book, I do tons of research. Since I’m hopping from cougar and jaguar shifters, to fae and Highlanders, when I return to another genre like wolves, I have to slip back into their persona. So when I was describing the heroine getting ready to lunge at the hero, I found this neat page that shows some wolf posturing. It says it’s kids only on the link, but hey, we’re all kids at heart, right?

http://www.timberwolfinformation.org/kidsonly/posture/postures.htm

Denali and Bolz looking toward camera

Denali and Bolz looking toward camera

Have a great Sunday! I’m off to work! Terry “Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.” http://www.terryspear.com Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Sick Puppy and Playing Catch Up

Max was throwing up all late afternoon, then got me up at midnight and didn’t make it outside for some of his other hurried business. But despite all the drama and cleanups, I managed to write 7,000 words. Then they wanted back out at 5 and so I stuck them in their crate for another hour of sleep afterward. But of course I didn’t sleep.

I was thinking of my next scene in the book. I left it at a cliff hanger. Heroine is in wolf form, lunges at hero. Normally, this means play time. In A Howl for a Highland Wolf, the heroine tackles the hero because he was late for a date and broke into her house, for good reason. But still, she was the perfect little guard wolf. In others, purely wolf play time. But in this one, she’s totally pissed off.

So that makes for a really fun, different scenario. 🙂 She’s brand newly turned. And what does that mean? A puppy that doesn’t know its own bite power, only she’s armed with adult WOLF teeth, which can crush bones. And he’s in his human form, so stopping an angry wolf makes it a tad difficult. I so love conflict. In my stories. Not in real life. I much prefer no drama. Like yesterday with a sick puppy.

You’d think that if a dog got sick on something, it would teach it not to eat it again. At least one of my dogs that I took in was not that smart. Every time she could get hold of any chocolate, no matter how much I safeguarded it from her, she devoured it and would be just as sick as Max. Didn’t matter. Next time, she’d do it again. I wish I knew what he got hold of. I have them both on leashes when we go out, but he’s tugging one way and Tanner’s tugging the other, so I have a time watching both sometimes.

Okay, so though I wrote a great number of words yesterday, I didn’t write enough. I needed 11,000 to catch up. That means 6500 today, at least trying, then I’m back on track tomorrow.

Max with his hair pulled back

Max with his hair pulled back

The little devil behind Max  that ruined his coiffure.

The little devil behind Max that ruined his coiffure.

Max has been so good to allow me to rubber band his hair. I still need little ones. This was a big one and I had to wind it around his hair a number of times to get it to be tight enough. He was sooo patient with me.

Then? You see the little devil dog, Tanner, an angel in disguise behind him, chewing happily away at a piece of rawhide? Well, later, they were playing and Tanner pulled out Max’s rubber band and bit it in two before I got it away from him and threw it out. *sigh*

For those of us who love to read romantic stories, I thought this was so cute.

SEAL Wolf Hunting

SEAL Wolf Hunting

This dude sat down next to me on train. He’s so romance novel handsome I’m going to assume he’s a rancher navy seal billionaire werewolf.

All I’ve got to say is I hope she caught her man! 🙂 <3

Okay, puppies sleeping for the moment, so off to finish writing the scene with the lunging wolf. Yep, there she is, mid-air and what’s going to happen next. That’s a real cliff hanger. Oh, and my editor always wants the first kiss by page 60. So I try to have it before because with edits, my pages grow and then I’m past page 60. Dumb, I know. The kiss should happen when the kiss is supposed to happen, not on some arbitrary page number. But still, I was worried about it when I was thinking of the lunging scene.  Have I missed the obligatory kiss by page 60????

Yes, see the dilemmas I have when I have a moment to contemplate the novel?

And OMG, yes, I missed it by 5 pages. I was thinking in the lunge he was going to have to kiss her. Wonder how I was going to do that. But now, can’t do it. It’s got to be at least 5 pages before that. Bummer.

Have a super great wonderful…Saturday? Whoops, need to write another blog. Have fun!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

http://www.terryspear.com

Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:

http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears

http://www.celticbears.com

Another Review for Jaguar Pride and Blogger Sites

A new review!!! Love it!

Heart of the Jaguar Series Collage

http://tometender.blogspot.com/2015/01/jaguar-pride-by-terry-spears-heart-of.html
Spears once again provides a hot tropical romance with sexy jaguars and other exotic animals facing guns welding bad guys.

This is a very enjoyable and highly entertaining, Jaguar Pride won’t disappoint the shifter romance fan.~~Shauna

I’m going to a paranormal romance readers’ convention soon and so asked my publisher if she would send some donated copies of my books for bloggers that will be there and she said, yes! Soooo, that’s good news. I was disappointed to learn that they didn’t have a book seller at the book signing. We’re limited to bringing only 5 books from home to the signing. That’s awful. What do I bring? You know how this works. The book you didn’t bring is the one readers want. And this is open to the public!

When I went to the Dallas signing, it was awful. They  had it open ONLY to conference attendees and hardly anyone showed up. Readers, that is. I had a couple fans bring books to autograph, but only sold one book. Driving made it easy to bring a variety.  But without readers in attendance, it doesn’t matter.

I think it’s a travesty not to have books to sell at a signing especially when we pay so much to attend these functions, not only the cost of the convention, but the hotel and airfare. Not to mention the time away from our writing. She mentioned selling ebooks. Anyone can pick up ebooks online. You don’t need to go to a book signing for that. At least I had a number of bloggers who were interested in having books for special giveaways. They’ll be autographed. But I really want to reach my readers AT the event also. *sigh* It IS a readers event.

Okay, so we’re into training puppies some more.  I do really well some days and other days, it’s a losing battle. Yesterday, I needed to finish editing A Silver Wolf Christmas. As of today, I need 11,100 words to catch up on SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble. Yep, taking four days to edit this other book put me way behind on SEAL Wolf Diving. Soooo, I finished edits on Silver and am turning them in today, and then working on SEAL all day.

So on puppy training. They were up for 6 hours yesterday morning, wouldn’t take a nap, didn’t want them up on my lap since I’m trying to get Silver done, so I finally tried the crate. And that worked. Tried it this morning, but it’s not working.

But they were angels for about 2 hours yesterday and that forced me to keep working on SEAL for 2 hours straight until they woke. They ended up back on my lap later, because frankly, I didn’t have the time or patience (which it requires to train them right), to deal with making them nap in their beds yesterday. I really had to get Silver done. Now it is.

But now today,  I’ve got to do the writing on SEAL, and so I’m going to have the same problem as before. Limited time and way too much to do.

Puppy Training Time

Training them to nap in bed

Training them to nap in bed

And it worked!

And it worked!

As you can see, they settled down in the  other bed, and later, they moved around and were in two separate beds. But they slept and I could work undisturbed for a couple of hours. I had to keep putting them in the bed up above. You see Tanner’s look? Max is more resigned. Tanner is like, “You’re kidding me, right?” We had to do this over and over again. One would climb out or jump out, and then the other would. I kept taking the escape artist and putting him back in, whichever he was. It was funny that they didn’t both do it at the same time. They took turns. I was afraid they were just getting my attention and wouldn’t get the message. You know: negative attention is better than no attention. But they finally did and fell asleep.

next day, naptime

next day, naptime

Yesterday it was absolutely a no go. They wouldn’t stay in the bed no matter what.

puppies slept in crate instead

puppies slept in crate instead

No matter how much I tried to convince them to settle down in their bed, they wouldn’t. This was 6 hours of trying, on and off while I did edits. Soooo, I finally tried the crate and it’s near my desk, and voila, it worked. They have to nap. They get really cranky if they don’t.

They are now in their bed, so maybe….if they will. Or not. They’re playing tug of war with a chew stick. I finally put Tanner on my lap, I know, I’m so not an alpha, and he fell asleep. And then Max wanted up with us. And he’s all sighs and asleep. *sigh*

Sending Silver off so I can get back to work on SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble!

Have a lovely Friday. Can’t believe it’s already Friday. *double sigh*

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

http://www.terryspear.com

Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:

http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears

http://www.celticbears.com