Two more people are reading my newest manuscript. I expect to hear back from them by Monday.

 

If it passes muster with both, I may be able to publish it in a Kindle version before I leave for NZ toward the end of next week, if Lisa can finalize a cover for it that blows me out of the water. (She nailed it with TRAILBLAZER two months ago, for sure. In fact, I’ve been deliriously happy with at least four of the covers she has created for me in the past. The other covers were done by other people.)I also love the cover of DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal. Olivia Vieweg in Germany did that one for me.

 

If these two newest readers are impressed with it, they may write a blurb for the Advance Praise section. I have two beta reader reviews there already, but having three (or more) would be ideal.

 

In Other News:

 

I have given Jackie a real-time demo of how to care for my critters while I’m in New Zealand. A day or two before I leave, I’ll have her actually do them all while I watch to make sure she feels comfortable.  It looks like she will be.  She didn’t hyperventilate!

 

I will put the wild ones’ feeding station closer to the house so she doesn’t have to go inside the goat pen to refill that station. Doing that will make her chores easy peasy.

 

I’ve purchased waaaay more food for the critters than she will use while I’m gone. I need to get one more bag of layers’ crumbles for the hens, though, as soon as we have brought enough in to do that. That’s the ONLY food that might run out before I get back.

 

Two days before I go, I’ll clean the 55-gallon aquarium and fill all the outdoor water troughs, wading pools,  and buckets with fresh water. That way she won’t need to worry about watering at all unless it freezes. Then she’ll have to carry hot water buckets to the chickens to thaw their wading pool. The goats’ trough has a heater in it, so it won’t freeze.

 

What else?

 

Sadly, I think that’s just about all for now. I want to write more to keep from going stir crazy, but I don’t want to bore you. Maybe I’ll fill another blog post with an additional critter story. I have a whole list of titles written for about eight of them, but I fell out of the mood when the new book landed in my brain.  I need to get that mindset back to write those stories…

 

I have stories about the red tail hawk I raised (Lucky), Fancy — the skunk I raised, Barnaby — my Amazon parrot, a terminally ill cockatoo, crows, bear wrestling, Doc/Darwin the chimp, Poppy the cougar, and so many more.  Walrus, dolphin, otter, flying squirrel … just so many! I probably can’t even  remember all the animal encounters I’ve had, but I will sure try!

 

     

 

 

 

I need to go through my negatives and see if I can find some of these animals to illustrate the posts. That’s my next mission!