Pet Adoption Month Contest Winners!!

I received so many wonderful entries to this contest and read such touching and inspiring stories about animal adoptions and rescues. It was incredibly difficult to choose just three (and as you can see, I didn’t), but here are the winners!

JHS: WINNER OF BOOK CLUB PACKAGE

Amy: WINNER OF SIGNED COPY

Benita: WINNER OF SIGNED COPY

Indigo: WINNER OF SIGNED COPY

I will be emailing the winners shortly for their addresses. Thanks so much to everyone who entered for sharing your incredible stories with us!!

AND… for those participating in the inaugural month of the Virtual Book Club (anyone is welcome!), we have selected On Folly Beach for August. We’ll begin the discussion in a few weeks. Hope to see you there!!

WANT TO JOIN A VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB??

I'm thinking of launching a virtual book club from my blog, and I want to see what people think of the idea. Every month would have a different theme. About a month in advance, we would post possible book selections for the following month’s theme and let everybody weigh in on their choices. On the first of the month, I would announce the book selected and give everyone a month to read. At the end of that month, we would open the floor to a virtual month-long book chat—you could share your thoughts whenever you were able. Each month’s best virtual book club member might win a prize related to that month’s theme just to keep things interesting. And, of course, members wouldn’t have to participate every month—only when they were interested in the book chosen and had the time to do so.

Here are some possible themes I was considering:
1.      Jane Austen January (a little Austen to get us through the long, dreary winter)
2.      Romance February (in honor of Valentine’s Day)
3.      Spring classic (a great classic novel)
4.      Animals in April (books with pet or animal themes in honor of the ASPCA’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals month)
5.      Mothers in May (novels with strong mother-child relationship themes)
6.      Fathers in June (novels with strong father-child relationship themes)
7.      Bestseller July (a book from the NY Times bestseller list)
8.      Beach read August
9.      Young Adult September (I’m thinking “back to school.”)
10.  Gothic October
11.  Nonfiction November
12.  Holiday December

The inaugural month would probably be this August, so here are some contenders for Beach Read August:

Karen White’s On Folly Beach  

Claire Cook’s Seven Year Switch

Heidi Jon Schmidt’s The House on Oyster Creek

Alicia Bessette’s Simply from Scratch (doesn’t come out until August 5th, but I think that would still give us enough time to read.)

If you think you might like to participate, leave a comment on my blog and tell me which book sounds the best to you. Unfortunately, you’d all be on your own to buy the book from your favorite retailer. I hope this virtual book club works, and I hope to “see” you all here, reading poolside, this August!

My National Pet Adoption Month contest is still open on my blog, extended until July 31st.

National Pet Adoption Month Contest!

JUNE IS NATIONAL PET ADOPTION MONTH. IN HONOR OF ALL THE ANIMALS THAT HAVE ENRICHED OUR LIVES, TELL US WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT YOUR PET OR ANY ANIMAL RESCUE/PET ADOPTION STORY.

Free to a Good Home is about Noelle Ryan, a veterinary technician at a New England animal shelter who helps stray animals find the perfect homes. After discovering that she can’t have children—and watching her marriage fall apart after a shocking revelation by her husband—Noelle is left with only her Great Dane, Zeke, to comfort her. But when a carefree musician named Jasper gives her a second chance at life—and at love—Noelle comes to realize that home is truly where the heart is.

HOW TO ENTER:
• From JUNE 18-JULY 31, leave a comment about what you love about your pet or tell us a short story about an animal rescue or adoption. 
• On AUGUST 1st, I will announce the three best entries on my blog and website. The third and second place winners will each receive a free, signed copy of Free to a Good Home. The first place winner will receive a Free to a Good Home Book Club package — eight signed copies of Free to a Good Home, a sterling silver “For Those Who Have No Voice” key-chain (proceeds benefit the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League), and a Skype call-in from the author.

This contest is open to U.S. shipping addresses only. Here’s to happily ending tales and happily wagging tails!

Click HERE to read the entries and to submit your own!!

My Premature Summer Reading List

With longer, sunnier days and temperatures creeping into the high sixties, I am happy to say that summer is finally in sight. For me, that means a chance to do one of my favorite things in the world: read good books. I know it may seem a little premature, but I am already hording up books for all the idle, sunny days I’m imagining. The reality is, I probably won’t get to all of them, but just thinking about reading gives me a thrill. The books on my “To Be Read” list seem to fall into two major categories: escapist women’s fiction and dark, apocalyptic YA fiction—go figure. One thing that occurs to me is how many of these books have what I would call a “high concept,” some intriguing and original idea or twist that makes for a compelling premise. Many of the books have been getting great buzz, others are from my favorite authors, and still others are sequels to books I read this year and adored. So here it is, my premature summer reading list for summer, 2010:

1.    Elizabeth Berg The Last Time I Saw You—Who doesn’t love a high school reunion? This one is about several people preparing to attend their 40th reunion and trying to reconcile who they used to be with who they are now, if they even know.
2.    Claire Cook Seven Year Switch—Pure escapist fun about a mother starting over in mid-life, only to have her ex-husband return to complicate matters. Releases June 1.
3.    Alicia Bessette Simply From Scratch (debut coming August 2010)—A widow and young girl bond through baking—sounds heavenly!
4.    Allison Winn Scotch The One That I Want—Intriguing plot about a woman who is able to see her own future… can’t wait for this one!
5.    Sarah Pekkanen The Opposite of Me—Sibling rivalry, weddings, reinvention, and perhaps the redeeming message that you can go home again.
6.    Marilyn Brant, According to Jane—YA-Adult crossover book about a girl who has the voice of Jane Austen whispering romantic advice in her ear.
7.    Rebecca Stead, When You Reach Me—Coming of age mystery about a girl who receives some enigmatic notes from a stranger who wants to save her best friend's life.
8.    Suzanne Collins Mockingjay—You either know about this one and can’t wait for it, or you haven’t read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire yet.
9.    Joelle Anthony Restoring Harmony—YA dystopian, coming of age novel about a girl who must use her wits to survive after an economic collapse in the future.
10.    Carrie Ryan The Dead-Tossed Waves—Sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the only romantic zombie book I’ve ever read—the first book was a stunner!
11.    Gayle Forman If I Stay—Introspective YA about a girl who gets into a car accident and finds herself stuck between life and death.
12.    Lesley Livingston Wondrous Strange—An updated YA adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Snow Day

In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch,
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news

that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed,
the All Aboard Children's School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed...
         -- Excerpt from Billy Collins' "Snow Day"

I have just realized that if I want to be a writer, I can never move to Buffalo or Mount Rainier or Bangor or to any place where it snows much of the year. I’m sitting here in my living room, the entire school day cancelled, with the perfect opportunity to pack in a full day of writing, and all I can do is look outside and stare at the snow. It’s mesmerizing. I cannot think. I cannot plan. I cannot write. Even writing this post is a challenge. It must be something about the brilliant white glare of it all or the constant sense of movement in my peripheral vision or the sound of kids sledding down the hill across the street. Or possibly, it is the ache in my right shoulder from shoveling this morning that is making it difficult to type.

But maybe it’s just the sheer differentness of the world on a snow day that makes it impossible to carry out normal responsibilities—banks and schools and malls are closed—even some highways are closed!—and most sane people are either out sledding with their kids or at home with their loved ones, perhaps drinking hot chocolate or reading a good book under the covers. Snow gives us an excuse to be human again, to stop obsessing about the “to do” list at work, the chores around the house, the bills to be paid, the IRS forms to be completed. A snow day gives us a chance to enjoy the beauty of nature and the wonder of being together without the burden of obligation.

Last night, my husband and I watched Groundhog Day for about the eightieth time. If you’ve never seen it and are under the impression, like I was for years, that it’s another movie starring Bill Murray and a large rodent (Caddyshack, anyone?), please reconsider. Groundhog Day is about a selfish weatherman who gets stuck in a small town in the middle of a blizzard and is forced to live the same day over and over again until he can figure out what it means to truly live. Every time I watch the movie, I am struck by how funny, charming, insightful, and at times, touching it is. It is also surprisingly existential, asking the big question: “What are we really here for?”

I think a snow day gives us the opportunity to ask this question, too. With all normal routines suspended, life as we know it gets put on hold, and life, momentarily, is as it should be.