Happy May, everyone! Start your e-readers . . .
I've got a great promotion on one of my books to tell you about!
Six Degrees of Lost is only .99 from May 1-15.
A Lost Dog, A First Love, A Journey
Olive’s mother is
headed to jail and her brother to join the Army, so thirteen-year-old Olive is
uprooted from sunny California and dumped in Washington State like a stray.
That's exactly what she feels like surrounded by her aunt’s collection of
homeless dogs, cats, and horses.
Fourteen-year-old
David’s future is already carved in stone. From a military family with two
brothers serving overseas, he’s been pointed towards the Air Force Academy his
entire life - but a rafting trip gone awry might ruin his chances.
When a runaway dog is
almost hit by a car, the search for its owner leads Olive and David, two teens
from entirely different backgrounds, to an unlikely bond. Will their growing
attraction to each other be enough to keep Olive from a foolhardy journey to
find her mother? Will David risk his family’s plans to save her?
Have you read this one yet? I hope you'll take advantage of this awesome price to buy a copy for yourself, or give it to someone else. Here is a short excerpt:
“So what’s with all those dogs barking in the back yard?”
“They’re foster dogs. My aunt takes them in when they get
too crowded at the animal shelter. Some of them aren’t adoptable, and would be
put to sleep otherwise.”
“Really?” I gulp.
“We’ve also got six cats in the house, plus the horses out
back. Come on, I’ll show you.” The yellow dog jumps up and down, begging for
the stick. Olive flings it down the driveway. I see a small shelter out back,
with sagging fences. Olive is already headed that way, taking short barefoot
steps on the gravel, so I follow.
A sway-backed pinto horse with a mouth full of hay sticks
his head out from the shelter and then turns and goes back to his breakfast. It
looks kind of bony.
“Wow,” I say. “Skinny.”
“Yeah, that’s Paintball.” She grins. “Well, that’s what I
call him. He was found wandering loose up in the National Forest. Aunt Trudy
says somebody just dumped him there.”
Olive shrugs. “I know. Hard to believe, huh? I guess they couldn’t afford to
feed him, but still, that’s just mean.”
A huge brown horse wanders over to the fence. “Who’s this
one?” I reach between the strands of wire and pat his head. He’s just as skinny
as the first one.
“My aunt says he’s ancient, and we’ll probably never get his
weight back on. They found him tied to a tree in front of the animal shelter,
but they don’t really have any facilities for horses there, so he came here
instead. He’s sweet, huh?”
“Yeah, he seems nice.” The old horse pushes his head
underneath my hand, clearly enjoying the attention.
“I call him Shakespeare. ‘Cause he looks so noble and
elegant.”
Elegant? I think. That’s a stretch. “Can you ride them?”
“I don’t know. Aunt Trudy says we don’t really know that
much about them. Anyway, it’s been too hot, and she’s always busy. She’s a
clerk at the animal shelter thrift shop, and she takes turns working down at
the shelter, besides feeding all these animals here at home.”
Olive talks so fast she makes my head swim. She barely takes
a breath, and rattles on. “So besides the ones she takes in from the shelter,
my aunt is always finding animals, too. She says there must be an invisible
sign at the bottom of the driveway that says: Lost Animals Stop Here.”
“Is that how you found this dog?” I stroke the big lab’s
ears, and he presses against me.
“He was standing in the middle of the road,” she says, “and
almost got hit by a car.” She smiles. “Maybe he was reading the sign.”
Thanks so much, everyone. Really appreciate your support!!
, by Ann T. Bugg
, by Karen E. Hoover
