Saturday Snippet: Secondary Characters

Today's Saturday Snippet theme is secondary characters. Boy do I have a great secondary character: Gizmo the talking cat.

After meeting Gizmo, I'm not so sure I want my cats to talk. I imagine they'd be just as sassy and back-talking as him.

An Excerpt From: MAKE-BELIEVE LOVER


© Copyright ASHLEY LADD, 2006.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

They must have trudged five miles over the arduous hills when a thunderous sound startled her. A moment later, wide-winged dragons straddled by primitive warriors roared from behind a mountain.

Her hand trembling, she pointed at the sky even as she squatted down in self-defense. “Oh my God, Giz. Do you see what I see?”

The cat gulped and he covered his eyes with his paws. “If you see big flying dinosaurs, uh huh.”

When one of the gigantic winged creatures nose-dived not far distant, Gizmo threw himself to the ground, covered his head, and hissed, “Hit the deck and don’t make a sound.”

Way ahead of him, she flung herself to the rocky terrain.

A lyrical voice announced out of nowhere, “You have walked six point two miles, seven-thousand three-hundred, twenty-one steps.”

Cripes! Her bigmouth pedometer chose this moment to go off?

Yanking the lousy thing off her elastic waistband, she dashed it to the ground. “Thanks for nothing.” The least it could do was tell her how many calories she’d burned or sing a decent song, instead of that funky aerobic workout music.

One of the flying lizards picked that instant to spin and make eye contact. Baring its filthy, razor-sharp teeth, the beast swooped down from the air, swallowed her pedometer, and then plucked her from the ground.

The no-good gadget kept chirping from inside the monster’s belly, mocking her. At least, it had gotten its just rewards, having given away her location to the fiend.

Kicking and struggling with all her might, she screamed, “Gizmo!”

She clawed at her barbaric captor’s eyes. “Put me down!”

The armor-clad creep astride the dragon guffawed and clamped meaty vice-like hands around her wrists pinning them to her side. His malevolent beady-eyed gaze bore into her. “Keep this up, wench, and I’ll drop you here—from a thousand meters. Your pretty face will get all mangled.”

The dragon turned its reptilian face to leer and dipped its right wing so that she would have tumbled off if not for the brute’s slimy hold. Then it snorted a fireball in her direction that fried the bush a mere foot to her right.

She got the message that she was their guest—or their Bar-B-Q. “What do you want with me? I have no money. This is dollar-store jewelry, but it’s all yours.”

“You will inform the King whose army you are spying for.” He fingered her tousled hair and grunted. “What kingdom has blue-haired nymphs?”

Then he tugged at her psychedelic nurse’s tunic. “And what matter of outlandish garb is this? What form of material?”

Army? Kingdom? Nymph?

She glanced down at her hot pink, cotton-blend tunic that rained cats and dogs. Should she give him her employer’s name? In the war movies the prisoners offered their name, rank, and serial number. “I’m Rebecca Weiss, I’m an office manager for a pediatric clinic, and I’m not giving you my social security number and having you steal my identity.”

“Stay cool, Becca! We’ll get out of this.” Gizmo yelled from the back of another dragon as it pulled around them.

The man’s bushy uni-brow puckered. “You speak in strange riddles. You will be truthful with King Heinrich or you will be locked in the dungeon.”

Dungeons? Dragons? King Heinrich?

Make-Believe Lover is available at Ellora's Cave.


Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Mari Carr
Vivian Arend
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Shelley Munro
Shelli Stevens
TJ Michaels
Taige Crenshaw
McKenna Jeffries
Ashley Ladd

Funny cat video

By now you should know I'm a cat lover. Big time. I was thrilled to find out the theme of next year's Halloween anthology at my publisher is "Feral" (Cats). Count me in! I found this hilarious cat video at Nicole McCaffrey's blog and I don't think she'll mind if I share it. It's originally form You Tube. My kitties have done several of the things captured in this movie. They constantly amuse me. I can't imagine life without them and wouldn't want to. So enjoy! Another friend, Sandra Cox, is another cat lover. Visit her for lots more funny cat pics and cat stuff. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Ninja cat people

When I first heard of "You Tube" I went "What the hell?"

I didn't see the point. Well, I thought the same thing about Twitter and now I'm addicted.

But I now see the value of You Tube. I mean, look at this great video.

My type of people. Ninja cat people.

The scary part is, I'm NOT joking. Ask anyone who knows me, I LOVE cats and I think ninjas are pretty cool, too. In my next life I want to be a cat, better yet, a ninja cat.

Okay, so the video is weird, but it's cute.

I'm writing a story with werecats. After watching this, maybe I'll make some of them ninja werecats. Why not? Cats are people, too.

My cats think so, anyway. And my book says so. So it must be so.

Joking aside, You Tube is amazing. Someday when I get a good video camera (and lose weight) I'll go crazy making videos and post them on You Tube, just like I'm going crazy tweeting on Twitter.

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Life On Mars, cats, dogs, and birthday

NOW I know why my cats are always hanging around my computer desk and why I get all those emails from ebay about sold items when I'm not a seller. :) Today's my birthday. Next year will be a really BIG one. Wow! This year flew by. Life is moving so fast. I knew I'd get here someday, but that someday came awfully fast. I was a teenager in the 70's, a really fun time. I don't know that it was more fun than other times in history or if I just thought it was fun because I was a teenager. I think it's some of both as I love to dance and disco was big. The CB radio thing was a lot of fun, too. But I tuned into "Life On Mars" for the first time last night on the recommendation of my friend Mimi. I love time travels although hubby's the cop-show lover in the family. I'm not sure if I liked the show itself, I have to see at least one more episode to decide, but I enjoyed taking a look back at the 70s styles. Boy, did we look silly. At least the men did with their fluffy hair and big, cheesy mustaches. If you were there and old enough to remember, recall how everybody in the younger generation thought long, fluffy hair and afros were cool? That short hair was only for dorks? Isn't it funny how now we look back and think it's just the opposite, that those same guys look STUPID?

Will you be my friends?

Will you be my friends?

Ah, what a cute kitten. I've had many gray and black striped tiger cats and I miss them. This also reminds me of my animals. I have a huge lovable Husky and a fierce medium sized Corghi. Both are lots bigger than my cats. However, they get along with our alpha cat Dion (the Hemingway). The three of them are the best of friends. They love to play and hang out. People should learn a lesson. DD#2 has a multi-racial group of friends and they're very close and together most of the time. I've never seen a more harmonious group. I love it. She made the observation after seeing a newscast about the old days, that she couldn't have been friends (not as easily anyway) if they'd been young back then - the 50s or 60s I think she meant. Although I get nostalgic about a lot of things we had in the old days, this is definitely an improvement today.

Camera Critters Sunday

Here's a new meme I'm going to try - Camera Critters on Sunday. Here are some pics of our sweetiesc ourtesy of DD2. We have 5 cats and 2 dogs. Here are a few of them. Stacey is to the right. She's caught in the act of tearing up a box. Naughty girl. To the left is our Husky, Meiko. Don't you love how he sits? He sits this way all the time. Above is Dion, the alpha cat. He's pure black so I guess I have perpetual bad luck. But he's the sweetest, most mellow cat in the world. I know you can't see his paws, but he's a Hemingway (polydactyl - six toes)

To the right is Andy, our alpha dog. He's a Pembroke Corghie and to me, he looks like a Sheltie. It's not very clear except of his big mouth.

Mad Blogger

Yikes! This would probably be me and one of my cats.

I hope you had a very happy Easter. We did.

Since I've not heard back from the insurance company or the doctor's office, I have to go tot he day job tomorrow. I was really hoping to have vacation this week. It's unsettling not knowing what's going on about the surgery or vacation yet.

However, if I can get the surgery and vacation next week, I can sleep in as the kids will be on Spring Break and they'll be sleeping in. Of course, then I'd also have to put up with the kids arguing all day long...

We're watching a sci-fi movie about the moon breaking up and perhaps Armageddon. Um...this theme sounds very familiar. Of course, are there no original plots. The hubby turned this on and I thought I was the one that liked end of the world movies. This one's pretty boring so far. Or
maybe I'm more into blogging and not paying close enough attention.























I'm not prejudiced and I believe in live and let die and all that, but this is just weird.

Cats on Tuesday

Last week I joined a group called "Cats on Tuesday". Thus, here are my cat pics for Tuesday.

I honestly tried to get some good pics of my cats tonight, but they didn't want to cooperate. What I wanted to get a shot of most, was Dion's and Prissy's paws as they're both polydactyl cats.

Here's the pics I managed to get or already had. Unfortunately, it's not much.







To the left is Stacey. She's a sweet cat, not polydactyl like Dion and Prissy, and not tailess like Bobby.







This is Bobby, our tailess cutie. Doesn't he look like Groucho Marx? He has a personality to match. He can be neurotic and likes to climb up people to get their attention, but he can also be the sweetest, most loving cat alive. Although Stacey won't like me for saying this, "Uncle" Bobby was a much better mother to her kittens than she was. Bobby's always cleaning them and nurturing them, even now. And Bobby wasn't their blood uncle, just an adopted family member.







Meet sleepyhead, I mean Dion (short for "Dionysius").


He's very big and very mellow (and very sleepy at this time of night).







See the extra digit on Dion's paw? Oy! The pic's still dark. I promise to get a better pic soon.







Here's a pic of another polydactyl paw, that's a little clearer. I'll keep trying to get a very clear picture of Dion's or Prissy's paws and when I do, I'll post them here.

Before I adopted Dion, I'd never heard of Hemingways or polydactyl cats. Supposedly, Ernest Hemingway fell in love with polydactyl cats, too, and adopted several. They propagated and now there are approximately 60 cats on his estate, about half of them with the polydactyl (6-toed) paws.

I just read that the extra digit, or in other words, the polydactyl paw is considered a mutation. No cat that has this feature (the big thumb or extra toe) can be considered a pure breed. No one supposedly tries to breed polydactyl cats.

If Dion's an example, that's a shame. He's the most mellow, adorable, and cute and cuddly cat on the planet. Everyone thinks his paws are awesome. I'll definitely get a pic of him to post soon. He was extra-camera shy tonight, unfortunately.

I'll make it my mission to have more and better cat pictures for next week's Cats on Tuesdays. Stay tuned. Same day, some blog.

Blog Hopping - the things I've learned

I've developed a new addiction, one that's not as bad as my eating, diet coke, or night owl addiction - I don't think. I've become a blog hopper (no pun intended). However, I need a much spiffier name for my blog and that would be an apropos one for me. I don't know that it talks to my romance reading audience, however, so I'll have to give it some thought and get some other opinions. I've come upon a lot of cool and helpful things the past couple weeks since I started hopping from blog to blog. I discovered www.romvets.com of course and I've had my application email answered and so I'll be joining up with them. I learned at http://calamityjenni.blogspot.com/ that an ad spot that claims they put relevant ads on your blogs don't really look after all. LOL. Go check out her today's entry to see the ad about foot fetishes. I don't exactly think that's relevant to her blog... I also discovered on her blog about a few blog awards for which I nominated some really cool blogs I visit daily. Hope they win! I had been wondering about adding one of those ad thingies to my blog, but now, I'm not so sure that's the best idea. Let me ponder that awhile longer... I found out about Lori Foster's readers' and writers' conference in Cincinnati this June, from a blog - and I made a new friend as well who talked me into going. Truthfully, she didn't have to twist my arm very hard. I was drooling to go the second she mentioned it and I stumbled all over my stubby little fingers to go and register. Of course, it was partly because I wanted to go to a romance conference and partly because (a huge part) that it's in Cincinnati where I grew up and where my family still lives - so that I can use my precious day job vacation and see my dad AND get in a romance conference. I've had my new blog friends email me resources to help my children with some of their special needs. Because of another blog I read tonight who has their cat on a diet, I'm thinking I really should put my cat on a diet. Dion, or "Mr. Paws", "Mr. Mittens", "Big Daddy", "Houdini" as we also call him is a big, adorable, extremely cuddly all-black Hemingway. (Obviously, I'm not superstitious). He's probably so cuddly because he is overweight. I just love to hold him and he's so mellow that he lets me cradle him like a baby - in fact, that's his favorite position. Off topic, he gets his other nicknames because right before we got him fixed, he, uh, got our Stacey in the family way and we kept one of their kittens, Prissy (also often called "Miss Priss" or "Missy Prissy" because she really is prissy), and so he is the cat daddy in the house. Of course he's got the paw type names because he's a polydactyl-Hemingway. "Houdini" comes because he's always trying to escape to the outside. When he sees one of us go out, he hides and waits by the door for us to come back in and then dart out. Since he's been neutered and gotten slower and gained the weight, we usually catch him, but he's getting by us more and more again. I wish I could let him outside like a normal cat, but my neighbors complain and even threaten to take him to the pounds, so I can't risk it. We have to chase him and bring him back right away when this happens. Do you know how impossible it is to find an all black cat in the dark of night??? Prissy got her daddy's Hemingway paws and she looks like she's all black until you see her belly where she has just a teensy tiny splotch of white. Stacey and Prissy have maintained their girlish figures and we give them the same food as Dion. So either he's eating way more than his share, or he's just genetically predisposed to be chunky (hypo-thyroid like me perhaps? can cats have thyroid problems?) OR, and I suspect this is the biggest culprit, is that Dion's eating the dog's food too much. Of course, the dogs eat the cat food until we chase them off. I think my dogs and Dion have identity issues... Guess I'll know for sure when Dion starts barking and Andy and Meiko start meowing. I've been invited to participate in author contests and chats which I probably wouldn't have been. I found the 5 Minutes for Mom's site and their special promo week in March 08, "The Ultimate Blog Party" (don't miss it!) - look at the hot pink button on the upper left hand column of my blog. There's been so much more, but it's late and my brain is getting foggy. No, I didn't get beaned by a softball at my daughter's game. Unfortunately, one of the other mom's did at last night's game. She was walking into the ladies' room by another field and it came out of nowhere - she said no one called "heads up". She was in pretty bad shape for awhile but she seems to be better now, thankfully. I probably won't blog hop for the next couple days, or at least not much. I have to have to have to finish my edit and get the book to my editor. It's called "Best Mates" and it will be part of the Bound Brits anthology for TEB at www.total-e-bound.com

Shouting! And Cat Tuesday (if late)

First, my big news. I finally get to shout it worldwide.

I was promoted to Manager of Donor Services (a customer service department). I'm very excited and honored, but also scared. It's a big responsibility.

I almost missed "Cat Tuesday", a new group I joined.

In case you didn't know, I'm a cat lover from way back. I've had a cat since I was five. We have five cats now.

I thought I sent lots of cat pictures home to myself from the day job but I only find one. I guess my mailbox filled up. :(

Anyway, here's one for Cat Tuesday. I'll do a better (and more timely) Cat Tuesday starting next week. I'll get some pictures of my own kitties for next week if I can - the polydactyl Hemingway, the tailless cat that looks like Groucho Marx...