I’m over on fellow MuseItUp author, Mary Waibel’s blog today as part of her How Author’s Write series. Stop over, and say hello if you have a moment.

Come celebrate with MuseItup Publishing during their March Read an Ebook Week.

Visit the bookstore from March 10 -16 and download a FREE ebook each day.

Don’t forget to bookmark and come back often, because the entire month of March they’ll be offering Super Duper (their wording not mine–lol) Specials to fill up your e-readers!

I had planned to start blogging again. My goal: once a week.

Now that doesn’t sound too hard, does it?

For the average human, no, probably not. But for me, the social media sloth….those plans for a once a week post turned into once a month post. ::cough:: ::cough::

Though, this time I do have a good excuse.

What can I say, I’ve been trying to figure out the IRS and their ITIN process. When I haven’t been there, I’ve been poking around the Canada Revue Agency website. So far, the CRA comes out on top—they don’t seem to want my first born. LOL. Some authors are smart enough to figure this out all on their own. Me—I think I’m smart enough to know when I need to find a tax professional to do this kind of stuff for me.

 I’ve been deep into editing book 2 of my epic fantasy romance series, In Deception’s Shadow. So between that and tax funnies, I may have an excuse for being a little…or a lot crazy.

 Which brings me to today’s news (since Lea from MuseItUp freely admits she’s crazy, too).

 Over on the MuseItUp Publishing blog we’re running a monthly blog theme about author pet peeves. I’ll be posting on March 14, so be sure to pop over to see what pushes my buttons. I’ve also heard there’s going to be some daily e-book giveaways. I’ll post details later about that. Stay tuned—Muse has some fun stuff in the works.

Here are some titles from this month’s posts:

No One Likes Rejection, But….

Publishing and/or Writing Pet Peeves and How I Solved Them

RANT BEGINS:

Well, in one of those rare once-in-a-decade events, the Day Job called this morning and I was told we would be closed due to the snow storm. Which is so OKAY with me since I’m coming down with a cold. Plus, I’m almost done editing book two of the In Deception’s Shadow series, and can certainly use the day off for writing related stuff.

So far the day has turned out something like this…get up, shovel, eat, edit, shovel, edit, lunch, go play with dog in the snow, edit, make tea, shovel, take pictures of the snow, edit, blog. By the look of this storm it’s going to be one of those really nasty SOBs. I understand the need for winter, and snow pack is a great thing so I’m not going to complain….oh, who am I kidding? Like a true Canadian I love to *itch about the weather, so I’m going to. I hurt! My back hurts, my elbows hurt, my shoulders hurt. And then I get finished and what do I hear but the deep rumble of the snow plow coming down the road. Argh!!! I think I’ve shoveled more snow today than in the last three winters combine.

 

Dear Mother Nature:

In case you didn’t get the memo, here’s today’s definition for you….  Moderation is the process of eliminating or lessening extremes.

 

I know, Climate Change is our own dang fault…mumble, mumble, mumble.

RANT ENDS.

At least my dog loves the snow.

 

 

It’s the new year and I’m deep in edits…so instead of doing a writing related post, I thought I’d post some picture updates on the five rescues that came to WHHR near the end of Nov. 2012. (In that time, ten more horses from another situation have come in as well…I’ll have some pictures of them up in the future.) These boys are still thin but have put on over 50 pounds each in just over 4 weeks. They are Quarter Horses so still have a long way to go…but they are looking more and more like horses instead of walking skeletons. I’m only now realizing that I don’t have a picture of Nevaeh without her blanket on, so you’ll have to settle for the boys.

McGlynn

Paleieh

Milagro

Titus

I can’t wait to go back to the rescue tomorrow after work. I’ve been thinking of the horses, especially the dark bay quarterhorse. (I’ve a soft spot for the dark bays. Probably because they always remind me of my Oakley. LOL.)

Anyways, Brenda and Dave have had a heck of a couple days. The kind-eyed dark bay stallion ran into some trouble (I almost cried when I saw the pictures). He’s got so little muscle left on his hind end that when he laid down he couldn’t get back up again. So they came up with this.

 

 

 

 

This just shows the lengths Brenda and Dave will go to save a horse. I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours they’ve already put into the rescue, but they do it out of love and I am in awe. (which doesn’t happen often.)

By the way, they’ve named him Miracle. I love the name. Everyone, please send Miracle and his herdmates your love.

I was going to do a NaNoWriMo blog post, but something more pressing than writing has come up, so I’m going to talk about that instead.

I’ve volunteered at Whispering Hearts Horse Rescue for well over 2 years now, and I’ve seen some heartbreaking cases come in. But today’s new arrivals are some of the worst I’ve seen (and it’s not just the poor condition of these quarter horses, it’s the number. Five came today, from a herd of 50.) Today’s five are reportedly some of the worst off—they’re little more than skin stretched over bone. Fat reserves are long gone and the poor dears have been metabolizing muscle mass to live.

WARNING some may find the pictures disturbing.

Pic.1

There are four stallions and one mare (the mare is likely in foal. The vet was looking at them when I left.) Yes, I said stallions, not geldings, stallions. They are so underweight and have so little energy, they are coexisting peacefully.

Pic.2

Now for a bit of history. As everyone in the horse industry is probably aware, the price of hay is astronomical this year due to a crop failure throughout Ontario. Because last winter (the winter that wasn’t) was warmer than normal and didn’t kill out as many pests as usual, army worms destroyed many farmers’ hay fields. What the army worms didn’t kill, the rainless summer burned to a crisp. What hay there is (if you’re lucky enough to find good quality hay or any hay at all) is going for between $70-90 a round bail. As you can imagine, many people in the horse industry can’t afford hay with that price tag. And it’s the horses who suffer….

Pic.3

Horse rescues like Whispering Hearts help as many horse as they can, but are limited by space issues and finances. And this year, with the hay problem, the limiting factor is financial. With the price of hay, there is only so much they can do. (so far they’ve rescued and adopted out something like 150 horses since they first opened their doors.) Please make it so they can help more.

I thought about trying something like the crowdfunding site, Kickstarter (where entrepreneurs can get funding to help them develop a product), but somehow I don’t think it caters to farming, agriculture or horse rescues. So I’m using the great power of social media for good….

In other words, I’m BEGGING. Please help out in whatever way you can. Donations of feed, hay, medicine, or money. Whispering Hearts has a website if you want to learn more. And if you’re willing to help out with a monetary donation, look under the left hand side of the WHHR website under Main Menu you’ll see a paypal Donate button second from the bottom of the list.

Even if you can’t afford much in these tough times, helping to spread the word would be a great aid to Brenda and Dave at Whispering Hearts. The horses can’t Twitter, Pin, or Facebook, but you can. Please help out in whatever way you can.

For myself, I’m going to be giving the rescue my percent of the proceeds from my fantasy romance novel Betrayal’s Price. If other authors would like to help out in some way…guest blogs, interviews, giveaways, ideas for online fundraising events, I’d love to have you.

If you live around or near Hagersville Ontario, come for a visit. Whispering Hearts Horse Rescue is having its Christmas Open House Event again this year. It will be open to the public the last two Sundays in November and the first Sunday in December. Come meet some of the wonderful horses.

Thanks,

Lisa Blackwood