Fair, Fairs, I love Fairs!

by Diana McCollum

I don't know about you, but I'm excited for spring and the Fair Season! I especially enjoy seeing what others make or grow.

Diana writes paranormal romance, always with a happily ever after. In her latest book "The Witch with the Trident Tattoo" you'll find a heroine and hero to root for as they fight against an evil force set on killing all life in the oceans. Along the way are colorful characters. A teenage mermaid with pink hair who can come on land for short periods of time,  an octopus familiar named James, and a host of others.




A great anytime of the year read, "The Witch with the Trident Tattoo".


Fairs have been around since before 500 B.C. Fairs were mentioned in the bible as places to socialize and sell goods.

Over time, the fair morphed away from religion and commerce and into periodic gatherings attended by crafters, food brokers, clothing stalls and livestock for show and sale. People bartered for, and exchanged goods, not that much money changed hands, but lots of goods did.

The actual first date of the original fair is unknown. 

The first fair in America was recorded in 1765, in Windsor, Nova Scotia. In 1792, the first fair of Niagara was held, by the Niagara Agricultural Society. Both of these fairs still occur each year right through the present day.

Today, there are around 2,000 fairs each year in North America.

Now days fairs include, but are not limited to: food, shows, rodeos, games to play for prizes, carnival rides, 4-H exhibits, horticulture, livestock, all kinds of new innovated things for sale!

Personally, I love the fair! Hubby and I try to go every year. Here in Deschutes County there is one day , usually opening day, when seniors get in free. We missed that day this year, hubby wasn’t feeling well, but did go the next day to walk through the exhibits. 

What I learned is there are so, so many talented people in this world. From paintings by 13-year-old kids to gorgeous photography to quilts that are definitely a work of art, it humbled me to see all the creations by everyday amateur individuals.

Most exciting, unusual thing we saw? A couple cowboys riding Long Horn Bulls through the streets of the fairgrounds!

Most beautiful craft was this quilt.

Most beautiful flower? This two toned gladiola. 

The most exotic thing? This Styrofoam head decorated with food and flowers.

Do you have a fair near you, and if you do, what do you like doing the best? For me it’s the inside exhibits, including the animal barns.

Enjoy your spring which starts in a couple weeks!

ANIMAL ANTICS-"The Pet Door" Free Funny Short Story

pixabay.com

I use humor to get through tough times. Sometimes dark humor, but humor none the less. I hope this true mouse tale makes you smile!

We recently put in a pet door so our two small dogs can go out into their fenced yard and come back inside at will. Marcus, our elderly tan terrier mix, has developed a urinary tract condition which makes it difficult for him to wait for someone to let him out when the urge strikes. A pet door seemed like the logical answer to avoid ‘accidents’ in the house. Dog problem solved!

THE NEW PET DOOR

Enter the cat. Freckles is the elderly orange and white feline who rules the roost around here. He was the first of the three rescue animals we adopted. Each dog, in turn, learned to respect him. He’s actually quite fond of Marcus and Mac, our small black Schipperke/Cairn terrier cross. Mac plays with the cat, Marcus mostly avoids him. When the cat feels paternal, he insists on washing their faces. When he’s in a mood, he steals their toys and blankets through intimidation. We all know Freckles is the boss.

We trained all three pets to use the new pet door, but Freckles does not like the plastic flap he must push up to get through the opening. He especially doesn’t like going outside when he can’t see what might be lurking nearby. He insists on a human opening the door.

MARCUS

BUT…(this is a big but) he has no problem running in through the pet door with a mouse in his jaws. Never a dead mouse, always a stunned mouse—which he brings inside triumphantly, yowling with his mouth full to announce his prize. He makes it as far as the kitchen without fail before he drops the little rodent, intending to play with it. The mouse promptly springs into action and disappears under the closest appliance with my husband and me in hot pursuit.

The first night this happened the mouse took refuge underneath the stove. We opened the slider to the deck a few inches, turned off the inside lights in that part of the house and locked our pets out of the area. My hope was the mouse would smell the night air and make his way along the counter base to the open door and outside to freedom.

I’m not sure that happened, but since we never smelled anything dead in the house, I choose to believe the little creature acted sensibly and left the building.

MAC

A week later, the next mouse Freckles brought inside ran into the pantry, and my husband almost caught it with a dishrag. Then the clever little creature ran between his legs back into the kitchen and hid under the refrigerator. We pulled out the refrigerator to no avail. He’d gone into the appliance’s nether regions.

Later that night, the cat turned up in the living room with a mouse in his jaws. We’d been watching television and hadn’t noticed if he came from the kitchen or through the pet door. When the cat dropped the rodent, my husband grabbed the stunned little pest by the tail and tossed him outside before slamming the pet door shut.

We agreed it was probably the same mouse, since he didn’t spring to his feet right away. We also agreed to buy some mousetraps in the morning, just in case.

FRECKLES

We awoke the next morning to a broken down refrigerator.

Time for mousetraps, and a cat curfew!

Thank you for reading my story. I welcome feedback.

~Sarah Raplee

Kids and Animals Always Bring a Smile by Paty Jager

This  month is "funny story" month. I've been trying to think of a funny story. Not that I don't laugh every day, either from something my hubby or grandkids say or the antics of the dogs, but coming up with a story... That's harder.

I'm trying to remember things my grandchildren have said. One granddaughter told my mother-in-law that she can come to her wedding...if she's still alive. ;)

2 youngest grandsons and Santa

A 4 year-old-grandson told his mom, he was going to marry Oma (his great grandmother) when he's old enough. And the next time she visited, he helped her get in and out of the car, carried her walker as she had help going up stairs, and then set the walker next to her chair and got her something to drink. She told him he'd make a good husband, and he smiled from ear to ear.

The soon to be three-year-old was helping Oma. She gave him a thumb's up for a good job. He couldn't get his thumb up and held up his pointer finger.

We have a dog who growls all the way to his kennel every night. He's just like a kid complaining about having to go to bed. And when my hubby closes the door on the kennel, he complains even louder!

George

George, our burro, is an equine Houdini.When we first acquired George, we were told he couldn't be kept in any fence. We just thought it was because the people who had him didn't have very good fences. We put him in the corral when we first brought him home, not knowing what the horses would think of him. The next morning, he was in with the horses and I couldn't figure out how he got out of the corral. All the gates were still locked and I didn't see any place that I thought was large enough for him to get out. Turned out, he would lay down and wiggle under the bottom rail. Another time I had him in a different corral, the next morning he was outside the corral eating grass. I looked everywhere and couldn't figure out how he got out, and then I found a bit of his hair between two rails that were just a bit wider than the rest.

My husband has always liked to shock people by saying or doing something off the wall. There were several years when we hosted a Christmas party with several other couples and invited all the other couples we all knew. There would be close to seventy-five people present.  It was an adult only Christmas party.  One year, my husband started laughing as time was getting closer to the event. When I asked him what he was laughing about (he does this all the time, will start laughing or chuckling and then tells me he thought of  a joke to play on someone) an idea had come to him for the party.

I did my part. Made his costume, or what little there was, and I was in charge of changing the music on the tape player. Yes, it was that far back! LOL

The night of the party, he went and changed, stuck his head in the door, and I started his requested music.  Ray Stevens "The Streak." Hubby came running into the hall we'd rented, dribbling a basketball and wearing a pair of speedos with a penis, I'd made from pantyhose, hanging from the front. He made four loops around the hall and ran out. Everyone in the building was bent over laughing. Whenever there is a gathering of friends that night is brought up!

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 43 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

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Mischief Makers

By Courtney Pierce

Tricksters are a hoot to incorporate into a story. They add comic relief and sparkle to any situation. In my books they take the form of animals, mainly dogs and cats.

Anamorphizing critters (loading them with human-like emotions) makes them lightning rods for anger, sadness, and subtle humor in a scene. Tension is alleviated or escalated without being obvious. How can you not love a huge standard poodle with a police report stuffed in his mouth, like Popeye’s spinach? That’s exactly what happens in the final book of the Dushane Sisters Trilogy, Indigo Legacy, due out in early 2018. Actually, there are two conspiring poodles, named Pogo and Beauregard, that happen to be certified therapy dogs to aging mobsters in prison. Add to them a grumpy Himalayan cat named Freesia, and you have a combustible mix. The cat observes the scene and passes high-and-mighty judgement like a scolding parent.

You get the picture.

Animals hold court in the background, like Alfred Hitchcock’s McGuffin strategy. Behind the human love story, they keep the plot moving forward with swift punctuation and reminders of why readers were invited to the party. If my characters stray from their mission, the animals move in to keep the story on course.

Over the three books of the trilogy, my little tricksters have their own character arcs, too. They mature and become more complex as my humans do. From adoption to certification, these therapy-dog characters transform from out-of-hand to quite sophisticated. Their powers of sympathy, protection, and emotional connection add layers and depth to the plot.

Animal characters are no easy task for a writer. While on the surface they may seem simplistic and naive, they’re quite complicated to put into print. They require all the same character development as humans do, but without the ability to speak. Personalities are shown with a glance, a stance, or a dance. And, of course, that fourth element comes into play . . . touch. 

I don’t even own a standard poodle or a Himalayan cat, but I found myself physically drawn to them over the three years of writing the trilogy. If I saw a majestic standard poodle being walked down the street, I made a swift approach. I couldn’t resist a ruffle of their fuzzy heads. The texture of their tight curls made for fun description. I’d look into their pouty eyes to spot that emotion and conspiring thought.  Long-haired cats required my lap and a comb of my fingers through their fur. Then I’d go home and write it into the story.

I sobbed buckets when I finished the draft of Indigo Legacy. I didn’t want to let the characters go. These trickster animals became so real to me, like members of my family. After I publish this last book of the Dushane Sisters Trilogy, I have another series in process. This one will have a touch of paranormal, humor, and of course an animal. Rudy the Jack Russell terrier will be my trickster to the protagonist, a clairvoyant woman. But Rudy will be one step ahead.

Let the games begin again.

Photo: Loma Smith

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her new family. She writes for baby boomers. By day, Courtney is an executive in the entertainment industry and uses her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor and mystery. She has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, she is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. 

Check out all of Courtney's books at:

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com. Both print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com

The Dushane Sisters are back in Indigo Lake. More laughs, more tears...and more trouble. Protecting Mom's reputation might get the sisters killed―or give one of them the story she's been dying to live.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's trilogy about the Dushane sisters. Beginning with The Executrix, three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death. Mom’s book gives them a whole new view of their mother and their future. Is it fiction . . . or truth? 

Get out the popcorn as the Dushane Sisters Trilogy comes to a scrumptious conclusion with Indigo Legacy. Due out in summer, 2017.

Horrible pet names

We call our children all kinds of weird things these days, but pets have been fair game for a long time. Got something cray-cray you want to test out for future offspring? Try it out on your long-suffering hound or feline.

My cat's name is Dr Watson. Y'know, like in Sherlock Holmes? Don't ask me how this came about. Must have seemed like a good idea at the time. He was such a cute, tiny little bloke when he was a kitten. Now look at him. On reflection, 'Godzilla' might have been more appropriate.

My goldfish is Hannibal. He's been the last fish standing (swimming?) out of three tanks full of goldfish now, and I'm starting to think it'd just be cruel to give him any more victims. Serial killer. No question.

The dog got Arnie, after Ze Governator. Fitting, eh? This dog weighs, like, fifteen pounds soaking wet, and he loves everybody and everything. Recall that I'm from a country where we call redheads 'Blue' and large people 'Tiny'.

But some names are just unfair. I mean, little girls are allowed to have Fluffy or Snookums or Boo-Boo... Actually, my gran had this elusive grey and white cat named Boo-Boo, and it didn't seem to mind...

Still, there's only so much a self-respecting animal can take. When my husband was a kid, his family had a dog - a beagle, I think - called Denis. Apparently Denis used to run away a lot. Snort. Can you blame him?

So. What's this got to do with romance books, you ask? Ahem, nothing, actually. I have two new releases this month and neither of them feature any kind of animal. Oh, one story might have a rat in it. I'm not posting about rats. Just... no.

(But while I'm on: here's a link to a Valentine's Day anthology I'm in, called My Bloody Valentine. Eight fab stories of the darker side of love, by some wonderful romance and suspense authors. My story is called Unforgiven, and it has vampires. It's doing great on the Amazon charts, so I thought you might like to check it out!)

So what's the story behind your pet's name?

Horses Gallop Through my Books by Paty Jager

Having grown up on a farm and still living on a farm, animals have always been an integral part of my life. The animals that I've been around the most are dogs and horses. With sheep, hogs, cattle, goats, and donkeys thrown in the mix. And we had barn cats.

My gelding, Bud and George the burro.

I think the reason I like to write westerns is the fact it allows me to have one of my favorite animals, the horse, in nearly every book. While I don't name them all or treat them like pets in the books, I like how a character can be "shown" by how he/she deals with an animal.

My new mare Lily.

Above you probably noticed I said horses in my westerns aren't treated like pets. There's a reason. In the time my books are set, most horses were used like we use tractors and automobiles. They were necessary to life and not kept to ride now and then and pamper.

Before the automobile, how many and what kind of horses a family had determined their livelihood and how much money they had. Farmers needed draft horses for planting and harvesting their crops. Cowboys needed horses to take care of the herds of cattle. Horses were needed to pull buggies, wagons, and stage coaches to move people and freight before the trains made their way across the country.

Because the animals were considered for their work and not for pleasure, most weren't named from affection but more as a way to distinguish one from another when talking about them. The animals were treated well, but not pampered like today's horses that wear blankets in the cold and fly masks in the summer.

They received ample feed, were brushed and rubbed down after use, and put out to pasture when they were no longer strong enough to do their jobs. Or they became the babysitter for young children in the family beginning to learn to ride.

All my westerns, historical and contemporary, have horses in them. Some also have dogs and cattle. The heroine in my action adventure series has a pet cockatoo. I tried having a bird for a pet at one time, but couldn't stand the mess they made.


What is your favorite pet? Is there an animal from a book that has stuck with you? Or a character who was fond of animals?

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