キャミー・タング著「戌年」連載小説 プロのドッグトレーナーであるマリ・ムトウは、厄年を迎えている。 犬小屋と訓練所の改築をしながら、いつも不服そうにしている家族と同居することになった。母と姉に言わせれば、犬の毛とよだれかけにまみれる仕事は、家族にとって恥ずべきものだという。彼女は元カレを説得し、数ヶ月間犬を預かってもらうことにした。しかし、彼の兄は、数週間前に彼女が誤って車に追突した、怒り狂ったセキュリティ専門家であることが判明する。 アシュウィン・ケイトウは十分な問題を抱えている。叔母が玄関先に現れ、同居を希望している。彼は彼女にすべてを借りているので、断ることができません。母親が家を出て行った後、ネルおばさんはアシュウィンと弟を引き取り、愛のあるキリスト教の家庭で育てた。しかも、弟のダスティもアパートを追い出され、居場所を求めている。しかし、彼は犬を飼っている。そして、その犬の飼い主は誰だと思いますか？ しかし、旧友でオアフ島のノースショアでデイスパを経営する私立探偵のエディサ・ゲレロから依頼を受ける。マリの施設で奇妙な破壊行為があり、3年前に失踪したエディサの妹の財布を発見する。エディサはマリが危険な目に遭っているのではと心配する。警備の専門家であるアシュウィンがすでにマリを知っていることを知ったエディサは、忙しい若い女性を密かに監視することを彼に依頼する。 アシュウィンは、活発でのんびりとしたドッグトレーナーに不本意ながら惹かれていく。彼女は、幸せそうな母親を思い出させる。その母親の裏切りによって、彼は人と距離を置くようになったのだ。マリは、アシュウィンの冷たい外見を見抜き、彼が家族に忠実な男であることを認める。彼は、彼女のキャリア選択を批判するだけの母親や姉とは違う。 マリのバラバラな家庭とアシュウィンのバラバラな家庭の中で、過去を隠そうとする人たちから、彼らの周りに危険が迫ってくるようになる。彼らは、影で動く秘密に光を当てることができるのか？ 過去に発表されたパートへのリンクはこちら。 *** 第8章 - 恐ろしくも真っ白な不動産書類 『みんな仲良くできないのかな？』 マリは無用に力を込めて箱に本を投げ入れた。最近、なぜ彼女は人生の中で全員と言い争いをしているのだろう？もしかすると、これは本当に悪いアイデア
Captain’s Log, Stardate 07.18.2006
Blog book giveaway:
My Thursday book giveaway is TANGLED MEMORIES by Marta Perry.
My Monday book giveaway is DIVINE STORIES OF THE YAHWEH SISTERHOOD edited by Michelle Medlock Adams and Gena Maselli.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for TANGLED MEMORIES and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
ICRS, part 4 (continued from part 3):
My dear friend and writing mentor Sharon Hinck writes for Bethany House, owned by Baker Publishing, and she invited me to the Baker dinner as her “date.” Yes, in my other life, I am an escort service. Sharon, on the other hand, insists I was snuck in as a Zondervan spy.
Due to my infamous sieve-head, I forgot Sharon's hotel and so I didn’t meet her to get a ride to the dinner. Instead, I paid an exhorbitant amount to catch a taxi to the Denver Center for Performing Arts. After wandering around the massive place and tugging at locked doors, I finally found the place where the dinner was held.
Fortuitously, Lauraine Snelling had been doing something else—some interview, I think—and had just stayed at the Center for the dinner rather than trekking back to her room, and she was in the bottom floor foyer, typing away on her Alphasmart Neo. I spent a few minutes chatting with her. She’s so nice!
I met Sharon’s editor Charlene Patterson. So neat to finally meet the person who’s been working so closely with Sharon this past year.
Sharon and I were seated at a table with T.L. (Tony) Hines, Robin Parrish and his wife Karen, and Dave and Neta Jackson. We were also seated with (I believe she was) one of Sharon’s line editors, Donna Carpenter, who was really nice.
The food was awesome! You know me and food. Or maybe you don’t know me and food. Well, I love it. Passionately. We had spinach salad with strawberry dressing, then sautéed green beans with wild rice, the most succulent salmon I’ve ever eaten (although I’m famous for not knowing how to properly cook salmon), and stuffed chicken breast. And amazingly, I didn’t pig out, I managed to eat delicately and with restraint.
Until dessert, that is. There were dozens of little éclairs and tarts, and who in their right mind can say no to that???
The only bad thing is that the dining hall was vast, cavernous, and freezing cold.
I had a great time talking geeky stuff with Robin and Tony and Sharon. Stuff like Battlestar Galactica and Lost and 24 and Alias and Firefly. I’m such a nerd!
Chip MacGregor tried to get me kicked out, but couldn’t when Sharon pulled her SuperMom persona out and threatened to toss him through the window. Sheesh, who let Chip in? They were probably fired afterward.
I had a great time gabbing with Sharon and her agent, Steve Laube. Although Steve does tease me unmercifully because he’s just a bum that way. Once you stay up all night swapping stories with people at Mount Hermon, nothing is off-limits. He gets away with it because he’s not my agent.
I got a ride back to the hotel with Christy finalist Patti Hill and her husband. Patti’s such a sweetheart. She had a great marketing gimmick for ICRS—she dressed up as a gardener and gave away flower-topped pens to promote her Watered Garden series. Sharon was with her in a SuperMom outfit—fire-engine-red cape and all—giving out little note packets. I have a picture somewhere—I’ll post it later.
Next: Walking the ICRS Floor on Monday and Managing Not to Trip and Fall Flat on My Face.
Blog book giveaway:
My Thursday book giveaway is TANGLED MEMORIES by Marta Perry.
My Monday book giveaway is DIVINE STORIES OF THE YAHWEH SISTERHOOD edited by Michelle Medlock Adams and Gena Maselli.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for TANGLED MEMORIES and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
ICRS, part 4 (continued from part 3):
My dear friend and writing mentor Sharon Hinck writes for Bethany House, owned by Baker Publishing, and she invited me to the Baker dinner as her “date.” Yes, in my other life, I am an escort service. Sharon, on the other hand, insists I was snuck in as a Zondervan spy.
Due to my infamous sieve-head, I forgot Sharon's hotel and so I didn’t meet her to get a ride to the dinner. Instead, I paid an exhorbitant amount to catch a taxi to the Denver Center for Performing Arts. After wandering around the massive place and tugging at locked doors, I finally found the place where the dinner was held.
Fortuitously, Lauraine Snelling had been doing something else—some interview, I think—and had just stayed at the Center for the dinner rather than trekking back to her room, and she was in the bottom floor foyer, typing away on her Alphasmart Neo. I spent a few minutes chatting with her. She’s so nice!
I met Sharon’s editor Charlene Patterson. So neat to finally meet the person who’s been working so closely with Sharon this past year.
Sharon and I were seated at a table with T.L. (Tony) Hines, Robin Parrish and his wife Karen, and Dave and Neta Jackson. We were also seated with (I believe she was) one of Sharon’s line editors, Donna Carpenter, who was really nice.
The food was awesome! You know me and food. Or maybe you don’t know me and food. Well, I love it. Passionately. We had spinach salad with strawberry dressing, then sautéed green beans with wild rice, the most succulent salmon I’ve ever eaten (although I’m famous for not knowing how to properly cook salmon), and stuffed chicken breast. And amazingly, I didn’t pig out, I managed to eat delicately and with restraint.
Until dessert, that is. There were dozens of little éclairs and tarts, and who in their right mind can say no to that???
The only bad thing is that the dining hall was vast, cavernous, and freezing cold.
I had a great time talking geeky stuff with Robin and Tony and Sharon. Stuff like Battlestar Galactica and Lost and 24 and Alias and Firefly. I’m such a nerd!
Chip MacGregor tried to get me kicked out, but couldn’t when Sharon pulled her SuperMom persona out and threatened to toss him through the window. Sheesh, who let Chip in? They were probably fired afterward.
I had a great time gabbing with Sharon and her agent, Steve Laube. Although Steve does tease me unmercifully because he’s just a bum that way. Once you stay up all night swapping stories with people at Mount Hermon, nothing is off-limits. He gets away with it because he’s not my agent.
I got a ride back to the hotel with Christy finalist Patti Hill and her husband. Patti’s such a sweetheart. She had a great marketing gimmick for ICRS—she dressed up as a gardener and gave away flower-topped pens to promote her Watered Garden series. Sharon was with her in a SuperMom outfit—fire-engine-red cape and all—giving out little note packets. I have a picture somewhere—I’ll post it later.
Next: Walking the ICRS Floor on Monday and Managing Not to Trip and Fall Flat on My Face.
Comments
Again, you clearly had a great time!! So glad you did. I wanna go next year. :-D
And Donna is even more important than an editor. She's the one that mails the checks! On my first advance check, she had a little post-it with directions to the Mall of America. LOL! Now she always sticks little notes on my checks.
We were definitely the geeky table, and wasn't that a blast?
By the way, did you know you made Angela Hunt's blog a few days back?????
Although I have a few food favorites, I definitely eat to live, not vice versa. So far today I've had some canned fruit with Cheerios and other oaty stuff and it's past time for the 3rd meal of the day. Sometimes I literally forget to eat. I think that's how I managed to lose around 50 lbs. since the moving gig began.
It is *not* a good way to lose weight but that's how it usually happens to me.
BTW, Lauraine Snelling, I finally figured out earlier today, was the answer to a quiz where you can win some books. After the first few clues I was pretty sure that it was someone I hadn't heard of before. And it was true--I hadn't. Now twice in a day her name comes up. So she lives in one of the transverse mountain section in CA and has grown sons. It was only by figuring out the name of her latest book and looking that up at Amazon, that I finally got the answer. I also found out that she's written over 50 books for both YA and adults. Oh, yes she lives with her husband and you've said she's "so nice". My total knowledge of her. Actually, most writers I don't even know that much about.
I LOVE FIREFLY!!!
Thanks so much for sharing!
Oh, I'm so green...
-Alison
blog.alisonstrobel.com