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 09.08.2006
Blog book giveaway:
My Monday book giveaway is BAD HEIRESS DAY by Allie Pleiter.
My Thursday book giveaway is A FAMILY FOREVER by Brenda Coulter.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for BAD HEIRESS DAY and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
“Small kid time”: (I think only Malia will get that reference) Delia tagged me to share my favorite childhood memory.
Like I commented on her blog, my favorite childhood memories tend to involve blood in some way. Maybe I should have been a suspense writer instead of a chick-lit romance writer.
Okay, here’s a good, non-bloody memory. I absolutely loved when I was writing my first novel (an extremely bad fantasy) on our old Apple IIe. Does anybody else remember those???
I had all summer and the computer had been moved to the big living room, and I sat and wrote whatever came to mind. I don’t even remember the word processing program I used.
I saved my file on those 5” floppy disks. My dad got a whole box of them just for me. (Once I accidentally erased my entire file, but we won’t go into that because this is a happy memory.)
My brother scoffed while I was writing, but my mom, an English teacher, encouraged me. Finally I finished and printed out the 400-page monster, sticking it into a 3-ring binder.
My brother happened to glance at it one day when it was open on the floor. And he started reading. And he didn’t stop until he was done.
This is MY brother. The only one I have, with whom I don’t exactly get along with. That was the BEST compliment to my writing I’ve ever gotten.
Gone this weekend: Yup, to my husband’s cousin’s wedding in Los Angeles. We’re driving down today and won’t be back until late Sunday night.
So no prayer this Sunday. Sorry, guys. But if you have a prayer request, feel free to leave it here as a comment to this post.
TMI:
Writing: I posted another synopsis writing tip on my Story Sensei blog.
Diet: I had a nice surprise today. I was trying on dresses to see what I fit in that I can wear to the wedding. I discovered that I almost fit into an old dress that I love. It’s still a little snug around the hips—I could stand to lose an inch or two before it’ll look nice on me. But for the first time in months—no YEARS—I can actually zip it up.
Any old clothes you’d love to get back into?
Blog book giveaway:
My Monday book giveaway is BAD HEIRESS DAY by Allie Pleiter.
My Thursday book giveaway is A FAMILY FOREVER by Brenda Coulter.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for BAD HEIRESS DAY and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
“Small kid time”: (I think only Malia will get that reference) Delia tagged me to share my favorite childhood memory.
Like I commented on her blog, my favorite childhood memories tend to involve blood in some way. Maybe I should have been a suspense writer instead of a chick-lit romance writer.
Okay, here’s a good, non-bloody memory. I absolutely loved when I was writing my first novel (an extremely bad fantasy) on our old Apple IIe. Does anybody else remember those???
I had all summer and the computer had been moved to the big living room, and I sat and wrote whatever came to mind. I don’t even remember the word processing program I used.
I saved my file on those 5” floppy disks. My dad got a whole box of them just for me. (Once I accidentally erased my entire file, but we won’t go into that because this is a happy memory.)
My brother scoffed while I was writing, but my mom, an English teacher, encouraged me. Finally I finished and printed out the 400-page monster, sticking it into a 3-ring binder.
My brother happened to glance at it one day when it was open on the floor. And he started reading. And he didn’t stop until he was done.
This is MY brother. The only one I have, with whom I don’t exactly get along with. That was the BEST compliment to my writing I’ve ever gotten.
Gone this weekend: Yup, to my husband’s cousin’s wedding in Los Angeles. We’re driving down today and won’t be back until late Sunday night.
So no prayer this Sunday. Sorry, guys. But if you have a prayer request, feel free to leave it here as a comment to this post.
TMI:
Writing: I posted another synopsis writing tip on my Story Sensei blog.
Diet: I had a nice surprise today. I was trying on dresses to see what I fit in that I can wear to the wedding. I discovered that I almost fit into an old dress that I love. It’s still a little snug around the hips—I could stand to lose an inch or two before it’ll look nice on me. But for the first time in months—no YEARS—I can actually zip it up.
Any old clothes you’d love to get back into?
Comments
Have fun at the wedding! We'll miss you!
The first computer I ever touched was in a class my mother thought she'd better take. It was Intro 101 to Computers on a Commodore 64 (is that correct?). We took a class together not long after my father died in April '83. She realized that computers were the future and figured she'd better learn something about them so that she could keep up with her grandchildren. So we took some basic programming. It was fun.
I knew my elder brother had a computer. A few years later he had a program for which he needed two computers. So he started speculating on the phone with me about how he could get two computers to talk with to other. Soon after that, he got a 500 Mb machine which could be expanded to 1 GB. Wow! that was awesome and it cost him something like US$8000 and had to special-ordered from somewhere in TX.
How soon we forget.
Have a lot of fun at the wedding. Unless someone gets very generous, I won't make it to the next one in our family. That's one reason we made such a big deal about Kathi's shower about a month ago. They'll be getting married in Playa del Carmen, Mexico--unless a hurricane carries it off before the beginning of November. The costs are $1500 per person, more than I get in a month and a half.
The first computer I ever touched was in a class my mother thought she'd better take. It was Intro 101 to Computers on a Commodore 64 (is that correct?). We took a class together not long after my father died in April '83. She realized that computers were the future and figured she'd better learn something about them so that she could keep up with her grandchildren. So we took some basic programming. It was fun.
I knew my elder brother had a computer. A few years later he had a program for which he needed two computers. So he started speculating on the phone with me about how he could get two computers to talk with to other. Soon after that, he got a 500 Mb machine which could be expanded to 1 GB. Wow! that was awesome and it cost him something like US$8000 and had to special-ordered from somewhere in TX.
How soon we forget.
Have a lot of fun at the wedding. Unless someone gets very generous, I won't make it to the next one in our family. That's one reason we made such a big deal about Kathi's shower about a month ago. They'll be getting married in Playa del Carmen, Mexico--unless a hurricane carries it off before the beginning of November. The costs are $1500 per person, more than I get in a month and a half.
Yay on fitting into the dress!! I've done that a couple weeks ago with a pair of slacks. Also bought a pair of jeans today in a smaller size. :o) could have bought it in an even smaller size cuz they fit... they just didn't look good. lol