Allie Bock's Blog, page 2

Smashwords Sale

 Hello, Readers!

We are fast approaching Read an Ebook Week, a week that encourages readers to pick up the digital device of their choice and download a new book to read.

I'm excited to announce that my books will be available as part of a promotion on Smashwords to celebrate 2025 Read an Ebook Week! This is a chance to get my books for 25% off, along with books from many other great authors, at a discount so you can get right to reading.

You will find the promo here starting on March 2, so save the link:
https://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek

If you wouldn't mind taking part in promoting this celebration of Ebooks and reading, please feel free to share this promo with your friends and family. Just forward this email to anyone who would love a chance to find their next favorite book and, as the name suggests, read an ebook!

Thank you for your help and support!

Happy reading!

Saving Lola

 Hi Dear Reader,

How are you doing? Have you been reading anything great?

This week has been uneventful at work. It was cold and I think everyone hunkered down to get through the cold snap. It finally warmed up this weekend enough that we took the Little Bocks to go see our horses. They spent hours brushing and riding them.

I did want to share a story that happened this time of year. Several years ago, Hubby and I were living and working in central Missouri. The part of Missouri we lived in was cattle country, mainly cow/calf operations. That is where ranchers/farmers had momma cows that lived out in green pastures. They had calves either in the spring or the fall. The calves and cows lived together until the calves were weaned. It was very picturesque.

 The calves were "pre-conditioned" before being weaned. That means that they were vaccinated, dewormed, tested for certain diseases, and castrated. At that time, Missouri had a program to increase the health of the calves and thus increase their value to the feedlots and stockyards. Most of my clients had black Angus, which is my favorite and the best breed of beef cow. 😉

Anyway, one day in February it was sleeting and cold for Missouri, one of my friends called and said that he found a half-frozen calf that was abandoned by the first-time momma cow. He said, "if you can save it, you can have it." I tend to be a sucker for baby calves and enjoy a challenge. We already had a nice little herd going and if this calf lived she would be a great addition. Our friend had very nice cows. So we met him at the Casey's gas station. The little calf was wrapped in a blanket laying at the foot of the passenger side of his truck.

We took her home and put her in our bathtub with hot water bottles, warm towels from the dryer, and turned on the propane heater. The bathroom got so warm. She was so weak that she did not have a suckle response and could not take a bottle of colostrum (the first milk full of antibodies and other important good things). We ended up tubing her colostrum for 3-4 days before she had the strength to stand and nurse from a bottle.

Hubby and I went out to lunch one day. We discussed when we were going to put our new calf in the barn. He was ready to move her out, but I was hesitant because she wasn't as perky as I wanted her to be. All of that was for naught, though. We got home from our lunch date to find water seeping from under the bathroom door. We opened the door up. The floor was flooded with water and the calf was standing in the middle of the mess looking at us with her ears forward like, "it's about time you got home." Somehow, she had turned on the faucet for the tub.

After that we moved her outside to a horse stall. She grew up to be a beautiful cow. Here she is with her first calf. The calf is half Bucking Bull and half Angus.

Do you have a heartwarming story about a pet? Wasn't Lola adorable?

Hugs,

Allie

Brr It's Cold Outside!

Hi Dear Reader,

How are you doing?

I feel like I talk about the weather a lot, but I do live in Minnesota and I work outside, so it is inevitable. This week it was cold, hovering around the zero degree Fahrenheit. It makes working outside miserable.

I don’t ride when it is this cold. I go out and check on my horses, feed them carrots, and give them love. They don’t mind the cold as they both have thick winter coats and have all-they-can-eat hay. The barn manager does feed them extra senior feed and “special” hay when it is this cold. Amber (the red dun or brown one) always looks for treats and I have a hard time getting her ears in the shot. Charlie was standing in the hay feeder to reach the good stuff in the center of the round bale. He was able to get out just fine, but it is no wonder he got cut a couple of months ago. 

 

We have been spending a lot of time indoors. Little Bocks have been baking cookies and coloring. We found a website to AI generate our own coloring pages. It is ColorBliss. We’ve enjoyed making our pages to color. You just put in a prompt say “Majestic horse running through a field of wildflowers” and it outputs a PDF that you can print. Sometimes, the AI isn’t accurate, like the legs on the horse aren’t quite right, but little kids don’t care as long as they can color the horse.

As for being a horse doctor, I catch up on all my journal reading and recorded lectures. Our national organization videoed our national conference. I wasn’t able to go this year, but am working my through the conference. It is convenient to sit on my couch and listen to the latest innovations in equine medicine. When it is this cold, I usually only see sick, urgent care/emergency patients, which puts a gray cloud over my head. (Between you and me, it is hard to write about my job with that in my headspace.) Now to go eat some cookies.

Have you read anything good lately?

I have a quick poll for you on books on my Substack. Take a minute and answer the questions, leave a comment, or email me your thoughts.

The questions are: What are your preferred way to read books? Which app or device do you use to read e-books? Do you use KU?

I am always curious as to how you read!

I usually read on my phone through my library, kindle, or nook apps. If I like the ebook, I do buy the physical copy of it for my tiny library. Or I buy used books from the used bookstore downtown. I used to have an original Kindle Fire, which I loved. But when the battery stopped holding a charge, I tried out other Kindles and just couldn’t get into them.

I came across a new ereader app for my phone from Bookshop.org. It is fairly new and they only have traditionally published books available at this time. According to their website, they will have indie author books soon. (Yah!) I did download the app and try out Pride and Prejudice on it. The interface is very clean and minimalist. The reading part is very nice. They have an option to highlight, add notes, or share quotes. In my opinion, it is definitely beating out my Nook app for ease of use and is more eye-appealing than my Kindle app. Let me know what you think about it!

I know I’m supposed to have a short story to share this week. I ran out of time to edit it and it is still a jumble of words. I’ll be sharing it next week. I do have a few books for you to check out.

I hope you have a safe and warm week. I’ll talk to you next week. Hugs!

Allie

P.S. I have some free or $0.99 reads on my Substack. Go there and check them out!

Lost Love at the Rodeo: a short story

 Hi dear Reader,

Happy Valentines Day from Tank and I! Our present to you is a lovely short story about a veterinarian and a cowboy. I hope you enjoy it!

Second Chance at Love at the Rodeo

Emily grabbed the doctor’s bag off the truck seat next to her beforesliding to the ground. She slammed the door to her veterinary truck closed andtook a big breath. This was the third after-hours emergency this evening. Herstomach growled, empty from the smoothie she had for breakfast this morning.She realized at that moment she forgot to eat lunch. She gripped the doctor’sbag in one hand and held her cell phone in the other as she got her bearings ofthe rodeo grounds.

A stream of people tricked down from the parking lot to the rodeo arena.The announcer’s booth crackled to life with someone tapping on themicrophone and saying, “testing, one, two, three.” A line of people stood infront of the concession stand where the aromas of kettle corn and hotdogsteased Emily’s empty stomach. She gritted her teeth as she strode by wishingshe had time for dinner.

The message came from theanswering service that someone had a lame horse and could not wait untilbusiness hours to be seen. Emily rolled her eyes at the message: Needa horse vet STAT. Need to rodeo.

“If they would only take care of their horses and nottreat them like vehicles,” she grumbled to herself. “Then, things like thiswouldn’t happen.” She signed. It was all part of the jog. It pained her thatnot everyone felt about their horses like she did.

She wove through thecontestant parking lot. Horse trailers and campers wedged together like cows ina trailer. Most of the horses were saddled and waiting for their turn in thewarm-up arena. The message said that it was the trailer at the end of the lotwith Montana plates. Why was a Montana cowboy rodeoing in Texas for the summerrodeo circuit. Surely, they have rodeos up there.

She rounded the line oftrailers to the last one at the end. A shiny brand-new horse trailer withliving quarters and truck stood out from the average Texas rig. Most of thecontestants were local working cowboys. A beautiful sorrel horse stood tied tothe side. A full hay net and water bucket hung within his reach. He rested onefront foot out in front, barely putting any weight on it. Yep, this wasdefinitely the lame horse.

Emily walked around thehorse to the living quarters door. She raised her fist to knock when the doorswung open. A tall cowboy filled the doorway. A Stetson hat pulled low on hisforehead, shielding his eyes. Emily craned her neck to meet his gaze. His eyesroamed from the top of head to her battered cowboy boots. The tips of her earsreddened and her cheeks flushed under his perusal.

“I’m here to check out your lame horse.” She nodded tothe sorrel, dozing a few feet away.

A slow smile spread overhis face, causing a warmth to spread throughout her. “I’m glad you could fitus in, Doc Emily.” He advanced out of the trailer and approached the horse. “King,here, stepped off the trailer lame.” He untied the horse and rubbed King’sforehead. King nickered softly and nudged the cowboy in the chest with hisnose. The cowboy chuckled, giving King a sugar cube from his pocket.

Something about the wayhe rubbed the horse’s head and his laugh sparked something in Emily’smemory. It was gone before she could catch it, though.

“Well, let me take a look at him.” Emily set her doctor’sbag down and started her exam.

The whole time the cowboyrubbed King’s head and crooned to him. Emily had sworn off cowboys adecade ago, but this one was melting her heart. Plus, he was handsome, and hishorse loved him.

Emily pulled out the hooftesters and placed it on King’s hoof. He jumped and snorted when she got tothe sore spot. She examined the hoof closer.

“Ah ha, I’ve found it.” She bent over the hoof and usedher hoof knife to dig out an abscess. Within a few minutes, pus shot from thesmall hole she created in the sole of King’s hoof.

King sighed and placedthe foot squarely on the ground. Emily straightened, rubbing her lower back.

“I’ll treat it and wrap it for you. He won’t be able tocompete this weekend, though. I can write you a release to get your money back.”She extracted bandage materials from her bag. She medicated the abscess andwrapped the hoof in a colorful green bandage.

“I’m not worried about the entry fees.” The cowboy rubbedKing’s forehead. “I just want him to feel better.”

“Give him a few days. Soak the foot in warm water andEpsom salts and keep it wrapped. He’ll be right as rain. Do you have any painmeds for him?” Emily packed everything back into her bag and turned to thecowboy.

“I have some bute. Never leave home without it.” Hesmiled at her.

Something about hissmiled tugged at the corner of her mind. It made her feel giddy like aschoolgirl as a blush colored her cheeks. “Good. He can get a dose or two.” She pulledout her receipt book and wrote down the charges to avoid his gaze. She hoped hedidn’t notice her blush. “We take cash, checks, or credit cards.” She pausedher pen over the page. “What was your name?”

“Roy McLaughin,” he said softly.

Emily’s pen hit the ground as her whole body froze at hiswords. Her heart skipped a beat before plunging forward at a gallop. Sheswallowed, bringing her gaze to meet his.

His smile spread wide.His eyes danced in merriment. He crossed his arms over his chest, his musclesbulging as she took him in.

“Hi, Emily.” He took a step toward her, lowering hisvoice. “Didn’t recognize me?

Emily shook her head,still in shock. The familiar feeling took hold and brought back all thememories. “Roy, I can’t believe it…it has been so long.”

He grasped her hands withhis, engulfing them. They were roughened by years of hard work and tanned fromthe sun. “I didn’t think that I’d ever come back. But I am.”

Her heart leaped at histouch. It had been years since Roy said good-bye to chase his dreams ofbecoming a rodeo star. She was left with a broken heart and a full ridescholarship to Texas A&M. He tugged her gently, closing the gap betweenthem. Their breath mingled and their hearts called to one another.

“Are you home for good?” Her voice shook with emotion asshe held his gaze.

His hand drifted up herarm over her shoulder to cup her chin. He held it there as his eyes searchedhers. Emotions swirled in them. “Yes, I’m home to stay. Grandpa is retiringand wants me to run the ranch.” He bent close to her. “What do you say aboutseeing me again?”

Emily’s chest grew tight andthe words squeaked out of her. “That sounds wonderful.” His touch sent shiversthrough her, making it hard to speak. Her cowboy was home again and stillwanted her.

He closed the gap. Hislips hovered above hers, unsure but hopeful. Emily stood on her tiptoes andpressed her lips to his. The kiss lingered as it brought back all the memoriesof their time together. It held promise of everything yet to come. Emily meltedagainst his strong chest as his arms wrapped around her, holding her like hewould never let go. He rested his chin on top of her head.

“Leaving you was my greatest regret,” he said. He pressedhis lips against her temple. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too.” Emily leaned back in his arms. Theirgazes met and held, speaking unspoken words. Her stomach rumbled with theforgotten hunger pains. They laughed.

“Why don’t I buy you some supper and we can catch up?” Hethreaded his fingers in between hers.

“That sounds wonderful,” she grinned. Her busy dayending on a high note.

What I'm Reading: You Had me at Cowboy

 What are you reading this week?

I just finished You Had Me At Cowboy by Jennie Marts. It was a fun story with a little bit of action and a lit bit of heat. 

Tessa is a journalist who is down on her luck due to circumstances beyond her control. She is about to get fired when her boss finds out that she is at the wedding of a celebrity. She needs to get dirt on the groom to save her job and earn enough bonus money to help out her granny. She infiltrates herself into the family, only to fall in love with the best man, Mason. She has to pick between Mason or her job. Which will she do?

Amazon

Bookshop.org

Bookshop.org is an affiliate link. I make a small commission at no cost to you.

Tropes:

Cowboy, rich, secret identity, sports

Heat:

Moderate 

January Deep Freeze

 Hi dear reader,

How are you doing? How has your January been going?

Here in Minnesota we are in a bitter cold of winter. It is so cold that Tank doesn't want to go outside any longer than he has to. It is the kind of cold that freezes fingers and noses and causes ice to crystalize on eyelashes. It burns the cheeks with the artic breeze and lungs ache taking in the frigid air. It is cold.

It makes doing vet work challenging. Now that I work on just horses it isn't too bad. I usually work in barns and can get through appointments quickly so that my medications don't freeze and I don't lose feeling in my toes.

It hasn't always been that way.

When I was just out of vet school, we worked at mixed animal practice. We saw all animals. My night on call was Monday. One Monday night in January, I was called out to help a heifer (a cow having her first calf) have her call. It was cold and she was secured in the corner of a three sided shed. The wind blew threw the open side covering half the straw bedding with layer of snow. I shucked off my jacket to work in my scrubs and long sleeve t-shirts. Pulling on my long plastic sleeves, I reached into my bucket of soapy water and cleaned off the heifer. Then, I grabbed my obstetric chains and calf jack. A calf jack is a metal contraption to help the calf navigate the birth canal Guess what? My sleeves froze to the metal of the calf jack. They just peeled right off my arm and adhered to the metal. I ended up getting the calf out. I did lose several layers of skin from touching the calf jack, but the baby was alive.

The next Monday I was on call. The same farmer called with another calving. This time they closed the three sided shed, had a propane heater running and bucket of hot water for my equipment. Thank God for farmers. My fingers were intact when I left that night.

Now that it has been really cold, I spend a lot of time indoors with the kids. We have been experimenting with sourdough. Little Bock 1 loves to make muffins and pizza crust from the sourdough. We also read a lot of books. What do you like to do when the weather is bad?

Hugs,

Allie

Insecure Writer's Support Group January

 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
The awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Remember, the question is optional!

January 8 question - Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?  I thought for a long time about this question. I had no idea what to put for an answer. As a child, it was easy to look upon a person that had an influence in my life and sort of idolize them. Then as I grew up, I realized that they are just another person. They made mistakes or they weren't worthy of being idolized. 
I think the best answer would be my parents. Ironically, this question came up in high school when they were doing interviews for scholarship money. I said my Mom back then.
As I child and even now, I think the world of them. Do I feel the same way about them now as I did when I was a child? No, I actually admire them more now that I am an adult. I am able to look back and understand why things happened the way they did or why I couldn't get my way. Time is a wonderful lens in which to view the past.  Thank you for stopping by and reading my thoughts.

What about you?

New Year's Reading Goals

 

How are you doing? How was your New Year’s Eve? Did you do anything fun?

Our New Year’s celebration was pretty chill. We took the girls to the local children’s museum where they had a party during the day. It was themed like Times Square. There was a DJ hosting a dance party with bubbles, sock skating in Central Park, a photo booth, a “tattoo” booth, and games. The girls had a great time. Then, we ordered Olive Garden to go, because eating at any restaurant with two little kids isn’t relaxing. Everyone was asleep before midnight. I guess that means we faced the new year refreshed.

Hubby ended up taking Little Bock 1 to the local ice rink to ice skate. It was really cold so Little Bock 2 and I watched for a few minutes before heading into the chalet to warm up. LB1 had a great time on the ice. There were a bunch of other kids skating, too. It seemed that more time was spent falling on the ice than actual ice skating.

Thank you for all the emails. I’ll give you a quick update on everything. My knee is healing well from the surgery. I got released to go to work with no running, jumping, or squatting. That is hard because I have two little active kids. Charlie healed really well. We took his stitches out on Sunday, and the wound has closed nicely.

On the writing front, I am working on Cassandra’s story. I finally am making some headway on it. The problem was that I tried to use a different way to write the story and I got stalled out. So I went back to my normal method and now have written more words. It is coming and I can’t wait to share it with you. It isn’t ready for the newsletter, yet. I don’t write the book in order so I can’t give out the chapters as I go. It is more like a puzzle. I know where they need to go, I know how this is going to work, and I know what happens. It is a matter of putting it all together.

That brings me to the New Year. Did you make any resolutions or goals for your reading? Is there anything you are excited to read? Please comment or email me. I’d love to hear your goals and any books you are excited about!

I made my goal to read 50 fiction books by the end of the year. I don’t have anything pressing to read. I went last week with some paperbacks I wanted to re-home to the local used bookstore. I traded them in for store credit and bought a few that interested me.

That’s all I have for now. I hope you stay warm and dry. Hugs,

Allie

An exciting week in life of a horse owner

 Hi!

How have you been doing? This week is always weird for me. Time seems distorted until after the first of the year.

This week had an unusual amount of excitement in the Bock house. On Thursday morning, the cell phone chimed with an incoming text.

“Charlie!” Little Bock 1 waved the cell phone at me.

My heart dropped when she handed me my phone and a picture of hubby's horse, Charlie, was on the screen. It was a message from the barn manager where we board our horses. 

He had a gash on his head and blood running down the side of his face. His eye was swollen shut. The barn manager said he was acting normal, but she couldn't find where he hurt himself.

We packed up the kids and headed out to the barn. 

We brought both our horses in to the barn. Of course, he wouldn't let me look at it. He's usually good for vet work, but he doesn't like his eyes examined. I gave him some sedation that took the edge off so I could look at the wound. Hubby held Charlie's head while Little Bock 1 held the lead rope. She was worried about him being hurt.

As I cleaned off the blood, we discovered the wound was worse than initially thought. It started above his upper eyelid and wrapped around the eye. Luckily, his eyeball was  not damaged. 

Hubby grimaced and said, “Dude, you need stitches.”  He rubbed Charlie's face as I sutured the laceration closed.

Charlie was given some pain/anti-inflammatory medicine and a long acting antibiotic. Hubby put Charlie's fly mask to prevent him from rubbing, hopefully.

It has been 4 days and he is healing well. Here's a picture of him after all cleaned up. I didn't think you'd want to see him all bloody.

So hopefully everything will continue to heal well. It is the worse when my own horse is hurt.

Have a happy New Year's! Until next time. Hugs,

Allie

End of the Year Sale at Smashwords

 My older books are all 50% off in the Smashwords end of the year sale! You can find them:

 HERE