Cindy C. Bennett's Blog, page 62

Gus and the Lightning

Today I have a guest post on my blog, written by my daughter Lexcie. Welcome, Lexcie, and thanks for posting!

Gus  by Lexcie Bennett
             As it starts to rain down from the sky softly, my dog Gus starts to shake. If you didn’t know any better you’d think something was actually wrong with him. It’s only lightly sprinkling, but for Gus, there might as well be a tsunami outside. I call him to me and he almost falls off the couch multiple times to get to me. Now I know he’s really terrified because Gus never just comes over to me willingly. I laugh and hold him tight because that makes him feel more secure. However, as soon as my sister comes in the room, Gus decides she’s more secure and scurries away from me to her. I shrug it off because that’s always how Gus has been.

It starts to rain harder and I can start to hear the thunder rumbling. Oh, this is not good. Gus then starts to whimper softly and shake like he’s having a seizure. He starts panting as if he hasn’t had water in days and has been trapped in the desert. My sister holds him tighter, but there’s no comforting him now. We decide to go outside because we want to see the lightening, and of course have to take him with us. As you can imagine, Gus did not appreciate this at all. No matter how tightly we wrapped him up in a blanket and held him, he continued to tremble. We try to talk to him and distract him, but nothing is working. You can see him quaking just by watching him; you don’t even have to touch him to see how hard he’s shuddering. We decide to just let him inside and go crazy and deal with it however he wants to. We also let my other dog, Lily, inside with him, even though she’s completely fine. She probably thinks he’s an idiot for the way he’s reacting, if anything. We decide to stay outside to listen to the thunder and watch the lightning. It’s pouring cats and dogs now. Pun intended, just for Gus. After about an hour outside, we decide we’ve had enough and go inside. At first, I’m not sure where Gus is and I’m a little concerned. However, Gus soon emerges from under the table behind the couch; I didn’t even know he could fit back there. I quickly scoop him up in my arms, but he’s still a quivering mess. As the sound of the thunder gets closer, Gus has now resorted to running around. He just has no idea how to deal with his fears, and it’s too amusing to us to try to even comfort him anymore. It doesn’t matter how light or hard it’s raining outside, Gus will always get panicked. For the rest of the night, he runs around and wheezes, even though we try to give him water several times. After a couple hours, the rain has died down some. He always does the same thing after a rainstorm because he just wears himself out and he’s exhausted. Gus finally stretches out on his favorite red blanket, and proceeds to pass out.

Rapunzel Revealed

Here it is, the cover for Rapunzel: Untangled due out Feb. 2013 from Sweetwater Books. You can read the blurb below the cover.



Fab Fane Fannigan: Are you saying you live at GOTHEL MANSION??? The Gothel Mansion?

RG: My mother calls it Gothel Manor, so maybe that’s different?

Fab Fane Flannigan: No, Rapunzel, there’s only one that I know of. It has to be the same. Are you telling me the truth here?

RG: Yes, of course. Is it weird that I live here?

Fab Fane Flannigan: No, not weird, just . . . never mind. So you live in the tower?

RG: Uh, the tower? I don’t know. Is it a tower?

Fab Fane Flannigan: Yes, it is. I know where it is. I’ll be there Friday at 8.

Rapunzel sensed the difference in his tone. Something wasn’t right.

Fab Fane Flannigan: Rapunzel, promise me one thing.

RG: Okay.

Fab Fane Flannigan: Don’t Google your house.
　

Rapunzel is not your average teenager. For one thing, she has a serious illness that keeps her inside the mysterious Gothel Mansion. And for another, her hair is 15 feet long. Not to mention that she’s also the key to ultimately saving the world from certain destruction.
But then she meets a boy named Fane, who changes all she has ever known, and she decides to risk everything familiar to find out who she really is.

Filled with romance, adventure, and mystery, Rapunzel Untangled is one story you won’t want to put down. Discover the true meaning of love and friendship in this modern twist to the classic fairytale.  

Reading Clean Giveaway Hop

Time for another giveaway! (I just love giving things away!)

This blog hop is hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, Clean Teen Fiction, and One Librarian's Book Reviews.

Simply put, it's a giveaway for clean reads, and as all my readers know, my books are clean.

I'm going to give away FIVE eBook prizes. If you win, you'll have your choice of any of my books listed below:

Heart on a Chain

Immortal Mine

Beautiful Beast (Short Story)

Red and the Wolf (Short Story)

In the Beginning (Short Story)

Just enter on the Rafflecopter, then check out the linky list below it to hop to some other blogs for more great prizes!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

17 Authors, 26 Titles, 44 Giveaways

Awesome, huh?

The Crazy Dream Blog is having a crazy giveaway.

You can enter anytime during the month of September to win one of 44 giveaways from the blog, a few items of which just happen to be courtesy of moi. So click this link to visit the blog and win some great prizes. With 44 giveaways, your chances of winning are pretty good, right?

A Red Harley Hat for A Man's Life

Beautiful Sand Hollow, St. George, Utah
Yesterday I went with my husband and two of our good friends to Sand Hollow Reservoir in St. George, Utah, to ride our waverunners. The day was beautiful, not too hot at about 95°. Yeah, I know, that sounds like approximately the temperature of the place the devil resides, but there was a nice breeze blowing, so we were able to enjoy the day.

When the day ended, my hubby and I took the waverunners over to the dock to trailer them. He backed the trailer into the water (I'll tow a trailer, in fact, I'll tow two trailers at once, and have, but I don't back them up) and I put the first waverunner on, no problem.

While he was strapping it to the trailer, I went to retrieve the second boat from where it was beached. After stumbling and falling over rocks that should have been easy enough to cross (grace is not my middle name) I got on it, and rode it out into the area where boats are launched.

Suddenly, I heard someone yelling for help. A man's voice. I looked across the bay, and saw someone in the water, waving for help. For just a second, I thought he was joking. His friends weren't too far from him, but far enough away they wouldn't get to him quickly. Like a bolt of lightening into my slow-processing brain, I realized he was genuinely in trouble.

So I broke the law. Yup, I didn't keep my boat wakeless in the dock area. In fact, I gave it full gas to race to him. Just before I came upon him he went under. His hand that had been waving went with him and I panicked, worried that I wouldn't be able to find him.

And then he popped back above the water. I grabbed his hand and said, "Grab on!" He did, nearly swamping the boat. But we stayed aloft, and I held onto him as he gasped for breath. He was a young man, only twenty-one I found out. He was terrified. So was I!

After he felt like he could breathe again, he worked his way around to the back of the waverunner. There, he had to rest again before he had the strength to climb on. I don't know how many of you have ever ridden a waverunner, and had someone climb up on the back. It's precarious at best. And this guy was a big, tough, Polynesian guy. I'm telling you, my guardian angel and his were both sitting on the front of the boat helping me balance it so he could easily board, and we were borrowing someone elses angel to help him manage the climb.

He told me he's been on a mission for two years, and this was his first time swimming since before he'd gone. Swimming in a lake. Without a life jacket. Such a guy, right?

I dropped him off at the beach where he assured me he was fine. His two buddies had finished their swim to the rocky outcropping he'd been heading for, then swam back. My heart was pounding and I was shaking with relief.

So why mention a red Harley hat? 
I happened to be wearing mine at the time, my beautiful red and black Harley cap with a studded brim. I felt it fly off when I first took off towards him, but obviously I wasn't going to go back for it. After I dropped him off, I searched for it, hoping vainly that it would still be afloat. Yeah, I know, right in the middle of constantly churning water with boats going in and out, like it had a chance.
 When I got the waverunner trailered, and told my husband what had happened (he was wondering why the heck I took off like that in the middle of the wakeless area), he assured me he'd go on the internet at try to find me a replacement hat. But you know what? It doesn't matter. It's a hat.
Put a hat on one side of a scale, and the weight of a mans life on the other, and see which one really counts. I've had many hats before, and I'll have many hats in the future (gotta have something to cover the helmet-hair when I ride the Harley). I would happily toss every hat I own, and every hat I'll ever own, into the lake in exchange for this one man being okay.

So today I'm grateful. For being in the right place at the right time and being able to hear his cries. And for understanding he wasn't joking with his friends. And for not having the waverunner roll over and sink this poor guy once again. And for slippery, jagged, hard to walk on rocks that were really flat and should have been easy to cross, which would have put me a few minutes earlier having the boat on the trailer and not being in a position to help him.

Whoever he is and wherever he is, I'm sorry he had to suffer for those few minutes and be scared (he told me how scared he was) but I'm grateful to him for teaching me the un-importance of a red Harley hat.

My cute hubby on one of the waverunners
Just a pic I took of this cool tree on the beach where we were. Isn't it awesome?

Reluctance Review




Thanks to Long and Short Reviews (Young Adult) for the great review of Reluctance . Here is some of what LASR had to say:

There is much more to Dahlia than meets the eye.

Dahlia is more than a little awkward. She’s clumsy, unpopular, and hopelessly out of touch with the current trends. She doesn’t really fit in anywhere, but even worse is the fact that she feels like an outsider in her own family. Her life seems very lonely, but I admire the fact that, for the most part, she does her own thing and lives by her own set of principles.

Dahlia and her family definitely aren’t human, but I won’t spoil the story by revealing what sort of paranormal creatures they are. Ms. Bennett has an interesting take on this particular branch of the supernatural tree...

The one bright spot in Dahlia’s life is Cam . . . their romance is definitely sweet. I love the way Dahlia comes out of her shell when she’s with Cam. Something just clicks when they are together. They are both very comfortable around each other and I enjoyed all the flirty banter between them. It was truly a pleasure watching their romance bloom. However, Dahlia’s determination to fit in with her kind just might cost her the love of a lifetime.

Reluctance is a fun, fast paced romance that can be read in one sitting. Dahlia is a sweet, quirky heroine and her romance with Cam is compelling. I must say again how much I enjoyed watching them fall in love. If you want to know Dahlias secret and how Cam will handle it, there’s only one way to find out. Pick up a copy of Reluctance today.

If you want to ead the review in its entirety, visit Long and Short Reviews.

You can purchase Reluctance at Amazon, B&N, or at Noble Publishing.

Six Winners!

The six winners of the Young Adult Giveaway Hop are:

Cordelia Fitzgerald - Immortal Mine

Kajal Kaushal - Reluctance

TFrances - It's a Love Thing

Sarah Rooney - Heart on a Chain

Kassandra Fuentes - Beautiful Beast

Donna/BLHmistress - Red and the Wolf

Congrats to you all, and thanks to everyone who stopped by and entered. You're all winners in my book, if not of my books. (Haha, so corny!)



If you are listed as a winner and have not received an email from me, please contact me using the email link to the left.

Dark Horse: Catch or Release

Dark Horse Books has a great feature called "Catch or Release". The allow an author to submit 600 words to "catch" the attention of their readers. Currently, they're featuring a certain book called Immortal Mine by a certain author (moi). If you want a chance to win a copy, check out the Catch or Release here.

Young Adult Giveaway Hop

Time for another giveaway! This one is hosted by the amazing I Am A Reader, Not a Writer and Reading Teen which makes it really appropriate that it's a Young Adult Giveaway. And since I write YA, it's right up my alley!

Open internationally.

Up for grabs:

Heart on a Chain
Kate's life has been one misery after another, until Henry returns
Immortal Mine
Niahm is happy with her small town life. She isn't happy with Sam coming in and changing everything.
It's a Love Thing anthology in which I have a story called In the Beginning
Drake's just been released from prison. Megan is far too good for him. Isn't she?
Beautiful Beast (Enchanted Fairytales Book 1) short story
Calli is cursed with beauty. Alex is a cursed beast. Can Calli tame the beast that rages within Alex?
Red and the Wolf (Enchanted Fairytales Book 2) short story, my newest release
Rafe returns to town, upsetting Ruby's hard won balance after he left. At the same time, there's a sudden increase in wolf attacks in the forest nearby.
Reluctance short story from Noble YA
Dahlia hates the life she is forced to lead. And then the enigmatic Cam walks in.


Enter on the Rafflecopter, then use the linky below to hop to other blogs for the chance to win one of the many great prizes being given away.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Day Late, Though He Was Right on Time

Our dear friends from Texas have a son who was married Saturday at Grand Targhee in Wyoming. We went up the Wednesday before so that we could take part in some of the pre-wedding activities. Following the wedding, my hubby and I hopped on our Harley's and cruised through Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, over to Flaming Gorge, then home yesterday, July 24th. Throughout our time we had very little internet access, and when we did it was sporadic at best.


Why am I giving you all my boring vacation info? To explain why this post is a day late.

In Utah, July 24th is celebrated as Pioneer Day, the day when the pioneers first set foot in the valley in 1847. It's a pretty big deal, basically an extension of the 4th of July, celebrated with fireworks, family BBQ's, rodeos, a big parade held in Salt Lake, and other things of that nature.

I celebrated it in 1989 by giving birth to my second son (and second child) Randy, right on his due date (the only one of my 4 kids to do that). We always joked with him that they have a parade each year in celebration of his birth. While the parade might not be held in his honor, the day has taken on a new meaning for me since he came along.

Randy was born funny. I don't mean his birth was funny, I mean the kid is funny. He has a quick wit, and can make anyone laugh with his one-liners. He has always gotten a great deal of joy out of making others laugh. I'm kind of surprised he didn't go into comedy in some way.

As a kid he was always really sensitive to others. He hated to see others hurt. I remember one time, when he was around 6 or 7, he was playing baseball. He hit the ball and ran to first base. He accidentally ran into the kid guarding the base, and rather than continue to the next base, he stopped and helped the kid up, asking him if he was okay. I'll never forget what a happy moment that was for me as a mom, to see his empathy for another.

When he was a senior in high school, he had long hair. Rather than just chop it off, he decided to grow it out long enough to donate to Locks of Love. I think he was the only boy who did so. It was a very cool thing for him to do.

Right out of high school, Randy joined the United States Air Force. For a patriotic mom who's always been grateful to those who serve in the armed forces, it was another prideful moment. He went to Texas for boot camp, where he had his butt soundly kicked by the officers. We went to his graduation and I was shocked to see my already skinny son had dropped 20 pounds he couldn't afford to lose. He worked really hard, and came out a better man.

Randy and his wife, NikkiHe trained in Texas, then Arkansas for his job as Crew Chief on the C-130. Six months after his graduation from boot camp, Randy and his wife, Nikki, were shipped to Germany to serve at the Ramstein Air Force Base. That was three-and-a-half years ago. He's been there since, other than the time he volunteered to serve in Iraq, spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas there so that other men who had families wouldn't have to go. In spite of being on a base that was shot at or bombed daily, he went home safely, for which I'm extremely grateful.

I wasn't able to talk to him on his birthday this year because he's being relocated to New Hampshire, still a long way from home, but at least on American soil where I can drive to see him if need be. No chance of driving to Germany from here, though we did get to fly over a few years ago and see him.

So to my son, my soldier, Randy, I say happy, happy birthday! I love you, miss you, and hope that I can see you soon.