Terry Spear's Blog, page 449

Crathes Castle

In gardening books, it talks about creating mysterious peeks into the unknown that will make it feel as though we have more of a garden beyond.



In truth, beyond is just as much a "garden" at Crathes Castle!



Here was a favorite staircase of mine--it also is like the gate through the shrubs, with a mysterious end. It actually ends up in the gardens. But notice how narrow the stairs, the hard curve left, that feels oddly unnatural. Think of coming up the stairs, sword drawn, not knowing what's just around the bend. Another swordsman, sword drawn, ready to cut the villain down. The man coming up has the disadvantage if he's a right-handed swordsman. Every aspect of a castle was designed for defense, so even a simple staircase into the gardens was designed with that in mind. :)



I had as much fun or more fun with the gardens here at Crathes as I did with the castle.


Hope you have a lovely day, dreaming of castles and gardens such as these!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

Top Gun--Don't You Think?

Facebook is great!!! It's the only way I get pictures of my son! LOL

Anyway, he informed me that he had one on Facebook where he was getting ready to fly, so I grabbed it to show him off. I'm really proud of him!



My daughter has been nominated for a best student award also in her nutrition science program, so I couldn't be more proud of both my kids!

I actually wrote 10,000 words over my 3 day weekend, so I was thrilled. Off to write before I have to go to work. :)
Have a super Tuesday!!! Which I'm sure will feel like a Monday today!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

Some Bears and Books are Nearly Ready to Ship!

The birthday bear is done with her very own autographed The Vampire...In My Dreams! I still need to finish the Scottish bear once the fabric gets here, for the other bear in the order.



For the silent auction at Australia Romance Readers, I'll be shipping a couple of mohair bears, their tags autographed, and these autographed books: Legend of the White Wolf, To Tempt the Wolf, Destiny of the Wolf, Seduced by the Wolf, Wolf Fever, Winning the Highlander's Heart, and The Vampire...In My Dreams.



And another copy of an autographed Wolf Fever is going to Brenda Novak's Online Auction for Diabetes Research as part of a package being sent by Sourcebooks Authors.

I didn't make my word count for last week. How I didn't manage, I don't know. :(

But I didn't!

But I'll make it tomorrow. How about that??? Plus I hope to finish up the Irvin Scottish bear for the other bear order...and get some stuff ready to ship.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!!!

Have a great Monday!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

Australia's Flood Disaster

Storms are wreaking havoc with my Internet today, so trying to get this up before it goes down again!!!

This was sent to me about the flooding in Queensland. If anyone has anything they'd like to donate for the silent auction, just contact the email address below.



As you will be aware there has been another natural disaster in Australia, this time in Queensland with water covering some 75% of the state and indeed areas of other Australian states. In some areas entire townships or suburbs have been completely submerged and residents have lost everything they own.



On 26 March, in conjunction with the Australian Romance Readers Convention, we are planning to hold a Silent Auction to raise funds for the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal. We are looking for items to be included in the Silent Auction during ARRC2011.

If you would like to send something you can contact me at arra.authors@gmail.com (Subject line: Silent Auction) for further information. A photo of the item would be greatly appreciated - a special page will set up on our blog for delegates to view the items available ahead of the auction.



Your generosity in 2009 helped us to raise over $7500 for the victims of the Victorian bushfires and we hope we can match this for the flood victims in Queensland. Anything you can send us would be greatly appreciated.
With thanks

Heather
Silent Auction Coordinator

Even the snakes are trying to find some high ground!


~~~~~~

If you didn't receive your Part 7 or Part 8 or any other part of Allure of the Wolf, email me. I received some emails this morning where readers didn't receive Part 7, but received Part 8 just fine. Not sure where these are going. As you all know, sometimes I don't even get the newsletter!!!

And sometimes it asks if I want to unsubscribe. Huh?

Off to try and get my word count today!!!

Have a great Sunday. It's stormy here--and very cold.

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terrspear.com

Generosity from a Boy in Scotland

While we were waiting for Brodie Castle to open, we took a long walk down a colorful treed path...



...and ended up at a waterway filled with swans and ducks.




Two older Scottish girls and their younger brother joined us with old bread and began to feed the birds. The boy smiled at me and offered me a chunk of bread to feed to them also.



I was so touched by his generosity and had fun tossing bread to the eager swans and mallards. Sometimes it's just the smallest offers of friendship we can give that make all the difference in the world.



Thanks so much to the generosity of the young man for making my trip to Scotland even more special!

Heroes start out as small boys with big hearts.

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

A Shining Light on a Cold, Black Night

On a clear still night, the blackness enveloped Scotland where Eilean Donan sits on a small island in Loch Duich near Dornie in all its glory....
Are those torchlights in yonder windows? The laird getting ready to retire for the night with his bonny bride? The clansmen preparing their pallets for another night before the sun rises the next morn?
Envision the castle shrouded in darkness except for the candle or torchlight from within. And you, a visitor stumbling upon the area, friend or foe, staring in wonderment at the sight of the stone towers and massive walls, the portcullis that is now down for the night. The air is chilly, laden with moisture, and you shiver. Do you seek shelter within?
Scottish hospitality dictates that you be granted entry--but what if you are from the enemy clan?



Would you dare to breach the castle walls?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This morning...
Don't my books look great on Sim's book shelf??? And I'm in great company too! :) That's the first bit of news I had this morning that really made my day.



The other thing that I awake to first thing in the morning...
When my daughter's boyfriend redid my computer and laptop, he put background pictures of wolves in the snow--different ones, and it always makes me smile when I see them. Thanks, Mike!

Unfortunately, I have tons of errands I don't want to run today because I've got to get my writing done!!! But, 'tis a necessary evil! And I don't often have a Friday off. I'll be working Saturday instead.
Have a super day! It's COLD here! It wouldn't be so bad if I could turn on the heat! :)
Terry, who needs a lap wolf, although my son did send me a wolf blanket and that's the next best thing. :)
"Giving meaning to the term alpha male."www.terryspear.com

A Wisp of Cloud

A wisp of cloud so close you could nearly touch it in Scotland, like a ribbon of water droplets beckoning for you to slip your fingers through it. And if you did, if you ran your hand into the mist, what would it feel like? Would it just be wet and cool?
Or would it be something so much more? Something that evolved from deep within the earth, made its way to the surface of the rough land, flowed into a river or swirled in a lake or fed a deep bottomless sea? And then made its way to heaven again? Now, it drifts overhead, ancient as any water source, newly birthed just like the water cycle continues to flow unending from heaven to earth to heaven again.
I see a cloud, a sea serpent, a ribbon of life that will reform itself like a shapeshifting wolf. You knew I'd have to mention something about wolves in my post, didn't you? LOL
What do you see?
Terry"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."www.terryspear.com

Wolves Are Going Down Under!

The winners were announced for the Australian Readers and so werewolf books are going to three special winners Lisa, Deb, and Barbara!

I'll try to get them out before work tomorrow! And a book was never sent for a previous contest by one of the blog sites, so I'll be getting that out at the same time.

It's cold! And I don't have my Word on my laptop, so that means having to use the other computer until I can get it installed again on this one. :(

I lost all my book marks. It's amazing how much I rely on those, and how fast it is to find things with book marks. Now I have none, and I don't even remember what they were, but I know when I need them, I'll remember. :( Some were great research sites. argh.

Anyway, it's very, very cold today. And wouldn't you rather be like that kangaroo on the beach in Australia?

Have a wonderful hump day!!!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

Ghostly Wolves

Clear Night Wolves
" I do not mean this to be a frightening picture. The wolves, which normally avoid eye contact, are staring straight at you. Although they sense your presence, they can't quite make you out. They are alert and interested, but not about to attack. They are equal to the viewer; they are on the same level. The feeling of slight tension and respect between you and them is mutual . You are in their domain. Now that they know about you, the will melt into the gloom."
~Robert Bateman
Thanks to Donna for sending this to me and to Robert Bateman for such beautiful sentiments!!!
I feel I'm one of the wolves in the cold, only I don't have their fur to insulate myself!!!
I saw in the news today that it will take a while for the south to get out of its deep freeze. I thought having no heat pump in half the house would be all right. My fingers were a touch frostbitten last night while I was typing, so guess I thought wrong!!!
So I will don a wolf coat, blend into the cool gray frost, snuggle with the wolves, and hope that everyone else is nice and toasty warm on this bitter cold day!
And think about Caribbean breezes and silky warm water! :)
If you wanted to think of warmth--what would you conjure up?
Terry"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."www.terryspear.com

The Good News is...

I made my word count on The Highland Wolf in Paradise! The bears are made--though not yet embroidered. My daughter's boyfriend fixed my laptop and they brought it back to me last night!!! And I sent off my next 3 werewolf proposals.
So that is all the good news. And it's pretty great, don't you think?
I'm working on my 10th book in the series, and it's 1/9th of the way done. Doesn't seem like much, does it? But that's a lot to me! That's 10,000 words already. And before long, it'll be done! So I've been frantic about getting some more proposals together, because it takes quite a while before an acquisition board says yay or nay on proposals. Of course, I'm hopeful they say yay, as I'm excited about getting to work on them. If they don't, I'll have to come up with some other ideas.
Rogue of the Wolf is based on my famous and infamous Playfairs, to an extent. They were Scottish born, and I also played into the fact that a distant relation (from an American branch) ended up taking over as the Duke of Argyll, because my Canadian branch couldn't prove the lineage farther back. Even Scotland Yard questioned my great grandmother and great great grandfather about it early on, and several other family members in a couple of the other branches.
Of course it's not their story, but I had fun with a plot that has some tie ins to real life. And it's another clan other than the Highland one in HEART OF THE HIGHLAND WOLF. I just had to use a different scenario for the story, and couldn't force the Highlanders from that story to be in this one. Have you seen what big teeth and claymores they have? Oh, no, not yet. It's coming in June. Although if one person came over to help me organize my house, I've heard tell she'd be sneaking peeks to see previews of the upcoming stories. :)
The second proposal is for Tom's story. He has a mission--and a woman isn't part of it, but a wolf falling from the sky definitely gets his attention--and that's only the beginning.
And the third is another Highland story--it is based somewhat on our concerns during our Scotland trip--and some correspondence I had with a distant cousin in my Prince Edward Island MacNeill/Campbells. So I had fun with that one too!
The hardest part is waiting to hear back if any of them are viable--saleable, wanted.
So you know what? I don't wait to hear back! I keep writing on my 10th book, and of course I'm still researching the time travel medieval Highland story, and making bears. Who has time to worry?
It's 20 degrees here right now. I thought I was cold! And 39 for a high. Wind chill--12 degrees. We have freezing drizzle all morning. Hope to make it across the bridges the cross the lake. I need to be in the Caribbean with my Highland hero! Anyone want to go with me?
Have a super Monday!!!
Terry"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."www.terryspear.com