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The Perils of a Dog Named Goober

10/26/2014

Goober, also known as Goobs or The Goobster

My dog Goober is, well, a big ole goober. He's also a big galoot. He an endearing dog with a very bad habit: he tends to eat what he chews up. This habit nearly cost him his life last February when one of his dog toys got stuck between his stomach and intestines nearly perforating his bowel and requiring two extensive and expensive surgeries and a week in the animal hospital.

And now he's back in the hospital again, having surgery for another obstruction. And dang it, he was doing so good after recovering from the last surgery. We threw out all of his old toys and only gave him Kong and Nylabone as per our vet's directions. And even some of those are not Goober proof, so we had to toss some of those toys, too.

Turns out he got blocked by twigs and leaves from the yard this time. There's just never a dull moment with the Goobster around!!!

On another note, the eBook of my novel Haunted Housewives is half off at my publisher's website the rest of the month. Here's the scoop:

Now through Halloween, SPECTER SPECTACULAR: 13 GHOSTLY TALES and HAUNTED HOUSEWIVES OF ALLISTER ALABAMA, first in the Cleo Tidwell Paranormal Mystery series by Susan Abel Sullivan, ebooks are 50% off when bought through the WWP website. (Use sale code HAUNTED at checkout.)
And our final Halloween bonus!
The witchy and funny GLAMOUR by Andrea Janes will be free to download from Amazon Kindle on Halloween day.

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It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's a Spaceship?

10/23/2014

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What if you rented a ritzy beach house for spring break only to discover upon arrival that you'd been booked into this funky spaceship house?

Well that's part of the premise of my 2nd Cleo Tidwell paranormal mystery novel THE WEREDOG WHISPERER. The inspiration behind the flying saucer house in my book is this super cool spaceship house at Pensacola Beach, Florida. I grew up in Gulf Breeze, Florida--the town you drive through to get to Pensacola Beach--and have fond memories of that flying saucer house from childhood.

Last weekend I was home for a high school alumni marching band reunion in Gulf Breeze and thought I'd stop by the spaceship house and snap a few photos. My fictional town of Sugar Sand Beach, Florida is a composite of Pensacola Beach and Panama City Beach.

So like the Paul Bunyan statue found in Bangor, Maine and Stephen King's novel IT, I now have my own wacky landmark that's both in a novel and a real place. Check out the slideshow below for more real-life spaceship house photos, as well as Pensacola Beach! What a great place to grow up!

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Chicks with Sticks

10/6/2014

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First of all, what's a chick with a stick? Why, a baton twirler, of course!

My paranormal-mystery solving protagonist, Cleo Tidwell, is a majorette coach for the Allister State University Marching Band. I drew inspiration from my three years as high school majorette captain and choreographer, as well as private baton-twirling teacher and coach in high school, and later, at the Frankfort, Kentucky YMCA when I was the Fitness & Aquatics Director there back in the early 90s.

Most recently, I sorta got to follow in Cleo's footsteps when my high school decided to host its first ever alumni marching band at homecoming. Elected majorette choreographer, I went to work on designing two original twirling routines and was very pleasantly surprised to discover that my muscle memory for twirling was still strong and that I was only a little rusty. But after a few hours of practicing, it started coming back just like riding the proverbial bicycle. And I couldn't help but think, "Wow, this is what Cleo Tidwell does every week for her college majorette line during football season."

In less than two weeks, an alumni band as big as the marching band when I was in high school will gather and play/perform at the Gulf Breeze High School homecoming. I'm super excited about getting to twirl again after all these years with gals I went to high school with. I also think it's totally awesome that we range in age from 48-54. I can't even imagine my grandmothers doing something like this when they were in their 50s. People are a lot more youthful these days.

I've embedded links to videos of our alumni twirling routines. If you ever wonder what this writer does when she's not writing...well now you know!

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Tater Love

10/4/2014

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I'm in love with a sweet potato.

It came as a complete surprise. I bought the tater as food. It was one of those wrapped-in-plastic, microwaveable sweet potatoes. I waited too long to bake it and it began to sprout. Now normally I would just toss out a sprouting potato, but something about this little tater made me place it in a cup of water and set it on the kitchen windowsill.

And it grew.

And grew.

And it's still growing. It has a network of white, delicate roots and beautiful purple vines with green heart-shaped leaves.

And I talk to it.

Now you have to understand that every plant I've ever had up to this moment has died from neglect. It's not that I hate plants. I just don't care enough about them to keep one as a responsibility.

But there's something about this little sweet potato that's different. I'm really not sure what it is; could just be chemistry. Like my chem professor said in college, attraction is all about chemistry. Well, if that's true then Yamela and I (yes, I named my tater Yamela, or Yammy, for short) have chemistry in spades. While the dogs drive me crazy with their wild Indian antics and the cats throw up on my hard wood floors, Yamela calms me down with her quiet, undemanding energy.

She really brightens my day. I actually enjoy washing dishes now because I get to spend time with Yammy. I'm also trying to grow her stunted cousin, Tate, but it's just not the same.

Yammy is just my little "sweet" potato.
Or I'm totally cuckoo. Take your pick.

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The Perils of a Dog Named Goober

It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's a Spaceship?

Chicks with Sticks

Tater Love

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