Manic Monday: I Can't Make This Sh#T Up.

There's a sex toy for dogs. No, I'm not kidding. I was browsing the Huffington Post's "Stupid Products" section when I came across it.

This has to be a joke, I thought. I turned to my trusty Google, and sure enough, it exist.

Behold, the Hotdoll:

The Huffington Post has an illustrated version:

The Hotdoll site has a lovely video naming the apparatus's attributes: curves, fluidity, contemporary, stability, and audacity. Why audacity? For it's back opening, of course. Like I said, I can't make this up. The Hotdoll is the first of its kind (imagine that!), created by the French for the maximum comfort of your pet.

The Hotdoll is only 149 Euros, or 200 American dollars. What a steal! Best of all? You can get the spare silicon part for only $20 bucks. Cause you know your boy will wear it out after a while ...

The spare part.

I would LOVE to know how many of these have been sold. The website has a community link with 20 customers listing their dogs and "companions," all with names, of course.

What do you think? Too over the top? Are you laughing yet?

#Row80 Sunday Check In and Sharing

Happy Sunday, everyone! Remember Calvin and Hobbes? They are my all-time favorite comic, and I so wish Watterson had continued.

Anyway, I chose this pic for today's check-in because I have lots of reasons for the happy dance.

First off, Sammy's doing well. He's got a lot of meds to take and is going very slow on food, but overall I'm happy. We are very lucky we didn't lose him. He has a big, nasty scar, and he's just going to take some time to heal. He's been showing signs of his old self, barking at the door and hovering around when I'm cooking, if only for a few minutes. He's still pretty tender, so he has to be carried up and down the steps to go potty. Trust me, it's not bothering him. He's loving all the attention.

My awesome critique partner Catie Rhodes returned the last of Light and Dark chapters, which means I'm going to end up finishing the first round of edits well ahead of schedule. And Catie really likes the book, so I'm feeling pretty giddy at the moment.

I'm getting close to querying. Thinking about that makes me nauseous, but that's another blog post.

Even better, I've gotten some serious work done on The Prophet. I spent a lot of time Friday and Saturday researching locations and brainstorming my characters. I have to give an enormous shout-out to Jessica Patch for answering all the questions I had about Bible verses, passages, etc. She's saved me a ton of time.

Thanks to Kristen Lamb, I know that the antagonist is the driving force behind any book, so I've been focusing on his character. His motivations are chilling, and he's driven by some radical religious beliefs. The more I work on The Prophet, the more excited I am.

I've also been keeping up on my blog posts, and I've even been able to get ahead on a few of them, so #Row80 is back on track for me.

Favorite writing post of the week: If you normally blog about writing, how will you promote your fiction? A great discussion at Nail Your Novel.

Looking for some great new blogs to read? Check out The Red Dress Club's weekend linkup.

How's your #Row80 going this week?

Finally, it's time for a little Sunday Sharing. What were your favorite blog posts this week? You can share your own or someone else's. Did you read an awesome book or short story? I want to hear all about it!

#Row80 Midweek Check-In 8/3/11

I'm celebrating today! Light and Dark is on track to have the first round of edits complete well before my goal of September 19. There's still a lot of work to do, but things are moving along nicely.

I finally sat down and started working on The Prophet yesterday. First off, Scrivener is wonderful. I'm making my notes/character and plot outlines, and it's completely awesome. Organizing and keeping track of scenes and plot points are so much easier. If you haven't tried it, you need to download the trial version. It will totally change the way you write!

Anyway, I'm back to being excited about The Prophet and looking forward to writing it.

But the real reason for the celebration is that Sammy's coming home tomorrow! He had solid food on Tuesday and kept it down, and there's been no signs of infection. There's always an outside chance, but looks like we're out of the woods. Thank you all for the kind words:)

Now for some links you need to check out:

Juliana Haygert has created an amazing list of links for book bloggers, agents, editors, cover artists, and much more. It's a great resource whether you're self-publishing or going traditional.

Kristen Lamb's Twitter Tuesday post is my favorite of the week so far. Only she could coin the phrases "Twittah Playah" and "Tweep Scout."

For laughs and great writing, check out For the Love of Writing by The Sarcasm Goddess and Annie Boreson's Atoll Annie and the Non-Specific Rim. Both are fantastic writers with a great sense of humor.

How are your #Row80 goals coming?

#Row80 Check In 7/31/11

As some of you know, it's been a rough week. Turns out my doxie Sammy didn't have a bug. He took a turn for the worse Thursday afternoon, and after a series of blood work and x-rays, a foreign body was discovered. He had surgery on Friday, where the vet found a lot of his bedding (an old towel, because they chew everything up) wrapped in his intestines like rope. She spent over three hours getting it out. There were also ulcers on his bowels from the mess going on inside him. He made it through surgery fine, but we're not out of the woods yet. There are chances for infections and other setbacks, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

We went to visit yesterday, and he was happy to see us as well as his bestie, our other mini doxie Maggie. Seeing him after the surgery helped.

Needless to say, the worry didn't play well for my writing. I was feeling down anyway, so Sammy's issues were like icing on the cake. I feel so guilty because I knew he was chewing up the bedding, but I didn't realize how much he was actually eating. I found scraps around, so I just assumed the vast majority was being left out. Should have known better.

I did manage to get a fair amount of editing done on Light and Dark. I'm working on some of the more in depth suggestions from my critique partner as well as really focusing on 'show, don't tell.' And dialogue tags. Those are a biggie of mine.

The Prophet is still stalled. It's an exciting idea I know I can write, but I'm having trouble getting started. I have notes all over the place, and it's like I've forgotten how to organize. Hopefully I get that straightened out soon.

Just wanted to say thank you for all the support on Twitter and Facebook this week. Having you guys to talk to has really helped, and it means a lot:)

Special thanks to the wonderful Tiffany White for pimping my blog on Jenny Hansen's great post. Check out Tiffany's post about the Texas Kiss and Kill Murders - a creepy true story!

And if you're looking for new blogs or a place to promote, stop by the Red Dress Club's Weekend Link-Up.

How did your week turn out?

#Row80 Midweek Check-In 7/27/11 and Doggie Sickness.

My poor, sick puppy.

What a day! As some of you following me on Facebook know, one of my dogs got sick on Sunday. What is it about dogs and getting sick on the weekends? Anyway, he was throwing up so we had to go to the vet. She thought he got into something, gave him fluids, etc. So on Monday I'm suddenly sick as a dog - literally. I never get that kind of sick. And I forget to give Sammy his meds, then Rob feeds him regular dog food instead of hamburger and rice. He keeps it down though, and I think we're all good, so I gave him some more yesterday. Starts throwing up again. Back to the vet today, same old, same old.

Now, Rob laughed at me when I said I was sure the dog got me sick. But guess what? The vet said that's probably exactly what happened and gave Sammy another antibiotic. So a big raspberry to my hubby!

Oh, and then our Internet went down today, and it turned out to be a broken modem. Our provider couldn't get out until Wednesday, so I hauled my butt over to the other side of town and exchanged it.

It does pour when it rains.

As for #Row80 ... meh since Sunday. My mom's been visiting, so I haven't had as much time. I have gotten through quite a bit of my critique partner's edits on Light and Dark, so I'm feeling good with that.

The Prophet, you ask? Yeah, not so much. It's suffering as of late, but I plan to cure that the next few days. Grace went to visit Mamaw and Papaw, so I'll have blissful silence.

Things are going awesome on the blog side. My comments and followers are growing, so thank you guys!

I want to give a shoutout to Jenny Hansen's Microsoft Word Party post over at More Cowbell. Tons of great tricks about Microsoft Word with easy instructions. Thanks, Jenny!

And for laugh out loud funny, check out Piper Bayard's post, A Time To Receipt.

How are your #Row80 goals coming? Happy writing!

Saving a baby mouse...the highlight of my vacation

We're vacationing in Deer River, Minnesota, for the week. Lots of fishing and way too much eating. I didn't plan on doing any blog posts, but I had to share the story of Lucky the mouse.

On Saturday, my sister Kelly put her boat into the lake and a big mouse promptly scurried out. She couldn't catch her, and the mouse disappeared underneath a bench.

Oh well, on to the fishing, right?

Yesterday afternoon I went out with her and my other sister, as well as my husband and some others. Kelly jumps into the boat and sits down, and what does she see? A tiny weeny baby mouse laying on its side. We thought it was dead at first, but he was just really cold. Kelly snuggled him into her hand, and we tried to get him to go back under the bench where we think the mother's nest is.

No dice.

The men said to throw him into the lake and put him out of his misery since he was so little, but we couldn't do that. He'd survived this long, so I named him Lucky. My sisters and I had no clue how to get him to eat, so we stopped at a gas station (remember, we're way out in the boonies) looking for an eye dropper or anything we could use to put milk in. Best thing we could find was an antifreeze tester, fresh out of the bag. We cut off the tube part of it and tried to use the tester as a syringe, but the opening was still too big. Finally I put some milk into the crevice of my sister's palm and all of the sudden we hear this lapping noise. He'd ate out of her hand!

We made him a little nest out of paper towels in an empty Mountain Dew box, and he's made it through 24 hours. The milk we left in a little Gatorade lid was gone this morning, and we are seeing little mouse droppings around, so we're excited he's eating.

Best thing about it? He's totally spoiled! By this morning, he'd already started getting excited when he heard voices and wants to be picked up. He loves to snuggle into your palm and sleep, and he doesn't like to be ignored. I went to check on him this afternoon, and he was buried under his towels. I said something, and the mound of towels started to shake. There he was, scurrying out of the towels and climbing to the top, SQUEAKING! I almost died! He kept trying to climb out of the box (thankfully it's too deep, and he's still too little), so I finally took him out. He snuggled right into my hand and fell asleep.

We're trying not to get too attached since he's so little, but everyone has been holding him and passing around, and Kelly has already said she's going to have to take him home with her.

Let's hope sweet Lucky continues to have a good week!

Brag Post

We're having beautiful weather today, and everyone is outside enjoying it. Our four-year-old Golden Retriever, Toby, is no exception. He's an amazing dog, great with the kids, and although I'm biased, I think he's pretty damned gorgeous.

Hope everyone is having a great summer day!