"All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape."
I tried to transfer my followers from this blog to the new one but it did NOT work.
The previous feeds you were receiving through these two options were not transferred correctly due to misinformation from Google/Feedburner. It transferred all your nice pictures here and listed you as followers but you were not receiving information from the new blog only the old one.
For this reason I am asking you to please join Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book again, just like you would have had to if Google had not let me back in.
If you follow using Networked Blogs, that application has been having issues since Facebook made it’s major changes last month. If may just be easier to like the Escape With Dollycas Fan Page by clicking the Facebook Button in the upper left column or using this link.
I am so sorry for the inconvenience.
I know I have asked a lot of you the past 2 weeks and I hope everything from now on runs smoothly with no more glitches.
As always feel free to contact me at dollycas@hotmail.com or leave comments.
Last Sunday I woke up to find that this blog, Dollycas's Thoughts had been disabled by Google, along with all my other Google Accounts. Not knowing if or when I would have access again, I started over at Wordpress. First the free version and then the updated version. It is still a Work In Progress but I invite you all to come check it out.
If you were following using Google Friend Connect those connections have been transferred.
If you were following by email, you will have to re-enroll for that. I tried to transfer the Feedburner info but it shows I have 0 followers at me new site.
I also added a Facebook Fan Page to try to help people find me. If you want to check it out it is at Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book, or just click the Facebook Button on my new blog.
There are also Twitter, Linked In, and Google Reader Buttons as well.
If you had entered a giveaway here prior to October 8th, I now have access to those forms again but the contests were started over on the new site. You do not need to enter again. I will combine both lists.
The history of this blog will not be transferred but most of my reviews are up on several sites and there is a link to the ones on Amazon on the new blog.
This blog will remain open as long as Google allows, but all new posts will be on the new site.
I hope you love the new site as much as I do. There will be some growing pains and little fixes that need to be made. Leave a comment any time if you have problems or questions. I love to hear from you!!!
Amy Ephron has put together a collection of essays about her memories for us to enjoy including friendships, romances, marriages and even her love for her Filofax. The story that really caught my attention was the afternoon she spent with Squeaky Fromme.
This is a well written quick read of some of the ups and downs in this author's life. Entertaining, some funny, some a little scary, but all really good. It is not a deep "get to know Amy Ephron" type book, just little snippets of certain events. Wonderful for a little escape.
About This Author from Wikipedia
Ephron is the author of six novels – her latest, the best seller One Sunday Morning: A Novel, is out in paperback. Her national bestseller, A Cup of Tea: A Novel of 1917 , spent 37 weeks on the LA Times bestsellers list and has been bought by film producer Jerry Bruckheimer. A Cup of Tea: won Ephron the 2005 Southern California Booksellers Association award for fiction, received the Booklist Best Fiction of the Year 2005 award and was a Barnes and Noble Book Club selection.
I need to Recognize Sharon of Sharon's Garden of Book Reviewsfor drawing this book to my attention. I saw it on her list for the Monday Meme, It's Monday, What Are You Reading? It looked like something I would like to read and it also had a title that qualified for the What's In A Name Challenge. So with this book I complete that challenge and my being a book recommended by Sharon, it also gives me another entry for my3 R'S Challenge as well, which is one I am really behind on. Thank you Sharon!!!
The Food Channel comes to Scottsdale, Arizona, by way of the Scottsdale Food Festival. Mel Cooper and Angie DeLaura are determined to win top prize for the Fairy Tale Cupcakes Bakery or may die trying. They have to "beat" their arch rival Olivia Puckett first just to get entered into the competition and beating her with their delicious desserts will just be icing on their cupcakes.
Even with Mel's mentor, Vic Mazzotta, Food Channel celebrity chef, sitting in one of the judge's chairs, Mel knows she will need to use all her culinary skills to create the best dish using the daily mystery ingredients if they are going to take home the grand prize.
Shocked when Vic doesn't show up to judge the girls know something is amiss. They are just planning to search for him when a dead body is found in a freezer truck on the festival grounds. Someone had put Vic on ice, permanently. Now they not only have to ice their competition with their fabulous cupcakes they also need to find a cold blood killer.
My Thoughts
This is a scrumptious series and the latest installment is absolutely delicious!!
Two strong women, some hunky men and frosting how can you go wrong, lol!!!!
Truthfully the characters are lovable and becoming more defined in each story. I love Oz, the newest face at Fairy Tale Cupcakes. The plot is timely and clever. The mystery ingredients competition reminded me of the mystery box challenges of Master Chef on Fox. There were assorted "red herrings" to divert us and lead us astray. Plus cupcakes, lots and lots of cupcakes!!! (recipes included)
WARNING: You will be craving cupcakes while reading this so be sure to have some handy!!
Jenn even gives us a taste of the next temptation, Red Velvet Revenge, and I can't wait to get my sticky hands on it. For now just be sure to get your copy of Death by the Dozentoday and enjoy!!!
Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Aaron Rodgers is the “NFC Offensive Player of the Week” for the first week of October, following his six-touchdown performance in last Sunday’s 49-23 win over the Denver Broncos.
Rodgers was “NFC Offensive Player of the Month” for September and also won player-of-the-week honors for Week 1. This marks the fourth time in his career he has been named player of the week.
The Brewers need a win today to keep the dream alive!!
Plus my favorite NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth is the in race reporter this week at Kansas!!
Just a little reminder be really careful when entering your email addresses. Two winners today had invalid email addresses and new winners were chosen.
Detective Jane Perry is on the case. InPromissory Payback she is investigating the gruesome death of a woman with not many friends and a whole lot of enemies. "Karma is a bitch" is very true in this case.
ANONYMOUS: One of Jane's first AA meetings leads her to an encounter with a woman in need of her detection skills...and a secret she never expected to uncover.
YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: Forced by her boss to speak at a high school career day, Jane meets a troubled boy and finds that his story is only the beginning of a much more revealing tale.
YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS: An early-morning homicide call introduces Jane to a mystery as layered as it is unsuspected.
THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM: Jane finds herself sharing a 2:00 am conversation at a downtown bar with an old acquaintance. Will the bloody night that proceeded this moment complicate Jane's intentions?
My Thoughts
I really enjoyed these stories. Don't let the small number of pages fool you. These are well written short mysteries that still pack a punch with sharp dialogue, a gritty leading lady and plots that play out a break neck speed. They are the perfect quick reads to get your mystery fix. There are even more Jane Dewey novels/novelettes to enjoy and the author will be starting a new series next year with a whole new star. Keep your eye on this author!!
Check out her Web Page for more information on this author and her stories.
Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent
I am offering my gently read copies for giveaway!!
My first experience with today's guest was reading her romance novels for Harlequin Intrigue and when I started this blog I realized she wrote cozies as well. Her new Pet Rescue Mysteries have captured my heart. I am so happy she is here today to tell us all about this series and it's latest edition.
Welcome Linda!!!
Hi. I’m delighted to be guest blogging on Dollycas’s Thoughts.
Saving Animals - Fictionally and Otherwise
Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
I kill people for a living. Fictionally, of course.
I also save animals fictionally. In real life, I help to save them by volunteering at a private pet shelter.
When I started the Pet Rescue Mystery Series for Berkley Prime Crime, I’d been writing the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series for a while. In the eighth in the series, HOWL DEADLY, I introduced a character in a subplot, Lauren Vancouver, who really captured my attention. She was the administrator of a private, no-kill pet shelter in LA’s San Fernando Valley, and it was clear that she was a real animal advocate. She’d do nearly anything to save the lives of pets.
Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one who really liked Lauren. She became the protagonist of my new spinoff series.
Her shelter, HotRescues, is funded by Kendra’s latest squeeze, Dante DeFrancisco, a rich mogul who made his money from a chain of pet stores. That meant HotRescues is in a much better situation than most similar organizations, since it has no money issues. As I said, this is fiction. But that gives Lauren a lot of latitude in what she does to save animals.
Cover Illustration
by Paper Dog Studio
Cover Design
by Rita Frangie
The second book in the series, THE MORE THE TERRIER, became officially available yesterday, October 4. In it, Lauren is faced with a dilemma. She discovers right at the beginning that her former mentor, Mamie Spelling, has become an animal hoarder!
If you’ve seen those shows on TV featuring animal hoarders who usually see the light and reform, you know what a sad situation hoarding really is. Like Mamie, many real hoarders don’t set out to harm animals but to save one, then ten, then dozens. The problem is they don’t have the room to do it, nor the money to keep the animals well fed, nor the resources to keep the environment clean. Lauren is horrified when she visits Mamie’s shelter and sees how awful it has become. She calls the authorities--as she must under LA policy--and has the animals taken away. Mamie, too, although officials real and fictional generally realize how fruitless it is to prosecute hoarders for animal abuse since they often have mental issues and they’re almost always recidivists --they do it all over again.
In my story, none of the animals is too sick to survive. Lauren is able to save all of them, even though they’re taken into custody by LA Animal Services, a public system where overcrowding can result in euthanasia. But even though Lauren doesn’t have room for them all, she has friends running other private shelters, so every one of the animals is picked up and taken to those shelters till they can be adopted.
Once again, this is fiction. And since it’s a cozy mystery, someone--a person--has to die. Mamie is the primary suspect, since the victim is someone who has been hounding her about her hoarding. So here is Lauren’s dilemma: she despises the fact that Mamie has abused animals--but can she allow her aging, confused mentor to be prosecuted for a crime against people that she most likely didn’t commit?
You know the answer. As I said, it’s a cozy mystery.
And you can be sure that, in the Pet Rescue Mysteries, “no-kill” means pets, not people!
Since starting to write the Pet Rescue Mysteries, I've become a lot more conscious about the dilemma of so many pets needing good homes. It started as research, and has become a pet cause (pun intended) of mine. I’m proud to say that I’m a dog adoption counselor at Pet Orphans of Southern California, which means I help introduce people interested in adopting a dog to their potential new family member. I also do the initial screening of possible adopters, since the idea is to attempt to ensure that the pets will go to good, and appropriate, homes.
The Pet Rescue Mysteries started in March with BEAGLEMANIA. It begins at a puppy mill rescue, where Lauren meets her love interest, Captain Matt Kingston of Los Angeles Animal Services. He’s a great contact to have, since he keeps Lauren notified of animals in need of rescuing before being put down by the public shelter. The next one will be HOUNDS ABOUND, which will be published in April 2012. It features a very special pet rescue facility that takes in hard-to-adopt animals such as the disabled and seniors.
How about you--are you an animal lover? Are you a fan of pet rescue?
Thank you so much Linda!!! I am so happy that we have the internet and Facebook so that we can actually contact our favorite authors and let them know how much we love their books!!
I have fallen hard for Lauren and her enormous heart. She not only bends overs backwards to save dogs but even fights for an old friend she hasn't been in contact with for years looking beyond the fact that she was abusing animals. Linda gives Lauren such a powerful voice on pet rescues at the same time making her the friend we would all want to have.
The story is exciting with a very current topic of hoarding. I have to admit until I read this book I never thought about someone hoarding pets and it really opened my eyes.
This series is really packs more of a one-two punch, they stories are fun and entertaining but they also make us aware of a huge over population of pets in the United States. I almost feel we should have a Bob Barker moment to remind ourselves "to have your pets spayed or neutered". I also feel that adopting and giving pets "forever homes" is an uplifting experience. We have 3 rescued kitties under our roof. If you are looking for a pet to love, start out at a shelter and save a life that will love you unconditionally immediately.
Like cozy mysteries, like animals, you will love this book! Your invisible tails will be wagging with delight!!!!
Your Escape With A Goof Book Travel Agent
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
something until until it is gone. I am reposting this again this week in case anyone missed it. If you use Blogger and want the gadget back don't just like the Facebook Page go to the Blogger Help Forum and post there as well. Thank you.
Blogger and Amazon are having issues and those of us who use Blogger for our blogs are being punished. We have had the luxury of a gadget that with just a point and click we could add Amazon links to our posts. Since September 15 this gadget has been turned off and links must be created on the Amazon site and copied and pasted. Yes, I was spoiled, but these created links don't always format as easily as the ones made with the gadget, plus it just takes more time. Amazon has answered our questions/complaints and has stated they are willing to work with Blogger. We have seen no response from Blogger/Google at all. Plus there are many bugs in other Google products, as well, that have been "updated", like Google Docs that are not being dealt with.
Out of my frustration and upon learning that this has gotten Blogger's attention in the past I have created a Facebook page addressing the Amazon issue. If you use Blogger and are missing the Amazon Gadget as much as I am, please go to Facebook and "like" this page and leave comments.
