New Home

Follow my blog posts now at Gayle Trent's new site. I look forward to seeing you there!

Way Cool Mural!

http://thenewsguard.com/main.asp?SectionID=25&TM=46407.55

Click on the above link to read The News Guard article about Tracy Lee Stum, a world famous chalk artist--yes, I said chalk--who created this masterpiece for the Art Sea Festival.

Check it out!

Gayle's friend Alex Long, a sophomore in college in Southwest Virginia studying Graphic Design & Advertising, drew this picture of Angus and me in anticipation of the launch of The Quick and The Thread. We don't have cover art yet, but we couldn't wait to let people know about the book. So Alex drew the picture and Gayle (a/k/a Amanda Lee) had it put on postcards.

If you'd like Alex to do some freelance design or illustration work for you, get in touch with him at disney_caribbean_pirates@yahoo.com.

Finally!

Wow, has it been forever? It seems like it. That's one reason I put "finally" in the post. The other reason is that Amanda Lee a/k/a Gayle Trent finished my story and submitted it to the publisher (NAL/Penguin)! I'm excited. Also a little nervous.

How do you like the pic? I was fooling around with Blake and Sadie with my fave--lowfat vanilla latte with a hint of cinnamon!

Anyway, now that the first book is finished--except for edits and stuff like that--Amanda/Gayle plans to get to work on another tale of my adventures. This time, she's telling about the time I met Elvis. Not not the Elvis, but an Elvis impersonator. "Thank you. Thank you very much." That book is tentatively titled Don't Be Crewel. [eyeroll] I know, I know. :-) But we're having fun, right?

I do hope you'll look forward to my first book, The Quick and The Thread. I'll keep you posted on its progress, publication date, and whatever else I find out, okay?!

Okay!

"A Place for Pets"

This week, The News Guard has another story near to both my and Angus' heart. Check it out here.

K9 crime-fighters

Click here for a story from today's The News Guard which was of special interest to Angus.

The News Guard also spoke about the killer whales that started showing up off the central Oregon Coast around April 15. A group of seven orcas were spotted by the Depoe Bay Whale Watch Center on April 16. They'll be around for only a few more weeks; so if you're a whale watcher, you'll want to take a day when the ocean is flat and look for those orcas.

The article spoke about Depoe Bay Whale Watch Center officials seeing the whales "gobble up" baby gray whales, sea lions and seals. That would break my heart! I'd like to see the whales but certainly not during feeding time. I know, I know...everything has to eat. But can't Purina make some Killer Whale Chow or something?

So much going on!

Hi, there!

First of all, I want to alert any budding writers reading my blog that from May 19-22, 2009, Gayle Trent is hosting a Virtual Writers' Conference. There is an impressive list of authors, publishers, marketers and publicists participating in the conference. For more information, see http://virtualwritersconference.blogspot.com/.

There are also some exciting things underway on Devil's Lake here in Oregon. The Coast Guard is conducting marine rescue training exercises. Take a look at the article from The News Guard along with an impressive photograph of a rescue swimmer dangling from a helicopter.

If any of you have read Gayle's book Murder Takes the Cake, then surely you recognize Guinevere, the guinea pig! Gayle's daughter made this life-sized replica of Guinevere in Teen Living. Isn't it adorable? If you haven't read Murder Takes the Cake, you can read an excerpt at Gayle's site, order the book or check it out at your local library. Then you'll know all about Guinevere, the pampered guinea pig. :-)

Are you a Twitterer? Gayle is. And if you are, too, you can follow her at http://twitter.com/GayleTrent. Gayle is posting her now out-of-print book Between A Clutch and A Hard Place on her blog. She's posting the book a chapter at a time, and Chapters 1-4 have already been posted at the blog.
Posting the book a chapter at a time began as a Twitter experiment to see if she could gain more followers. Well, guess what? Her number of followers has quadrupled in the four weeks she has been posting chapters to her blog. Gayle is offering anyone who wants it the entire PDF of Between A Clutch and A Hard Place. Another plus? Two publishers have recently expressed a renewed interest in the book. One is an audio publisher, and the other is a print publisher.

As for me, I just got the May 2009 issue of Cross-Stitch & Needlework in the mail. Angus and I haven't had an opportunity to pour through it yet, but just from the cover, we can see it's going to be a great issue. It promises mother's day gifts, Kats by Kelly and projects for newlyweds. Hmm...maybe I should keep this issue hidden from Sadie, the matchmaker. What do you think?