I'm back!

Before I start back on my regular blog posts tomorrow, I have to share something that I learned yesterday. I have to admit, when I read it, I broke down and cried like I've not cried in a long time, and I think I needed it.

I shared Oscar's diaries with some forums I frequent. He became popular in those forums; some people had previous misconceptions about greyhounds, others had never really seen one or known one. His death affected many people.

When I returned from my vacation, I went to one site to post some photos and I learned that a woman in Australia held an Oscar Memorial Garage sale to benefit the Canberra greyhound rescue. I'll let you read her posts. They were part of a "good morning, what's up this weekend?" thread. I'm sharing the information with her permission :

post 1 earlier in the day:
It is already Saturday here and I am waiting for some friends to arrive to set up for the Oscar Memorial Garage Sale in aid of Canberra Greyhound Rescue. We have acquired a lot of good stuff - everything from freerange eggs to televisions and designer handbags and wallets so I hope we make lots of money. At least we have a beautiful day - 1 degree at the moment but fine and sunny and it should be up to 16 by mid morning. That will run until lunch when we will order in pizza and then collapse for the afternoon.

post 2:
Oscar's memorial garage sale made over $700 for greyhound rescue. We had two foster greyhounds there for the sale and they were both excellent ambassadors for the breed and one of them may have a new home - a good day all around.

post 3:
the greyhound rescue group here in the ACT is quite small and new - it was started by the woman who gave me my first rescue dog and another friend - their website is www.forevergreys.com. You can see the lovely Harvey who came to act as Ambassador for Greyhounds on the site - he did an excellent job - many people had never met a greyhound close up before and there were lots of comments about how gentle, friendly and smoochy he is.

I am so touched that my Oscar was able to have such a far-reaching effect. Who would have thought that when I sat down to have some fun writing Oscar's diaries three years ago, that this would be the result?

Query blitz

I had a busy weekend. I didn’t get much of anything done this past week because of everything that went on, from Oscar’s death to the arrival of a foster greyhound*. So, in one way, it was good I didn’t have any assignments to work on. Of course, not having any assignments is also pretty stressful to me because – well, no assignments, no work = no pay. It’s a good thing that I had a very, very good month of July.

So, this weekend was spent querying my little heart out. I don’t know how many queries writers like to have out at any particular time, but let’s just say that I’m way up there. I used to say “but I have no ideas,” when asked why I wasn’t querying. I used to say, I’m a good writer if you tell me what to write about, just don’t ask me to come up with anything on my own. The funny thing? I do have a lot of ideas, I just didn’t know it.

Although I’m trying to break out of just health-related writing, it is my bread and butter, so that’s what most of the queries were about. It’s what I know; it’s what I’m good at. So along that vein, some of my ideas weren’t quite health related, but they were close enough in some aspects that being a nurse and a health writer helped with the pitch. Now let’s just see if that query blitz pays off.

On the bright side, sales of Oscar’s book are steady. It’s been on the market for less than two weeks, and I’ve sold about 30 or so copies. Considering it’s only available on lulu, com, I think that’s pretty good. If you haven’t had a look yet, you can see a preview of the book at my storefront, just click on the title. We were number 61 in sales last week.

*Chance, the foster is doing very well. He spent the first day just lying on his bed, quite depressed. The next day, he began to walk around a bit but with an air of “can I really do this?” He’s really not sure of what he can and can’t do. Every time he gets up off his bed, we encourage him to come to us, we go to him and we give him lots of ear scritches and what we call butt scratches (rubbing of the thigh muscles). He loves it. And then, on Saturday night, Chance got off his bed and came right to me for some loving. When I stopped rubbing his neck, he went over to my husband for some more. Then off to my daughter. I think we’re making progress. So, whoever gets this sweetie will be spending lots of time just laying on the loving. Now if I could just stop calling him Chase instead of Chance, I’d be happy.

News for Today:
Codeine dangerous for some nursing moms, infants: FDA
More Research Required In Pediatric Pain Relief And Palliative Care
Change Of Season, Flu Can Worsen Asthma In Children
Baby carrots could be contaminated: CFIA