Cover Reveal: The Partner's Progeny by Shelly Arkon

Shelly Arkon, my fellow writer and friend is about to release her next story.
Today I'm helping her out with a cover reveal for a short story she'll be putting out there soon. Here's her great cover! The Partner's Progeny will be available as an ebook at Amazon in July. For only $.99



Okay. Here's the story blurb:

Bullies rule... or do they?
For seventeen years, Victoria Sheek has been a paralegal supervisor at the Law Offices of Pereene, Carr, and Sevino, specializing in injury law. Rumors portray her as a bully. She remains confident that her position will never cease because of close relations to one of the founding partners, Mr. Carr.

Until Mr. Pereene, the head partner, hires Monica Bowman. Smitten with her because of her resemblance to his deceased granddaughter, Melissa, and hie memories of her, she can do no wrong.
Which one of the two girls will keep their position at the firm? It takes an unexpected event to decide the outcome of this rivalry.

Oh, wait, here's Shelly Arkon now! You know she's the author of Secondhand Shoes, a delightful novel you should really check out!


When Shelly isn't cooking, doing the laundry, cleaning, chasing grandkids, or listening to her daghter drama (5 of them!), or lopping heads of hair at the salon, she's writing beside her two fur-peeps, Sir Poops and Hair Ball, popping an occasional chocolate while her hubby is flipping through TV channels.
Shelly lives in New Port Richey with her husband and two dogs. She's also a member of Florida Writer's Association and Writers of Mass Distraction.

Lost Kitten - Mother Cat Check In

It's been a trying week. I lost one of my kittens. I noticed when we came back from one of our excursions that it wasn't with us. I went back to find it. Now there are only four. Three are all gray tiger striped. My first born has long, thick fur black and white and his back legs are all white. It's embarrassing. But he's a good kitten, strong and smart. The one that's gone had white paws and white bib with the gray tiger stripes. Anyway, we go out into the woods. I want them to learn how to survive in the wild, like I was taught. I call to them and they know to come with me. But sometimes they dally. You know children. They want to play. Everything is a game to them. I don't think they realize anything can happen to them while we're out here. But they know to run when out in the open. It's a natural thing.

So, later on I went out that afternoon, trying to retrace my steps, listening for the faintest little mew. Of course the jays didn't help any. And my other kittens would rather jump around the tall grasses and play, or climb the tree. They were of no help. In fact they were a distraction to me. So, I decided I'd go out later. I searched everywhere, sniffing. No trace. No trace of anything. I fear a hawk took her. Sleek, low-flying hawks skim low to the ground, and you don't see them until it's too late. It happens. Few of my kittens don't usually survive a full year. Now that I have found a home where humans take care of us, give us water and food and shelter, the other four have a better chance.
Me? I am expecting again. With winter closing in this will be a tough few months.

[author's note: Tuesday the kitten, Mittens, came up missing, Wednesday mother cat went out for the afternoon and was gone for hours I presume trying to find her. Sadly she never was found.]

A Good Saturday Morning!

After our thunderstorm yesterday, we had another one during the night. Some people had power outages, downed trees, and so forth around the area. We were lucky to experience none of those!

We got more rain, and that is a good thing. Grass looked greener, the corn in the field across from us seemed to have shot up a half a foot. We had a terrible drought going, and if we did not begin having good soaking rains, we would be in a terrrible mess. I can almost hear all the plants, birds and humans sigh a big sigh of relief.

So, I'm able to place pictures here. I'm so happy about that. So happy I'm going to share something I've been working on. It's not completed yet, but I'm working on this in paints. I'm thinking of using it as a cover for a self-published story, but not sure what as yet.

I've been messing around in "paints". I do hold a degree in art and sometimes I miss being able to "paint". Using paints is a bit difficult, but I'm one who likes a challenge and this offers one.

Having had these two weeks off, and getting a number of things done/accomplished I feel as though I've made good value of my time. I had my very first short story put up on Amazon. It's a vampire story about Rasputin, just in case you missed this, here it is again. Holy Devil is available as an ebook for .99 on Amazon (world wide) at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DIZGX2

I don't look forward to going back to work next week, but hey, gotta bring in the money again. Besides, I'll make OT on the 4th, and that will be nice, but driving a bus during the busy times is rough.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Gonna Take the Plunge

Hi all! Hope your Wednesday is treating you well. Hey! Hump day!

So, tomorrow I'm going to up-load a short story to Amazon. I'm nervous. I've looked through what I'm supposed to do. Sort of took notes on things so I won't panic when I get to that moment, but probably will!

The first and only time I self-published was my Spell of the Black Unicorn book (which is going to become an ebook, eventually and I'll put that out too!), and I paid a publisher to do that for me. However, I did have to format it myself. So, I'm glad I didn't throw out the book which has instructions on how to go about this!

My short story "The Holy Devil" is something like 5 pages long. It is a vampire story. It's star vampire? Rasputin. I sent it off to a publisher for anthology, but they didn't pick it up. I'd already had in mind to self-publish it myself if they didn't. So, I'm not very upset about them not picking it up. I hope to do a few more like this in the future. In fact, I may go on to do novellas, which are partially written. I hope it works out, any way.

Meanwhile my inability to post any pictures within a post still plagues my blog. I don't know if it will continue to do this, or if something is going on behind the all mighty Oz's (blogspot's ) curtains and maybe suddenly things will straighten out. Probably mad at me for not going with the updated interface. I'm fine with what I've got, don't need an update, thank you.

So, by about this weekend I hope to announce the publication of the short story, and put in a link for those of you who might be interested.

Coffee Klatch Monday ~ What's In Your Cup Today?

Well, this cute little guy just decided to plop down inside my cup this morning.

Just kidding. But the picture was so cute I just couldn't resist it and I know you couldn't either. I'm right, aren't I?

Wow. I had 3 days of intense read-through of my edits sent to me from my publisher. I wanted to get them done because the sooner they're done, the sooner all of you will be able to get your hands on a copy.

So, has everyone out there gotten their fill of turkey and pumpkin pie and more turkey and more pie and are you ready to get on crash diets?

I didn't have pumpkin pie--too sinful! I made that cherry pie, and that was very good, and then just this morning I made my fluffy chocolate chip cookies. So, That's what I'm having with my coffee this morning, is my chocolate chip cookie.

Share what you're having this morning, and a little bit of what you plan to do today, whether you have to go to work or what it might be.

I've got today off. I don't have very many Mondays left where I will be off, so I'm gonna make the most of it. I'm sending the short story I worked on last week to Lori W. Branson of Dark Moon Horror. I'm not real sure she'll want it--there isn't much horror in it, but it is a vampire story with action and some tongue-in-cheek moments (most of you know my brand of writing, right?) and it's from a male's perspective. I remember when I wrote "The Spy Who Bit Me", it was some years back and when I reviewed it just a short while ago, I could see right away I needed to chuck the beginning and get down to the action right away. So, we'll see if they'll take it.

I have other things pending. I'm going to be on Suburban Vampire this Wednesday, VampChix the week after that. After this, I haven't anything scheduled until I show up on Heather's Odyssey on the 19th, but I'm hoping to get some places lined up for my next book.

Okay, it's your turn!