Welcome Guest Blogger: The Amazing Maggie Shayne

My Summer (Vacation?)
by Maggie Shayne



Meet Dozer, a 190 pound English Mastiff.



He’s not only one of my best friends in the entire universe, but he’s one of the lead characters in KILL ME AGAIN, which goes on sale July 29th. In that book he plays Freddy, and believe me when I tell you that almost everything Freddy does in that story is pure reality. Dozer is one amazing dog.

However, as big and tough and fearless as he seems in the book (and in real life) when we took him and the rest of the pack with us on a Fourth of July weekend getaway, he got the scare of his life.

Oh, I should introduce the rest of the family here, shouldn’t I?



First there’s Daisy, a female English Mastiff and Dozer’s intended. She weighs about 165, and is 18 months old. She needs to get a bit older before the two can make things official, so to speak, but sometime in 2011, we expect the pair be busy producing a litter of tiny, bitty, Mastiff puppies. (The terms “tiny” and “bitty” being relative, of course.)

Daisy is a bit of a bitch, if I may use that term both literally and figuratively at the same time. =) I adore her, but she’s got attitude, and is the self-appointed leader of our family pack. (She also thinks my partner, Lance, is her mate, and would rather have him than Dozer, but I’ve told her repeatedly that he is spoken for.)



Next comes Niblet, shown here with her brother Buster, who we visited over the weekend. Niblet is on the right, standing. She’s an English bulldog, who turned a year old June 28th. Niblet, being a bulldog, thinks that she is not only every bit as big as the Mastiffs, but bigger. And she wants to be the pack leader. So she is constantly challenging Daisy. She’s also a bit obese, in case you can’t tell from the photo. We’ve got her on a diet, and we’re walking her about three miles a day, (not all at once.) And yet she remains . . . pleasingly plump?

Okay, back to our holiday. We went to Black Lake, up on NY/CA border, near the St. Lawrence River. There’s a lovely spot, very isolated, right on the lakeshore, with a big long dock, where we took the dogs to romp and play and splash freely. No other people or dogs around to irritate. We had to walk down a long driveway to get to the shore, but it was a nice walk. However, I realized as soon as we reached the shore, that I had left my cameras in the car. So I hiked back leaving my partner with the “kids.”

Daisy ran out to the end of the dock and dove in, taking to the water like an otter. She swam and swam and just loved it. But suddenly, not having any experience with lakes, she started heading out for the middle. I’m sure dogs don’t think things like, “what if I get too tired to make it back?” or “what if the current takes me?” or “what if I get hit by a speeding jet-ski?” (End of Jet-ski, I would imagine.) She wouldn’t return, so Lance dove in to swim out after her.

Wherever Lance goes, Dozer follows. Bathroom, shower, garage, doesn’t matter. They’re like the two sides of Velcro. So Dozer goes romping to the end of the dock, and, like Lance, dives in. And sinks straight to the muddy bottom.

Lance turned, having managed to get Daisy headed shoreward, and had to scramble to rescue Dozer, pulling up his entire bulk off the bottom of the lake, and helping him to shore.

We didn’t expect that!

About that time, I returned with my cameras, and as Lance looked up and saw me coming, there was another ominous :::Splash!::: And Niblet was gone. Lance spun, ran, dove, and came up with a sputtering and terrified Niblet, who had also sunk straight to the bottom.

We did expect that. Bulldogs can’t swim. Too much weight in too little space, too top heavy, legs too short. Even her fat didn’t make her buoyant.

After that, Niblet would only put her paws in the water, near the shore, where it was four inches deep. And Dozer was almost as wary. Daisy, however, swam and swam and swam.

The next day, we returned to the same spot. This time, Niblet was wearing a life vest. Dozer was not, because they don’t make them in his size. (We’ll have to find one online somewhere.) But amazingly, Dozer was brave again, (Well, you know, the way Scooby Doo is brave when facing down a ghost to save Shaggy. Trembling, scared, but doing it anyway.) He tested the water, went in, waded deeper, and with Lance by his side, coaching him, he swam. He swam! Dozer learned to swim. It’s an effort for him. He’s bulky and awkward in the water, probably due to most of his weight being in his huge bear sized head and massive front shoulders. But he did it. We were such proud parents!

Niblet hated her life vest, so we only made her wear it when she was on the dock and in danger of falling in.

Here is a you tube video of the dogs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWwTbBEek9c

And that is the story of our holiday weekend. At least as much of it as space allows. And now that it’s over, I get to relax at home, writing and chewing my nails and checking the Amazon rankings incessantly. I have a trilogy out this summer, The Secrets of Shadow Falls trilogy, and it’s hitting the shelves as we speak.



KILLING ME SOFTLY went on sale June 28th.



KILL ME AGAIN (starring Dozer as Freddy) goes on sale July 29th.



KISS ME, KILL ME hits the shelves August 30th

Thank goodness I have my dogs to distract me from thinking about nothing but sales, distribution, bestseller lists, and reviews!

So, how did you spend your Independence Day?



For more information about Maggie, her dogs, her books, her life, here are the links:

http://www.maggieshayne.com Maggie’s Website

http://www.shaynesshenaniganes.com Maggie’s Blog

http://www.storybroads.com Group Blog with Maggie Shayne, Anne Stuart, Suzanne Forster, Patricia Potter, Tara Taylor Quinn and Lynn Kerstan

http://www.facebook.com/#!/maggieshayne Maggie’s Facebook Page

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Wings-in-the-Night/259569319519?ref=sgm Wings in the Night (Maggie’s Vampire Series) Fanpage

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Authors-of-Mira-Books/140472572630084?ref=sgm Mira Books Authors Fanpage on Facebook

http://www.twitter.com/maggieshayne Maggie on Twitter