T's Trial now available for iBooks and Nook

The subject line says it all. T's Trial, Book One in the Bone Cold--Alive series, is now available for iBooks and Nook as well as Kindle.

T's Trial had several iterations. Originally, I entitled it Heaven on a Kitestring and it was a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist for unpublished works in Long Contemporary. Alas, it didn't win the category. Once it was published electronically, the title was Lyla's Song. When I took my rights back and re-edited it, I decided to title all of the books in the series from the hero's point of view. Hence, T's Trial, C's Comeuppance, Tib's Temptation, Ron's Run, Ian's Image, and Bo's Beauty.

Check it out!

A new member of the household

A few weeks ago we welcomed a new member to our household, our "grandcat" Oscar. Formerly of my older son's household, Oscar is a reclusive cat and after three moves, two children and a dog, he was an unhappy eleven-year-old kitty. No one, feline or human, should be that unhappy if there's an easy solution to the problem, and Oscar came home with us.

Not that every member of our household was happy with this. Our elder statesman cat Tuxedo cast a gimlet eye on the situation and has been hoping Oscar is going away, as he has before when we would keep him when he was a kitten. Alas, Tux is not to get his wish.

They haven't really reached kitty detente, but Oscar is adjusting. He's not as reclusive as he was. He likes to watch the birds on the windowsill and has his favorite sleeping spots picked out. I think they may be dividing the house, with the kitchen and my study as neutral territory, the downstairs belonging to Tux and the upstairs to Oscar.

We had other cats do this, Calico and her kitten Frisky. Frisky owned me, the living room, and the master bedroom. Calico took charge of the boys, their rooms, and the den. They really didn't cross into each other's realm.

Of course with Oscar, we started with separate food bowls and separate litter pans. Within a week, Oscar had shown a preference for Tux's dry food. They used each other's litter pans in what I'm sure was a show of "I'll show you!" and all it got them was one litter pan. I'd had enough of that nonsense.

Today, I poured some of the outdoor kitties' food into their bowl for a different taste treat and they chowed down together until Oscar took offense and swatted at Tux. Tux backed up and I picked Oscar up and moved him away from the bowl. Eat together amicably, or no one eats. The special treat is still awaiting whoever shows up first.

I'm glad Oscar is with us. He's added a bit of spice to our staid household and will keep Tux on his kitty toes.

Presented for your viewing (dis)pleasure

Yesterday I caught a quick lunch at a fast Mex food place. Order at the counter, grab your drink, sit down and the buzzer goes off ASAP. Can't complain about the service. What I am complaining about--and it's not just at fast Mex food places--is the choices offered on the large TV screens.

Sports. All the time. Sports. Maybe, if you're lucky, there's two different channels on the three, four, or five screens. Perhaps the closed captioning is on. But yesterday, the area was under a flash flood watch and had already had a trying time of it rain and wind-wise. But, on the screens? Sports.

It was noon. There were news and weather channels available and perhaps I should have asked for a change of station on at least one TV. I'd have liked to see the big picture before setting out for home. Because it's not like anyone was watching the sports. They were all involved on their phones or computers. Probably watching the radar because it wasn't available on the TVs.

I think the first tendency is to think that the staff was catering to the male clientele. Granted, many women enjoy sports, and I'm not suggesting a series of soap operas or old movies or the latest talk show, although I don't know how the latter would be any different from a sports announcer panel. I looked around the establishment and more than half of the diners were women and children.

Most of the time, I'm not in such a place long enough for it to matter and perhaps next time, given the same circumstances, I'll ask for a change to weather and news.

Thoughts?