Dear Friends, Hooray! It's Friday. I've looked forward to visiting with you here. I have a couple of fun short questions to answer this week, and I also want to share a link with you. This is a fun link that will cheer you up on a gloomy day. There is an island off Japan that is populated by hundreds of wild bunnies. I love bunnies! I met a little neighbor girl's pet bunny and was friendly and sweet. I love the pictures of the bunnies at this link, and thought you might enjoy them too: Land of the Rising Bunny. Thanks to my friend Dave for sending this link to me. I also will share that I'm very excited because next week is my birthday ... that is always one of my favorite fun days! Now on to our fun questions! My friend Bob writes: What is the proper way to ask for a belly rub? Should you wait for the human to
offer or is it okay to just roll on your back and present your belly?
Dear Bob,
I know you are a dachshund person ... so you know that for doxies there is no bad way to ask for a belly rub! I am a great fan of them, and will roll over for extra attention at a moment's notice (see picture above). As a matter of fact, I am thinking about doing this as soon as I finish writing this morning.
Love from Abby
My friend Ginger Rose (who is a beautiful dachshund) writes:In the middle of the night this loud noise woke me up. I think the loud noise is
called thunder boomers, and that made me angry. Each time it boomed I bark to
tell it to stop and then Dad yelled "No Ginger" at me as if the booming was my
fault. Abby, how do you feel about thunder boomers and have you figured out a
way to get it to stop booming?
Dear Ginger Rose,
That is an excellent question! I do NOT like thunder boomers and would make them disappear forever if I could. Has barking at them helped them disappear? If it works, I would gladly join in. I do not know how to get them to stop booming, but if you hear a magical secret, please let me know!
Love and hugs, Abby
So friends ... you have it, two fun questions from good friends. I would love to hear from YOU and answer your questions in upcoming weeks. Please leave any questions or comments below. Love to all, Abby
Do you remember American Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark? This pop music show was hosted by Dick Clark 1956 - 1989. The heyday of its popularity was the 1950's and 1960's, when the regular dancers of the show were actually tv celebrities. (There was a fun short-lived tv show a few years ago about a teen girl who danced on Bandstand called American Dreams.) It was still plenty popular during my teen years (1970's), when the theme song was this catchy number by Barry Manilow:
What do you remember about Bandstand - the singers, the fashions, learning new dances? I'd love to hear from you in the comments, below.
The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas (Forgotten Actress Series, Volume 1)
by Laini Giles
Publication Date: August 1, 2015 Publisher: Sepia Stories Publishing
Formats: eBook & Trade Paperback Pages: 411 Genre: Historical Fiction/Biographical A presence lurks in New York City’s New Amsterdam Theatre when the lights go down and the audience goes home. They say she’s the ghost of Olive Thomas, one of the loveliest girls who ever lit up the Ziegfeld Follies and the silent screen. From her longtime home at the theater, Ollie’s ghost tells her story from her early life in Pittsburgh to her tragic death at twenty-five. After winning a contest for “The Most Beautiful Girl in New York,” shopgirl Ollie modeled for the most famous artists in New York, and then went on to become the toast of Broadway. When Hollywood beckoned, Ollie signed first with Triangle Pictures, and then with Myron Selznick’s new production company, becoming most well known for her work as a “baby vamp,” the precursor to the flappers of the 1920s. After a stormy courtship, she married playboy Jack Pickford, Mary Pickford’s wastrel brother. Together they developed a reputation for drinking, club-going, wrecking cars, and fighting, along with giving each other expensive make-up gifts. Ollie's mysterious death in Paris’ Ritz Hotel in 1920 was one of Hollywood’s first scandals, ensuring that her legend lived on.
A native of Austin, Texas, Laini Giles grew up the daughter of bookworms, and became a Nancy Drew devotee early on. When she realized there might be no escape from hairy tarantulas and bad guys with guns, she put her detective dreams on hold and wrote about them instead, finishing her first mystery novel with custom illustrations when she was eight. It was this love of mystery combined with a love of old MGM musicals and The Marx Brothers that led her to check Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon out of the library during her formative years. Ideas began to simmer. A graduate of the University of North Texas, she put the writing on hold for a while when real life got in the way (i.e.—she met and married her Canadian husband and headed north for maple-flavored goodies and real beer). She highly recommends moving to another country and not being able to work for a year for finishing any novels you may have laying around. Laini and her husband live in Edmonton, Alberta with their three gray girl cats, nicknamed The Supremes. For more information visit Laini Giles' website and blog. You can also find her on Twitter and Goodreads. GIVEAWAY One lucky winner will receive an eBook of The Forgotten Flapper. Rules – Must be 18 or older to
enter. – Only one entry per household. – All giveaway
entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is
decided upon by
blog/site
owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our
discretion. a Rafflecopter giveaway
SHORT LIST FINALIST IN THE WILLIAM FAULKNER-WILLIAM WISDOM WRITING COMPETITION.
A Song for Bellafortuna is an inspirational Italian Historical Fiction novel concerning a young man’s desire to free his Sicilian village from the domination of one family’s long reign. For years, the beautiful, yet secluded, hilltop village of Bellafortuna, Sicily, was a great producer of wine and olive oil. The entire village prospered. However, after the arrival of the Vasaio family, production dwindles and the villagers soon find themselves in crushing debt to the Vasaios. Only one family in the village remains outside the control of the Vasaios, but the reason haunts Antonio Sanguinetti every day of his life.
Antonio is determined to erase this legacy by offering financial and emotional support to his fellow villagers. He introduces them to the choral song from Verdi’s opera, Nabucco, which becomes the rallying cry for the villagers and offers them hope for a better life.
When Antonio’s only son, Giuseppe, discovers his family’s past, he becomes determined to take on the Vasaios and remove them from power. Led by the young Giuseppe, a plan is hatched that could result in either complete freedom for the villagers, or if it fails, forever solidifying the Vasaios’ control.
Find out what happens in A Song for Bellafortuna, a sweeping epic historical fiction tale of love, drama, sacrifice, and redemption, set among the beautiful landscape of Sicily. Already listed by Amazon as a Top New Release in Historical Fiction and Italian Historical Fiction.
PRAISE
"Vincent B. LoCoco writes a heartwarming piece of historical fiction . . . He captured the essence of the Sicilian culture, especially regarding the value of ancestry and music . . . A Song For Bellafortuna is a beautiful tale of antiquity." – Readers Favorite 5 Star Review
"The book was a joy to read. It is a wonderful story, told in a magical way.” -Cavaliere Ufficiale Aldo Mancusi, President of the Enrico Caruso Museum of America in New York
"An inspiring story of an Italian village threatened by commerce and saved by opera." -John Biguenet, author of The Torturer’s Apprentice and Oyster
Award winning and bestselling author, Vincent B. "Chip" LoCoco, lives in New Orleans. His first novel, Tempesta's Dream - A Story of Love, Friendship and Opera, became an Amazon bestselling novel and was awarded the 2014 Pinnacle Achievement Award in Historical Fiction. Amazon also has named his book as a Top Rated Novel in Italian Historical Fiction.
Visit him at www.vincentlococo.com, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
– Must be 18 or older to
enter. – Only one entry per household. – All giveaway
entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is
decided upon by
blog/site
owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our
discretion.
