The Best of Health for Fur-Babies

I've just been reading through some of the blogs I subscribe to. The pet blogs from the Northern Hemisphere mention the cold and bluster of the autumn/fall and the approaching winter season. I'm imagining the beauty of snow clad landscapes, warmly wrapped families and pets, hot chocolate and sparkling early evening lights. Having only experienced autumn and winter like this once many years ago, it's a stretch of my imagination as I sit with brilliant sunshine, 30+ degree heat and high humidity, heading into my wet tropical Southern Hemisphere summer.

With our spring comes the waking and movement of beasties such as snakes, paralysis ticks and cane toads which are a real danger to pets in my area. Not all snakes around here are venomous, but we do have one or two of the most venomous in the world, the Eastern Brown Snake and in particular, the Taipan. I have a National Park on my back boundary, and snakes slither through my yard on occasion. This area is also paralysis tick heaven, and because I have a garden pond, cane toads are attracted to my place as well.

Paralysis ticks can kill your pet within days, as can cane toads, which have poison glands on their heads.

I therefore have Pet Insurance, which covers Winnie and Hunny in case of accidents and emergencies. I had started Pet Insurance with my previous dog Lea, and I'm thankful I did, because there were several occasions later in her life when it was a financial life saver. So naturally, when the girls arrived home, cover for them was arranged within a week. And it has already paid off for Hunny, who had a paralysis tick when she was about 6 months old. She had to stay overnight at the vet clinic, and all up with medications and care the bill came to around $500. For a cash strapped writer, that was a big deal!

There are many types of pet health insurance, and many levels of cover. I have Optional Pet Cover with my Home and Contents Insurance, and it costs about an extra $10 per month. It's attached to the premium,  so I don't notice the extra, as I pay by the month. Pet Health Cover is available everywhere now. Through your Vet, Life Insurance, (R)SPCA, online, etc and there are usually basic, medium and high levels of cover.

So whatever season you're heading into, if you have insurance for your own health but not your pet, why not have a look around and see whats on offer? You may be surprised how good it can be.

The Backyard, where Winnie and Hunny Explore, Play and Live. Next week, an update on "Labradoodle Fun and Facts".

Until Monday, have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Leonie, Hunny and Winnie.

I am Grateful for...

It's nearly Thanksgiving in the U.S. and although we don't celebrate it here in Australia, I thought I'd say a little about being grateful. This year I've kept a gratitude diary - rather, every day, at the top of my diary page, I've written something I'm grateful for. Yesterday I was grateful for wondrous storms. Today I'm grateful for helpful people.

Being grateful is the same as giving thanks, and I'd like to give thanks to the people and groups who have helped me with my writing. As a new writer "coming out" in July (I'd started writing 40 years ago but shelved it until several years ago), I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew I wanted to write ebooks, so off I went. Nothing happened. I wrote a memoir. It's as yet unpublished, thank goodness, as it needs lots of editing I now realise.

I knew I needed help if I was going to make a decent job of my work. So I enrolled in an online writers coaching course with one of the best coaches around. Angela Booth has been in the industry for over 40 years and helps new and established writers and authors with coaching, guidance, classes and courses. She helps small business with creative copywriting and web content. She is a ghostwriter, has info products and several writing blogs. You can find her here: http://www.angelabooth.com/

What I'm saying is that it's enormously helpful and unquestionably important to get help. I've learnt much more about writing, authoring, publishing, creating a platform - all things an eauthor needs to know - than if I had flown solo. Not to mention the personal support and confidence boost I've received. I can say without a doubt that I would be worse of now without coaching. I love doing what I'm doing, and I want to improve what I'm doing. If you're wanting to start a writing career, but a part of you is telling you negative stories, get help. Don't give up if you've started and it's getting a bit tough, get help. And when you've got help, be grateful, because it makes a difference, mainly to yourself.

So, I am grateful for Angela. I am grateful for the information that has come to me from the writing blogs, and not to forget, the dog blogs I follow, the groups I've joined, but haven't engaged in much as yet and I'm grateful for you who read my words.

On that note, I wish my U.S. readers a Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe whilst travelling everyone. See you Friday with more from the Doods.

Leonie, Hunny and Winnie

Beautiful frangipani currently flowering in my garden. Can't you just smell it?

Labradoodle Christmas

Oh yes, Christmas is only a month away! It does it every year doesn't it, it sneaks up on us? Yesterday I remembered I needed to order my 2014 calendar. I've always had dog calendars hanging in my kitchen, and of course the last few years they've been Labradoodle calendars. The years before that they were Airedale Terrier calendars. Airedale Terriers and Labradoodles aren't common where I live in small town regional Yeppoon, so I've always ordered my calendar from Amazon. That way I know I won't be disappointed if I look in the city and can't find it, which happened once...

I've always ordered a Brown Trout calendar, maybe because that's the one I bought first. I have looked at others and just didn't like them as much. As you can see, I've added several links to the side bar where you can have a browse.

When I looked, I saw lots of other Labradoodle goodies, so therefore there would be other breed goodies. I also ordered a figurine, right at the end of my "Labradoodle Ornaments" search, a cute little chocolate labradoodle at $12.99. There's heaps of Christmas ornaments for the tree, some t-shirts, baby rompers and labradoodles in tea cups :) Check it out for yourself and see what you can find :)

Whilst writing this, Hunny and Winnie have been lying close by. They haven't had much to say lately, so here's an update on them.

Winnie had the beginnings of a hair cut yesterday...this usually happens in two stages. Stage one is when I give her a rough cut with the scissors and get all the loose hair off. She has a fleece coat with very fine, loosely spiraling hair. If I'm not on top of her grooming, her coat can get knotty, especially under her collar. If this has happened, I then tease the knots out, give her a bath then proceed to the second stage which I do the next day. I then use the clippers to even her up and give her a fresh new, short "do".

Hunny's coat is totally different, another "Chalk and Cheese" difference between them. She has a very thick, very curly wool coat, and I take her to the groomer! One fur-baby to groom is enough and Winnie's coat is easier! Once they're both done I'll post some before and after photos, maybe in a few weeks as Hunny won't visit until closer to Christmas.

Other than that, Hunny has been having frequent dips in the garden pond. I don't think I'll ever get it back to it's former glory but hey, it can be a fur-baby pool for a while.They've also been having a great time playing hide and seek around the sofa. Winnie hides before Hunny comes in, thinking Hunny doesn't know, then off they go for a good play. Now they're out having a snack and I'm about to have a coffee. Mmmm.

'Till Wednesday, and more Labradoodle chat.

Leonie

Online on Kobo

Hi everyone,

this morning I received an email with the news that my books are now available on Kobo, and here's the link to my page. http://store.kobobooks.com/en-au/Search?Query=Leonie+van+de+Vorle

This is great, and fast, just a matter of days after Barnes and Noble who published the books online within a matter of hours after I uploaded them to draft2Digital. Here's my page on B&N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Leonie-van-de-Vorle?store=nookstore&keyword=Leonie+van+de+Vorle

Now it's only iBookstore and that may still take a week. Draft2Digital did say approximately how long it would take for each store to publish. So far I'm impressed. It means, that instead of having to publish separately to up to 6 different stores, any self-publisher can publish to all under one roof. I have only used draft2Digital for the 3 stores I mentioned above, as I had already published to Amazon separately, and will continue to do so.

There's so much to do as a new author/self-publisher. It's not only just writing books, you also have to spend time, quite a lot of time establishing yourself in the writing world. It's great that we have ebooks now as we can reach many more readers, but we have to work harder to make our voices heard among all the other voices and media of today.

Not only am I a newbie author, I'm also a newbie blogger, tweeter, pinner and google+er. I've had to work hard these last few months on everything related to writing, self-publishing AND social media, whilst having CFS.

It's tiring, and often I sit on my bed while I write, like now, or I go back to bed after breakfast, like this morning, BUT I LOVE THIS PROCESS, and I LOVE WRITING and it can only get better, faster, easier, as I gain more knowledge.

From next week I'll be blogging on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only. I need more structure to my weeks...I haven't done any book writing for 2 weeks, it's been all research and sorting social media etc.

Winnie and Hunny say hi, and will have a few words for you next week. Until then, have a great weekend everyone, see you monday.

Leonie

An App for Everything

As you know, I have my books published on Amazon, for Kindle devices, which means, up until now you've only been able to buy the books from Amazon. That mostly also means you need a Kindle to read the books, or so you may have thought.

The truth is, these days, there's an App for everything, as well as Kindle. I don't need the App, because I have a Kindle, an older keyboard one, not a touchscreen, but I do have the App on my Android tablet, where I read the most. In fact, you can get the Kindle App for ipad, iphone, Android and PC. All you have to do is go to your store and download it, it's FREE.

Of course, you also need an Amazon account, but that's FREE to set up too.

About a month ago I came across another option which has allowed me (and any self-published author) to publish my books to:
Nook (Barnes and Noble) http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/NOOK-Book-eBook-store/379003094/
Kobo, http://store.kobobooks.com/
and iBookstore http://www.apple.com/au/apps/ibooks/

 Draft2Digital has come to the rescue, and today I already have the "Winnie and Hunny Speak" Series available in the Barnes and Noble ebookstore. Kobo and iBookstore take a little longer, but the books should be available through them within a week.

This is excellent news for readers who don't have Kindles, but have other devices such as Kobo, and who don't want to fuss around with multiple devices/Apps on multiple devices. Two friends have Kobos, and up until now they couldn't buy my Amazon books. Now they can. Hooray for innovation!

So spread the word to whole wide world folks, if you've got other ereaders other than Kindle, get your author friends to publish through draft2Digital so you can read their work on your device. Email your favourite authors and let them know about this service too. It works to benefit all of us.

And now that I have my books uploaded to more sites, I can hopefully get back to writing. It's been two frustrating weeks of sorting and fixing "stuff".  I'm in the middle of changing my ISP which isn't going smoothly. I'm tired, and Winnie and Hunny have left muddy paw prints and bits of stick all over the floor. It's hot. I stepped up to air con on yesterday, then drank coffee this morning so now feel wired!

What's a girl to do? Have lunch, it's 1.30pm here, have a snooze, and go and sort ISP out.

Happy reading, writing and playing with dogs,

Leonie

When Blogging/Writing is Slow, check out Pinterest for Ideas.

I'm still in the research stage of "Labradoodle Fun and Facts", because sometimes other things in life come along that need attention before writing. And sometimes blogging ideas are hard to come up with and you grow a little stale, soooooo, I go to Pinterest, amongst other places, for ideas.

I discovered Pinterest only about 3 months ago and I absolutely LOVE it. Here's a link to their page for you to check out. http://www.pinterest.com and of course if you click on the gadget on Leonie's Lives you'll see what I've got on my boards, which I created for my page.

If you don't know about Pinterest, it's a social media site, yes, but, it's purely VISUAL. You get to Pin (post) images, anything you like, within the rules of course, and it's VERY POPULAR because there's no imagination required. Brilliant, and it's popularity out ranks Facebook. Naturally, it works differently, and you'll be pleasantly surprised with what you find.

If you haven't already, start up your own page, it's a whole heap of fun!

Till next time,

Leonie

My Other, Earlier Books

Before I wrote the Winnie and Hunny Speak series, I published a book of poems. They were published last year, about this time, but they were written in the early to mid 1970's.

I started doodling when at high school, during a boring class which I can't recall, and it evolved into thought and lines and poems which I wrote down in to a very large red covered journal.

I recall it being the time of Woodstock and nuclear bomb testing in the South Pacific, and of course, the Vietnam War. Local University students would march past my school and we would have to pretend not to notice them go past our windows. Yeah, as if!

Several years later I went to Europe and travelled around with a friend. I still wrote poems and when I eventually returned to New Zealand from whence I came, it was to a family tragedy. I wrote one or two more poems shortly after, then only one more about 10 years ago.

I still had my Big Red Poetry Book though, and I had transferred every poem onto my computer thinking one day to do "something" with the poems. That something turned out to be "The Odd One Out - Primitive Poems from the Past. My first foray into ebooks and self publishing.

My poems were the outpourings of a young and lonely soul, a teenager naive yet to the world and her place in it. I didn't think anyone other than myself would be interested in them, let alone want to publish them, so it was up to me. And because I already had a kindle, I heard about self publishing, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So above is the link to my author page/ book list on Amazon which includes all of my books to date. There's also a volume of poems written by my brother Paul. He was tragically killed in a car accident when I was overseas, and was the reason I returned home. He was 17. I never knew he wrote poetry, and only found his work one day several years ago when I was helping my mum shift house. I believe his words are better than mine :) Check his poems out: Salamanca Summer.

http://www.amazon.com/Leonie-van-de-Vorle/e/B00DR8SI9M