Indie: Fostering an Old Dog

Sadly, four of our neighbourhood dogs crossed the Bridge last month. They were all old, but that didn’t make it any easier for their humans.

One of them was a sweet-natured black lurcher called Indie, who was taken in by our friends Jan and Alain last September. Twelve years old and badly neglected, she was 48 hours away from being euthanised in the pound when Alain heard about her and asked if Greyhound Rescue Wales could take her. The answer was yes, but because of her age and state of neglect she would need to be fostered for life.

Having lost their lurcher Frieda six months before, Jan and Alain felt able to give Indie a home. She soon settled in, providing companionship for their remaining dog Snip, who’d been missing Frieda. Of course, no dog can ever replace another, but it was lovely to see how close Snip and Indie became in a short time.

Snip (left) and Indie

To start with, Indie was just glad to have a warm, comfy bed to rest in. But before long her puppy playfulness came out, probably for the first time in her life. She loved to chase a ball on walks, and she even had a favourite toy.

Indie had such a gentle expression. If you were feeling a bit anxious, she would give you a sweet, sympathetic look as if to say, “don’t worry, everything’s fine!” Of course, she could simply have been simply asking for treats; but she did it with such kind eyes, it was impossible to resist!

For three months, Indie lived her best life in her foster home. Then she started to slow down and show signs of pain. She was having monthly injections for arthritis, but they seemed to be getting less effective, and sometimes she didn’t want to eat. Her teeth were in poor condition, so she was taken to the doggy dentist, hoping that would help. After a good clean and several extractions, she seemed to pick up a bit; but in March she started refusing food again, even freshly cooked chicken, and despite large doses of painkiller she was still in a lot of pain.

On her last vet visit, it was found she had a massive tumour in her abdomen, which was probably leaking into her blood and bones and causing her issues with lameness. The vet advised putting her to sleep straight away. This was a huge shock for Jan and Alain, who hadn’t suspected cancer at all.

Due to Indie’s age, they knew they wouldn’t have her for long, but it must have been so hard losing two dogs to cancer in less than a year. I really admire them; it takes someone special to home an old dog. I don’t think I could do it, knowing I could lose them so soon.

Indie (right) with Jan and Snip

Greyhound Rescue Wales relies on donations to fund foster homes for dogs like Indie. If you’d like to help you can find out more here.

Happy Easter!

What bird laid THOSE??

Have a great weekend – but don’t let your dogs get their paws on that chocolate!

AI image generated with Microsoft Copilot

Lyra Welcomes the Spring

Hi, Lyra here! I’m so glad winter is over – it’s been the longest, wettest winter I’ve ever known, and we whippets hate to get wet. I’ve been spending most of my time indoors, which is really boring, because I love to be outside enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Nature. The only way to cope with it has been to hibernate.

Of course, I’ve still had to go for the daily walk, but it hasn’t been much fun for me or the human, as we both hate the rain. I have a raincoat, but I don’t like wearing it. I’m not the sort of dog who likes wearing clothes, except for the ones I borrow when I visit Fairyland, which are much nicer. I mean, look at the difference…

Garment bought by human

Garment loaned by fairies

There’s no comparison, is there?

Not that I need a coat in Fairyland, as it doesn’t rain there, except in the Dripping Forest, where the rain grows on trees and falls from the branches, and the fairies have umbrellas growing out of their heads. And that place is easily avoided as it’s quite small.

Anyway, I must love you and leave you now, as I’m off to the fairies’ Spring Festival. Happy Equinox!

You can find out more about the Dripping Forest in my human’s book, Gateway to Magic, the story of a gaming fanatic trapped in Fairyland where all tech is banned by law!

FREE KIDS’ BOOKS! #ebookweek24

It’s Read an Ebook Week on Smashwords, and these two fun adventures are FREE until Sunday!

Gateway to Magic

Steven Topcliff is addicted to his games console, but when a goblin changeling takes his place on Earth, he finds himself trapped in Fairyland where all tech is banned by law. Steven hates Fairyland – there are no video games, no chicken nuggets, and no one tells the truth – but the bossy Fairy Queen is determined to keep him there forever. This is a dimension he can’t control with a console – he must use magic to outwit the Queen and forge a gateway home.

“Gateway to Magic by Annabelle Franklin was a cute, quick read with some valuable lessons within. I shared this book with my little ones, who absolutely loved it. From their point of view it was ‘awesome’. The author did a wonderful job of painting the scenes, making things very easy to visualise, most especially the Forest of Pointy Fingers! I love it when authors bring a story to life by word-painting, and Franklin doesn’t disappoint! Franklin’s Gateway to Magic is perfectly tailored to its target audience, as my brood can well attest. They all loved it, and we’ll be reading it again for sure!” – J. Aislynn d’Merrickson for Readers’ Favorite

Pick up your FREE copy here!

The Slapstyx

Greedy businessman Zachary Zigstack has hired the world’s grubbiest goblins to make extreme dirt that can only be cleaned with his disgusting detergent. This putrid product ends up in the sea, turning it into toxic slime, and the sea spirits are frightened for the creatures in their care. Astral-travelling twins Georgie and Gem must spy on the goblins and find a way to stop their dirty dealings before all marine life is destroyed.

“A wonderful second book by a children’s author adept at creating worlds that children and adults alike cannot resist stepping into. My grandchildren were as enthralled by the Slapstyx as they were by Annabelle’s first book Gateway to Magic. Bedtime was a magical and shared experience, as ‘one more page’ became several more pages. Everyone  loves a good fight between good and evil and this is one of the best. A sublime story that will find a spot on the shelves of every child (no matter what age) who loves really good books.” – Catrin Collier, bestselling author of Hearts of Gold

Pick up your FREE copy here!

While you’re there, why not check out all the other great reads on offer?

 

 

Eddie Creates Chaos #ShortStory #WritingCommunity

NightCafe

‘This was a really bad idea,’ said Angus.

‘We had to have a holiday,’ said Damaris. ‘He had to have a holiday.’

‘We should have gone self-catering.’

‘Yes, and I would have ended up doing all the catering.’

‘Well, let’s hope his psychic energy is in a quiescent phase.’

‘Last night was quiet, wasn’t it? We need to be positive, Angus. We’re on holiday, so let’s stop worrying and enjoy it.’

Eddie burst out of the bathroom, a four-foot ball of mischief with unruly black hair. ‘Ready!’ he cried, flinging out his arms. He danced around the bedroom. ‘Ready Eddie, Ready Eddie, Ready Eddie! That’s good, isn’t it? I’m Ready Eddie!’

‘Yes, very good,’ said Damaris. ‘Come on, time for breakfast.’

‘We’ve had bed, now we’re going to have breakfast,’ said Eddie, skipping out of the room. ‘Isn’t that great? Bed and breakfast in a Bed and Breakfast!’

‘Don’t shout, Eddie,’ said Angus, in hushed tones. ‘You’ll disturb people.’

Eddie did an exaggerated creep across the landing, his finger to his lips. ‘Ssssshhhh!’ he hissed. ‘Sssssssshhhhhh!’

Angus rolled his eyes. Damaris shot him a warning look.

Eddie kept up the ‘Sssssshhhh’ routine all the way down the stairs. He soon caught up with an old lady who was on her way down at a slower pace.

‘Sssssshhhh!’ he said, looking up at her.

She frowned. ‘What?’

‘I said “Sssssshhhh”!’

‘Eddie, stop it,’ said Angus.

‘I wasn’t making a noise!’ said the old woman.

‘I know,’ said Eddie. ‘I was just telling you in case you were thinking of making a noise.’

‘Eddie!’ snapped Angus.

But Eddie had leaped down the last five steps. He did a forward roll and burst into the breakfast room like the morning sun. He capered across to the bay window, where a party of old ladies sat at a round table, admiring the Brighton sea front.

‘This is absolutely the wrong place for us,’ Angus said irritably.

‘Ssshh,’ said Damaris.

‘Don’t you start,’ Angus muttered.

‘I want to sit in the window,’ announced Eddie. The old ladies looked alarmed as he crashed their party, a small tornado in a stripy T-shirt.

A well-upholstered woman in a flowery dress hurried out from the kitchen. ‘I’m afraid you can’t sit in the window; there are people there already.’

‘Then make them go away,’ said Eddie.

‘Eddie!’ exploded Angus.

‘I WANT TO SIT IN THE WINDOW!’ shouted Eddie, throwing himself on the floor. He lay on his back, kicking the laminated boards with his heels.

Damaris rushed up to him. ‘Eddie,’ she said gently, ‘there’s a table specially for us over there, look!’

Eddie looked where she was pointing, at a smaller table by a smaller window in the corner. ‘You can still see the sea. And if you’re a good boy now, we’ll go to the shops later and I’ll buy you a present.’

Angus rolled his eyes again.

Eddie stopped kicking. ‘For real?’

‘For real!’ smiled Damaris. ‘Now, come on, be a good boy.’

Eddie jumped up. ‘Yayyy!’ he cried. ‘A present! What will it be? Can I have a drone?’

‘Anything you like!’ said Damaris.

‘No!’ said Angus at the same time.

Eddie skipped around the room. ‘Yayyy! I’m having a drone!’ The old ladies’ disapproving gaze followed his progress, their eyes like dull marbles under caterpillar brows.

Once Eddie and his parents were seated at the smaller table, he got out his phone and started playing a game. This was mildly annoying, but at least he was no longer disrupting the whole room. The flowery woman took their orders, and Eddie told her quite politely that he would like bacon, egg, beans and a sausage.

Soon afterwards, she brought out the food and put it on the table. Angus and Damaris started eating. Eddie carried on playing.

‘Eat your breakfast, darling,’ said Damaris. ‘It’ll get cold.’

Eddie ignored her.

‘Eddie!’ said Angus.

‘Leave him,’ said Damaris, putting her hand on his arm. ‘He’ll eat it when he’s ready.’

Eddie looked up and beamed at her. ‘Ready Eddie!’ he said. ‘I can eat and play at the same time – watch!’

As he went back to his game, his sausage levitated off his plate and floated up to his mouth. He took a bite.

‘Oh no,’ groaned Angus. ‘I did hope this wouldn’t happen.’

The sausage stayed obligingly near Eddie’s face, waiting for him to finish his mouthful and take the next bite. The whole room had gone quiet, and all the old ladies were staring at him in shock and horror.

‘Eddie, stop it,’ said Damaris. ‘You’re frightening people.’

Eddie ignored her. When the sausage had gone, the egg took its turn, hovering in front of his face like a flying saucer.

‘Boys who levitate their food don’t get presents,’ Angus said sternly.

Eddie stopped playing and glared at him. The fried egg flew across the table and hit him in the face. He made an outraged noise and wiped it off with his napkin.

‘Right, that’s enough!’

‘Angus, be careful,’ warned Damaris.

But Angus was beyond being careful. He seized Eddie by the arm and dragged him away from the table.

Bad mistake. The next moment, everybody’s food was flying about. Eggs, beans, sausages and bacon danced in the air and came in to land on grey heads and wrinkled faces. Wedges of toast inserted themselves between false teeth in gaping mouths. Floating jugs poured orange juice onto pristine cardigans, and fountains of tea cascaded onto checked cloths.

It didn’t look like Eddie would be getting his drone after all.

Storyhound Lyra hunted down this ‘tail’ on her last astral trip to the Land of Story. She’s taken quite a shine to Eddie, so I expect we’ll be seeing more of him in the future!

To AI or not to AI?

I’m hoping to start publishing my Bad Boy Wizard series in the spring. I say ‘hoping’, because right now I feel like I’m facing an assault course.

To begin with, this blog needs an overhaul. At the moment I’m using a workaround version of the Classic editor, as I have serious issues with the Block editor – it’s difficult to use without the ‘free’ plugins, which you can only have if you get the paid version of WordPress, which I can’t afford. On the other hand, I’m limited as to what I can do with this version of the Classic.

I’ve been wondering if I should focus my marketing efforts on TikTok and Instagram. I haven’t explored these platforms before and I have to admit I find them daunting. The videos I’ve seen on TikTok are all so fast – fast edits, and people talking at 90 miles an hour. I’ll have to up my game if I’m not going to come across as a total amateur, and I’ll have to have something to say.

I managed to register with Instagram, but with great difficulty – I kept getting error messages, and that horrible feeling of frustration that makes me want to throw the phone out of the window. Then I discovered you can’t put a link to your blog or website on Instagram unless you’ve got the paid version. I never knew there was a paid version of Instagram  – I’m sure there never used to be.

It all comes down to money, which is pretty tight at the moment. Which brings me to the biggest obstacle of all – as yet, I have no one to design the covers for these books.

The covers for my previous books were designed by my friend’s niece, who’s a talented artist. She did it in her spare time, and didn’t ask for payment (though I sent her Amazon gift cards afterwards to show my appreciation). However, she has other commitments now and isn’t in a position to take on this project – and I can’t afford to pay a cover designer the full rate. I need someone who’s the right fit for the books and who can be relied on to stick with me throughout the series – there are seven books, so it’s a big ask!

A friend in my writing group suggested I do a course to learn how to design book covers with AI. This would give me total control and I wouldn’t have to worry about a designer letting me down halfway through the series. I’d have to pay for the course, but it would be cheaper than hiring someone else to do the work. But I can’t always get the result I want with AI. For instance, while experimenting with cover ideas I asked the AI for an image of my Bad Boy Wizard sitting up in bed, staring at a ghost in Elizabethan dress, and it gave me this:

My ten-year-old boy appears to have a moustache, and elephant’s feet!

Even with training, I’m not sure I could reach the standard required for a professional-looking cover. It would be a terrible waste to spend money on a course, only to find I’m still not good enough to design my book covers at the end of it. And I’ve come across people who hate AI; it would be pointless having AI covers if it put off potential readers.

Many people feel AI is stealing other artists’ work. It might not seem like stealing when you’re composing a text prompt that takes fragments of various artworks to make up something completely new – after all, if I made a picture using red, yellow, blue and green paint I couldn’t be accused of stealing colours from other artists. But, as I understand it, AI companies use people’s artwork to train the AIs’ neural networks without asking permission, which doesn’t seem strictly ethical. And some might say I’d be taking bread out of cover designers’ mouths by choosing to use AI – though would they actually be losing out if I can’t afford to pay them anyway?

It’s a minefield. I want to get excited about publishing these books. but at the moment I just feel anxious, a bit lost, and very much alone with it all.

I’d be interested to know what you think about the AI issue. Feel free to express your opinions in the comments – but please be kind!

Images generated with NightCafe Studio

 

 

Solstice Greetings from Lyra

Another festival, and Lyra’s off to another party in Fairyland, where magical things happen to little whippets!

Wishing you all a joyful Solstice, a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

AI generated with NightCafe Studio

Lyra Goes to the Movies

Hi, Lyra here! Last week, I joined my friends in GRW Therapy Hounds for a movie night with the students at Swansea Uni. I was looking forward to it, as the movie was Santa Stole Our Dog. I love to watch shows with dogs in them, so a whole movie about a dog would be a real treat.

The dog in the movie was called Rusty and he was hot, an unusual Japanese breed with a beautiful brindle coat (I have a weakness for a brindle!). In my opinion he was the star of the show, and by far the best actor. But after half an hour or so he hardly appeared on the screen at all, and I started to get bored.

Luckily I had someone to play with, in the form of Cecil the Pomchi. At first I thought he was a toy, but he soon put me right about that. Somewhat haughtily, he told me he was a cross between a Pomeranian and a Chihuahua. Once that misunderstanding had been cleared up, we got on like a house on fire. We forgot about the movie and had a great time entertaining the students with our antics. We certainly made up for the lack of dog action!

I love visiting the students. Many of them are missing their own dogs, and when they’ve been working hard it’s relaxing for them to spend time with us. And the university pays Greyhound Rescue Wales for our services.

So everybody wins!

 

Sad News about Keith

This is a difficult post to write.

Some of you may remember Keith, the bull lurcher I fostered during the lockdowns of 2020 and who was homed in 2021 with a lovely family just across the valley. Last month, I was very sorry to hear that he’d met with a fatal accident.

Keith was a dream dog at home, quiet, gentle and affectionate. He had a lovely energy, as comforting as warm bread; he loved people and just wanted to cuddle everyone he met.

But when we were out, he always seemed to be courting danger. He would  hurl himself into situations with boundless enthusiasm and no regard for the consequences. He had more than his share of adrenaline, sometimes getting so overexcited he didn’t know what to do with himself. There was the time he swam across the river because he’d scented prey on the other side, then couldn’t get back. And the time he chased a calf and narrowly missed being trampled to death by its irate mother and her friends. And the time he ran into an electric fence, panicked, and bolted six miles to the next village, risking a fatal encounter with a car. Not to mention the countless times he ran off and disappeared into the woods, refusing to come back when he was called; I was always convinced something terrible had happened to him then. When he picked up a scent he was deaf and blind to everything else. We used to call him Gentle Jekyll and Hunting Hyde.

It’s a pity he was trained in his early life to be such an avid hunter. Sighthounds are natural hunters of course, but by encouraging that instinct you reinforce it with the desire to please, which in some dogs is a powerful motivator. And Keith was a dog who desperately wanted to please.

That early conditioning was hard to override, and in the end it was his hunting instinct that killed him. He was out with his family when he spotted a stray sheep, bolted after it and fell into a nearby quarry. His injuries were so severe, he had to be put to sleep.

The family are absolutely devastated. I remember how much I missed him when he was homed, and it must be so much worse for them, losing him like that when they could have had so many more years together. They told me they’d had many dogs in their lives, but none as special as Keith. I just hope in time they can take some comfort from knowing he lived his best life in the short time he was with them.

Keith was special. With his big bark and his big cuddles, he was a big presence, and he’s left a big absence in the home and hearts of his family.

Run free, sweet Keith. You won’t be forgotten.

Goblins galore – and a great #Halloween read!

Hi, Lyra here! Don’t tell my human, but I’m off to the goblins’ Halloween party!

The veil between the worlds is at its thinnest at this time of year. It’s easy for dogs – and children – to slip through to the world of goblins and fairies, and not everyone likes what they find there. If you don’t know how to handle goblins, it can be a scary place!

Looking for a good goblin adventure this Halloween?

Gateway to Magic is the story of Steven Topcliff, who finds himself in Fairyland against his will. Addicted to gaming, he’s horrified to learn that all tech is banned by law in this strange new world. Desperately missing his favourite first-person shooter, he takes up with a gang of goblin criminals who have a contraband computer, stolen from Earth. But when the game begins, it’s the goblins doing the shooting – and Steven is the target!

Pick up your copy here.