THE HEIR OF KHORED cover

Sometimes, when you first see the cover image for a book you've labored long and hard over, you just want to dig a hole, climb in, and pull a heavy rock over the opening. Other times, it's so gorgeous, so true to the spirit of the book, you can hardly breathe for excitement. That was my joy in this cover. It's not accurate to the details of the story, but it so embodies the central conflict -- and oh my, yes, Shannivar is back!

The book comes out in June 2014, but you can pre-order it now. Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Powell's or your local bookstore.

The Tajji Diaries: Doggie Dental Woes

 Dogs, like many other carnivores, have specialized teeth for shearing. These teeth come in pairs – an upper and a lower – and are modified fourth premolars (upper) and first molar (lower). The sharp cusps create a scissors-like action, obviously important for chopping up chunks of flesh into pieces that can be swallowed. (Sabertooth cats had carnassial teeth, too – they did not use their elongated canines for chewing!) Apparently, these teeth are particularly susceptible to fracturing and abscesses in domestic dogs. This is what happened to Tajji. She isn’t a “strong chewer,” like our old German Shepherd Dog, but all dogs can exert tremendous force when they bite down. 

About three years ago, as near as we can tell from her vet records, Tajji suffered a slab fracture of one of her upper carnassial teeth. The portion of the tooth on the lip (as opposed to tongue) side was broken but not detached. This image shows a dog with almost the same problem, a slab fracture with a movable chip. Tajji’s fractured tooth was covered with tartar. We had no way of knowing how much discomfort she was in, and how chronic pain might have exacerbated her reactivity. It was clear to both of us that we needed to get to the tooth taken care of. The vet offered to try to save the main portion of the tooth, warning us that the exposed surface would need careful brushing to prevent decay and new buildup of tartar. Rather than risk a problem that required a second dental surgery when Tajji would be even older, we decided to go ahead with extracting this one.

SHANNIVAR sighting - in Singapore!

An occasion of unexpected delight: learning that the National Library of Singapore -- Singapore! -- now has Shannivar in their collection.

I wonder whether they buy all DAW books, or epic fantasy...or adventure novels with Asian heroes? Shannivar certainly qualifies, and the cover depicts her as clearly Asian. Wait until they see the cover for The Heir of Khored!

COLLABORATORS - Map of Chacarre

For all my readers who love maps, here's the one I drew of Chacarre and surrounding territory. As I wrote Collaborators, I kept a notebook that contained not only story ideas and flow-charts for scenes, but maps and other drawings.

Dotted lines indicate national boundaries. Double lines indicate seacoast. Starred circles are capital cities. The Empty Isles don't have a capital city - they're not nearly organized enough to agree on one. Joosten is also known as the Drowned Lands. The area marked by parallel lines, Demmerle, has historically been part of either Chacarre or Erlind. At the time of the story, it's Chacarran.

GUEST BLOG: Dave Trowbridge on Rehabilitating Our "New" Old Dog

One of the joys of having a dog-savvy partner is being able to compare notes, especially when faced with a challenged dog. Here are some insights from my husband.

When we began looking into ways to rehabilitate Tajji, at least one source noted a tendency for a dog to backslide for “three to seven days” in the relatively complex training required. Two weeks ago we noted something like this in a rebound in Tajji’s reactivity to other dogs, culminating a couple of days ago in her “going off” at an empty yard where she frequently sees a reactive GSD, then nowhere in evidence. About a week ago she added  barking at pedestrians at some distance. Despite the warning, her regression was a bit disheartening after the more rapid progress of the previous five weeks.

Enlightenment followed last Tuesday, in conversation with one of Tajji’s former owners. Deborah and I had misunderstood the order of events, believing that Tajji’s disorderly behavior was the result of not knowing how to behave outside a service harness. Instead, it turns out that the barking and lunging had developed while she was working. Of course, her blind person had little or no warning, and it got so bad that people were crossing the street to avoid her.  Her owners worked with more than one professional trainer, but nothing helped, and so she was retired.

In short, she had a nervous breakdown.