Monday, December 9, 2013

LET'S GET COZY! LENDING A PAW: A PREVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

   
GIVEAWAY ENDED 
LENDING A PAW
A Bookmobile Cat Mystery
BY LAURIE CASS
ABOUT THE BOOK:
With the help of her rescue cat, Eddie, librarian Minnie Hamilton is driving a bookmobile based in the resort town of Chilson, Michigan. But she’d better keep both hands on the wheel, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride...

Eddie followed Minnie home one day, and now she can’t seem to shake the furry little shadow. But in spite of her efforts to contain her new pal, the tabby sneaks out and trails her all the way to the bookmobile on its maiden voyage. Before she knows it, her slinky stowaway becomes her cat co-pilot!

Minnie and Eddie’s first day visiting readers around the county seems to pass without trouble—until Eddie darts outside at the last stop and leads her to the body of a local man who’s reached his final chapter.

Initially, Minnie is ready to let the police handle this case, but Eddie seems to smell a rat. Together, they’ll work to find the killer—because a good librarian always knows when justice is overdue.
 
FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Pseudonym for Laura Alden.

I was one of those kids who was always being told to “Get your nose out of that book and go outside.” So I did. Book in hand, I’d climb the maple tree next to the garage and spend hours among the rustling leaves and swaying branches. Sadly, those idyllic years didn’t last long.

In the part of Michigan where I grew up, the prime agricultural products are blueberries and Christmas trees. Back in those days, kids could work in the fields picking berries at age 12, so the day after I turned 12, off I was sent.

The main thing I learned from those summers was that sitting in a classroom isn’t so bad compared to standing in the blazing sun for eight hours. The other thing I learned was that while Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden were fun, there was a whole world out there filled with books by authors such as Dick Francis, Josephine Tey, Ellis Peters, and John D. MacDonald.

I stated writing seriously in the late nineties. After a number of years in management, I felt the need to move on and took a job with fewer responsibilities. A month later, I was dead bored. I desperately needed something to wake up my brain; what could be better than writing? I started reading a lot of books on writing and happened across a particular sentence: “What’s it going to be, reasons or results?”

The phrase practically stuck me in the eye. I printed it out, framed it, and put it next to my computer. “Reasons or results?” At the end of my life, was I going to have a pile of reasons for not having done what I really wanted to do but was scared I couldn’t? Or was I going to sit down and write a book? Once I started looking at it that way, the decision was easy. A short 13 years later, my first book (Murder at the PTA, published under the pen name of Laura Alden) was published.

Except for a year in Connecticut, I have always lived in Michigan. Thanks to my maternal grandparents, my husband and I, Eddie, and Sinii, our six-pound killer cat, have the great good fortune to live on a lake in northern lower Michigan. We spend summers entertaining weekend guests and winters guessing which day the lake is going to freeze over.

When I’m not writing, I’m working at my day job, reading, yanking weeds out of the garden, or doing some variety of skiing. I also play the piano and violin and dabble in photography, but most of the time, almost all of the time, what I really want to do is write.

AN EXCERPT FROM LENDING A PAW:

CHAPTER ONE:
When I was a little girl, I dreamed of growing up to be the president. Failing that, an astronaut or a ballerina.

My presidential aspirations were squashed
when I found out that the president did not, in fact,
get to do whatever he (or she) wanted. The astronaut idea faded when my mother told me that even people in space suits could get motion sickness, and my ballerina phase lasted until I actually took a class and discovered that I had no aptitude whatsoever. Even at six, I knew what the ballet teacher’s headshaking meant.

With those career paths closed off, I went to my alternative tier of professional choices, determined in large part because I’d had the great good fortune to grow up within walking distance of a public library. By the time I’d turned ten, I knew that I would be one of three things. A librarian in a big city, a librarian in a large town, or a librarian in a small town.

Big cities give me the heebie-jeebies, so that was out. A large town would have been okay, but a few short years after receiving my master’s degree in library and information science and a few short weeks after the end of a long-term relationship, I found a posting for an assistant director position at the district library in Chilson, Michigan.
TO FINISH READING THIS EXCERPT, VISIT THE WEBSITE HERE.


SOME OTHER BOOKS BY LAURIE CASS/LAURA ALDEN:
                   

                   

GIVEAWAY
THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND THE GOOD FOLKS
AT OBSIDIAN AND PENGUIN BOOKS,
I HAVE ONE COPY OF LENDING A PAW, 
TO GIVE AWAY TO A LUCKY READER
 
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
 

COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!


HOW TO ENTER:


+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU READ ABOVE ABOUT LENDING A PAW THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT LAURIE CASS'S WEBSITE HERE

 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A CURRENT GIVEAWAY THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH TO RECEIVE MORE ENTRIES
 
GIVEAWAY ENDS AT 
6 PM, EST, DECEMBER 30
   GOOD LUCK!
A "WISE OWL" SPECIAL GIVEAWAY
(In this case, meaning one that was scheduled before my break from blogging) 

109 comments:

debbie said...

I would like to see how the cat helps solve the mystery.
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Anonymous said...

The book sounds really good.

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traveler said...

Interesting. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

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Carol N Wong said...
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Carol N Wong said...

I tweeted: http://t.co/MzWuELbuNI

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Carol N Wong said...

I read on her blog about her quest for a bookmark to fit a book. Funny, I do that also!

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Rita Wray said...

I like the excerpt and would like to read more

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Karen B said...

I find the idea of bookmobiles fascinating! I've never seen one because I've always lived close to libraries but I can see where any number of interesting things could happen.
kpbarnett1941[at]aol.com

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

twitter.com/houdinibuddy/status/410231228105646080
marybrandis@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Interested to see how Minnie the librarian and Eddie the cat work together to find out the murderer.
marybrandis@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Mary Brandis
Shared publicly - 8:29 PM

Enter to win giveaway from Bookin' With Bingo" for book " Lending A Paw" by Laurie Cass.
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Unknown said...

I like the idea of having pictures of bookmobiles from towns/cities on her webpage.
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follow by e-mail subscriber.
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cyn209 said...

LOVE 1st book in a new series!!!

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♡♥♬ Carolsue ♡♥♬ said...

I have my own rescue cat, so I'm all over this book! I love books with cats in them!
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Linda Kish said...

I love the idea of a cat who helps to solve murders. I'd like to see just how that happens.

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Sue Farrell said...

My favorite cozies are the ones with cats so this is a must read for me.
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Sue Farrell said...

On the author's website I learned the Eddie the cat was named after Eddie the Eagle, the Olympic ski jumper.
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