My Devotional Thoughts: Blog Tour: "Dog-Ma: The Zen of Slobber" by Barbara Boswell Brunner Spotlight/Guest Post

Friday, November 23, 2012

Blog Tour: "Dog-Ma: The Zen of Slobber" by Barbara Boswell Brunner Spotlight/Guest Post

Barbara's vivid and dramatic stories, told with a wicked sense of humor, will make you laugh out loud. She definitely gets what living with rescued dogs (nine of them!) is all about.

When Barbara meets her future husband, Ray, it is love-and dog-at first sight. Over the course of thirty-two years, seventeen relocations and nine dogs, their mutual love of dogs guides them on their unconventional path. The love that Barbara and Ray get in return is literally lifesaving, with one dog attacking a lethal intruder and another discovering Barbara’s cancer. Her own survival story underscores the story of how her dogs become survivors themselves.

Each new dog adds its own dynamic to the family, sometimes upending it. From Turbo (whose Spock-like ears may have provided super powers), Barbara learns about the will to live; Lexington demonstrates incredible patience and an inexplicable love of golf; Madison teaches that laughter is truly the best medicine and that the whole “nine lives thing” is not reserved just for cats; Morgan should be sainted for tolerating Izzy, who is as cute as she is bad.

Barbara is certain that somewhere in doggie heaven there is a poster that says “If you are sick, injured or in need of really expensive medical care, FIND THESE HUMANS!”

My review is featured here.

Barbara grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with her parents, sister and always a dog, or two or three. She founded three successful businesses in the Pacific Northwest and is a prolific fundraiser for breast cancer research. She and her husband currently live in Southwest Florida with two dogs and copious amounts of dog fur.

What To Do When Facing Writers Block? (Guest Post by the Author)

Writers block... it’s a tough issue. We’ve all had it. It is tough to shake. I am actually having it right now, as I type. Going to go get a Starbucks and give my brain a rest....

Whew, that worked. OK, writers block... oh no... I’ve got it again. I know you feel my pain.

For me, stomping on writers block is challenging. If I take a walk to clear my head I may not get back to my daily writing. I need outside stimulation and I usually find that in my dogs. Since I write about dogs all day, every day, sometimes just watching them gives me the material I need to jump start a new blog post or book chapter. Izzy provides endless hours of entertainment that always find a way into my blog,

http://dog-mathebook.blogspot.com/

When that doesn’t work, I go to my husband who always has a way of inserting a new thought into my brain that gets me on the path to writing. Today was no different. I was stuck. Trying to write numerous guest blog posts for my Virtual Book Tour. I am out of material and am getting fairly bored, writing about myself, my process and my quirks. It is amazing how he is always able to talk me through the tough times. As we talked about the things he thinks I do to break writers block, he said “make a batch of chocolate chip cookies” that will help. Now as I think about it, he is right, but also a bit self-serving since I do not eat cookies. HE does...

So instead of writing more about me, I thought I would give you my secret recipe for amazing Chocolate Chip cookies.

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 cup Whole Wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. Eatwell Farms Lavender salt

1 tsp organic lavender buds

1 cup softened butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed DARK brown sugar

2 large eggs

the seeds scraped from 1 vanilla whole bean – discard the bean or use it to make something else – I like to buy mine from Penseys.

2 cups coarsely chopped baking chocolate (I prefer Ghirardelli but that is because I worked in a shop above the factory many, many years ago in San Francisco and got hooked)

1 ½ cups coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 375.