ON THE RADIO!! WHOAAAAAA, ON THE RADIO!!

I am going to be on the radio!!! Michelle Pillow and Mandy Roth have invited me to be their guest next Wednesday on their talk show. Woo hoo!! Here's the link for those who want to hear me babble and make a general ass of myself live and in person...PLUS you get to call in live and ask me stuff. Please, PLEASE call in and ask me stuff so I am not hanging in the cold cold wind all alone...

Link to show : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ravenradio

Listener dial-in number during LIVE shows
(646) 595-3998 (New York number, long distance charges apply)

THE RADIO PLAYER:







THE BUTTON:



This is going to be fun!! They are even letting me talk about ACN :) Wait'll I tell Laura at ACN about that. She will be so pleased. And I am going to give away a treat, so if you call in you get a shot at it! I won't say what it is precisely, but the name Damien is going to be on it!! But you have to make it on live with me to get it. May the best deviant fan win! Muhahaha!

Hugs and Kitties,
Jacki

PS: Someone pointed out I forgot to tell what TIME it is. I am pretty sure it is 11AM-12PM Wednesday. I know...I am a dork. What can I say? See, this is why I need YOUR help lol.

Generosity Makes Us All Winners

It's SO true. As corny as it sounds, it is so very true. I have never felt so good about anything I've done before, including getting published, than I have about organizing, pimping and then success at having reached my goal with the Animal Compassion Network raffle. First, we all owe Amy a huge debt of thanks for making that basket, all the time she has donated to me this year to see you all get your prizes and gifts in a timely fashion (cuz if you left it up to me, I would forget all about it, I promise you that) and the enormous effort she and her mother are putting into making the book thongs and key chains you've seen. They are also building up the stock of 400!!! thongs/chains I need for my party bags at the Romantic Times Convention! Not to mention she is storing huge amounts (and LBS!! Thank you very-strong-and-manly hubby Sean!) of goodies I am putting into the bags! Needless to say, I owe Amy, her mom and Sean a huge Yule gift. :) And these bags I am giving away at my party...well, let's just say they are legitimate gift bags, just for you guys, and will be bursting with delicious rewards.

I plan on generating a newsletter this coming year. It's goal number one. In that inaugural newsletter, I would like to introduce the Fan Club, finally. Joining the club will mean committing to the newsletter (electronic only I am afraid) and some sort of introductory gift package. Of course there will be some kind of fee if there has to be, but it will be more about balancing the cost of the gifties than it will be about me making some kind of profit off of you. I already get my percentage. I am happy with that. The Fan Club will have mailings, too. Either promotional gifts or release reminders. I also hope to integrate that with projects like my anticipated bi-annual raffle for the ACN. Yeah, bi..as in two. One in the fall and one in the spring. I figure you won't mind being generous twice a year, especially considering the cause and considering Amy and I plan to get better and better at these baskets.

Okay so...here it is...the moment you have all been waiting for!!

WHO IS THE BIG WINNER OF THE RAFFLE???

I don't know!! Well, not yet. Here's what I did. I asked Amy to pick the number. She had no access to my list of buyers, had no idea who bought what when or where, had not bought any tickets for herself for obvious reasons (she gets everything she wants from me already lol...but she and her mom both made donations without wanting tickets!) and therefore was completely unbiased. I needed to do this since my largest supporters were very good friends of mine. If one of them should be chosen, I want no cries of fair or unfair or fixed or whatever. So I left it all up to Amy. Then Amy made her son practice writing his numbers 1 thru 100 lol!! The numbers went into a 'hat' and I am sure she let him pick out the winner...which she emailed to me a little while ago.

Sound fair enough to everyone? Good. The winning ticket number iiiiiisssss....

86!!

Great number! Maxwell Smart's brilliant companion...or a number indicating nixing/killing something off. Just the same, it was lucky for somebody. I should go to my little list and see who bought ticket number 86...heh...but I won't. Not yet. I set your numbers in emails to you and you shoulda kept track of em. (Don't worry, if you lost it or whatever, I have the list) But it is far more fun to send you all scrambling for your tickets (emails) to read the numbers! So the name is my secret until the winner gives a shout out on here...or tomorrow when I coldly and cruelly force you to wait for the name to go with the number. To be fair, I won't look for myself until tomorrow either. I wanna be surprised too!

Congratulations Winning Ticker Number 86! You have won our gorgeous basket. Please email ASAP with your mailing address where you would like the basket sent so I can forward it to Amy.

Now, for a moment of mourning. It is official. I lost ALL of my books in the move. And when I say MY books...I mean MY books. All of my author copies of Jacob and Gideon and all of the Elijah ARCS are gone. So is all my Christmas wrapping. Turns out, I have a small closet that, when you open the front door of my former apartment, you cannot see that it is behind that door. So everything that was in there is gone. Now, were it me...when I repainted the place and saw these things had been missed, I would have called the former owner and let her know. But, clearly the management saw no need and chucked it all. (Are you wincing and groaning in agony? Can you feel the pain? Ugh! I felt the exact same way when I realized I couldn't find my holiday wrap and it confirmed my hypothesis!)

Anyway...this leaves me with no stock of my own (although, luckily, I had just signed about half of my stock and sent it home with Amy for future prizes...but I do not believe that included ARCS. Damn shame.) I will have to see what I can do about this, but the ARCs are gone forever. There's no getting those back. It occurs to me that a couple of people may have won ARCs in contests I had floated out there and never gotten them. If you are one of those people, please write me at jacquelynfrank@hotmail.com citing the contest, it's date and it's conditions as well as who sponsored it and I will come up with an alternative prize for you. I am so sorry this happened. Also, at RAW, Lora Leigh's Readers Appreciation Weekend, I put an ARC up for raffle and never chose a winner...because I could never find the darn books! I will select one of those names right now (yes I still have the bag! Although, the kittens did get ahold of it and tussled with it across the living room...I managed to salvage all the entries!) and will send the raffle winner and alternative prize: an official Nightwalkers Nightshirt and one of my new 2008 Nightwalker Calendars.

The winner I just picked for that RAW prize is Francesca Rodriguez of NY. I will be emailing her a link to this blog so she can see what is going on lol. I hope she forgives me for taking so long to figure this all out.

Okay! That has to be it for now because I am freakin busy!!! I gotta wrap up Damien and send the edits back by tomorrow. I gotta get the house in shape for family and company...I gotta give sick kitties medicine!

ACK!

Okay...I'm better. Good luck guys! See you soon!
Hugs and Kitties
Jacki

And the winner is....

I wanted to make a quick announcement. The winner of raffle ticket number 21 is Renee! I swear this was utterly random. I am actually surprised I haven't chosen a friend of mine before this. Of course, Renee knows this doesn't get her ass off the hook and she is wholly expected to purchase a ticket as well.

And that goes for the rest of ya! I am only a third of the way there with 13 days left to go. That third has been given out to a small number of people being VERY generous. I am proud of them and YES I am guilting you! Maybe that's because my little kitten Magellan has now got a cold virus and is all sickly...and he ripped up one of the pads on his rear paw around his nail. He's certainly turning out to be an accident prone little bugger!! But What I mean is, I am shelling out big bucks to nurse my adoptee to a semblance of health (something I believe wouldn't be an issue had he been properly cared for) so one little raffle ticket won't hurt you. Oh and because it was asked...I will send that basket out to anywhere in the world so for those in foriegn countries...or Canada...just pay in American dollars and we are good to go! You can have a chance just like anyone else.

Okay, so I am being pushy and bossy and such. I can be that way when I am passionate about things. I really am grateful to everyone who helps and everyone who spreads the word for me.

A note about the Pittsburgh Romantic Times convention in April!! I am having a super fabulous party Friday in the morning entitled The Nightwalker Stud Muffin Mixer where I will be serving up gourmet muffins and, with any luck, some studs to serve them. Heh. Still working on that part. Anyone with a hot hubby they want to volunteer?? Anyway, I am in the process of crafting the gift baggies! The stuff I am gathering so far is utterly gorgeous. I am sparing no expense. Anything for those who take the time to come and support me. I am so very excited about my party debut. I plan on spoiling all of you. Especially those who are here with me every day of the year.

Love you guys. Thanks for putting up with my sporadic presence of late. I am starting to settle into a routine once more. I am lucky to have such patient people in my life. You're all fabulous.

Long Time No Blog!

Howdy! I am glad to see you all are hanging on despite my sporadic blogging behaviors. I wanted to say hello and to let you all know I am doing much better this week. This has a lot to do with my very loving friends and fans who had nothing but kind and supportive words (and chocolate) for me. It also has to do with the two adorable kittens I adopted from a local shelter.



I ought to say three. Three kittens. Unfortunately one of the original set of kittens tested positive for FIV, feline AIDS. Thank the universe and its kind nature that Susan M. was with me that day, trying to cheer me up...poor thing. Instead she had to help me go through my first ever act of euthanizing an animal. You can imagine what I was like. Bawling, heartbroken... disastrously depressed. I stayed with the poor little thing through it all, and Susan stayed with me. How honored I am to be treasured with such a good friend. How blessed we were to have known that sweet purring spirit, even if for only a few hours.




Then I got my mad on. The shelter made me furious. It was the first time I had ever seen such lax practices. No testing? No paperwork for the adoption process? Not even a phone call to see if I was a responsible human? Anyone could walk in there and take however many animals they wanted without so much as a question. The only thing I signed was a paper exempting them from responsibility if the animal tested ill. Ass covering at its finest. Oh, and checks. I signed checks. Now I don't mind paying a fortune for the benefit of some feline babies...anyone who knows me knows how much I love cats, but clearly all they cared about was covering their costs so they didn't lose money on housing the creature until they could foist it off on another.




Here's the thing. The shelter's attitude? Their first responsibility is animal control. They had an enormous map behind the front desk, the county sectioned off and the names of the male enforcement officers who manned each section. It was clear looking at their spiffy uniforms, new facilities and pretty trucks that this was where the focus of their funding and their interest lay. In a nutshell, this was NOT an animal shelter. This was a animal control and law enforcement facility. You see, an animal shelter shelters the animals first. Protects them, cares for them, and doesn't give them only ten days to live before euthanizing them. This one cat, a black furry thing who was so desperate for love and attention he threw himself against the bars of his cage repeatedly and meowed like crazy...when I noted he had gunk in his eyes and he might have an infection, the woman who manned the desk gasped and hushed me. "No. No. He's just depressed and not grooming himself. Don't say that or they will put him down if they think he has an infection."





HUH?!? What happened to a few eye drops and a little petting time? Put a cat down because it has a small flaw?? No. No this is NOT an animal 'shelter'. It's a death machine. And the volunteer groups that have been trying to rescue these animals before euthanasia...working their butts off to foster them and bring them into the local Petsmarts to help find them loving and good homes (I had to fill out a LOT of paperwork for them and was turned down for having too many cats! An idea I could understand and appreciate.) But this 'shelter' shut its doors to all volunteers and volunteer groups, refusing them access even to take pictures of the animals for flyers and websites to help in getting them adopted. The 'shelter' claimed some sort of insurance issues and that they couldn't be responsible...yadda yadda yadda...the unsaid meaning clearly that, once again, covering their asses was far more important to them than the lives of these poor creatures. Shelters all over the USA work in tandem with volunteers and other groups to facilitate adoptions. Why is it so impossible for the Hendersonville County Animal Shelter at 828 Stoney Mountain Rd in Hendersonville, NC 28791-1349 to achieve the same synchronicity with those caring outside groups who would help them save lives? Why is it they are only open from 9:30 to 4:30 weekdays (during average work hours only) and only open from 9:30 to 11:30 on a Saturday? (BY THE WAY: the times on the site are a lie. I originally went to adopt on the previous Saturday around 1pm thinking they would still be open. They were closed.) That means that the average 9-5 worker only has a two hour window each week in which to save the life of a potential pet. Two hours. Ten day lifespans. I am not making this math up or spinning it my way. It's simple logic. This 'shelter' is interested in animal control first. Adoptions are only a secondary byproduct. It's shameful. Horrifying.



Back to my story. You see, my two original kittens were in the same cage together. At 8 weeks and 6 weeks old, it was clear they weren't from the same litter. But anyone who has seen how rough and tumble kittens are and how sharp their claws are knows the odds of them biting or clawing each other to the point of drawing blood is very high. It was a miracle the second kitten didn't test positive for FIV as well. I have to retest him in four months just to be sure just the same. How irresponsible!! Putting two unrelated, untested kittens in the same cage?! The lack of concern and basic knowledge for contamination issues (it could have been the very viral Feline Leukemia instead, an automatic death sentence for them BOTH at that point) is appalling. Worse yet, they know full well how easily they can be contaminated...but just didn't care.




After putting my new kitten on his path over the rainbow bridge, I marched back to the 'shelter' to give them a bit of my New York attitude, to find out how long the kittens had been together, and to warn them to warn others who had adopted from that kitten's litter of the contamination. To be fair, the woman behind the desk was horrified that I had to put the kitten down. She had considered getting him for her own daughter. I was also glad she had dodged the bullet. I also noted that she knew the name of the person who had adopted the kitten's litter mate without even looking it up. Here, at least, was an individual worthy of 'sheltering' these poor creatures. She was the one who hushed me to save the life of that poor black cat. I am almost afraid to mention it because I fear she will get in trouble for her clandestine attempts to do what the entire 'shelter' should be doing. To that end, I will not mention her name. She hastened to offer me a replacement kitten. I was ready to lash back at her for that. You cannot replace one spirit with another like that! This isn't like trading in a faulty toilet paper roll at Walmart! But out of the corner of my eye, through the open glass, I saw two kittens tumbling and playing around in a cage, at the start of their ten days (I knew because I had not seen them the day before) and with no volunteer groups availed the opportunity to help them. I knew it was a risk. These too could test positive for some disease...but before I knew it I was holding one in my hands and thinking: "Better a fifty fifty chance with me and my tests than the odds it has here."





So, I took the boy of the pair to my doctor. Thankfully, he tested negative to everything but roundworms and FLEAS. Yes, both of my new kittens were infested with fleas and worms! The 'shelter' didn't even treat them for these simple parasites! GAH! It makes me so mad!! And I hope it makes you mad, too. Mad enough to maybe write them. Mad enough to support what I am about to do.



Recently, Amy, my beautiful and talented Fan Club President, made up a gorgeous basket of Nightwalker promotional items. I have the pictures here:









Inside this adorable basket are items such as signed copies of Jacob and Gideon, signed book covers, an "I spend my nights with the Nightwalkers!" nightshirt, a "Curl up with a GOOD Demon!" book cover to protect your paperbacks as you read them, and many more goodies, as well as the basket itself and its seasonal decorations. Want it? Oh, I know that you do. And this is a good thing because for a mere five dollars a chance, you can buy the opportunity to win this basket. I have limited it to 100 chances. If I sell every chance, I will make 500 dollars to be donated to a 501 c3 organization known as Animal Compassion Network (ACN). As I understand it, 98 percent of the funds donated go directly to resources for the animals they foster and rescue. They are a NO KILL organization. This is local to me and a much better alternative than the County run machines who would rather be part of the problem instead of a compassionate part of the solution. Being from New York, I am much more used to a different level of care and concern...a level I believe the ACN has achieved.





In order to sell these chances to you, I had intended to use EBay, but they have a policy restricting the use of EBay for raffles and chance drawings. So I am left with no choice but to do this directly, from here, using my business account. Simply make a check payment for five dollars per chance that you wish to buy out to Jacquelyn's Boutique and mail it to my new post office box address: Jacquelyn's Boutique (or Jacquelyn Frank if you prefer, either will be fine) P.O. Box 2164 Skyland, NC 28776. Or, you can make a Paypal payment to Jacquelyn's Boutique using the email jacquelynfrank@hotmail.com. Once I receive your payment I will issue you chance numbers from one to one hundred via email. The winning number will be randomly chosen on November 15th (plenty of time to use that gorgeous little basket on the Thanksgiving table!)and posted here for everyone to see. Amy will send the basket out shortly afterward. I will let you know how many chances actually sold and how much money we were able to raise for ACN. I will also keep you apprised along the way. :) Also, if I get checks above the allotted 100, I will return them unopened to you. Any questions? Just ask me at jacquelynfrank@hotmail.com. You know I will respond to you ASAP.

Together you and I can make a small dent in the much needed resources for the ACN. We can save kitty lives, spay and neuter, give shots...eye drops. Love.




In New York if I had run an organization that kept animals infested with disease, fleas and parasites in cages and then killed them in a manner likened to mass murder, I'd have been arrested for animal cruelty. What I wouldn't give to subject the Hendersonville County Animal 'Shelter' to the standards of New York law. However, since I cannot, I will undermine them much better this way!!



But now for a more cheerful touch to my little story and pet adventure.



I would love for you guys to meet the newest members of my kitty family. The grey and white striped kitty is named Malcolm, after a certain captain of a certain ship named Serenity. Mal is adventurous, a scrapper, warm on his own terms and the funniest little bugger I ever met. The black one is named Magellan, after a very famous explorer, because he was the first to scale the baby gate blocking the door to their room and venture out into the scary unknown in spite of the fact that he is a huge fraidy cat! LOL. I adore him for that mixture of bravery and cowardice. He is a very different spirit than the kitten he was meant to 'replace'.















But that kitten will not be forgotten. Not by me or Susan or, I daresay, anyone here who has read his unfortunate little story. I never had the chance to name him, but I am doing so now. His name is Oliver, after a famous unfortunate orphan. Rest peacefully, Oliver. We'll see you again whenever you decide to return to us and try again.





And one last touch to send this home:





Cambridge Dictionary definition of SHELTER:


shelter (PROTECT) noun [C or U](a building designed to give) protection from bad weather, danger or attack





Wikipedia's definition of "Animal Shelter"


An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats. The animal is kept at the shelter until it is either reclaimed by an owner, adopted to a new owner or placed with another organization. In the past, they were more commonly referred to as "dog pounds", a term which had its origins in the pounds of agricultural communities, where stray cattle would be penned up until claimed by their owners.


Well, it seems Hendersonville meets the bare minimum. Perhaps. It depends on opinion I suppose. This has been mine.

What's yours??