This is a picture of me and my friend, Karen's, shih tzu. Her name is Honey Bear as you can tell by the dog biscuit I am feeding her. She is truly the
reason why the plot in Seven Sisters is about the crime it is. I went up to
dog sit for Karen (a Deputy District Attorney and my inspiration for Amanda Landry) who had just finished a trial and was going on vacation. She had told me about this particular crime while she was working on the case and said I could read through her research books. I became so
fascinated by the syndrome that caused this crime that I changed my whole plot in the middle of the book to use it. And I had a grand time with Honey who is the perfect writer's dog. She sits at your feet and keeps them warm while you write.
This is a picture of the real Churn Dash, me and one of his owners, Clare
(her husband, Tom, owns him too). He was born around the same time I was writing Seven Sisters and Clare and I came up with his name which is both a quilt pattern and a name that sounds fast! I visited him twice during his "growing up" years when he was boarded in Paso Robles. He is now two years old and training to race at the Los Alamitos racetrack in California. He will hopefully run his first race in August of 2000. The horse blanket he is wearing is a Churn Dash pattern made in the Bazley Racing Stable colors of tan and navy blue. The horse blanket/quilt was made by none other than Tina Davis, my very talented webmaster. Don't worry, we only put the quilt on Churn Dash's back for the picture. It actually hangs in Clare's house. I have one also that I show at my quilt talks.
Link to Clare's website: www.abuttonlady.ohgolly.com
This is the picture of the real Figaro, a barn cat owned by my friends, Clare and Tom Bazley (the people who also own the race horse, Churn Dash). He had been a long time and faithful companion to them (starting out as a barn cat and graduating to their house cat) who died while I was writing Seven Sisters. I wanted to immortalize their very good friend by making him a character in my book.
This picture shows him sitting on a saddle, like any good respecting barn cat should.
