Margery Scott

Welcome to the newest addition to our family. No, not a child or a grandchild (I’ve given up on that), but the next best thing – a grand-puppy. My son and his girlfriend brought him home last weekend. He’s a Golden Retriever named Murdoch and at this posting is about 8-9 weeks old.

Of course, he’s still a baby so he sleeps a lot, and he’s not fussy about where or when. He seems to particularly like to snooze under the coffee table, half in and half out.

He still cries a little at night, hasn’t quite mastered potty-training, and is convinced his step-brothers (the cats, Zander and Kitty) are there for his personal entertainment, to chase and harass whenever he’s in the mood.

Yes, Murdoch’s parents have a lot of work ahead of them, but really, who could resist this face?

Wishing you all good health, joy, laughter, love and success in 2012.

This week’s sample comes from Devil’s Harvest, a romantic suspense novel now available on Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords and AllRomance Ebooks.

But Evie would never understand this.

How could she explain that so that it made any sense at all? The truth was – she couldn’t. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t rationalize it even to herself, except that somewhere, deep in that part of her soul she hadn’t been aware even existed, she knew he wasn’t guilty. And the fact that she had acted on a feeling, an innate instinct, instead of cold logic scared her more than she wanted to admit.

Evie would question her sanity at bringing her kidnapper home. And rightly so. No sane woman in the 21st century would willingly do what she’d done. And until she could figure out why she had, she’d keep her little secret to herself.

She’d heard once that the best way to lie was to stick to the truth as closely as possible. “At the hospital,” she said finally.

“A patient?”

“No.”

“He’s gorgeous.”

So she wasn’t the only one to think so, Taryn thought, leaning back on the cushion and closing her eyes. She was exhausted, but she had the feeling Luke’s face would be filling her dreams as soon as she fell asleep.

“I think you should hang onto him. You’ve been a nun far too long,” Evie exclaimed.

“I am not a nun,” Taryn protested.

“You need to use that gigantic bed upstairs for more than sleeping.”

Heat sparked through Taryn as the thought of sharing that bed with a certain dark-eyed man flitted into her mind. Ridiculous, she chided herself. She didn’t have flings with strange men. “I’ve been busy–”

“There’s your problem. You need a vacation. Speaking of which, if you’re absolutely sure you don’t want me to stay with you–”

“Positive.”

The front door opened and Luke stepped back inside.

“I’d better call a cab,” Evie said, glancing at her watch. “I’ll have to leave in ten minutes.” Scrutinizing Luke with a once-over that had made other men squirm, Evie grinned. “I’m sure you’ll be well taken care of while I’m gone.”

I was clicking the TV remote this past weekend looking for something to watch that didn’t involve sports when I came across a channel I’d never seen before – MeTV. Short for Memorable Entertainment, it’s a channel showing classic TV shows – not classic as in the 80’s or even the late 70’s, but mainly the 50’s and 60’s. The show I happened on was Dobie Gillis. Filmed in black and white, it was a show about a typical teenager whose only interests were girls, cars and money (Dobie) and his best friend, Maynard G Krebs, a beatnik. Everybody know what a beatnik is, right? No? Beatniks were the non-conformists, the early version of the hippies of the late 60’s and 70’s.  Maynard was played by Bob Denver, who later went on to become better known as Gilligan.

I couldn’t resist going back in time to when I was a kid -  I watched The Dick Van Dyke Show, Car 54, Where Are You (with Fred Gwynne before he became Herman Munster), the original Hawaii 5-0, Petticoat Junction, Rawhide (before Clint Eastwood became … well, Clint Eastwood) and I even watched the original Fugitive series. I won’t list every show I watched last weekend, but let’s just say it was a marathon. Good thing I had a good supply of popcorn.

The film quality wasn’t the best, the sound was off at times and some of the shows themselves were pretty corny. But it was interesting to look back – no graphic violence, no blood spatter a la CSI, no sex, just shows the whole family could watch without worrying about what the little ones were watching. And what was more interesting to me was to see where some of Hollywood’s biggest names got their start.

If you have an urge to go back to when TV was a baby – or at least very young, check it out. And if you’re as old as I am, tell me, what was your favorite show from way back when?

Until next time,