Thankful Author 2018- DE Malone

I’ve always loved dogs, drawn to them in a way that borders on obsession.

My relationship with them began when I was a toddler. My parents often spoke of me trying to get into our neighbor’s apartment to visit their dog. One day they found me standing face to face with the big, black lab, my little arm stuck halfway down its throat. Resigned, the dog sat there with his mouth wide open until my mother pulled me away. Who knows what I thought I was doing, but had that sweet dog objected to me exploring his tonsils, I might not have welcomed Snoopy, Sam, Barney, Beau and a few others so eagerly into our house in the years after and until I left for college. They were great dogs, all of them, despite the shedding, incessant barking, and an affinity for destroying my mother’s decorative pillows. Even the stolen pot roast and The Birthday Cake Event of 1986 deserved forgiveness because they brought more joy than chaos to our lives. The dogs I’ve had as an adult were equally wonderful companions. They’ve each taught me a lesson, dispensed in the only way you’d expect a dog to offer wisdom, humbly and without intention.

From our Bassett hound Lucy, I learned how to be a dog owner. My husband and I picked her up from a southern Wisconsin farm two days after we returned from our honeymoon. While she might have resented us for eventually bringing three kids into her kingdom, she was a loyal companion to each of us for the rest of her 14 years.

From our beautiful, reserved Great Pyrenees, Annie, I learned that breeding dogs for profit is not something I want to support. Annie, too, came from a farm litter. We paid good money for her—she was my ‘ideal’ breed, after all. In my ignorance, I didn’t look closely at her pedigree until it was too late. Horribly inbred, Annie was five years old when we put her down. We’d spent thousands trying to control the intestinal disease which left her weak from rapid weight loss and allergic to pretty much everything.

From Zeus, our first shelter dog, we learned about devotion. He could have been a therapy dog, and I regret not using him as such. He loved everyone, especially his family, and was happiest when we were all under one roof. I’ve never known a more gentle and trusting creature, and one who loved flipping bones off his nose and into his mouth much to our delight. I’ll miss him for a long, long time.

And from Wils, our newest shelter dog, I’m learning patience. He came from a Texas shelter after escaping during the Houston floods. He’s scared of rain, sirens, fire, and wary of people coming into the house. He’s come a long way since February because of training and socialization with people and other dogs, but there’s still work to do. I suspect there always will be with him.

I’ve been blessed by the company of dogs my whole life. I can’t imagine ever being without one snoring away at my feet, or trotting alongside me on morning and nightly walks. The late Roger Caras, a photographer and preservationist who was also known as the host for the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, once said, “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” I’m thankful for the dogs that have come into mine.

Contemporary Sweet Romance, Hearts in Hendricks series:

Blurb

One Spark Can Ignite an Inferno

Despite her ace matchmaking skills--four weddings to date!--Bethany Marconi and relationships don't mix. With trust issues and a long list of ex-boyfriends, she's an expert at dousing the spark of love before it catches fire. There's little risk of rejection teaching yoga and looking after her grandmother who lives right next door.

When freelance writer Nate Ransom returns to his hometown to settle his grandmother's estate, his rekindled feelings for Bethany take him by surprise. Nate remembers all too well how the charismatic spitfire of a girl ignored him in middle school before his family moved away. But Nate's far from that boy now and more determined than ever to win Bethany's heart if she'll give him the chance.

After a family crisis pulls Bethany away from Nate, their relationship seems to be headed for the back burner. Will Nate turn into Bethany's newest ex-boyfriend, or will her self-imposed dating rules finally go up in flames?

LOVE LIKE FIRE #2 link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K7NRRGY

Blurb

Two Hearts, One Tour Bus. Is There Room Enough for Love?

After losing her job, Darcy Conti takes a tour guide position at Sturgeon Widows Tours, a quirky family-run business in the small town of Hendricks on the shores of Lake Superior. As she settles into her new role narrating local history excursions, she fights an undeniable attraction to the man she was hired to replace—the owner’s son. 

Fresh from a relationship gone sour, Sean Stetman plans to avoid dating for the foreseeable future. Taking a leave of absence from his parents’ tour company, he wants nothing more than time to fish, hike, and work on his cabin. But when the tour driver quits, he is suddenly back on board, reluctantly shuttling Darcy and the tour guests along the North Shore.

Together Darcy and Sean survive unruly tourists, meddling mothers, and even an unscrupulous developer looking to give the Stetmans’ tour company some fierce competition. Can they also survive falling in love?

LOVE LIKE WATER #1 link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GT6FMP3

Contemporary Middle Grade

Blurb

Hobbs Crane doesn’t like distractions. He lives for football, rules the basketball court, and does his best to avoid the neighbor girl with the Jupiter-sized crush on him. With a new kid out to steal his starting basketball position, Hobbs needs to feel in control again. Then Hobbs finds a boy living inside a giant blue spruce on an empty city lot who becomes the biggest distraction of all. How long has he been there? Where did he come from? And why does he seem to be following Hobbs?

The boy named Up is in survival mode. Leaving his real name and a neglectful home life behind, Up is running away to Florida to find his older sister who left home years ago. But he’s hungry and desperate, and he finds the overgrown evergreen next to the old factory the perfect hideout until he makes a plan.

Can Hobbs and Up help each other face their own uncertain futures while forging an unlikely friendship? Or are they too different?

THE UPSIDE OF DOWN links

https://www.amazon.com/Upside-Down-Dawn-Malone- ebook/dp/B01BIQESDO

Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo: https://www.books2read.com/u/bonZp4 

Blurb

On her thirteenth birthday, Summer Haas scratches the lottery ticket her mom tucked into her birthday card and the down-on-their-luck family become instant millionaires. Then the attention gets crazy in their small Illinois town, and the family moves north to ‘disappear’ in the Chicago suburbs. Summer’s new home might as well be on the Moon, it’s so different from where she used to live.

Suddenly, Summer is a candidate for student council, trades her t-shirt and jeans for mall-brand clothes, and throws a party for her entire grade even though she didn't invite a single guest. Everyone wants Summer to be someone other than herself, including the super-popular Suri who Summer hopes will be her new best friend. There’s Mara who wants Summer to forget about competing with her for third base when softball season comes. And Summer just wants to avoid Dink and Anna even though she has more in common with them than she wants to admit.

But when Mara discovers how Summer’s family made their millions, and threatens to tell the whole school, Summer needs a friend more than ever. Can Summer fit in AND stay true to herself?

 BINGO SUMMER links

https://www.amazon.com/Bingo-Summer-Dawn-Malone-ebook/dp/B00K6ZTE1K

Barnes & Noble, Kobo: https://www.books2read.com/u/bo5o1m

AUTHOR BIO

     D.E. Malone writes sweet contemporary romance and is the author of LOVE LIKE WATER and LOVE LIKE FIRE in the Hearts in Hendricks series. She also writes for middle grade audiences under Dawn Malone, and is the author of BINGO SUMMER and THE UPSIDE OF DOWN. Her work has also appeared in Highlights for Children, Pockets, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She loves traveling to places off the beaten path which inspire the small-town settings in her stories. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, hiking, volunteering with shelter dogs, and continuing her never-ending quest for the holy grail of bakeries.

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