Dog Days of Winter

The Weather Outside is Frightful

In 24 hours we had 50 mph wind gusts, heavy downpours, sleet, freezing rain, then snow. Lorelei has the right idea. Have a Swedish Waffle and go back to bed.  

Newest Review from True Stories About Love

A Review was just sent from well-known Midwest Author Larry F. Sommers (Price of Passage - a Tale of Immigration and Liberation) about my story in the new Anthology Storytellers True Stories About Love (Vol. 2) Chicago Story Press 2023.

An Amazon #1 New Release - like all of my writing the proceeds are going to animal rescue - this month to Pound Pals (who rescue senior pets).

“Letting Go” will interest those who have been disappointed in love; which is to say, it’s universal.

The story begins and ends with an old blue shirt, the crunch of tires on gravel, and the flight of birds. The reverie woven between is the stuff of a thousand heartaches. It is a simple story, and nothing about its simplicity makes it easier to bear.

In other hands it might be banal, but the author, L.B. Johnson, possesses a sure lyrical style that opens the reader frankly to emotions otherwise neglected. Johnson’s poetic words do not fly off all unattached but plaster themselves to the realities of grief and hope, leaving the reader to sit back and try to account for that which is unaccountable.

“This have I known always,” wrote Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Love is no more

Than the wide blossom which the wind assails,

Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,

Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales . . .”

Johnson’s story, in just over two thousand words, compasses the love and the wreckage, and sums up the hope that endures.

Readers with hearts of stone need not apply. For the rest of us, “Letting Go” is a small revelation."

• Storytellers' True Stories of Love Amazon Page

Thursday Smiles

Thought for the Day

Keep your face always toward the sunshine

 - and shadows will fall behind you. 

-Walt Whitman

Another report of a "neglected" dog :-)

Lorelei:  "It's shameful how I am mistreated.  Someone

call the authorities."  (I would but I'm in the sunny spot).

My New Book Has Just Launched - Amazon #1 New Release

The latest writing has been published - through a Chicago publishing house, my short story picked up last year and now part of this anthology.  It made it to #1 in Amazon new releases the day it was released and will be available in bookstores (paperback and hardcover). The authors include award-winning professional writers, producers, actors, and playwrights and I was honored to be selected to be part of it.  All royalties on my part will go to the animal rescue groups, as always. 

The book is a collection of stories that capture love in its many forms, not just that of romantic partners, but of children, parents, animals, friends, and passionate interests.  The theme spoke to me, as it did to the authors within this work, as we recall first loves, lost loves, pets, family members, and that crazy time we ignored all reason and did the impossible

Praise on my story "Letting Go", so far (from authors and professional book critics)

""L. B. Johnson’s prose is glorious. Her words put you right there—in the place and in the head of the narrator—as well as any author I’ve read."

"A beautiful, heartfelt, masterful story."

"What a rich, rich voice. Johnson’s writing is lush and lancing at the same time, a feast of metaphors and aches. It leaves you completed, but it doesn’t leave you."  

"Gorgeous. An absolute heartache."

I think it would make a great Valentine's Gift, (that's a clue by four, as my husband would say).

• Storytellers' True Stories of Love Amazon Page

Have I Told You about the Health Benefits of Dairy - Dad?

 Someone heard the sandwich-makings come out.

Lorelei assumes the ready position

When no cheese shows up the Elvis Lip Curl does.

Look it's CHEESE! (sorry, no peanut butter and banana sandwiches here Miss Elvis Face).

Dad delivers!

Lorelei has Left the Building.

Canine S.A.D.

S.A.D, (Seasonal Affective Dog) is very unhappy it's cloudy out AND there are no sun puddles anywhere. 

Christmas 2022 - Best Wishes to All

We hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas day, however you celebrate it.

Just some of our gifts to one another to bring a smile.

We miss Abby Lab - but my husband got some Lab suncatchers for our window, where she used to love to watch the squirrels.  

When you open your stocking to find a personal message from Elon Musk.

You can only laugh at your husband's sense of humor.

Two can play at that game!

But you'll need some matches for that candle.

A handmade Lab blanket (and some reading material for a "Dog Dad"

For teleworking - for automated "document approval process".

And when it's time to drive the dog nuts - squirrel finger puppets.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

From our household to yours - wishing you only blessings this holiday season and in the coming year.

Brigid, E.J., and Lorelei Lab