#AADSAV Amanda Bonilla Really Loves GOATS

Before Amanda gets into her love for farm animals.....

Here's a little info on her.

Amanda Bonilla lives in rural Idaho with her husband and two kids. She’s a part-time pet wrangler, a full-time sun worshipper, and only goes out into the cold when coerced. She loves the outdoors, black clothes, pink appliances and thinks junk food should be a recognized food group. In the summer, she can be found sitting by the lake, enjoying the view from her dock.

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Goats! (Or the story behind my goats in trees calendar and many questionable farm animal tweets)

If you follow Amanda Carlson and me on Twitter, you may have seen some eyebrow raising tweets like this:

Or conversations like this:

So, you might be wondering just how these conversations got started. I mean, why the obsession with farm animals? And why do I have this calendar hanging on my wall:

Some of you might know that the hubs and I have a mini farm. Cats, dogs, bunnies, chickens, geese, and ducks. Well, last spring we had to buy a new goose because our gander was super lonely after his wifey had an unfortunate accident the previous fall. I’d never raised a lone baby goose before and let me tell you, they’re NEEDY. The only way we could get the poor thing to stop crying was to make a nest for her in a large stock pot and place it between our pillows at night. And even then she’d cry until I put my hand in there so she had something to cuddle up against. During the day, she’d cry until I took her out of her cage and she’d sit next to me while I worked.

So when my friend and fellow UF author Amanda Carlson got word of my newly adopted goose-baby, she demanded that I bring said baby into one of our Skype sessions. Which, of course, I did. What kind of a friend would I be if I denied her such cuteness?!? After “meeting” the new addition to my family, Amanda promptly named the new baby Gilly and the name stuck. Since then, I've made Amanda Carlson the official godmother to all of my farm animals, so she better hope nothing happens to me or her suburban neighborhood is in for a bit of a shock!

It didn't take long for our goose-related conversations to venture off into me contemplating what other farm animals I could acquire. Swans, ponies, dairy cows…Which brings us to the goats. I sort of stumbled across some videos of baby Nigerian Dwarf Goats. And O-M-G. I almost died of the cuteness. When they’re born, they’re about the size of a puppy or a medium-size cat. And when they’re adults, they’re still not much bigger than a medium-sized dog. They climb, jump, make cute little goaty noises, and they’ll even mow your lawn! Okay, so they don’t exactly push a mower around, but goats eat A LOT. They can eat down the grass in your lawn in a day. Plus, they fertilize as they eat! WIN!

How does this relate to the goat calendar, you ask? Well, besides wasting away the hours on Skype, the other activity Amanda Carlson and I engage in is word wars. Epic battles of word count that begin with bragging, shit-talk, and finally, bets. During one battle, we agreed that the loser had to buy the winner a gift from Amazon. I won that particular round, and not only did Amanda Carlson buy me the most excellent GOATS IN TREES calendar, but this bumper sticker:

Okay, so I didn't put it on my car, but I’m thinking I need to post some creative pics with this bumper sticker making a cameo appearance. You know, just to keep things interesting. I can only imagine what I’ll win in our next epic word-war battle!

What sends your cute-meter into the red? Babies dressed as fruit? Cats wearing sweaters? Dogs in capes? 

Crave the Darkness 

(Shaede Assassin #3) 

Publisher: Signet/Eclipse ISBN: 9780451239556

Nothing comes easy for Darian. Her heightened powers make her indispensable to the Shaede Nation, but dangerous missions have driven her lover, Tyler, to his breaking point. Darian must salvage their bond, but a new assignment to protect Anya—a fellow Shaede and the first of their kind to become pregnant in centuries—stands in their way.

It doesn’t help that the two Shaedes are longtime rivals and share nothing besides mutual hatred. But when it becomes clear that someone—or something—is bent on destroying the expectant mother and her unborn child, Darian must put her feelings aside and track down Anya’s would-be assassin.

As she probes into Anya’s past, Darian digs up long-buried secrets—and a connection between Tyler and the mission that could destroy everything between them…

Available at: Amazon | B & N | Book Depository | B-A-M | Chapters | IndieBound | Powells | VRoman’s

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