Author Archives: Lisa Shambrook

About Lisa Shambrook

An author and dreamer who loves dragons... Author www.lisashambrook.com and owner Amaranth Alchemy on Etsy etsy.com/uk/shop/AmaranthAlchemy

A Year with Lexi – Chaos and Love

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A dog wags its tail with its heart – Martin Buxbaum

Easter weekend 2022 rolled around on the calendar
and we jumped head first into a choice
that brought both chaos and love into our lives.

Six months earlier we’d lost Kira, our beautiful, fluffy, long-haired, rescue German Shepherd, and now Vince was looking at adverts for another dog. He found two that weekend; one was away for the week, and the other had reduced the price of their pup due to her being the last of the litter to go. Vince asked if we could go and see her, and I replied, “If we go to see her, you know we’ll be bringing her home.”

And so it was that when we pulled up to a farmhouse, the owner stood with a four-month-old puppy by its mother’s side.

The pup sat upright grinning at us with floppy ears, lolling tongue, and confidence oozing from every pore! “She looks like a Lexi!” I said, before we’d even got out of the car.

*Lexi, 16 weeks – ready to cause chaos © Lisa Shambrook*

And that was that, we became puppy owners again, and we could barely remember Roxy’s puppyhood fourteen years before! We threw ourselves right back into the deep end…

*Lexi 4, 6, 9, and 12 months old © Lisa Shambrook*

Lexi had only ever lived outside with her mum and siblings, and had spent the best part of a month on her own with mum after her litter mates had been sold. She had bags of confidence and energy outside, climbing all over us with bouncy fun, but was pretty anxious indoors. We didn’t have space to crate train a dog that would grow so fast, so planned to let her sleep in one of Kira’s old warm beds in the dining room with a non-carpeted floor. That first night I stayed up with her most of the night as she cried once left alone, then she settled and I went to bed. In the morning we discovered she could open doors already and was in the lounge when we got up. We needed to go back to basics, puppy proofing everything!

*Lexi 4, 6, and 8 months – Little Wolf © Lisa Shambrook*

Within days she was ruling the roost at only sixteen weeks old…

She was fully toilet trained within the first week, promptly and indignantly ripping up puppy pads if we dared put them down after that! She was a blank page, but one with a biting, chewing, and stealing habit. Everything was fair game. What she could reach was obviously hers. Blankets, jumpers, cardboard boxes, remote controls, mats, cushions, her bed… she was a mini demolition monster! We spent the first month chasing her around, prising things out of her jaws, trying to distract her, while she found everything that we’d missed during puppy proofing!

She loved walks, but carried her tornado of energy with her. She took the local museum grounds, Ferryside beach, Brechfa Forest, and bluebell-carpeted Green Castle Woods in her stride.

*Lexi 16, 18, and 23 weeks – Green Castle Woods, Brechfa, Ferryside © Lisa Shambrook*

A month later we started puppy classes. A small class with Lexi, who was already a large 44lbs (19.5kg) compared to the other puppies that were less than a quarter of her size: a teeny-tiny black spaniel pup, small border collie, two cockapoos, and a tiny golden Labrador. We were slightly terrified of Lexi playing loose with the puppies, part of play during training, I think we all thought she’d hurt them by mistake because she was so big, but she was so gentle and careful with them! The most important thing to work on was creating a strong bond with Lexi, getting her to check in with us as much as we could. She was so alert and keen on exploring it was difficult to keep her attention, made even harder because she wasn’t food or treat oriented. I took her on lots of short walks up and down our cul-de-sac, concentrating on keeping her attention and trying to tempt her by dropping small pieces of cheese in front of her, to keep her walking right by my side.

*Lexi 5, 6, and 9 months tennis balls and toys © Lisa Shambrook*

Then she started teething and losing her shark teeth… and we’re not joking, puppy teeth are like needles! We got stuck in with training, all the basics, sit, lay down, come, stay, and recall. She learned to go to bed in the dining room. She discovered she loved dumping her water bowl upside down, but even with a heavy bowl she still managed to regularly tip it up! She loved playing piggy-in-the-middle with her tennis ball! I constantly repaired her soft toys and beds as she attempted to destroy them. We searched for the holy grail of indestructible toys. We laughed at her mad zoomies, tried to distract her from things she shouldn’t have, and put up with constant puppy love bites!

We made sure to introduce Lexi to our postman when we first got her, and he became one of her favourite people! He always brought a dog treat with him when he had to knock on the door. Lexi would wait at the window when she expected him!

*Lexi 5, and 13 months, waiting for the postman © Lisa Shambrook*

At seven months we were watching her ears; one was up, the other still floppy. German Shepherds with floppy ears are the cutest thing!

The summer was so hot, reaching 40°C in parts of London, which is unbearable. Lexi’s walks were either early or late, to keep her safe during the heat. Her training was coming on so well. She enjoyed meeting her doggie friends at the museum, and loved people. The hardest thing that summer was leaving her in kennels while we went on holiday to Scotland. It wasn’t our usual kennels as they’d been booked up by the time we got Lexi. When we came home and collected her, we were wary. She was so excited to see us, which was to be expected, but she and her toys and blankets were soaked through. She stank, and we bathed her as soon as we got home.

The kennels hadn’t said there’d been any issues with her, but she was subdued and as soon as she met other dogs on her walks she was anxious and defensive. She was also scared of people for the first time. Lexi never knocked over her water bowl again though. We’ll never know what happened at the kennels, but we’d never had a dog come home from kennels as wet and dirty as she had, so next time, she’d go to kennels of our choice.

We were careful and she was soon happy with people again, but dogs still seemed to worry her. When we were alone with Lexi she was excited and happy. We had an amazing trip to a local castle, Llawhaden, where Lexi explored every inch of it, insisting on climbing up into the towers too!

*Lexi 7, 7, and 15 months – Llawhaden Castle, Black Mountain River, Brechfa © Lisa Shambrook*

At eight months she was still a puppy and acted as such, into everything. We came down one morning to a floor covered in milk from a stolen carton from the cupboard… but there’s no point crying over spilled milk! September, coming up to nine-months-old, Lexi went into her first season and we had to keep her at home for a month. She was agitated and frustrated, not helped by the late summer heat, and when she was allowed back out again, we had severe issues with her response to other dogs. She barked at dogs, even those who were her friends, and walking became more difficult. We got her on puppy training waiting lists, but they’d grown and it was going to be a long wait.

*Lexi 8, 10, and 11 months – Spilled milk, Halloween, and ready to play © Lisa Shambrook*

At Halloween we dressed Lexi as a pumpkin, and she stole a mini pumpkin as we attempted to try and take photos of her! As it got darker earlier Vince and I took Lexi on walks after Vince got home from work, as dusk fell. It was much easier with fewer people and dogs about. Lexi was still reactive and lunging, but we were concentrating on training her to walk by us, and not pull. We also trained her to sit on her place to keep her from under our feet in the kitchen.

*Lexi, 11 months, with Flynn and Buzz, Dan and Lisa © Lisa Shambrook*

Our son and daughter-in-law visited with their two dogs, Buzz, a tiny black pug, and Flynn, another GSD. We were concerned as to how Lexi would react to their dogs, but amazingly, she made friends quickly, but she was demanding with Flynn. She wanted to play with him and no one else and constantly barked in his face if he didn’t play with her. He rightly put her in her place a few times, but they did love playing rough together!

Winter saw a big drop in temperature and Lexi saw her first snow, and then her first birthday on Boxing Day!

*Lexi 11 and 12 months – Snow and Christmas © Lisa Shambrook*

For the last four months we’ve been seeing a behavioural trainer with Lexi, concentrating on distraction, attention gaining, bonding behaviour, and teaching her to go from excitable to calm quickly. She has a habit of attacking dogs on adverts on our TV… and barking at dogs walking by our house, so we’re training her to go to her place and settle when we tell her to. There are a lot of small treats and praise involved! Our trainer introduced us to a flirt pole to teach her to calm quickly. It’s a horse lunge whip with a squirrel toy (or any toy) tied to the end of it. We made our own, and we whip it around in an open space and Lexi chases the squirrel ’til she catches it. Then she has to drop it and sit and wait until we’re ready to let her play again, so she has to go from hyped to calm quickly. She loves the squirrel pole and has so much fun chasing and catching it!

It’s been a few weeks and we’re seeing positive changes in how many dogs she now attacks on television and how quickly she comes down from the window when we tell her to settle, so we’re getting there! The next part of training will involve dog walking with other dogs… and we hope that by the time she’s over her teenage months, she’ll be less reactive and better behaved!

*Lexi 11, 14, and 15 months © Lisa Shambrook*

All-in-all, Easter weekend has just gone and we’ve had Lexi for a year now. She’s filled that puppy-shaped gap in our hearts, and I imagine both Roxy and Kira are watching us with mirth, asking us what we think we’ve got ourselves into with Lexi! She’s exhausted and delighted us. She’s real pain in the arse at times, but when she gazes up at me with those huge brown puppy-dog eyes I melt. She cuddles close, gets excited and nibbles because she just has too much love to give. I don’t want a perfect pup… I’m very happy with our spirited, mischievous bundle of chaos!

When an eighty-five pound mammal licks your tears away,
then tries to sit on your lap, it’s hard to feel sad
– Kristan Higgins

Autistic and Unmasked

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Being different is a good thing.
It means you’re brave enough to be yourself.
– Karen Salmansohn

When I was young I was painfully shy and shut myself away from people, lost in a world of reading, writing, and drawing. In nursery school I would head for the paint pots or book corner, or ride a tricycle around the playground. At home I’d swing as high as I could on our garden swing, listening to music on my personal stereo, as I disappeared into my own world in the clouds. I excelled in art and writing at school, but struggled with social situations. When things got too much, when I got overwhelmed or panicked, I ran away. I was trusting and naive which lead to a lot of being taken advantage of in various situations. I found I was able to fit in more as I got older, once I learned to be who people wanted me to be.

*Lisa ages 3 and 10, and favourite childhood things – the piece of black fur was a stim © Lisa Shambrook*

I learned to mask. Masking is a term used to describe how autistic people try to fit into a neurotypical society, by copying or mimicking behaviour to assimilate, supressing behaviour that might be considered odd, and developing methods to cope like creating scripts for situations, routines, and more. We change our natural responses to fit in.

*Lisa ages 12, 13, and 16 © Lisa Shambrook*

I’d never heard of autism when I was young. I had a long standing eating disorder controlling food intake and weight, self-harmed, had panic attacks, ran away from school, office, home multiple times, couldn’t say no, suffered crippling feelings of guilt and not being enough, and had major sensory sensitivities. I was misdiagnosed time and time again from the age of 18 upwards. I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS or Post Viral Fatigue or ME – Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) at 19 when I began collapsing with exhaustion. Then I was diagnosed with chronic depression and put on a multitude of antidepressants that really didn’t work well over the next thirty years, and left to it.

*Purple electricity – autistic brains are wired differently, anxiety, antidepressants © Lisa Shambrook*

I married young and had three children. As Rayn, my oldest, grew up, they struggled a lot with fitting in, with behaviour, and school was a nightmare. In Junior school I got used to phone calls asking me to come and take Rayn home, to extricate them from the toilets where they’d hidden, to catch them on the school field where a teacher hadn’t been able to, to collect them after violent behaviour. As they moved into their teens we tried to get help. There wasn’t much available, and at first we looked into bipolar as a possible reason. My younger sister had been diagnosed with hyperactivity disorder as a child, and bipolar as an adult, and later autism. In the end, Rayn was dismissed by CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, as just a fifteen-year-old hormonal teen.

*Lisa ages 19, also 19 at wedding, and 29 © Lisa Shambrook*

Autism was looked at as a predominantly male condition, and girls and women were (and still are) often overlooked. Telling my child, to their face, that they were just a hormonal teen and needed to grow up was literally the worst thing they could have said. Rayn closed down, and it took another six years before they could begin to ask for help again. Rayn researched autism and after a few years finally got an assessment.

At the video assessment (during Covid) the assessor finished and immediately told Rayn that they were autistic. Usually you’d wait for the official diagnosis letter to come through before you knew, but the assessor said it was so obvious, and they were so sad that Rayn had been so badly let down before. Rayn and I cried with relief and validation. I wish we’d known when they were at school. As an adult there is no active support when you are diagnosed, but I believe as a child there are many accommodations you can ask for and get support at school. We can still ask for considerations and accommodations at work and for medical situations, but it’s more precarious.

*Blue rain, school, Autism Passport © Lisa Shambrook*

When Rayn had begun to research autism before assessment, we’d talked a lot and Rayn said I should get assessed too. I wasn’t sure, but the more I looked at it, the more I saw myself, so I got referred.

I still struggle with any social situation, with no idea how to make small talk, and not knowing when to speak, or to stop oversharing. I can’t deal with crowds, noise, changed plans, broken routines, and I often miss jokes or sarcasm. I hate change, I panic if my favourite toothpaste, or body lotion, or food is discontinued. I hate people visiting my house unless they’re family. I have misophonia sensitivity to noises and sounds, and misokinesia sensitivity to movement or things in my eye line. I’m also sensitive to materials, smells, and touch. I hate being hugged unless I initiate it or already know and like the person. I need meticulous order, plans, and routine. I can’t bear telephones or making phone calls. I’m obsessive, I catastrophise, and my imagination is far too big! I struggle to hear people, not because I can’t hear them, but because I have to process what people say as I hear it, and that takes time. I stim, stimming is repetitive self-stimulation regulatory behaviour, usually repetitive movements or noises in aid to calm or pacify. I related to being autistic so much.

*Lisa ages 40, 43, and 48 © Lisa Shambrook*

I was assessed eighteen months after Rayn, and after almost four years on the waiting list. On the second part of the assessment, my assessor wondered if my diagnosis’ of both CFS and depression was actually autistic burnout and overwhelm, that the sexual assaults I’d suffered could’ve been linked to misplaced trust, and was also the person who pointed out that my eating disorder was really ARFID Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder instead. As we talked my life suddenly made sense, and a few weeks later almost exactly on the 50^th birthday I got my official autism diagnosis.

Again, so much validation, which is incredibly important, and it lead me to be able to understand myself so much more. It helped those around me to understand autism, and to see it unmasked as I began to relax and be my authentic self.

There’s a magic in being able to freely be who you are. The system is gradually catching up with autism in women, and more and more older women, who were missed when they were younger, have been receiving assessment and diagnosis.

*Lisa age 50 with Autism diagnosis © Lisa Shambrook*

It was recently reported that over 122,000 people are currently waiting for autism assessment in England, with long waiting lists. I don’t know the figures in Wales, but more than 2,200 children are currently waiting in my local Hywel Dda Health Authority in Wales. More needs to done and understood to improve lives.

Trying to fit into a neurotypical society is tough for a person with neurodivergent mind. Autism is not a mental health illness, our brains are just wired differently, a neurological condition. It’s estimated that 15% of the UK population are neurodivergent and 15 – 20% of world population.

And there’s a very pertinent quote from Stephen Shore, an American Autistic professor of special education, If you’ve met one person with Autism, you’ve met one person with Autism. Don’t compare one autistic person to another; every single one of us is different.

*Autism Wheel by Autism Sketches, Sunflower lanyard, my tattoo and beads – the moon and beads are two of my special interests © Lisa Shambrook*

Autism is a spectrum. Think of it like a wheel with different symptoms radiating out, any autistic person could be anywhere on that circle in a number of different places. Though some autistic people will need a lot more support than others, it is not a sliding scale of most affected to least affected. It’s much more varied than that. Regardless, understanding and compassion is paramount to acceptance as a society and for us to accept ourselves. Being different is hard for anyone, but we are just as important in society as anyone else.

It’s been a revelation to accept myself for who I am, and to understand who I am. I now know I don’t need to fit in, I don’t need to belong, because, in my own way, I already do.

The potential of those of us on the autism spectrum is
unlimited – just like with everyone else – Dr Stephen Shore

Talking about Mental Health and How to Cope – World Mental Health Day 2022

Light and Magic – Mid-week Flash Challenge

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Rowena gazed from one bottle to the other with an amused expression.

“Where did you get them?” she asked.

Alex grinned. “That would ruin the magic,” she told her.

Rowena picked up the closest bottle. The thick glass, worn and cloudy with age, held tiny golden grains that shone though the smudgy glass. She ran her finger across the label. “Sun dust,” she read and smirked.

“Don’t judge,” said Alex.

“I’m not judging–,”

“Yes, you are!”

“Sun dust?” Rowena raised an eyebrow at Alex as she picked up the second bottle. “And moonbeams? Really?”

“Read the rest,” prompted Alex.

Dutifully, Rowena held both bottles. “‘Sun dust, sprinkle anytime to add a little light to your life’, and ‘Moonbeams, scatter when needed to bring magic to your life’. Are you saying I need light and magic?”

“Don’t we all?” said Alex.

Rowena inspected the bottles again, tipping the sun grains so they sparkled in the evening sunshine radiating in through the bedroom window. Then she smiled and held the moonbeams, gently shaking the bottle so the tiny crystals shimmered. “It’s just sand and salt – rock crystal – or something like that.”

“You have no imagination, nothing!” Alex sighed.

“And you’re just an old romantic!”

“You wouldn’t have me any other way, Ro!”

Rowena grinned and placed the bottles back on the window sill then she gazed at Alex and sank down beside her on the bed. “I wouldn’t.” Her hand laced with Alex’s and she leaned in to kiss her gently on the cheek. “I wouldn’t change anything about you,” she said as she lost herself in Alex’s eager response.

An hour or two later Rowena woke, her hair mussed up and her mind fuzzy with romance. She glanced beside her but the bed was empty. Just a quickly scribbled note lay on the pillow and Rowena snatched it up. “‘Sprinkle and scatter… just do it’,” she read. She laughed and sat up, noticing that Alex had taken her coat and keys. Alex had a night shift at the veterinary practice. Rowena yawned and smoothed her hair.

The bottles still sat on the window sill. The sun had lowered in the sky and the day’s light was almost gone. The sun dust still glistened in the orange sunset, and the moonbeams turned silver as the sun faded and the moon rose. Rowena smiled as she removed the stopper from the first bottle and tipped a little sunlight into her hand. She giggled and threw it up into the air. She felt a little foolish as she caught her reflection in the mirror and sand landed in her hair, but she put the stopper back in the bottle and picked up the moonbeams. She spilled the glitter into her palm and again threw it up letting it settle in her locks.

“Light and Magic, I welcome you!” she chanted, then shook her head and watched the shimmering grains float about her.

She went to bed in the sheer romance of the moment, looking forward to Alex’s arrival home.

Rowena opened her eyes to a steaming mug of morning coffee and a kiss on her forehead. Nothing could possibly be more perfect. She reached out, but Alex stepped back with a grin on her face. “I see you invited, or invoked, light and magic then!” She chuckled as she brushed sand and glitter from Rowena’s pillow.

“I did, for all the good it’ll do me!” She reached out, picking up her coffee. “I wish I didn’t have to sleep alone so often though.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s part of the job, I’m afraid. Leave your coffee for a moment…”

Rowena put her mug down hopeful that Alex was about to join her in bed, but Alex picked up the mug and moved it out of her reach. Instead she moved to the bedroom door and pushed it wide open. In a single bound a large ball of fur launched across the floor and up onto the bed engulfing Rowena in a sloppy, furry kiss. A wet pink tongue licked Rowena and then fell back to sit on the bed panting, with a wide Golden Retriever smile across its face. Rowena squealed in delight as the ball of sunshine kissed her again. Rowena laughed and grinned at Alex then she crossed her hands across her heart as Alex lead a nervous, silver-haired German Shepherd into the room.

She sprang out of bed, followed by the excited Retriever, and knelt gently in front of the anxious dog, offering her hand to the timid creature. The Shepherd glanced at the Retriever and when the golden dog licked Rowena again, the pale Shepherd gently sniffed the outstretched hand and let Rowena softly stroke her head.

Alex spoke quietly, “They come together, the sun and the moon. Their owner died recently, with no family, and we won’t separate them. They’re like you and me, day and night. They belong with us now.”

Rowena nodded as she gazed at the two dogs, one as bright and as happy as the sunshine that streamed through the window, and the other as soft, mysterious, and gentle as night’s moonbeams, and her eyes filled with tears. “You’ve truly brought me both light and magic.”

I haven’t written or blogged for a while, but the Sun Dust photo Miranda, at Finding Clarity, chose for her Mid-Week Flash Challenge this week caught me. I love some light and magic…

Write up to 750 words inspired by the prompt photograph. I overstepped the rules this week, though, ending up with 874 words, but hey, it’s a cute short story and I loved writing it!

The Seren Stone by Lisa Shambrook Release

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When Loren and her siblings’ lives change in an instant,
and dragons fill the skies above,
they will need to face danger with courage, and a little cowardly lechrad…
The Seren Stone by Lisa Shambrook

Today, April 5th, sees the release of The Seren Stone, a fantasy tale that puts Loren in a time and place she knows she shouldn’t be with no way to get home. How would you feel?

This was never meant to be an epic adventure… all Loren did was try on a family heirloom pendant and then she and her younger brother and sister were vaulted into a future they couldn’t recognise – with dragons!

Imagine Loren’s fear and sense of responsibility as the decisions she takes throws them into a situation that puts her siblings into mortal danger…

This book is a fast paced, descriptive journey into an unfamiliar world which suits readers of all ages, from children to adult. As an autistic author emotions are something I work with daily and that comes through in my writing. Courage and self-belief in the face of fear is also something I fight with, but Loren needs to face her crushing fears and with help from a few dragons and a little lechrad – she might just do that!

The Seren Stone, published by BHCPress, is available in all your favourite bookshops:

BHC Press – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Barnes & Noble – Waterstones –
Indigo – Kobo – Google Play – Apple

Available as ebook, paperback, and hardback as bookshops offer.

The Seren Stone will test your courage as you fly on dragon wings
and fight for survival in an unfamiliar land…

The Seren Stone by Lisa Shambrook

The Seren Stone Cover Reveal and Pre-order

The Raven’s Call – Mid-week Flash Challenge

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The peridot-green tint of algae penetrated the wood, like it had been brushed on with a watercolour paint brush, like it was part of the mirror’s design. The wood, once damp, now flaky and dry in the barn, still sported delicate fretwork and inlays – though one touch and they’d crumble. And the glass, cloudy like a cataract, showed no reflection and mirrored nothing.

Rachel moved closer, her feet stumbling as she stepped over long abandoned debris and rubbish strewn across the floor of the barn. Chairs – covered in faded, torn damask, a tarnished bronze bedstead, garden tools with broken wooden handles, a pile of rusted metal-springs, coils, barbed wire, and myriad other lost items filled the space within the ramshackle walls. Rachel, however, noticed nothing but the mirror, as she shuffled forward.

Cobwebs floated to and fro in the light draught that drifted through the barn, as did the white hair framing her face, and she deftly brushed her errant tresses aside. Her flowing nightdress wrapped itself around her legs and she shivered. She smiled at the sensation the shiver sent through her. She didn’t think a shiver would have registered these days, she was so tired, so –

A bird flapped at the door, feathers rustling in the wind, and Rachel glanced back at it. A raven sat, perched with its head cocked on the splintered door. It watched for a moment as Rachel met its eyes then Rachel returned her gaze to the mirror.

She stood before the old looking glass, trying to see her face in its murky reflection, but only indistinct shadows stared back.

The raven cracked its wings in the silence and flew across the floor, this time landing noisily on the bedstead rail. Its feet clutched tight and Rachel watched its outline waver in the shadowy glass.

“Is it time?” she asked, her voice soft, and as quiet as the gentle spring breeze.

There was no reply, and she moved her hand to the decaying, rotting frame around the oval of glass. For a moment, as she touched it, the mirror was restored, a thing of simple beauty. She gazed into clear glass, her face surrounded by ebony hair, and her fingers young and slim. The wood – oak, warm, and delicately grained framed the mirror, and she was twenty-two, not eighty-two. The image faded, like the wood, and Rachel stood once more before the old mirror.

She smiled and nodded again. “It’s time,” she said, as the raven shifted behind her. She peered into the glass, and in it, or was it in her mind’s eye, she saw two people. The woman behind her, with raven black hair, like hers, wrapped her arms around Rachel, and Rachel let herself melt into the long missed and welcome embrace.

The mirror reflected nothing, as Rachel rested cold and unresponsive on the freezing floor. The raven, a ghostly shadow in the gloomy mirror, muttered and flew off soaring away into the cold, white morning sky.

Miranda, at Finding Clarity, chose one of my own photographs for her Mid-Week Flash Challenge, and I’ve always wanted to write something for this picture that I took of an old crumbling mirror in my dad’s barn… so here we are.

Write up to 750 words inspired by the prompt photograph.

Dead Lake by Miranda Kate

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‘Sometimes it pays to be tricky…’

I’d slipped out of my own writing and editing, and hadn’t read a book in ages, then Miranda sent me Dead Lake to beta read and I got lost in it! It reignited my own words and a desire to write again. Dead Lake has been out for a while now, and I’m still thinking about it.

From Monday Feb 14th Dead Lake will be on sale for 7 full days – up to and including the 20th of February. The price will be 99p/99c.

Seriously, if you like fantasy, crystals, forests, magic, and a heroine with bite and attitude, then you need to read this…

Tricky is searching for her lost Obsidian gemstone… © Lisa Shambrook

I really loved Tricky, the main character, and I knew I would, but I got caught up in her confidence and sass, and appreciated the times her vulnerability shone through. So, I asked Miranda what she loved about Tricky, and about writing her character:

Miranda said: I love her humour, her honesty, the way she flirts with any good looking man, and also her wily nature. She’s everything I want to be: confident, sure of herself, and lives her life on her terms.

She always makes me smile. She’s that inner part of yourself only you don’t dare let others see, because they might be offended. It’s like letting a part of me escape every time I write about her.

I agree, this is exactly how I saw her too!

Here’s my review:

‘Sometimes it pays to be tricky

Damn and blast! That rancid piece of excrement, Carter, has had her ransacked out of Clancy!

Tricky returns to her cottage to find it turned upside down. An action that means she’s got three days to leave the district or face punishment. Randolf Carter, head of the district, is spreading lies and suspicion about her kind, making life difficult. But it wasn’t just an ordinary ransacking – they were searching for something.

Using her gifts, Tricky traces the energy left by the men and spies another creature’s energy among it: a jackdaw. Swift and wily, it’s pinched her precious gemstone, a piece of black obsidian. But at whose bidding? Communicating with birds is a rare ability and she knows all who possess it.

Tricky wants her stone back, but coming up against people like Carter won’t be easy, especially when he’s got one of her kind in his employ. But she’ll handle it, oh yes she will. She’ll just have to be careful and a little bit tricky. Good thing she is then, isn’t it?

Adept at working with energy and time as well as communicating with trees, Tricky is lured into something bigger than ownership of a gemstone, and finds out that sometimes it pays to be a little bit tricky.

Dead Lake is a dark paranormal fantasy novel set a few hundred years from now in a post-apocalyptic world. After a massive shift of the tectonic plates decimated the world and its population, life on the remaining landmass has returned to simple living, with money, rulers and religion no longer tolerated.’

If you’re looking for a great book and a bargain,
you’ll not go wrong with Dead Lake and Tricky!

Unconditional Love – Remembering Kira

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Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them
– Thom Jones

Three years ago, on Blue Monday 2019, I saw a scruffy and forlorn German shepherd staring out at me from a Rescue site on Twitter, and I knew in my soul she was already a part of me.

She was advertised as a five-year-old with issues and EPI, a life-long health problem. We spent a couple of weeks persuading the Rescue centre she should be ours and on 10^th February she was.

From rescue centre to our home… February 2019 © Lisa Shambrook

Her age ended up being fairly ambiguous, as she’d been advertised as five for two years on social media, so it was more likely she was around six or seven when she got to us. She’d been rescued from a home of neglect when she was three, so her early years were troubled, and then she spent at least two years in a rescue kennel miles away from anywhere and pretty much alone. She was fostered and rehomed several times, but always returned because her anxiety was too much to deal with. Nicola, a foster carer, did her best to save Kia and gave her love and training, but wasn’t able to keep her. A year later Kira came to us, her forever home.

We thought we’d have longer with her, not even three years, but she filled a lifetime in those few years…

Kira: six or seven years old © Lisa Shambrook

She was a dreamer – always staring off into the distance and looking romantic. She was my soul mate, she was everything.

We soon realised that her anxiety was too great to be able to walk her locally, she was too reactive to other dogs, so it was off to the forest and she loved it there. Like us she loved solitude and the purity of nature.

Flowers, they were as beautiful as she was. I could never get over how pretty she was, she blew me away every time I gazed at her. She was like the stars in the sky, the flowers in the hedgerow, the water flowing in the river, she was uncontainable.

As beautiful as the flowers © Lisa Shambrook

There was a gentleness that only we saw. She saved it for those she loved and felt safe with, and there weren’t many people in her life that gave her that. She was a teddy bear, a soft cuddly baby, and a dog that loved with everything she had when she loved you. She only trusted a handful of people in her life, and if you were one of those, you were truly privileged.

She was never happier than when she was out exploring. She always walked at the furthest point her lead let her, but if you took her lead off out on a walk, she panicked. She needed to stay connected and it gave her security and comfort.

Kira loved her cuddly toys. Elephant was her first and favourite with us. Kira’s toys were generally not for playing with, they were for comfort. She decided what happened with her toys. If we tried to take her indoor toys outside, she’d shake her head at us, and immediately take them back indoors. She wasn’t one for fetch either, throw a ball and she’d stare at it then back at you, and ask why?

Kira and her beloved toys © Lisa Shambrook

The day it snowed on New Year’s Eve 2020 was one of her best days! She loved the snow, eating it, catching snowballs, and racing about with us in it. It was beautiful, and her smile says it all!

Back in Brechfa she was her true spirit, a fae of a dog, a forest dweller, and a creature of magic…

She had a wild heart that filled you with wonder.

At one with nature in Brechfa Forest © Lisa Shambrook

Then it all went wrong. She slowed down a little, but at what we thought was nine-years-old dogs do get a little slower. She had an ear infection, which got sorted at the vet. Then in September she started reverse sneezing, didn’t seem much to worry about, but it didn’t go away. In October it got worse and she began coughing. The vets were lovely, Kira’s a very difficult dog to take to the vet due to her high anxiety and panic, but the vets saw her outside and dealt with her with incredible care. At first we thought she had kennel cough and she was treated for that, but it didn’t get better. She lost her voice, lost her bark, and I knew something was really wrong. Kira was a chatty dog that talked all the time, and now she couldn’t.

After six weeks she had scans, x-rays, and a biopsy. At the back of her throat was a mass. It was an aggressive malignant salivary gland tumour. We were devastated. We hoped we’d have longer with her, but eating became difficult. We gave her tins of salmon, her favourite, until one day she couldn’t eat anymore, and the tumour was too large to allow comfortable eating and breathing. We knew the time had come.

Sunday 14^th November was the hardest day, and she passed peacefully away in our arms.

Our hearts broke but we let her go to run free in far flung fields, and to find Roxy who would mother her like we did. There is nothing like the pain of losing your soul mate.

She is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.
You are her life, her love, her leader.
She will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of her heart.
You owe it to her to be worthy of such devotion.
– Agnes Repplier