Our Little Secret

Some of you who regularly read this blog may already know our little secret.  Some of you may have caught onto strange tidbits of information here and there.  Yet some of you may still be completely in the dark.  So here it is.  I’m putting it all out on the table:  I am not April Howland.

What???

That’s right.  I am not April Howland.  Don’t worry.  April Howland doesn’t have a split personality or an alter ego.  She isn’t involved in some kind of federal witness protection program.  April Howland is a wonderfully, talented painter and all round great gal, if you ask me, but she is not a writer.  As easy as it is for April to pick up a paintbrush and bring out images of happiness onto a canvas, putting pen to paper isn’t so easy for her.

My name is Erica McBeth.  I am a rescuer of animals, a jack of all trades and most notably a writer of fiction.  About a year and a half ago, I suggested that April write a blog for animal lovers so they could understand more about the animal rescue community.  I volunteered to ghostwrite it, thinking it was going to be purely informational, no big deal, but somehow it morphed into a conglomeration of stories about my life.  The stories seemed to be WAY more popular than the informational stuff so I just kept doing it.  Before long, there seemed to be some confusion and we didn’t really know how to stop it without making everything more confusing than it already was.

And now, as we are approaching the end of 2011, the winds of change are beginning to gust around us.  The Howland Studio’s easel is now housing paintings of things besides animals!  Which is crazy, right?  Creatively, April’s trip to South Africa had a profound effect on her and she’s been busy painting away on subjects other than animals.  They are still paintings designed to make you feel happy and I’m so proud of her.  She’s really developing into the artist she’s meant to be.  She continues to take commissions for pet portraits and if I were you, I’d lock her in on a pet portrait fast because right now, April Howland is enormously popular and she’s only getting bigger.   She has gift certificates available for the holidays.  You can find more information about her gift certificates here:  http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=39d0a124f21bc6214aad7a365&id=d2f7560dce.  Or feel free to contact her directly at howlandstudios@mac.com.

Or if you have become a fan of this blog and would like to read more of my fiction, you can order my book, “Her Blind Ambition” at http://www.ericamcbeth.com/Novels.html.

And now you know our little secret.  We hope it hasn’t shocked you too much.  We’re just two creative girls who have found a unique kinship and we hope you have found it as special as we have.