A miscellany of thoughts about dogs, cats, writing, life in the Ozarks, & occasional book reviews
Today's post comes from Kathleen Donnelly, who writes the National Forest K-9 series. *** For nearly twenty years, I've had the honor of partnering with the best co-workers in the world—my dogs. I worked for and co-owned a great company called Sherlock Hounds Detection Canines. My first dog, Sammy, was a high-energy, fun-loving black Lab. …
Continue reading Guest Post: A Dog is the Best Partner
I write from experience, from observation, from research. The characters living in the worlds I create are good, bad, and sometimes both. They're not shy about voicing their opinions and fighting for what they think is right. That includes characters who are military veterans. In Dangerous Deeds (forthcoming), you’ll find multiple characters with the common …
Continue reading Veterans in Fact and Fiction
What do you get when you mix rural cops, college professors, assorted villains, a heroic Labrador Retriever, and a detective who’s determined to solve his own murder? Answer: The Dead Detective Casefiles! Meet police detective Oliver Tucker (“Tuck” to most), who investigates suspicious sounds in his home one night and finds himself on the wrong …
Continue reading First-Class Storytelling
As a reader, one of the things I most enjoy is the “hook” that captures my imagination and pulls me into a book. In the case of Tina deBellegarde’s Batavia-on-Hudson mysteries, I was hooked by the setting—the historic Hudson Valley region, where my paternal grandfather settled and my father was born. The similarities between the …
Continue reading Connections, Cultures, and Murder
I’m a fan of amateur sleuths in small-town mysteries. Start with a death initially dismissed as an unfortunate accident, mix in an assortment of characters with dark secrets of their own, and add an adorable Welsh Corgi named Moon Pie. I’m hooked! From award-winning author Marlene M. Bell comes a captivating tale set against the …
Continue reading Family, Friends, & Murder