Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome Linda O. Johnston, whose new mystery series featuring animal shelter owner Lauren Vancouver opens with Beaglemania (Berkley Prime Crime, March 2011 Mass Market Paperback, 978-0-425-24021-2).
Today Linda writes about spinning off a series.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Linda O. Johnston
I have been writing for quite a while, in different genres — everything from paranormal romance and romantic suspense to mysteries. I love it all, but I'm especially thrilled to introduce my new Pet Rescue Mystery series which debuts in March with Beaglemania.
The Pet Rescue Mystery series is a spinoff from my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series, both from Berkley Prime Crime. My new protagonist is Lauren Vancouver, the director of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter. She was introduced in Howl Deadly, the eighth Kendra mystery, and also appeared in Feline Fatale, the ninth.
Now she has some stories of her own, starting with Beaglemania. Saving animals is her passion, and she'll be involved with some rather difficult situations such as being there when the puppies and their parents are saved from a puppy mill. The second Pet Rescue Mystery, The More the Terrier, starts off with Lauren learning that her mentor in pet rescue has turned into an animal hoarder, and Lauren has to help deal with that, too.
Because these are cozy mysteries, they of course contain murders that must be solved — and Lauren has to get involved with that as well. In the Pet Rescue Mysteries, "no-kill" means pets, not people! And who gets killed in Beaglemania? Someone involved with that terrible puppy mill, of course.
If you sense a theme here in my mysteries — pets — you're right. In fact, I love writing about many kinds of animals. I even write about animals in my paranormal romance mini-series for Harlequin Nocturne, which features Alpha Force, a covert military unit of shapeshifters.
That's another thing that is fun about the stories I write. They're fiction, so I can do what I want in them — at least to a point. They have to remain logical as well as enjoyable to readers.
One fairly fictional thing I can do is to make sure that HotRescues is adequately funded without a lot of stress on Lauren's part.
Plus, no matter what else happens in these stories, the animals will come out of it all just fine. Too bad that isn't always true in real life, but since I've started researching Lauren's stories I've met with pet rescuers of many kinds who would love to make it so. I visited shelters, both public and private. I've talked to people. Met animals.
I have to admit that pet rescue has drawn me in personally, too. I've begun volunteering at a private shelter, Pet Orphans of Southern California. I'm a dog adoption counselor there, which means I screen potential adopters and introduce them to dogs they might fall in love with. It's such a thrill for me when I see that the people and pets I've introduced are now a family!
I'm also the Los Angeles Pet Rescue Examiner, for the Examiner.com website.
And I'm definitely the proud author of the Pet Rescue Mysteries!
I'm not sure what Lauren would think of me. She's very dedicated and logical and in some ways single-minded about how animals should be treated. In my writing, I put animals into situations where they could be harmed, and she might not like that. On the other hand, I allow her to resolve those situations in ways that work well for those endangered animals, and Lauren would undoubtedly applaud that.
In any event, I definitely appreciate Lauren and all she does — both saving animals and solving murders. I hope you enjoy her, too.
Please come visit me at LindaOJohnston.com and at KillerHobbies.blogspot.com on Wednesdays. Friend me on Facebook. I'd love to hear what you think of pet rescue — and Beaglemania!
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About Beaglemania: Lauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter north of Los Angeles, but it's often human nature that puts her in the path of danger. Just like when she helps rescue four adorable beagle puppies that were dumped down a drainpipe at a nasty puppy mill. One of the mill's employees has a history of dog abuse -- and a bone to pick with Lauren. And when he's found dead at HotRescues after threatening her, Lauren will have to sniff out the real killer to keep herself out of a cage ...
Beaglemania is available in Mass Market Paperback and popular eBook formats (see icons below book cover).
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