UPDATE: The winner is Buttons!
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My favorite cause—finding forever homes for homeless pets—is also the inspiration for my Klein’s K-9s Service Dogs contemporary romance series. In fact, all of the pets in my books were adopted from animal shelters or rescue groups. There is a long-held, erroneous idea that shelter animals are pathetic mutts, flea-bitten cats, or vicious, antisocial pets. The majority are wonderful animals in need of love and a family. Through our writing, authors have the opportunity to reinforce that fact and encourage responsible pet ownership, such as spaying or neutering pets.
Smokey, my author logo and the Chinese crested hairless drug-sniffing dog from my first book, At Her Command, was adopted from a shelter. The idea of such a talented, tiny dog working for DEA appealed to my sense of humor, and I’ve included a crested in all of my books since.
Klein’s K-9s
My Klein’s K-9s series features wonderful working pets—from police and military dogs to service and therapy animals. In Racing Hearts, the first novella in the series, a toy-sized dog is a trained seizure alert dog. Tom Tyler, my race-car driver hero, suffers a traumatic brain injury and is at first skeptical that a dog who barely reaches his ankle can help him. But soon he’s relying on the little pooch and falling for Meg Klein, the dog’s trainer.
Buy Links for “Racing Hearts”
Amazon: https://amzn.to/1OzgWn9
Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/jnbntuu
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/racing-hearts-9
Apple: https://tinyurl.com/zkps7pa
The second in the series, 8 Hounds a-Howling, is a humorous story about the photographing of a dog-themed 12 Days of Christmas calendar. This novella includes 78 dogs, along with several cats and a pot-bellied pig. The third Klein’s K-9s novella, Nothing But a Hound Dog, finds a country music star working off his community service sentence at the local animal shelter. The fourth, Scrooge & the Secret Santa, pits an anti-Christmas police dog trainer against a holiday-loving therapy animal trainer. Love, of course, wins.
Contest
Not surprisingly, I enjoy stories that feature pets. I’d love to hear your favorite books, TV shows, and movies that include animals. Tomorrow, I’ll randomly pick several commenters to receive a free “Racing Hearts” ebook! I hope you’ll drop by my website to check out my books. Happy Adopt-a-Shelter-Dog Month and Happy Halloween!
About the Author
Marcia James finaled in 11 Romance Writers of America contests before selling her first contemporary romance. A national and international Amazon and Barnes & Noble bestseller, she writes hot, humorous romances featuring heroines you can root for, heroes to die for, and funny dogs. In her eclectic career, Marcia has shot submarine training videos, organized celebrity-filled nonprofit events, and had her wedding covered by People Magazine. After years of dealing with such sexy topics as how to safely install traffic lights, she’s enjoying “researching” and plotting her novels’ steamy love scenes with her husband and hero of many years.
Website: www.MarciaJames.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarciaJamesAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Marcia_James
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/marciajames/
Amazon Author Central page: www.amazon.com/author/marciajames
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I love books with animals in them. Off the top of my head the book series that come to mine are ones from Catherine Mann, Piper Drake, D.D. Ayers, and Katie Ruggle. Oh and the new bachelor puppies books. I can’t wait to read some of those stories!
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Hi, Tamara! Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve read and enjoyed Catherine Mann’s books, and D.D. Ayers is on my To Be Read list. 🙂 I’ll definitely check out the other authors’ books. By the way, I’ll be starting a rescue pet themed blog on my website around February (depending on my webmistress’ schedule), and I’ll be interviewing authors with pets in their books. I hope you’ll drop by my new blog next year. Happy Halloween!
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I love animals in books! Some add so much more to the story! Specific titles are not coming to mind at the moment…
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Hi, Colleen! Thank you for commenting. If you like mysteries, you might want to check out Spencer Quinn’s “Chet & Bernie” series. Chet is the dog and Bernie is a private detective. The cool (and often funny) thing about the books is that they are all told from the point of view of the dog. 😉
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I love shelter dogs. There is a whole series featuring K9 dogs and it is wonderful
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Hi, Debra! I have to admit I’m more of a dog lover than a cat lover. My sister had nine cats at one point!?! While I do have other rescue pets in my books, I have more dogs than anything else. 😉
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My Buttons is a shelter dog and he is a Toy Poodle. I agree that shelter animals NOT are pathetic mutts, flea-bitten cats, or vicious, antisocial pets. My sisters have had 4 shelter dogs between the two of them and they’ve all been great dogs.
If we have another dog after we lose Buttons (he is 15 and still going strong even with failing kidneys) it will definitely be a shelter/rescue dog.
I love reading romance stories with dogs in them.
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Hi, Button’s Mom! Sorry for the delay in replying. It sounds like you have a wonderful dog and a family who appreciates rescue pets. 😉 I also love to read romances — and mysteries — with dogs in them. I’m a sucker for a puppy on the cover of a book. Author Jill Shalvis has an “Animal Magnetism” series that has some of the best pro-pet romances covers I’ve ever seen. I have cover envy. 😉
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Hi! Thank you for stopping by my guest blog. 😉 I decided to give all four of you a copy of my “Racing Hearts” ebook! Have you ever received free ebooks from Instafreebie? It’s always running free giveaways, so it’s heaven for book lovers. Anyway, here is the link to click on, then follow the directions in my next comment: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/5MLIv
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You don’t need to create a free account on Instafreebie to get my novella ebook (although if you do create an account, you can get emails with the latest free ebooks from lots of authors). It’s really not complicated. Here are the steps to claiming my ebook:
1. Click on the above link.
2. Type in your name and email address, then click on “Claim”
3. You’ll get an email from Instafreebie, then click on the “Get Freebie” button in the email.
4. You’ll be offered an option of getting their app (you don’t have to) and clicking on having the book file emailed to you. (I do the latter.)
5. You’ll get an email with my book attached. The email will explain how to put my book on your e-reader, if you don’t want to read it on your computer.
Thank you and have a wonderful weekend and a very Happy Halloween!
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Thank you, Delilah, for having me on your blog!
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Thanks for the book, Marcia!
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{{waving to Button’s Mom}} I hope you enjoy the book! And, if you have time (no pressure), reviews are always appreciated. Great chatting on this blog with you! Have a wonderful weekend!
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Thanks for being a great guest, Marcia!!
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🙂 It was a lot of fun!
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Thanks for the book Marcia! And for anyone still following, if you get books from instafreebie frequently you should definitely get the app! It keeps track of everything you’ve downloaded and you can search you don’t download duplicates! Very handy!
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Thank you for the information! I’m going to get the app today. Have a very happy Halloween!