Help me welcome author Ellen Fannon as she shares about her latest release, and generously offers one lucky reader a free ebook copy of Don't Bite the Doctor. Read through to see how to enter that drawing.

Getting to Know Ellen:

1.   Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

Most of my books have a lot of myself in the characters. For example, in Don’t Bite the Doctor, I drew from many of my personal experiences as a young, woman veterinarian starting out in the ‘80s when women veterinarians were uncommon. In fact, I was the first woman veterinarian in my area. Some of the stories are true, just embellished a little (or a lot).

2.   What is the worst/funniest/strangest thing an editor ever said to you?

Going back to question #1, in another one of my novels, I had an editor tell me my main character wasn’t likable. This criticism particularly stung because there was a lot of myself in that character.

3.   Do you prefer cats or dogs? Why?

As a veterinarian, it is difficult to choose one species over the other. They both have their good points. They are both highly intelligent and sensitive creatures, and both make excellent companions. I would rather wrestle a mean dog than a mean cat. But most surgeries are easier to perform on cats. Cats are generally lower maintenance, but you can take your dogs places whereas your cats would prefer to stay home. As an owner, I have to have a couple (or more) of each.

A Sneak Peek inside, Don’t Bite the Doctor

Chapter 1

“I haven’t had this much fun since we neutered the squirrel!” I laughed, leaning against the sink, trying to catch my breath.

           “Oh, I forgot about that!” Kelly, my long-time technician, laughed with me.

           Cara, a second technician, looked up from the phone she cradled against her shoulder. “Wait. You actually neutered a squirrel?”

           I shrugged. “You know me. I’ll neuter anything.” Well, except for that pig a few weeks ago. But that was from my firmly entrenched PTSD from my first and only pig neuter in veterinary school, rather than true unwillingness to perform castration surgery. It’s a long story.

           “Why would you neuter a squirrel?” Cara persisted.

           “It belonged to someone who kept it as a pet,” Kelly answered. “Remember how it got loose and we chased it all over the surgery room?”

           “That was quite a challenge.” I smiled at the memory.

Squirrels, it seems, can not only climb trees, they can climb walls. And ceilings. And they are fast! They do not corner well, as opposed to other pets with which I am more experienced. This little bugger zinged over our heads, under our feet, and up and down the walls, leaving a trail of upended equipment and surgical supplies in his wake.

“Catching him in midair was pure luck.” I didn’t like to brag, but I had made an impressive squirrel interception if I did say so myself. As the creature sprang from one surgery wall to the opposite side of the room, I reached up and fortuitously nabbed it at just the right second, like a squirrel flyball. Even more fortuitous was the fact I happened to have a towel in my hand and didn’t suffer sharp incisor teeth embedded into my sensitive palm from a panicked rodent who was not too keen on parting with his nuts. Pun intended.

Until today, I hadn’t seen an animal with moves like that. Then came Sadie. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know Sadie. For years, I’d had the dubious pleasure of chasing her down in the cat room of the no-kill pet rescue shelter where it was Sadie’s fate to live out her nine lives because nobody in their right mind would ever adopt her. Or get near her, provided, of course, that was possible, which it wasn’t. Because I am such an accommodating soul, I made the three or four visits a year to the shelter to vaccinate the cats so the unpaid staff didn’t have to load them up in crates and truck them to the clinic.

About Don't Bite the Doctor: 

Real doctors treat more than one species. At least that’s what veterinarian, Jill Bennet tells herself. On any given day, she may find herself doctoring dogs, cats, bunnies, birds, horses, pigs, or any other furry or feathered patient who crosses her path—striving daily to deliver compassion and competence to all God’s creatures, in accordance with Colossians 3:23.

Now, with over forty years of practice under her belt, Jill reflects back to her time as a new, young veterinarian in the early eighties—a time when women veterinarians were just beginning to become a presence among the previously male-dominated profession. Out in the real world, Jill finds herself in situations never covered in veterinary school. It is a journey of learning and laughter, as Jill contends with a variety of animal patients and their eclectic humans attached to the other end of the leash (and the checkbook), as well as less-than-helpful co-workers. Interwoven into this mix of new experiences is her budding romance with the owner of the sock-eating Labrador Retriever. Don’t Bite the Doctor promises to bring smiles and tears to anyone who has ever been owned by an animal.

Giveaway: Subscribe to follow Ellen’s blog to enter to win an ebook copy of “Don’t Bite the Doctor”: https://ellenfannonauthor.com/subscribe/

About Ellen: 

Award-winning author, Ellen Fannon, is a retired veterinarian, former missionary, and church pianist/organist. She and her retired Air Force pilot-turned-pastor husband have fostered more than forty children, and have two adopted sons. She has published six novels, and her stories have appeared in One Christian Voice, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Divine Moments, and Guideposts; and her devotions have appeared in Open Windows, Guideposts All God’s Creatures, and The Secret Place.  

Please visit Ellen’s website, Good For a Laugh, and sign up to follow her weekly blog at: ellenfannonauthor.com