I'm thrilled to welcome author Kathleen Donnelly as she shares her insights into the joys and problems of creating a fictional K-9. Read on through, because she's offering a giveaway!

As a K-9 handler, I knew when I started writing Chasing Justice, that I wanted a working dog as one of my main characters. I also knew I wanted to portray the dog as accurately as possible. There are many agencies that utilize dogs and their amazing sniffers. I realized I would need to decide which agency my character would work for as this would determine the breed of the dog.

At the time, most of the books I’d read had K-9s working with a police officer, sheriffs deputy or the military. While that makes sense for a mystery/romantic suspense, I wanted to find a different agency that used K-9s. After a long google search, I made a wonderful discovery—the U.S. Forest Service law enforcement had a K-9 unit. Often out in the forest on their own patrolling millions of acres, these dogs are literally a backup officer. I even discovered that one of the U.S. Forest Service K-9s was nominated for a Hero Dog Award because of his bravery finding and apprehending dangerous criminals in a National Forest.

Once I knew my agency, the rest of my K-9 character quickly fell into place. For the type of work the Forest Service does, I knew I could choose from several breeds including, German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, Czech Shepherds and the Belgian Malinois. I had to go with the Malinois. I had recently visited our trainer’s facility in Oklahoma where he had several Malinoises in training for law enforcement. These dogs were intense, yet funny. They could be sweet, but extremely focused when working. Our trainer had a young female Malinois and she was a character. I fell in love with her. She was tan with black points and a white splotch on her chest and at even only six months old, she LOVED the baby bite sleeve that we played with. She became the inspiration for Juniper.

In my book, Juniper is 2 years old, but has the white splotch and, like the Malinois I met through our trainer, she loves her job. I made her a dual-purpose dog meaning she can track, detect narcotics and evidence as well as apprehend criminals. Apprehend is the nice way to say, the bad guy is going to get bit…hard!

Before I knew it, my K-9 character came together along with her entire skillset. I’ve had fun brainstorming fictional ways she can help her handler, Maya Thompson. Hope you enjoy Juniper and her adventures in Chasing Justice.

 First Page of Book:

Note to Readers—Book Content Warning: Chasing Justice includes material some readers might find difficult, including violence against women, drug and alcohol use, and discussion of suicide.

Pino Grande National Forest—June

A black truck with an old camper shell whipped around a switchback in the distance. Driving too fast for the dirt road, the vehicle fishtailed on the washboards. A plume of dust swirled behind it.

Maya Thompson, a U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement officer in training, sat in the passenger seat of the patrol Tahoe studying the truck speeding their way and debating if the driver might lose control. Her FTO, or field training officer, Doug Leyton, didn’t seem bothered about the vehicle careening toward them.

As the truck flew by, it kicked up a rock that smacked the windshield and bounced off onto the dirt road. Maya startled, but Doug’s hands sat steady on the steering wheel, completely unfazed while her heart pounded. Nothing about rocks hitting windshields or trucks passing on dirt roads had been the same since returning home from Afghanistan.

Give it some time, everyone said.

Time healed everything.

Maybe.

Where to Purchase Chasing Justice:

https://kathleendonnelly.com/chasing-justice/

And now, Kathleen will answer some questions for us:

What do you enjoy most about writing?  I love escaping into another world where I can explore all the “what ifs” and see what happens next. I enjoy creating characters and developing the plot until the story runs like a movie in my head. It’s fun and challenging to capture that “movie” and put it into words.

What can your readers expect from you next?  I’m working on the next book in the series with Maya, Juniper, and Josh! You’re going to love the next mystery they’ll need to solve…and you can see how many more dog beds Juniper will rip up.

What can readers who enjoy your book do to help make it successful?  If you enjoy my book, or any author’s book for that matter, write a review and tell your friends about it. Reviews and word of mouth are helpful for an author. The review doesn’t need to be long and if you liked the book, don’t be afraid to give it five stars.

Book Giveaway:

I’ll give away a paperback copy of Chasing Justice along with a bookmark and “Fur Missile” sticker. 😊 Simply leave a comment with your answer to the following question:  Do you like reading books with K-9s? If yes, what draws you to those books and what do you enjoy the most about the K-9 characters?

About Kathleen:

Award-winning author Kathleen Donnelly is a K-9 handler for Sherlock Hounds Detection Canines—a private narcotics dog company. She enjoys using her K-9 experience to craft realism into her fictional stories. Along with working dogs, Kathleen loves horses. She owns two horses and a bossy, yet adorable pony. Kathleen’s love of the mountains inspired her setting for Chasing Justice. She enjoys escaping to the high country to hike and photograph the scenery and wildlife. Kathleen has a B.A. in Journalism from Colorado State University and formerly wrote for The Berthoud Weekly Surveyor where she won a Colorado Press Award. Kathleen lives in Colorado with her husband and all their four-legged friends.

Connect online:

Website: www.kathleendonnelly.com

Newsletter Sign-up: https://kathleendonnelly.com/#newsletter

Facebook--@AuthorKathleenDonnelly 

Twitter--@KatK9writer

Instagram--@authorkathleendonnelly

Goodreads--https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22280955.Kathleen_Donnelly