Happy Friday the 13th! It's the 3rd and final one for this year and, it almost goes without saying, a day us haunted house entrepreneurs love...too bad one of the three didn't fall on a Friday when our haunt was open in October!
Enough of that...I want to talk to you about dogs today. Specifically, I want to talk about Boston Terriers. Some people say their cute, some say their ugly...I say whatever. I never owned one but I'm a dog lover and I think they are A) Adorable and B) Funny as Hell!
In the fifth book in the Morelville Mysteries series, Viva Mama Rossi!, Dana's Mama Chloe Rossi gets her a dog. Don't tell me that I forgot to say "Spoiler Alert". You already read the title; if you haven't read book five yet, you had to have figured out that Dana must get a dog at some point. Anyway, Chloe gets her daughter a Boston Terrier. 'She' chooses the breed because it's lively and fun and she thinks it will be just what Dana needs to lift her spirits. The dog doesn't play a major role in that book but it gets a little more billing in the first book of the Morelville Cozies series (that was just released), The Passed Prop. Her terrier, 'Boo', will get a larger role in Book 6 of the Mysteries series, to be released in early December of this year, 'A Crane Christmas'.
I've had big dogs and little dogs in my life. My most recent dog was a pug (RIP Caesar). He had a good run but this summer, his 11th, he was really struggling badly with multiple health problems. We had him put down humanely. It was one of the most heart wrenching things I've ever had to do. I just try to remember the good times, especially from ages 1-4, when he was a ball of energy.
As much as Caesar was a ball of fire when he was young, most Boston Terriers are all of the time. If you've never seen them at their craziest, just check out these YouTube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht_yp6CH1MA&w=560&h=315
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJHWtFLnyZk&w=420&h=315
I LOVE the balloon one. One day, when my son was in high school, I'd dropped him off at school and was headed to work. I got caught behind an elementary school bus that was stopping on a busy road every 30 yards to pick kids up. At one stop, a mom was waiting with her little girl and three Boston terriers. She gave the three terriers a red balloon and between them, they went totally stupid over it. I laughed about those three little dogs all day. Every time I went by that house after that, I looked for them but she never had them out there again, that I noticed.
When it was time for me to write a dog into the story, I wrote a Boston terrier in on purpose. It wasn't even a question what I was going to pick. Check out the videos above and you'll see why and, if you're so inclined, check out Viva Mama Rossi!, and The Passed Prop too and see what 'Boo' gets herself up to... Bigger Boo doings are coming in future stories.
Character Profile - Detective Janet MasonOriginally published December 13th, 2015
Readers of the entire Morelville Mysteries series are aware that, since the end of Book 3, Dana's Dilemma, Sheriff Mel Crane has been down to one detective in her department. The young go-getter Shane Harding has been a good sport but he just can't do everything and take on every case. Mel's been having to jump in to assist a lot on investigations which has resulted in the neglect of some of her 'Sheriffly duties', as Shane calls them, and in less attention paid to her wife Dana and to her extended family.
Well, no more! In Book 6, 'A Crane Christmas', due out late next week, Sheriff Mel and Shane get a little help when Mel hires a seasoned deputy detective from an Indiana department, Janet Mason. So, in the spirit of giving you a little information to whet your appetite for the story to come, here are a few details about Mason to help you get to know her:
She's 30 years old (five, nearly 6 years younger than Mel), lesbian also, blondish and femme appearing but a tomboy through and through. She grew up in Zanesville, Ohio and her mother still lives there. After high school, she got an Associate's Degree in Criminal Justice. The Ohio Peace Officer's Training Academy (OPOTA) wouldn't take her right after she completed her degree because she wasn't 21 yet so she joined the Army and became a military police officer. A girlfriend during the time she was getting ready to get out of the Army convinced her to try for a slot in an Indiana sheriff's department that was close to Indianapolis. The relationship between the two women ended but Janet stayed on the force and loved her job, making 'detective' fairly young. Her mother's illness brings her home to Ohio.There's more of course, but you'll have to read the book to ferret the rest out. To be fair, I'll share this; I created a character profile board on Pinterest, in case anyone wants to see what inspired 'Janet', in my mind’s eye. I don't own any of those seven pictures so I can't post them here without giving proper credit for each one. Enjoy! And, incidentally, if you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, I pin all sorts of book related stuff and other stuff too. Here's my Pinterest profile link.
So, what do you think of Janet Mason, so far?
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About the Author
Anne Hagan is an East Central Ohio based government employee by day and author by night. She and her wife live in a tiny town that's even smaller than the Morelville of her fiction novels and they wouldn't have it any other way. Anne's wife grew up there and has always considered it home. Though it's an ultra-conservative rural community, they're surrounded there by family, longtime friends and many other wonderful people with open hearts and minds. They enjoy spending time with Anne's son and his wife, with their nieces and nephews and doing many of the things you've read about in her books or that will be 'fictitiously' incorporated into future Morelville Mysteries and Cozies series books. If you've read about a hobby or a sport in either series, they probably enjoy doing it themselves or someone very close to them does.
Anne and her wife are the co-owners of a haunted house: Hagan's House of Horrors. Much as her dream has always been to write fiction, her spouse's dream has been to create it through the medium of horror. They took their haunt operation fully commercial in 2015. Watch them as they grow!
Also Written by the Author
The Morelville Mysteries series doesn’t end with the books in the boxed set this companion guide came with. There are three additional mysteries in the series, to date starting with the previously mentioned ‘Viva Mama Rossi!’ as shown below. These books are currently available exclusively at sss as they’re all part of the k****e Unlimited program. The links are live and will take you to sss where you may purchase them if you wish.
Viva Mama Rossi!: The Morelville Mysteries – Book 5 – More murders plus meddling mothers...
The Morelville Cozies series, Book 1: The Passed Prop – featuring meddling mothers Chloe Rossi and Faye Crane in a case Mel and her department just can’t seem to solve. For continuity – if you’re inclined to read all of the books – this is best read here, after book five in the Morelville Mysteries series. It stands alone but, chronologically, this is where it fits.
A Crane Christmas: The Morelville Mysteries – Book 6 - Is it the Christmas season or the ‘silly season’?
Check Anne Out on her blog, on f*******: or on Twitter:For the latest information about upcoming releases, other projects, sample chapters and everything personal, check out Anne’s blog at https://AnneHaganAuthor.com/ or like Anne on f*******: at https://w**************m/AuthorAnneHagan. You can also connect with Anne on Twitter @AuthorAnneHagan.