Ten Things You Might Not Know About Sheila Boneham's Animals in Focus Mysteries

As I wrap up Catwalk, Animals in Focus Mystery #3 (to be released September 2014), it occurs to me that it might be fun to share a few tidbits about the books. (Don't worry if you haven't read them -- no spoilers here!). So here we go....

1. The people in the books are not real people. Yes, yes, you're sure that person belongs to your dog-training or cat-fanciers' club, but s/he doesn't. Really. (Do be nice to me, though....)
2. The animals in the books are as real as can be! Now, this is fiction, so no one dog or cat or bird in the book is exactly like any one real-life dog or cat or bird. But Jay, the "protagdog," and Leo, the "leading cat," and all the others never do anything that I haven't seen or heard of an animal doing.
3. Janet MacPhail, who tells the tales, never intended to be an amateur sleuth. She was perfectly happy photographing animals, landscapes, and occasionally people, and wrestling with the challenges of being 50-something. But then people started dying....
4. Janet's dog Jay is an Australian Shepherd. Yes, Aussies really are that energetic and smart. Really. 

   

   My muses -- Australian Shepherd Jay (1997-2012) and
   Labrador Retriever Lily (lying on my feet as I type)
   
   

5. There are lots of retrievers in The Money Bird (2013). Retrievers come in many flavors, as you can see in the book -- Labrador, Golden, Chesapeake Bay, Flat-coated, Curly-coated, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling. Besides the "official" retrievers, there are other breeds designed to collect game birds from water and land. 
6. Winning in obedience competition really can come down to half points, as it does in Drop Dead on Recall (2012), and some people are very serious about training and winning. But I've never heard of anyone actually committing murder at an obedience trial. Still....
7. Dogs do not have a corner on exciting sports like agility. Wait 'til you see what Leo is up to in Catwalk! (But you do have to wait until September 2014. Sorry.)                                   

   

   Janet's cat, Leo, is an orange tabby like my own Leo and Malcolm.
   All the cats of my life have inspired fictional Leo's behaviors,
   including Kitty, shown here studying up.
   
   >^..^<

8. You younger readers - listen up! People in their 50s, 60s, 70s + really do have lives, complete with hopes and dreams, and physical, mental, and emotional activities of all kinds. So pay attention to Janet and her friends and lovers. (Woops! Just one of the latter at the moment!) You might learn something. 
9. I made up the endangered parrot species in The Money Bird, but a lot of real-life birds and animals are at risk from trafficking, habitat destruction, and other factors. My hope is that the limited information in the book will encourage people to learn more, and behave accordingly. Fiction is more than entertainment.                                                           

   

   Sunny at 12.5 (left) and Jay at almost 13.

10. When you buy my books from Pomegranate Books, I will gleefully autograph your copies of Drop Dead on Recall and The Money Bird, or my in-print nonfiction books, including Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals (Alpine, 2009) for the reader of your choice. Click here to order now!

So there you have it. What else would you like to know? 

Drop Dead on Recall is a finalist for Best Fiction Book in the 2012 Dog Writers of America Writing Competition, and was named one of the Ten Best Pet Books of 2012 by NBCPetside blog!

Sheila's books are are available in the usual places and forms -- paperback, ebooks, large print, and Audible. If your local bookseller doesn't have them in stock, they can order them, or you can find them online or HERE.

Where In the World is Sheila Blogging Today? Part II

I've just wrapped up the second week of my blog tour celebrating release of The Money Bird, Animals in Focus Mystery #2, which is now available. 

The Money Bird rejoins animal photographer Janet MacPhail, her Australian Shepherd Jay, and her orange tabby Leo, who got their start as amateur sleuths last year in Drop Dead on Recall.  You can learn more about the books on my Mysteries Page. They are both available from your local bookseller and online in paperback and ebook editions. (DropDead on Recall is also available as an audio book from Audible.com and in large print. If you would like an autographed copy of any of my books for yourself or to give as a gift, you can order one from Pomegranate Books.

Before we get to the nitty gritty of my virtual tour, I'd like to thank Lori at Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours again for arranging these visits for me last week. Check out the other tours on her calendar, and her own blog, too, while you're at it. At the end of the tour, I'll be giving away three books! Check it out at the blogs listed below (click the blog titles - the links are live) or on Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.

Here's where the tour bus stopped this past week:

• September 9 - Kaisy Daisy's Corner - short review and links to the giveaway, tour stops, and more
• September 10 - Melina's Book Blog - my thoughts on plotting the individual books in a series, and the series itself, plus a synopsis of The Money Bird and a review of the book.
• September 11 -  Read Your Writes - "Ten Facts About Janet MacPhail," the 50+ protagonist of the Animals in Focus mystery series, and a review here. How well do you know Janet?
• September 12 - readalot - review and links.

And here's where we were the week before. 

• September 2 - Shelley's Book Case - interview about my background, my inspiration for this book, and a few other things, plus a short review
• September 3 - rantin' ravin' and reading - my take on balancing serious issues with fiction meant to entertain, plus a review by Kate Eileen Shannons, who says The Money Bird is "Very, very funny. The Animals in Focus Mystery series is going to be one to follow.  ♥♥♥♥♥"
• September 4 - A Blue Million Books - interview about the book's title, characters, and more, plus what I'm working on, what I read, and the five real people I'd like with me if I were stuck in a bookstore! You can read the first chaper of The Money Bird, too. 
• September 5 - Omnimystery - interview about my 50-something protagonist, Janet MacPhail, her Aussie Jay, and her orange tabby Leo, plus my writing process and my advice to aspiring authors. 
• September 6 - Mochas, Mysteries and More - why I made my protagonist a nature/animal photographer, as well as a review from Melissa, who says, "This is one of my very favorite animal-related cozy series on the market today."

You can keep up with new stops on the tour by following my Facebook Page, Website, and Amazon Author Page. I'll be doing a few other guest posts, too, that are not part of this tour, but little side trips. I hope to see you there! (Comments on the blogs are always welcome!)

My books are available in print & ebook formats from the usual sources. Drop Dead on Recall is available in audio format from Audible.com, with The Money Bird to follow soon. If you would like a personally autographed copy of any of my mysteries, or my nonfiction book Rescue Matters!, you can order here. 

Dog Days, GSD Style, with Guest Author Tracy Weber

It's my pleasure today to welcome debut mystery author Tracy Weber, whose first Downward Dog Mystery, Murder Strikes a Pose, will be out from Midnight Ink in January. Don't forget to sign up for Tracy's mailing list ~ you might win a beautiful Downward Dog mug!  ~ Sheila

Dog Days—German Shepherd Style!

by Tracy Weber

I’m delighted to help celebrate the dog days of summer! Since my first mystery revolves around a feisty German shepherd named Bella, I decided to share a little about the two German shepherds that have inspired my writing. 

I barely remember the far-from-perfect German shepherd my parents owned when I was a preschooler. She barked, chased the cows, and had a passion for hunting skunks, porcupines, and most any other critter that would fit in her mouth. In my mind, Duchess was a veritable Lassie. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t agree. After an ill-fated altercation with a neighbor’s cat, Duchess was sent to a new home. I never quite got over the loss, and I vowed that I would someday own a German shepherd of my own. 

Fast forward about thirty-five years to the day I picked up my eight-week-old bundle of fur. I vowed to not repeat the mistakes of my parents. I vowed to do everything “right.” I studied books about German shepherds and enrolled in multiple dog training classes. I told everyone my dog would be the paragon of proper doggy behavior. 

I should have known I was in for trouble the day Tasha chewed up all of my dog training books. 

Cursed with a variety of illnesses and a fearful temperament, Tasha will never be the poster child for German shepherd temperament and behavior, but every day I get to spend with her is a gift. She’s taught me patience and creativity, and she’s forced me learn how to give up control. Most of all, she’s shown me that I can give love unconditionally, even when the recipient is far from perfect. Tasha has made me a better human being. 

Sign up for my mailing list and
you might win a free
Downward Dog Mysteries coffee mug!  http://tracyweberauthor.com/mailing.html

My first mystery, MURDER STRIKES A POSE, involves a yoga teacher, Kate Davidson, and her German shepherd sidekick, Bella. Like Tasha—and Duchess before her—Bella is huge, often unruly, and smarter than most human beings. She sometimes gets Kate into trouble, sometimes saves her from it. Above all else, she’s the love of Kate’s life. 

I can’t wait to see how their path unfolds in the rest of the Downward Dog Mysteries. Writing about yoga, dogs, and murder. What could be more fun?

Please check out MURDER STRIKES A POSE, available January 8, 2014 from Midnight Ink! http://tracyweberauthor.com/books.html. 

Murder Strikes a Pose introduces Kate Davidson, a feisty Seattle yoga instructor who’s more interested in savasana than solving crimes…. until she stumbles over a body in the studio’s parking lot. The police dismiss the murder as drug-related street crime, but Kate knows that George—a homeless alcoholic she had befriended—was no drug dealer. 

Kate stretches herself and takes on two new challenges. First, solve George’s murder. Second, find someone—anyone—willing to adopt his intimidating, horse-sized German shepherd, Bella, before Animal Control sends her to the big dog park in the sky. But with Bella’s time almost up and the murderer hot on her trail, Kate will have to work fast, or the next time she practices corpse pose, it may be for real

Advance praise for Murder Strikes a Pose:

“Kate Davidson’s pluck, humor, and determination make her a welcome addition to the ranks of amateur sleuths. Reading MURDER STRIKES A POSE made me want to study yoga.” —LAURIEN BERENSON, author of THE BESTSELLING MELANIE TRAVIS MYSTERY SERIES 

“A delightful debut novel. Namaste to Weber and her fresh, new heroine!” —PENNY WARNER, award-winning author of the PARTY PLANNING MYSTERY SERIES 

“Great characters, keep-you-guessing plot, plenty of laughs, and dogs—what more could we want?” —SHEILA WEBSTER BONEHAM, author of THE MONEY BIRD,  Animals in Focus Mystery #2.

Tracy Weber is a certified yoga teacher and the founder of Whole Life Yoga, an award-winning yoga studio in Seattle, where she currently lives with her husband and German shepherd. Weber is a member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Dog Writers Association of America, and Sisters in Crime. She loves sharing her passion for yoga and animals in any form possible. Murder Strikes a Pose is Weber’s debut. For more information, visit her online at TracyWeberAuthor.com and WholeLifeYoga.com.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Please come back next week! On Monday author Christy English writes about changing genres, and on Thursday I'll be here with some updates on the launch of The Money Bird, Animals in Focus Mystery #2 featuring photographer Janet MacPhail, her Australian Shepherd Jay, her orange tabby Leo, and a whole lotta wet dogs!  

Have a creative weekend. Read with a furry friend! 

Sheila 

A Synergy of Image, Text, and Dogs, Part 2

Dogs Days continue with part 2 of two posts about how texts and images featuring dogs have been combined since human beings began to do such things. You can find Part 1 here. Thanks for being here - comments welcome!  ~ Sheila

A Synergy of Image, Text, and Dogs, Part 2

by Sheila Webster Boneham

Medieval and Renaissance artists often depicted saints in the company of faithful dogs. Saint Roch (Rocco) is a case in point. Legend holds that Saint Roch was born into a wealthy family in 1295 but gave away his earthly possessions twenty years later when both his parents died, and soon became known for miraculous cures. When he himself became ill with an unspecified “plague,” he was banished from human society. A dog, it is said, found him dying in the woods, licked his wounds, and brought him bread. The healer was healed. As the patron of dogs and of people who love or work with them, Saint Roch is often portrayed with a dog at his side or licking his wounds. Even today his image holds power and appears on medals given in many traditional “Blessing” ceremonies. Originally meant to secure safety for hunters, especially riders following hounds, such Blessings are now commonly held for pets of all kinds in religious and secular ceremonies around the world, and in my experience, dogs are far better represented at such events than are other animals.


Again, though, darker aspects of humanity are frequently embodied in images of dogs and in language. The unflinching loyalty that makes dogs “faithful” in human eyes also makes them appear to some as cringing cowards. For stray and feral dogs, survival often depends on scrounging for food in garbage dumps and other unsavory places, and malnourished, parasite-ridden dogs have been used to symbolize depravity, cowardice, thievery, and other negative human traits. Some Medieval and Renaissance artists were obvious in their use of the dog as a negative symbol. Titian, for one, is said to have included toy dogs in many paintings of female nudes to symbolize female seductiveness and infidelity, and Flemish artists often used dogs to denote treachery and persecution. In modern American culture, these negative associations are primarily linguistic; calling a person a dog, bitch, son of a bitch, cur, or pup is rarely well received. Images of dogs used to provoke negative responses seem to involve specific breeds rather than dogs as a species, and which breeds are held in negative public regard changes over time. 

As secular works emerged during the Middle Ages, and as Europe drifted toward the Renaissance, interest grew in understanding the natural world. Books on animals appeared, usually with an emphasis on husbandry and hunting. The fourteenth century Livre de chasse (Book of the Hunt) by Gaston III, also known as Gaston Phoebus, is perhaps the most famous and most lavish of medieval hunting books. The work, which is “organized in four parts and written in a clear narrative voice” (“Gaston Phoebus”), covers a range of topics, from training and handling hunting dogs to their selection and care to methods and equipment for hunting various types of game. According to the Phebus Historical Foundation, it was a book ahead of its time, “present[ing] an impressive knowledge of the natural sciences—long before the age of modern empirical science—with detailed observations on the various animal species” (“Gaston Phoebus”). Like its counterparts today, Gaston’s Livre de chasse is illustrated with exquisitely detailed miniatures, and it is easy to imagine the book’s select few readers scrutinizing the dogs in the pictures while their own dogs slept at their sides.

From The Book of the Hunt by Gaston Phoebus. I love this
illustration - the images could be from a modern book on canine
care, or from someone's website or social media page!

Invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century spurred a publishing surge. Although religious texts dominated early press publications in Europe, by the following century tales of strange places and creatures brought home by explorers had captured the popular imagination, and “scientific” bestiaries and herbals became ever more popular. Woodcuts were used for illustrations in early printed works, but during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, technological advances gave rise to better methods of printing illustrations. Eighteenth-century printers developed copperplate etching and engraving methods that further improved the quality and detail of printed images. 

Illustration from Robinson Crusoe,
1893 Czech edition

As books became affordable and literacy in Western countries increased, secular fiction and nonfiction books became more popular. It seems natural that our best friend the dog should appear in many of them, whether in a minor or major role. In fact, illustrations sometimes elevate dogs to larger roles than they enjoy in the texts of certain books. In Robinson Crusoe (originally published in 1719), for instance, Daniel Defoe barely mentions his hero’s dog, but illustrated editions of the book often include the dog in at least one image (Britton). Other classics such as Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz feature dogs as prominent if not central characters, and show them in cover and internal illustrations. Novels with dogs as central characters, including such classics as Beautiful Joe (1893) by Margaret Marshall Saunders and the Sunnybrook Collie books (1919-1940s) by Albert Payson Terhune, first appeared in the nineteenth century, and judging by the sixteen thousand titles listed under “Fiction and literature: dogs” on amazon.com, the genre remains alive and well.

Nonfiction books about dogs, both narrative and informational, are also published by the hundreds each year, and most of them are generously illustrated. Although line drawings are still used, most illustrations these days are photographs selected not only for their ability to convey information (“here’s what a well-trimmed toenail looks like” or “here’s a portrait of Skippy”) but also for their emotional appeal. Readers like images that tug at their heartstrings. Even highly regarded narrative nonfiction books in which dogs are central, such as Mark Doty’s Dog Years, include at least a few photographs. 

~~~

And then, of course, there are books like these! Available from your local bookseller and online. Personally autographed copies available here. 

Equal parts mystery and dog appreciation, with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure, this second case for Janet and her pals (Drop Dead on Recall, 2012) is accessible to fans of all three." ~ Kirkus Review

"The intricate plot [of Drop Dead on Recall] has plenty of surprises, red herrings, and interesting details about animals. Fans of Laurien Berenson or Susan Conant will especially enjoy this pet-centered mystery." — Amy Alessio for Booklist.

Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals "...should be in the library of any serious animal lover and any library catering to them."  — Midwest Book Review