by Linda O. Johnston
I’m delighted that it’s May. Or at least I was. This month, my third Barkery & Biscuits Mystery BAD TO THE BONE was published. As I’d mentioned in earlier blogs, I’ve been doing all kinds of things to let people know about it, including participating on a panel at Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland, with other mystery writers who include animals in their stories. Then there was a delightful appearance at events held by the Ridge Writers in Ridgecrest, California. I additionally attended the Glendale, California, Central Library branch reopening.
I’m also currently at the end of a Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for BAD TO THE BONE, a blog tour full of reviews, interviews, spotlights and posts from me, always a fun thing to do.
I love my Barkery series–which unsurprisingly includes dogs. I’m currently working on number four in that series.
Then there’s my other news. I’d mentioned previously that my next book to be published will be PROTECTOR WOLF, the eighth paranormal romance in my Alpha Force miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne, about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. It’s a June release.
But I just learned that Harlequin is ending several of their series. And one of those to be ended is the Nocturne line. Sigh.
There’s a possibility I’ll have one more Nocturne out by the end of 2018, which will be the last year for the series. Or, PROTECTOR WOLF will be my last. It has definitely been a fun way to have canines appear in stories I write–shapeshifters who often have cover animals, and if they happen to be werewolves their cover canines are dogs who resemble them in shifted form.
I know that things change. Series end, and even publishers close their doors.
Recognizing that’s part of the industry doesn’t make it easier, but at least there are a lot of other options these days. My writing career continues. So does my enjoyment of including dogs in nearly all of my stories.
I just hope that’s all the bad news I’ll hear for a while.