1. I hear you have a Jack Russell Terrier (JRT) in your paranormal romances. Tell us about the series.
Yes, I do! The “Redclaw Origins” series is set in the 1950s, and the main characters have a Nick and Nora (from the 1930s Thin Man movies) vibe to them, so I thought it would be fun to add a little terrier, much like their dog Asta. Of course, being a paranormal romance, nothing is simple! And Captain is not a normal dog…he’s a shapeshifter! The only one of his kind. What he shifts into is a surprise, so you’ll have to check out the story to find out what his other form takes, but I have to say, the dichotomy between my own little JRT’s cuteness and his ferocity when faced with prey was a factor in my deciding on Captain’s shifted form!
In Bishop Takes Knight (“Redclaw Origins” book 1), we meet former socialite Henrietta (“Rhett”) Bishop as she struggles to find work with her unusual skill set. A misread address and her own pluck win her a job at Redclaw Security, but the new job isn’t what it seems. Mechanical devices seem to have a mind of their own, and Rhett’s new co-workers are a little strange. When she takes down a dangerous intruder in the office, Rhett gets promoted to field agent—and is let in on the secret: Redclaw Security is an elite paranormal agency that investigates matters in the hidden shifter world. One of the unit’s primary functions is to collect a series of mysterious, powerful artifacts and remove them from of the public sector.
The problem is Redclaw Security isn’t the only organization searching for such items.
Enter Dr. Peter Knight: a former nuclear scientist embittered by the murder of his wife. He wants no part of any secret organization, despite having a talent for working with the strange technology. But Rhett convinces him to join Redclaw, and together they become society’s darlings as well as Redclaw’s newest agents. Along with the shapeshifting dog, Captain, and a sentient ray gun bonded to Rhett, they are a force to be reckoned with. It’s Bringing Up Baby meets Warehouse-13 in this award-winning series debut!
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The adventures continue in Bishop’s Gambit, when Rhett and Peter pose as a married couple in a posh 1950s suburban community while investigating a series of deadly paranormal events. After the debacle of their first mission, Rhett has a lot to prove to Redclaw and seeks to carry out her assignment without the distraction of a budding relationship with Peter Knight.
Too bad there’s only one bed in the new house! Or that in Forest Grove, malice is served with a slice of apple pie and a smile.
It’s Leave it to Beaver meets The X-Files in this award-winning installment of the Redclaw Origins series!
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The “Redclaw Origins” books explore the beginnings of the Redclaw Security firm. Set in the 1950s, the romance is closed door, and the emphasis is on the investigations. Rhett is an unconventional woman of the time, having been raised by a much-beloved father who took her on all his adventures around the world. Being relegated to a desk, when she’s a much better shot than she is a typist, was trying for her until she found her place at Redclaw.
2. I heard you have another series featuring the Redclaw Security firm.
“Redclaw Security” is a steamy contemporary paranormal romance series with the emphasis placed on shifters and their mates, along with the dangers facing Redclaw Security agents. Each story can be read as a standalone, though there are cameos of characters from previous installments, and characters getting their own stories are often introduced in the one before.
The Panther’s Lost Princess, which is the first in the “Redclaw Security” series, is available on Amazon and KU.
Ghost of a Chance, which is the “Redclaw Security” book 2, is available on Amazon Barnes and Noble Apple Kobo
I have plans for a spinoff series that focuses on a single team within the Redclaw agency which solves Major Shifter Crimes in case-based stories. The “Better off Red” series is on the back burner for the moment. If only I didn’t have a demanding day job!
3. Why did you add a dog to this series?
I work with animals for a living, so I include them in almost every story I write. Dogs, cats, horses, you name it. Animals are such an important part of my life. I can’t imagine not having a pet be a character in a story! I think my animal background is why I’m drawn to shifter stories as well.
As I mentioned earlier, Bishop and Knight have a real Nick and Nora vibe with their banter as they solve cases, and that alone made me want to include a spunky little dog to the series. But I also inherited Captain, my mother’s little JRT, when she died, and I’ve fallen completely in love with him! I’d never had a small dog before—all my other dogs are German Shepherds. I was worried Captain wouldn’t fit well into our household at first. But he was the BEST addition ever. He meshed in with our family as though he’d always been a part of it: sleeping with the cats, playfighting with the big dogs, and worming his way onto our bed and into our hearts. When I decided to give Rhett a little dog in the “Redclaw Origins” series, I knew Captain was perfect for the role.
4. What other books have you written?
I
’ve also recently begun writing a series of small-town cozy mysteries (so far, nothing paranormal!) under the name M. K. Dean, featuring house-call veterinarian/amateur sleuth Ginny Reese and her trusty German Shepherd, Remington. I am having a LOT of fun with this series, and there are lots of animals in those stories too!
The first book, An Embarrassment of Itches, was released in July 2021, and the next installment, The Dog Days of Murder, will be out in early 2022. It’s Diagnosis Murder meets All Creatures Great and Small!
An Embarrassment of Itches is currently available only on Amazon, but will be coming to other retailers in the near future.
5. Tell us about your kudos or reviews.
Readers and reviewers have been very generous with their praise of my stories! The “Redclaw Security” series won Third Place for Best Romance/Paranormal/Fantasy/Vampires & Shifters in the Paranormal Romance Guild 2018 Reviewer’s Choice Awards.
Ghost of a Chance was also a finalist in the 2019 Bookseller’s Best Awards.
Bishop Takes Knight is a Top Pick at The Romance Reviews and a Crowned Heart of Excellence recipient at InD’Tale Magazine and has been nominated for a RONE Award! Bishop Takes Knight was voted Best Paranormal/SFF Romance in the 2020 New England Reader’s Choice Awards, Best Light Paranormal Romance in the 2020 PRISM awards, and is a Bronze Medal winner in the Royal Palm Literary Awards for Blended Fiction.
Bishop’s Gambit was named a Top Pick by The Romance Reviews! Kirkus Reviews describes it as “thoroughly entertaining and witty, with a nicely judged mix of genres.”
Bishop’s Gambit also placed Second in the 2021 Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense and placed Second in the 2021 PRISM Awards for Light Paranormal Romance.
An Embarrassment of Itches is a Crowned Heart of Excellence recipient from InD’Tale Magazine and is a finalist in the 2021 N.N. Light’s Book Awards.
6. Where can readers learn more about your books and connect with you online?
The easiest way to find me is to go to my linktree! There you can choose which pen name/Amazon author page/BookBub/Facebook accounts you wish to follow. There’s a link for my website (which you can also follow) and my newsletter signup as well. I have an Instagram accounts (where I share a LOT of pet pictures), and I’m toying with the idea of joining TikTok, though I haven’t yet. I’m rarely on Facebook, but I post to Twitter a LOT. I tend to post slice-of-life stuff to the website blog most weeks, and almost never send out newsletters, though I hope to get a bit better about that in the future! But if you follow my Amazon author accounts or my BookBub accounts, you’ll always get notification of any new releases.
McKenna Dean/M.K. Dean: https://linktr.ee/McKenna_Dean
From Marcia: Thank you, McKenna, for being my January interviewee! I love discovering stories that feature dogs and look forward to reading your books!
MONTHLY BLOG EBOOK CONTEST! Would you like to win a Marcia James’ ebook? Visitors to this pro-pet blog can join in the fun, comment, and/or share photos of their pets for a chance to win one of my ebooks! Each month, I’ll randomly pick one commenter to win. To leave a comment and/or a photo, click on the word “Reply,” which is just below the social media icons for THIS interview. (Don’t scroll past this interview to the next interview.) Go Pets!
In Love Takes Flight, dogs bring Erin and Drew together. Erin owns a golden retriever and runs a dog kennel business. A daring jet pilot, Drew leaves his Border collie at her kennel but soon gets stranded there in a huge, prairie blizzard. Forced together, Erin and Drew overcome an icy start, but secret fears threaten to keep them apart.
In Love Leads the Way, Tessa and Mark clash at work when his boss forces him to enroll in the leadership program she manages. They both own golden retrievers, and at first, a love of dogs is the only thing they share in common. But both are single parents and have mothers with dementia…and even though she’s his coach, maybe they both need lessons in love.
On a windowsill in our home, I display a little plaque that says, “Home is where the dog is,” and I believe it’s true. One of our walls is decorated with quirky artwork featuring dogs. Over the years, I’ve owned three golden retrievers and a Border collie, and all were a big part of our family. My daughters joked that sometimes they thought I liked the dog better than them. (The dog definitely listened better!)
I write feel-good stories about women who chase their dreams and bump into romance along the way. They live in small communities near my home in the Canadian prairies, and they count on an eclectic mix of family and friends (and often dogs) to make their lives interesting and fun.
My first published mystery novel, Mahu (
The Cat’s out of the Bag shares the romance between a tortured heroine and secret billionaire who meet at a cat shelter. In billionaire romance, money is no object but the personal lives of our billionaires are not smooth sailing. It includes a road trip across Australia.
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie is a second-chance romance set around a fake million-dollar scavenger hunt in Sydney. Second-chance romances have a different structure and feel to a standard romance. This is because of the history between the two main characters. They know each other already and are still harbouring strong feelings for one another, whether they admit it or not. In this story, we learn about Tara’s childhood dog who was there with her and her brother growing up.
Get Off Your High Horse is a modern royal and sports romance revolving around the game of polo. The story is based in Brisbane and Maryborough. I shine a light on Maryborough, my hometown, when the characters visit the birthplace of P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins. In this story, I was able to combine my love of horses and Australian culture into the story.
Down the Rabbit Hole is a small-town romance between two best friends. It is not your typical small-town romance as the town itself is not very friendly. It is illegal to keep rabbits as pets in my home state of Queensland and the rabbit, Shorty, who is rescued highlights this. Shorty is based on a hare that was run over by a lawn mower. He was given to my daughter to care for.
I love animals. I don’t think life would be complete without them. It felt natural to me to add them to my stories. They just add another element of enjoyment.
3. What other books have you written?
I used an Irish Setter in Teach Me To Forget (odd, since I’ve never owned an Irish!) He just sort of showed up while I was describing the heroine’s motor home.
One of my favorite book “pets” is Mosby, the gray stallion in A Question of Honor, which starts the Stormhaven series, with horses in each book.
I actually have two books that have “pets”. The first book is The Scattering of Seeds. This is the first novel in the “New Frontier” series. It is a futuristic romance series about three ships that leave earth to colonize a new planet. The series follows the third ship, The Halcyon, which becomes the victim of conspiracy and sabotage. The colonists are allowed to bring pets with them since they will not be returning to earth. The colonial governor’s granddaughter, Sophie, is six and has brought her cat. Jimmy is a tuxedo cat. The governor is an Ian Fleming fan and said the cat reminded him of James Bond…all it needed was a bow tie. The name stuck. Jimmy is the reason the hero and heroine meet. He is an important character in the story.
My book, The Curse, is book two in my paranormal romance series. It has a cat in it, but cat isn’t really a cat at all. Laren Balantar is under a curse. During the day he is a man, but at night he turns into a long-haired black cat. He retains all his memories and intellect but he cannot speak.
The Hidden blurb:
Tender Misdemeanors is a romantic suspense novel from The Wild Rose Press, which tells a story that could come from today’s headlines. Federal agents in the northwest U.S. often have clashes with ecotagers—those who commit acts of ecological sabotage—and white supremacist/government conspiracy theorist types as well. Here, we have one woman trying to stand against both.
2. Why did you add pets to Tender Misdemeanors?
Although I write a bit more as alter ego Lyndi Alexander (sci-fi and fantasy), as Alana, I have one series, 
I do have pets in my Masonville Small-Town Romance series. And honestly, it’s gotten a bit out of control…
So, the series starts with just one pet. But then in book two, To Heal A Heart, Blair Greyson, a veterinary technician, moves to Masonville to work at the veterinary clinic with Cole. Blair comes to live with her grandfather on his farm just outside of town, and she brings her two rescue horses, Stormy and Rainbow, with her. Her grandfather has an elderly golden retriever named Jake who’s his constant companion. Blair meets Garrett Saunders, who is Lauren’s brother, when she finds his rescue horse Harry on the road to Masonville. They make a deal for Blair to board Harry at the farm in exchange for Garrett helping with some repairs on the barn.
A couple of my other books also prominently feature pets. In my paranormal comedy 
In 
I mostly write romantic suspense with strong heroines. Sometimes western romantic suspense. It has to be a romance with a HEA [Happily Ever After], and I love to have a mystery or a murder. A couple of the books I’ve written are below.
Blurb: After an eleven-year absence, Janna Kincaid inherits a ranch and is forced to return to a town she only remembers with unhappiness, a man to whom she was briefly married and never wants to see again, and someone is trying to kill her.