1. I hear you have a cat in the first book of your Romancing the Guardians series. Tell us about the book.
Yes, indeed, there is a black-and-white kitty named Penguin in Rescuing Lara, book one in this 8-book series. The little dickens gets in trouble on page one, making Lara’s Irish housekeeper mad. Temporarily confined to a wheelchair after a car crash that badly injured her leg, Lara Flewellen, alias Spenser, is grateful for the older woman’s help.
2. Why did you add a cat to this book?
First, I thought a pet would show the heroine’s softer side. She found Penguin meowing on her back stoop in a rain storm and let the poor baby in.
Second, I love cats. My husband is also a cat person. We’ve shared our home with one or more of the little darlings through most of our married life. Many were strays we took in, just as Lara does. Currently, we have three: Katy, Sandy and Lady. My husband also feeds a tribe of community cats in our back yard.
Some years ago, I published a memoir titled Six Cats In My Kitchen. Yes, there really were six cats ruling the roost at that time. Each one held a special place in our family and in my heart.
3. What other books have you written?
I’ve written a western historical romance series, a time travel romance, and have been included in several anthologies.
My new release is Rebel Mine, an Irish historical romance. Set in 1798 during an Irish rebellion against British rule, this book took me two years and many, many hours of research to write. The hero and heroine are traditional enemies, he a son of the Anglo aristocracy, she a daughter of Irish peasants, but circumstances unite them in a patriotic fight—and in a love for all time. You will also find some beautiful, fiery horses in the story.
Rebel Mine blurb:
In the winter of 1798, Ireland is on the verge of rebellion against British rule. Colin Wainwright is a son of Anglo-Irish aristocrats and a former captain in the British Army. He is torn between loyalty to the crown and the Irish people.
Brenna O’Hanlon is a daughter of tenant farmers. As a young girl living on the Wainwright estate in Ulster, she adored Colin from afar. Now she’s a spy for the United Irishmen, who seek freedom for Ireland.
When Colin meets the new housekeeper—Brenna hired under a false name by his father, he judges her too young for such a post and accuses her of being his father’s latest doxy. Her temper flares, yet she’s attracted to him. Colin hatches a plot to thwart the squire’s wicked plans for her. Romance develops between them, and Colin ends up helping Brenna with her mission. Intrigue and violence lead to love, but will it survive in the midst of war?
4. Tell us about your kudos or reviews.
I have received awards from the Paranormal Romance Guild, Big Al’s Books and Pals, and InD’Tale Magazine. If your readers wish to see my award badges, I invite them to visit my website. My books have also received a number of great reviews. Here’s a nice one for Rescuing Lara:
“This book had it all, it was a fast read and I read it in less than one day. Lara and Conn are wonderful characters, as well as Dev who I hope to read more about. The book has love, sex, suspense, prophecies and violence. . . There are six more Guardians out there and I can’t wait to read the next story in the series.” ~ Paranormal Romance Guild
5. How do you promote your books?
To be honest, I’ve never been very good at promoting my books, but I recently hired an online assistant who is busy social networking for me. She also added my new book, Rebel Mine, to BookFunnel, a site for readers who get free books in exchange for posting reviews. I’ve also joined a book club where I can talk about my books, and I hope to engage in more personal appearances. Being an introvert, this is really a stretch for me.
6. Where can readers learn more about your books and connect with you online?
My Website, Lyn Horner’s Corner: https://lynhorner.com
Newsletter: https://lynhorner.myflodesk.com/newsletter
Amazon Author Central page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004CY506Y
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lyn.horner.author
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lynhornerauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4639926.Lyn_Horner
MARCIA: Thank you, Lyn, for being my September interviewee! I’m looking 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 blog 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!
I thought up this elderly woman character, Felicity, who was widowed and lived alone, who had a unique way to supplement her Social Security. Her delightfully fluttery personality is cover for scary intelligence. The plot in my mind needed a catalyst, something or someone who could give it a little humor, and be present and perhaps responsible for some of the turning points. A large black cat her late husband had rescued from drowning appeared in my imagination. Thus his name, Lazarus. Then I threw in a romance to add spice and give the plot more dimension. It sort of fell together. Thus Lazarus was already in place for the next book, Dangerous Legacy.
Amazon Buy Links for the Legacy Series (and other Justine Wittich books’) are here: 
Above all, it’s a love story between two very different beings, both of whom have the same wish—to stop a series of murders in the main city of Planet Andaan. Kylie Sanderson is the independent-minded daughter of a wealthy family who wants to do more with her days than play. She has put herself through school, over her father’s objection, to become an exobiologist and police detective with SIRT, the Scientific and Investigative Research Taskforce. When a series of women turn up dead and mutated like lizards, she is assigned the case. Griff is a reptile shapeshifter who is kin to those committing the murders, who wants his brethren to stop what they’re doing because it is wrong.
Funny story. My former husband and I were part of an online RPG [role-playing game] that featured characters of our own making. I had created Kylie and he created Griff as part of our repertoires, and they ended up having a great love story in the RPG. After we had separated, I wasn’t ready to let go of the characters yet. So I dreamed up a plot they could inhabit, and here they are!
1. I hear you have a dog in Miracles from the Heart. Tell us about the book.
“The Christmas Gift” is dedicated to my late Jack Russell, Belladonna aka Belle, the best four-legged friend and shadow I could ever have. She brought me extreme joy and happiness. I’ve had some wonderful dogs in my life, but Belle was extra special. On or off a lead, she stuck by me. We’ve had Basset Hounds, Airedale Terriers, a Doberman, and at one time we had 30 birds–from tiny Finches to Amazon Orange-winged Parrots. [We also had] a house rabbit, several cats, and many, many fish–fresh water and salt.
Second Chance Bride blurb:
I’ve written about 30 or more books. Last Christmas is another book that stars Friday, a rescue dog that was found on a Friday and taken to a shelter. He’s adopted by a small-town police chief.
Someone recently called me a hidden treasure. *LOL* The hidden part is probably correct. There has been so much turmoil in my family because of medical crises that I’ve done hardly anything in years to promote my books. I realized I was becoming invisible to the reading public, so this year I vowed to do something about this. Thank you, Marcia, for giving me that opportunity.
The books I’m featuring here today are Will o’ the Wisp and The Haunting of Laurel Cove. Will o’ the Wisp is contemporary romance with suspense; The Haunting of Laurel Cove is a mystery romance with a bit of the supernatural. Both are published by The Wild Rose Press, and both have animals in the stories.
In The Haunting of Laurel Cove, Jane and her faithful, ragtag companion Pepper come back to Laurel Cove to recover from a vicious attack. She becomes obsessed with an old cabin in the Cove, but Pepper will not let her near it. Jane welcomes her dog’s presence while she discovers answers to the secrets and mysteries of Laurel Cove, while guarding her heart against falling back in love with an old flame, Brendan McGarren.
No Luck At All is a western romance set in the mid-1800s. The story centers around Creel Weston and his new wife, Racine. Creel is a Colorado rancher who went to Boston to obtain a medical degree. They met at dinner party hosted by Racine’s father, who was also Creel’s mentor, and Creel was instantly smitten with her, so much that he decided he wasn’t leaving Boston without her. But unbeknownst to him, Racine suffered deep emotional scars, so much that her father intervened and blackmailed Creel into marrying her, before Creel had a chance to propose. The wedding takes place, and they leave Boston for Creel’s home in Colorado. During an overnight stay in Denver, things come to a head and both realize they have made mistakes and unfairly judged the other…until someone from Creel’s past causes Racine’s doubt to return.
Royce Weston knows firsthand women are exceptional liars, especially the one who has wormed her way into his family’s good graces by claiming amnesia. Since Paige didn’t heed his advice at the poker tables, he reasons a bit of friendly persuasion is needed to send her packing. But when she matches him trick for trick and has his ranch hands jumping to please her, Royce is thoroughly disgusted. A simpering miss she is not. Sassy and daring, if only she’d give him a reason to trust her…
Lucas Weston is living proof of the damage a woman can cause. Determined to keep another miss from running roughshod over his heart, Lucas has garnered the reputation of a man who favors flirting and wild times between the sheets. When he’s roped into escorting Missy back to her home in San Francisco, he isn’t too pleased, until he discovers she uses her poker-playing, whiskey-swilling ways to hide her own fears. What they might be, he doesn’t know, but he’s going to find out. Drawn to her from the start, Missy represents the opportunity for the life fate cheated him seven years ago.
Grief and guilt are as much a part of Jess Jansen as riding herd. Twenty-two years he’s longed for the woman who ran out on him, and now his luck is about to change. Needing a place to hole up during a thunderstorm, the Lazy K looks to be a safe haven. There’s a barn―and a body with soft curves and sapphire eyes he’d know anywhere.
1. I hear you have animals in most of your novels. Tell us about your favorite book featuring animals.
In my contemporary romance, All About Charming Alice, my heroine rescues stray dogs—she has a whole house full of them. One stray, nicknamed Killer, brings the gorgeous and sexy writer Jace Constant into Alice’s life. But Alice doesn’t just like dogs. She also studies and protects snakes and actively protests against such cruel practices as snake shows where those creatures are tortured to death for the amusement of tourists. Jace, however, is terrified by snakes, and it does take a bit of coaxing to get him to change his mind.
Another book in the series is Desert Rose. Rose, the heroine, is Alice’s closest friend, and she very unwillingly adopts Noodle, one of Alice’s strays.
My award-winning debut novel, Always a Princess, was the start of the Clifton Hall series. In the novel, the hero has a little sister he hasn’t seen since he left to fight in France. On his return, he gifts her a spaniel puppy–a naughty one. As her pup does not seem to care for Englishmen, she names it Bony “after the French usurper.” Bony was inspired by my bichon fries Cookie, but as his breed (which is Belgian) wasn’t known in England at the time the book is set (1812), I turned him into spaniel puppy. Much of the novel takes place at Clifton Hall in Lancashire and at least one Lancashire estate was known as a place for breeding Springer spaniels in the Regency era.
The Regency era Romany were persecuted as an underclass, so the warning bell of a dog’s bark meant a lot. Valkin is the Romany hero in this book, and he attempts to subdue his powerful attraction to the heroine, so he spends most of the book frustrated and fantasising–while Chore, the largest canine in the camp, is rutting about all over the place producing pups at a prodigious rate. Chore is the Romany word for ‘thief’ and is a bit of a dig at the many false accusations of theft the Romany are forced to face, both in the past and even today.
Hall. This novella is a race to wed for Chal (Valkin’s youngest brother) and his betrothed. Chore’s main activity in this shorter story is swallowing mince pies at the Christmas feast, destroying the remains of three roast geese, and herding children away from the burning yule log fire as the very English Cliftons and their Romany friends and family feast outdoors. The novella appears in a holiday duet alongside Heather Hallman’s Edwardian Seduction of Tokyo novella, which is excellent as well–although, unfortunately, there are no dogs in this one.
A Delicate Investigation novella in Summer Secrets of the Soho Club:
The Christmas Salon
Love Unbroken appears in Love for Maui (a charity anthology)
The opening book in the series (soon to be seven) was written and published many years ago. Murder and Mint Tea has earned many reviews mostly good but some not. When I wrote Murder and Mint Tea, I had no thoughts of writing a series. The heroine is quirky and mothers her neighborhood. The cat, Robespierre, is based on a real cat, my companion for many years.
As to the genres, I write contemporary romance, romantic suspense, fantasy–both romance and young adult, a bit of historical and some nonfiction.
Seppal blurb: