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.
Blurb for All About Charming Alice:
Trust in love and solutions will appear
Alice Treemont has no intention of falling in love. Living in Blake’s Folly, a semi-ghost town, she cooks vegetarian meals, rescues unwanted dogs, and protects the most unloved creatures on earth: snakes. What man would share those interests?
Jace Constant is in Nevada doing research for his new book, but he won’t be staying. He’s disgusted by desert dust on his fine Italian shoes and dog hair on his cashmere sweaters. As for snakes, he doesn’t just despise them; they terrify him.
So why does the air sizzle each time Alice and Jace meet? A romance would entail far too many compromises.
Excerpt from All About Charming Alice:
“Jace, whenever you do see a snake, try and appreciate the creature. See the beauty of its movements, its markings. Find aesthetic appreciation.”
“Sure.” He tried not to shiver. Could he really get over his repulsion? He doubted it.
“Think also that the snake is a victim, not an aggressor.”
“Right. That should be easy: a five-foot-long slithering victim with deadly poison.” But he told himself to relax, to think about how good it felt out here. Because that, at least, was true. Straggling tufts of vegetation, tickled by a chilly breeze, shimmered along the broad horizon. And the silence? Well, he’d already gotten used to that, too. Life without the noise of traffic and big city clatter did have appeal. “Okay. Reassure me. Tell me more about snakes being victims.”
“Well, for one, so many are killed by cars because they love to go bask in the heat on the road. And if most people are instinctively afraid of snakes, snakes aren’t instinctively afraid of people, so they sometimes slide into backyards, innocently passing through on their way to somewhere else. They should be left alone, of course, but people kill them as soon as they notice them. Then, there’s the danger of habitat destruction.”
“And rattlesnake roundups,” he added, to his own surprise.
Her eyes flickered. “That’s right. Very few snakes manage to survive their first encounter with man. But snakes have other enemies, too. Hawks, owls, coyotes, roadrunners, bobcats, skunks, badgers, and other snakes all prey on newborn rattlers. Everyone should remember how important snakes are. They eat animals most people want to get rid of—mice, shrews, rats, moles, gophers, lizards, rabbits, and other snakes. Carrion, too.”
All About Charming Alice Buy Link: https://books2read.com/Charming-Alice
All About Charming Alice Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l2VyHtsY7A
2. Why do you include animals in your books?
I include animals in my books because I have them in my life. All my animals are either stray dogs that I’ve rescued, or that I’ve adopted from animal shelters. Ditto for my cats. I think having the love of an animal is good for the soul. Just reaching out and touching a cat, horse, cow, dog, guinea pig, or even a pet rat, or a snake, is an important experience, and a very comforting one. Animals keep us in touch with our environment and with the world.
3. What other books have you written?
All About Charming Alice is part of my “Blake’s Folly” romance series.
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.
Blurb for Desert Rose:
Secrets are the best protection against love
Rose Badger is the local flirt, and if the other inhabitants of backwoods Blake’s Folly, Nevada, don’t approve, she couldn’t care less. With a disastrous marriage and a dead-end career far behind her, settling down is the last thing she intends to do. Newcomer Jonah Livingstone is intriguing, but with his complicated life, he’s off limits for anything other than friendship. Besides, Rose has a secret world of her own—one she won’t give up for any man.
The last person geologist Jonah Livingstone expected to meet in a semi-ghost town is the sparkling and lovely Rose Badger. But Rose, always surrounded by many admirers, doesn’t seem inclined to choose a favorite. So why fret? Jonah keeps his personal life well hidden…and that’s the best way to avoid disappointment.
Excerpt from Desert Rose:
“This lovely guy is called Noodle,” said Alice, pointing to the beast.
Rose grimaced. Lovely? Come on. “Pleased to meet you, Noodle, but if Alice thinks you’re coming to stay, this will be a short friendship. There’s no place for a hairy shedding animal in my store, my house, or in my life.”
“Well, you’ll have to change your mind. Noodle needs a good home, and you need a dog. This is an isolated building in a place that’s almost a ghost town. You need fang support.”
“Fang support? What the hell is fang support? You’re inventing this. I told you, I don’t want a…a…” Rose looked sourly at the animal waiting calmly by Alice’s feet. Okay, it had to be a dog, but she wasn’t sure. “I don’t want one of those. I don’t want a pet of any sort.”
The pet in question was the size of a large shepherd, and it had rough, unappealing fur of a splotchy beige-ish color. It also had the whiskers of a terrier, pointed ears, a corkscrew tail, and huge hairy paws. It was horribly ugly.
The dog gazed back at her with beautiful golden eyes. Calm eyes. Patient eyes. As if it—or he, because Alice claimed it was a male—were simply waiting for her to stop criticizing and accept him for what he was.
Desert Rose Buy links: https://books2read.com/RosesDesert
Desert Rose Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/tHPrIciT0XU
4. How do you promote your books?
Mostly on social media. I love blogging, meeting other authors on their sites, and I also have a storytelling podcast: https://soundcloud.com/j-arlene-culiner
5. Where can readers learn more about your books and connect with you online?
Here are the links to all the places people can find me: https://linktr.ee/j.arleneculiner.
All my romances can also be found on my site: https://www.j-arleneculiner.com/
And to receive my newsletter with a few stories and cartoons, just sign up here:
https://www.j-arleneculiner.com/newsletter
Don’t Miss J. Arlene Culiner’s Novella Giveaway!
My giveaway to one person who comments on this interview is my novella, The Boomtown, the first complete story from my romance, A Room in Blake’s Folly!
MARCIA: Thank you, J. Arlene, for being my February interviewee and for offering your novella to one lucky commenter on your blog interview! I really enjoy romances that feature pets and look forward to reading yours!
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!
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:
Brenda and Rusty
The Deep Well of Love and Murder is the fourth book in my Wild Horse Peaks novels. Laura is running from a criminal ex-husband. She meets the foreman of the ranch where she’s serving as a nanny. Randy is still nursing a broken heart after many years, but also fighting to hold on to his own small ranch. Perro is Randy’s deaf and mute dog friend. There are villains aplenty in this romantic suspense.
Trick or Meet Blurb: In Holidaze, New York, nearly every day’s a holiday–but Halloween is the best time of year for practical, straight-laced Hannah. Her work as a ghostwriter picks up, her candy addiction becomes socially acceptable, and the line between the living and the dead is so thin, she can feel the spirit of Justin, her late husband, in a way she can’t the rest of the year.
Since childhood I’ve always had cats, and they’re such a comforting, steady link to different phases of one’s life. When I was finishing kindergarten, we adopted a tiny kitten that my sister named Marbley (she was all black like Ghost and looked like a little marble)–and she lived until a few months after I graduated from college! Marbley was with me through all the highs and lows of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and was such an affectionate and loyal friend to the end.
Kiss Kringle, my second book in the series, is a Christmas romance, and I’m now working on a Thanksgiving romance. Every book features a pet or animal of some sort. Kiss Kringle has a very sleepy dog named Blitzen, and my Thanksgiving romance will feature a couple of pet turkeys.
Rescued is the true story of Dancer, the dog who began my “career” in rescue. It’s a saga of recovery, not only for the dog, but for me! Trying to recover from loss, I decided one day to go to my local shelter and adopt a dog…you know, some cute cuddly little thing…not a pit bull. We all know how that goes.
2. Tell us about your dog rescues.
4. Tell us about your kudos or reviews.
I have also started another series, “Holidays in White Oaks Valley.” There is only one book at this time, A Grand Slam Kind of Christmas.
Dog of Thieves features stolen treasures, a cane-whacking elderly woman and a couple of dead bodies.
My first published mystery was Mahu, the first of my Mahu Investigations, about a Honolulu homicide detective who is dragged out of the closet while investigating a dangerous case. In thirteen books so far, his detective work has illuminated his gradual coming out, to the point where now he is a loving partner and dad to twins. Since then I’ve written over fifty other books in mystery, adventure and romance.
MAX: Thank you for asking. I’m a very cute and lovable (I’ve been told that too many times to count) one-year-old big puppy. Born in a service dog training center, my mom, Goldie, is a beautiful Golden lab. One sunny afternoon, using her nose, she lifted the latch to her pen and took a wonderful free run to a local dog park. At the time, she was in heat.
MARIAH: That’s too easy. Max’s character is based on my own late dog also named Max. He loved everyone he met, including other animals, manatees, and dolphins, and did not have a mean bone in his body. He visited nursing homes where he was loving and kind to the elderly patients. His doggy smile made them smile, as did his hand kissing and tail wagging. Max loved kids and visited our local island rec center and summer day camp where he performed a magic show as Max the Magnificent just like the show in the book.
Left in a basket by the side of the road with his sister when he was but a few weeks old, my Max was rescued and cared for by our county Humane Society. I happened to be there on the first day he was placed in the adoption program. Max, I was told, was his happiest when he was surrounded by people. I held him for the first time when he was eight weeks old and as he snuggled in my arms, I knew I had adopted a smart, happy, and loving puppy.
At that time, I owned a video store on the beautiful island where we lived and served on the board of directors for a no-kill animal shelter. When a speaker from the shelter came to tell our local school kids about the importance of adopting a pet, Max served as his demonstration dog and afterwards the kids lined up to pet him. He had quite a long line of admirers and wagged his tail with each pet and hug.
Max came to my video store with me and positioned himself at the front counter facing the entrance so he could greet everyone who entered. What a hugger! What a lover! He was so cute, he modeled for my store ads and I do mean modeled. When he saw the camera pointed in his direction, he loved to pose.
Another time I walked him along our seawall. He was about one year old then and was very aware of dolphin sounds and sightings. A dolphin suddenly surfaced near the wall, and Max leaned down to greet it. Their noses were so close they could have kissed. I wished I had my camera with me, but that beautiful picture will stay in my memory forever.
It’s the holidays and Jessica Munroe seems destined for misery. Nonetheless she is trying to make the best of it. Her fiancé Jake, an emergency room doctor, dumped her for his nurse and just two weeks prior, she had to put her dog, her best friend Mazy, to sleep.
The character of Dukey, Duchess Amelia’s very spoiled dog, is based on my best friend’s regal King Charles Spaniel Prince. An elegant and beautiful dog, Prince could steal a person’s heart as easily as the thief in this story stole The Duchess’ Necklace.
I’ve written 21 fiction books. I’ve written action/adventure with a heavy sensual romance focus, gay M/M stories, a trilogy with psychic elements, plus short stories, two cartoon shorts, movie screenplays, T.V. pilots, and non-fiction books. I wrote a sci/fi fantasy novella, which is high on the sexy heat level.
6. Tell us about your latest book. What motivated the story? Where did the idea come from?