1. I hear you have dogs in two of your novels. Tell us about the books.
Dogs have always been a part of my life. It’s just natural that dogs appear in two stories of the Fitzpatrick Family series: When Love Trusts and When Love Comes Home.
When Love Trusts
Growing up together in a small Texas town, Josh Fitzpatrick and Mara Burke always had each other’s backs, right up until Mara dated—then dumped—his best friend. A relationship built on love and trust…until it wasn’t.
Josh is an Army sniper home on medical leave with wounds that go deeper than the shrapnel dug from his thigh. While his body recovers, he wrestles with guilt over what happened in Iraq and waits for news of possible disciplinary action.
Mara is a single mom and administrator at a home for boys, still hiding the terrible secret that created the ten-year chasm between them.
When the boy’s home needs volunteers after a grass fire, Josh steps in. The sparks from their youth soon ignite a new passion, but will sharing their secrets be enough to overcome the pain and hurt that lies between them?
When Love Comes Home
Sammy Fitzpatrick and Tiffany Fischer eloped on prom night. The next day her father forced them to sign annulment papers and then whisked her off to art school. Sammy and Tiffany made secret plans to go to Guatemala with a mission group.
When she and her parents disappear without a trace, Sammy heads to the mission field missing a chunk of his heart and resigned to a life alone.
Ten years later, he discovers the annulment papers were never filed. Tiffany is still legally his wife, but she doesn’t know it. She’s engaged to someone else. His heart has never let him forget. But is he too late?
2. Why did you add dogs to these books?
Next to Ireland and all things Irish, I love Old English sheepdogs (OES). We’ve had six. The American Kennel Club describes the breed as smart, gentle, and adaptable. They’re also clowns and gentle giants who don’t realize their size.
Our Finnegan thinks he’s a lap dog. If I sit, he’s on my lap:
We’ve given all our OESs unique names: Azariah, Obadiah, Micah, Rhinestone, and Tobias. Finnegan MacCool, pictured above, is named after Fionn mac Cumhaill, the legendary Giant’s Causeway giant in County Antrim Ireland.
I model dogs in my books after our pets. You’ll find the OES Moo in When Love Comes Home. Like my Finnegan, Moo senses Tiffany’s moods. He doesn’t climb into her lap, but you’ll find him nudging her hand and plopping his head down whenever she sits. Moo got his name because her farm manager warned her, he’d be as big as a cow.
In When Love Trusts, Bear is an OES mix that Josh rescues and gives to Mara’s son. Bear’s a big reason Josh and Mara reconnect. Mara’s son chose the name Bear [because he’s] big and black and walking like a bear.
3. What other books have you written?
I write sweet small-town romance, romantic suspense, a blend of women’s fiction and romance, and military romance.
You’ll find a total of six books in the Fitzpatrick series. All are heartwarming stories about siblings finding second chances for love. Link for all the Fitzpatrick Family series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W8CTXY7
You can find the other books and series listed on my website along with blurbs: https://www.JudytheMorgan.com
4. Tell us about your kudos or reviews.
Before I became published, I entered writing contests and placed in many. That affirmation persuaded me to pursue publication. Now reviews on Amazon and Goodreads–the good, the bad, and the ugly–are my confirmation.
I love hearing from my readers. Their comments and emails with personal messages like those below keep me writing:
“… waiting with bated breath for your new book.”
“Finished When Love Come Home last week. Wow, a lot of twist and turns. Love the read!”
5. How do you promote your books?
I promote my books with guest blog appearances like this one, my weekly blog at https://JudyTheWriter.com/ and my newsletter, which you can subscribe to here: https://JudytheMorgan.com/
6. Where can readers learn more about your books and connect with you online?
Your blog readers are invited to follow me on any (or all) of these social media sites:
Amazon Author Page: https://amazon.com/author/judythemorgan
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Judythe2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JudytheMorgan/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6450879.Judythe_Morgan
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/judythe-morgan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judythe2/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judythehixson/
WIN A JUDYTHE MORGAN EBOOK!
Judythe: “I’ve shared the names of the two dogs in my Fitzpatrick Family books and how the dogs got those names. If you have a pet, how did you choose your pet’s name?”
Answer the above question in this interview’s Comments section for a chance to win either When Love Trusts or When Love Comes Home (winner’s choice).
From Marcia: Thank you, Judythe, for being my March interviewee! I love discovering romances that feature pets and look forward to reading your books! And thank you for offering an ebook to one lucky commenter!
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!
Loyal and True, the first book in my Hearts of Caledonia Trilogy, is a historical romance set in ancient Scotland. The heroine, Barta, is the daughter of a Pictish chief. A blunder in judgment costs the life of her dearest companion, her wolfhound, Loyal. But the bond between them is so strong and unbreakable, Loyal finds a magical means to return to her, though not in any way she could have imagined.
I have always bonded deeply with my dogs, establishing attachments that keep us connected even when we’re far from one another physically. This, as I’ve found, can be good or bad, since it sets up a wonderfully close relationship but serves to spur things like separation anxiety in the pet. This story was something of an experiment. I asked myself (as authors tend to do) what if those bonds could reach beyond death? And since I’m convinced that a couple of my dogs have returned to me in subsequent doggie bodies, what if a deceased wolfhound could return, magically transformed into a man? Would the bonds still hold? Would they recognize each other? Would the love endure?
Two of my Buffalo Steampunk Adventures novels have won the N. N. Light Book Award, and my Scottish Historical, The Reiver’s Cub, won me a RONE award. My greatest honor, though, remains bringing enjoyment to my readers!
The latest novel in the Dawn of Humanity series—just published in October—is Natural Selection. It features a prehistoric dog named Ump and a Homotherium cat named Kit, both valued members of man’s tribe. Here’s the blurb for that book:
In my life, animals are valued and cherished. This is a picture of my beloved puppy, Casey:
I have not actually released my cat rescuer book yet. The novel, Way Past Crazy
The first novel, Crazy to Wed, takes place twenty-years later. The remainder of the novels kick off with the twentieth high school reunion of these women. At the reunion, one of the women dares the others to marry in twelve months or pay an embarrassing forfeit. The dare is accepted, and almost immediately, love is in the air! In each novel we get to know all of the “Crazy Eights” a bit better, but only focus on one love story per book.
Before the Crazy’s, my primary books were about four successful, if spoiled, rich boys from the suburbs of Chicago. I like writing about powerful men who get in their own way sometimes, and who need love to lead them in down the right path.
Damien Sullivan was done with the dark misdeeds of West Coast Society. He doesn’t have patience for their dirty games or the parade of submissives out to get His attention, and His collar. Until her, with her sun-fired hair, sweet fragrance and stunning turquoise eyes. This is the one promised to Him by the gypsy elder. She’s His angel, and He’ll move heaven and earth to make her His.
For years, I’ve written romance–mainly suspense or sweet–under my Tabitha Gibson pen name, including the Bodyguards, Inc. stories. Those novellas and short stories can be found at 
He didn’t expect to find her or the danger that followed. Can He keep her safe from the imminent darkness?
He made a mistake that could cost Him everything.
Heart’s Journey
Heart’s Desire is book one of the Heart’s Desire series. Here is the book blurb:
Blind Trust is a sensual thriller. FBI Agent Matthew Montagna joins Nicolas Hayes’ FBI team to investigate a series of bank robberies in Washington, DC, and its vicinity. Though he loves his work, he has trouble dealing with his past in Chicago, his criminal ex-wife, and the loss of his home and his friends—not to mention his dog, who moved in with the neighbors because Matthew couldn’t take him to DC. He’s unhappy about his entire situation and wishes for his old companion. Then he meets a dog owner in the building where he lives. Matthew is quickly enchanted with the dog, Bingo, and spends time in the neighbor’s apartment, not knowing that he’s in the center of a dangerous plot.
After three murders in the Washington, DC, vicinity, FBI Agents Hayes and Beckham are assigned to solve the case. Although the murders seem incoherent at first, it becomes clear that there are connections between them. It turns out that the murderer is far from having reached the end of his deadly list.
I also loved writing Chosen Brothers because I had the chance to write a criminal plot playing in a small town on a horse ranch. Nicolas can show that he’s able to go undercover, and he makes a new friend on the way.
4. How do you promote your books?
Hi everyone. My name is Sam, and I’m the dog in Mariah’s latest romance, Paws For Christmas. As you can tell by my photo on the cover, I’m big, furry, and very happy. Mariah named me for her late, real-life dog Sam, who she said was so sweet she loved him to pieces! Like my namesake, I’m lovable, smart, and can sniff out when someone needs love.
I’m a dog lover and animal lover. [See photo left with a sled dog puppy.] All my heroines–no matter what genre–have pets. I served as a director for a county-wide no-kill shelter for three years and always remember the sage advice my brother gave me when I was a girl: “Always try to save a life by adopting a shelter pet.”
We adopted our Sam [see above right] when he was just under one year old, and he must have felt completely lost like the Sam in the story because his owners had abandoned him. I’d like to tell you more about him.
A Gem Of A Murder Blurb:
Amelia Augusta Ethrington, 18th century Duchess of Abbington and fourth in line to the English throne, is considered by society an old maid at thirty-two. She refuses to marry and relinquish her authority to a husband. Instead, she finds romance in trysts with strangers. Amelia’s claim to her duchy is embodied in the form of an intricate, valuable necklace, The Abbington Jewels. But an unscrupulous time traveler seduces her and snatches the necklace.
Pets make an appearance in almost all my books. In my latest release, A Room in Blake’s Folly, we see a Nevada town evolve from a silver boomtown to a semi-ghost town in six different stories. All six are romances even though some don’t turn out the way we expect they might.
In the other, Desert Rose, the rescue dog Noodle makes an appearance (although Rose is, at first, a very reluctant dog owner). However, I don’t have the new covers for these new editions, so we’ll just have to wait for a month or two.
Falling for the Deputy is a fish-out-of-water, an enemies-to-lovers and a second-chance romance story, where a Boston banker moves to a small town in Georgia after a series of personal tragedies. The move is good for her career, and she hopes it will give her time to recover in a different environment.
