1. I hear you have a pet in your novel. Tell us about the book.
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.
Blurb: After losing at love twice, Barbara Wilton needs a change, some place far from her home in Boston, so she takes a position as manager of a small branch bank in Willow Ridge, Georgia. She’s done with relationships and ready to concentrate on her career. The experience in Willow Ridge will help her move forward in the banking industry, but she doesn’t plan to stay there permanently. Nevertheless, an invitation to join the Hopeless Romantics book club, a position on a planning committee, helping a little league team that needs coaching, and being adopted by a stray dog begin to wind her into the community.
Chris Harper was a police officer in Charlotte until his marriage fell apart. With his mother and elderly aunt in deteriorating health, Chris returns home to Willow Ridge to help them and takes a job as chief deputy to the local sheriff. The wound left by his failed marriage is still raw and, despite his mother’s nagging, he’s not interested in pursuing any relationship, even with the attractive new bank manager.
Fate, helped by a few local residents, conspires to push Barbara and Chris together. They meet during a false alarm at the bank and then he assists her with a car problem. But when his aunt receives a foreclosure notice on her house, Chris is angry with Barbara for not warning him that his aunt was behind on her payments.
She agrees to help him work out the problem with the bank, but the deeper issues between them keep flaring. Can two wary, wounded people learn to trust again and find happiness together? Find out in this sweet, second chance, enemies to lovers romance.
The Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge series are sweet, small-town contemporary romances. Each book is a standalone and can be read individually or as part of the series.
Buy Falling for the Deputy here. (It’s also free to read in Kindle Unlimited)
The entire Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge series is here.
2. Why did you add a pet to this book?
Mookie
Part of Barbara’s embrace of life in small-town Willow Ridge comes when she finds a stray dog. She can’t abandon him, but when she learns the local shelter isn’t a no-kill one, she knows she can’t leave him there either. Despite her ignorance of caring for pets, she agrees to foster him. To her surprise, she finds in him a warm companion and comfort in hard times.
Gremlin
In some ways, her relationship with Mookie mirrors Barbara’s adjustment to the town of Willow Ridge: hesitant approach at first, willing to try to make the best of it, starting to get attached, the realization of the virtues, and finally a full embrace of the town when she decides to adopt the dog.
I used to have pets: a dog, Gremlin, that I adored, a cat, a parakeet, a rabbit, and numerous hamsters. The dog was mine, but the rest of them belonged to my children. They’re all long gone now.
3. What other books have you written?
I’ve written a lot more books than have been published, but since my first book came out from Avalon books in 1989, I’ve had somewhere around three dozen novels and novellas published (some under a pen name). I write across many genres, including mystery, fantasy, romance, paranormal, and romantic suspense. Many of my books can be categorized in more than one genre. My romances generally include a mystery and my fantasy and paranormal novels include romance and suspense.
My most recent books before Falling for the Deputy include three short romances that are part of the No Brides Club Series, and the second book in the Market Center Mysteries series, Wired for Murder. (The third book of that series, Playing at Murder, was originally scheduled for this month but has been pushed back to fall.) I also have had a number of short stories in various anthologies and various genres.
You can learn more about my books at my website: https://www.kmccullough.com
4. Tell us about your kudos or reviews.
Over the years, I’ve been a semi-finalist in the Writers of the Future contest, a finalist in the Daphne, Prism, Lories, Epic ebook awards (four times), Rising Star, Dream Realm, and International Digital Awards. I’ve won an Epic ebook award, Vixen award and most recently, the Bould Award for best short story. My books have a lot of five-star reviews and my short romance, No Time for Surprises, was an Amazon number #1 Bestseller.
5. How do you promote your books?
Badly. I do have a presence on social media and I actively promote (in a low-key way) on Facebook, Pinterest, and my own blog. I used to do a lot of Amazon advertising, but lately the cost has risen so much it’s hard to get a decent return on the investment.
6. Where can readers learn more about your books and connect with you online?
Website: https://www.kmccullough.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenMcCulloughAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kgmccullough
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kgmccullough/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kgmccullough12/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Karen-McCullough/e/B0043TJ870/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/karen-mccullough
Blog: https://kmccullough.com/kblog/
From Marcia: Thank you, Karen, for being my June interviewee! I love discovering romances that feature pets, so I 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!
Blurb for Book Nirvana 1: Through the Red Door:
Blurb for Book Nirvana 2: Runaway Love Story:
Blurb for Book Nirvana 3: Love, Art, and Other Obstacles:
Golden North
I have published eight books. Golden North is second in the Dangerous Times series along with Silver Screen Heroes, and Bronze Skies. Most of my books are historical, but I do have a woman’s fiction set from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Bronze Skies blurb:
Yes, I do! This is a sweet series weaving pet rescue and adoption into the love story. Rescue Road is the first novel, about a woman (Rhiann) who moves to Montana from Washington state to set up an animal rescue sanctuary. She meets EMS captain Levi Butler, who claims the land Rhiann purchased belongs to him. Enter another person who desires the property, and you have a bit of drama mixed into the story. The book is available in both paperback and e-book formats on Amazon and other platforms:
Other books follow Rhiann and Levi, including a Christmas novella published last year. Paws-ing for Love also brings in some drama as Rhiann experiences a significant health issue and the community of Colter, Montana, where Rhiann and Levi live, experiences the loss of a special community member. Rescue dogs and cats are part of the story as well. Readers can find Paws-ing for Love on Amazon and other platforms, again either in paperback or e-book format.
Blurb for Mermaids Marry in Green:
Blurb for A Merman’s Choice, book 1 in the “Sea of Love” series:
Blurb for Music for a Merman, book 2 in the “Sea of Love” series:
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 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.
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.
’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!
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?