Blog the Change for Animals: Linda O. Johnston, Author of the Pet Rescue Mystery Series

My Blogging the Change
I'm delighted to be participating in a Great Escape Blog Tour that scheduled me to guest blog here, at Mocha, Mysteries and Meows on January 15--this month's date for Blogging the Change for animals! Blogging the Change is all about people helping animals, and that's something near and dear to my heart.

My blog tour is to help promote TEACUP TURBULENCE, my book premiering in January from Berkley Prime Crime.  It's the fifth in my Pet Rescue Mysteries, so it fits right in with Blogging the Change.

My Pet Rescue Mysteries center around HotRescues, a fictional no-kill pet shelter in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.  The protagonist is Lauren Vancouver, who will do anything to save animals.  Because it's a cozy mystery series, her "anything" always involves solving a murder.

But each Pet Rescue Mystery is themed around an aspect of pet rescue.  TEACUP TURBULENCE focuses on people who care enough about animals to move them from areas where their adoptions are in doubt to locations where that particular kind of pet is more in demand--so the relocated animals are more certain to be rehomed quickly.  Sometimes it's done by pilots flying their private planes in relays, as in TEACUP TURBULENCE.  Sometimes those flights are direct.  Sometimes people drive the pets from one locale to another.  But in any event, it's all about getting the animals from places they might be in danger to those where their loves will change positively forever.

Here are my responses to the questions posed by Blogging the Change:

What have you done to Be the Change for Animals?  I write about pet rescues.  My intent, in my cozy mysteries, is to entertain people--but if they learn more about saving needy animals, and are encouraged to do so, all the better!  In addition, I also volunteer weekly at Pet Orphans of Southern California, a local pet shelter, where I'm a dog adoption counselor--sometimes helping dogs that are real, not fiction, to meet their future families.

Who do you know who acts tirelessly on animals' behalf?  Well, my protagonist Lauren Vancouver, for one.  But all the employees and volunteers at the shelter where I'm a volunteer can be added to that list as well.

What favorite cause has a special need right now?  I don't have a specific answer for that--but all real shelters, including the one where I volunteer, can always use donations.  My fictional shelter HotRescues isn't on that list.  It's funded by a benefactor, Dante DeFrancisco, who's featured in the Pet Rescue Mysteries and was introduced in my earlier Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter series.  Dante's rich and dedicated and makes sure that HotRescues has all the money it needs.  Like I said, it's fiction.

Wherever you live, there are shelters that can use your help, whether it's volunteering your time or donating money or items to help the animals.  Everyone reading this can Be the Change for Animals.  And if you happen to read the Pet Rescue Mysteries, you'll hopefully be entertained while learning more about my perspective on saving the animals.



Teacup Turbulence (A Pet Rescue Mystery)
5th in Series
Cozy Mystery
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley (January 7, 2014)
ISBN-13: 978-0425259979

Synopsis
Los Angeles animal shelter manager Lauren Vancouver has a soft spot for animals in need—and a keen eye for crime. . .

 

Thanks to a savvy ad campaign featuring teacup pups sporting HotPets Bling—a new line of faux jewelry dog collars—small dog adoptions have skyrocketed across the city. So when Lauren discovers a shelter in the Midwest with more toy dogs than it can handle, she arranges a private plane to swoop in and fly the pups back to LA.

 

But Lauren didn’t count on rescue worker Teresa Kantrim coming along for the ride. Teresa has cared for the dogs since they were found and doesn’t trust anyone from La-La Land to take over the job. Her biting comments clearly haven’t earned Teresa any new friends, but when she turns up murdered, it’s time for Lauren to dig into Teresa’s past and find out who wanted her put down.

 

Dan Irvin Photography

 

About This Author
Linda O. Johnston’s first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the year. Since then, Linda, a former lawyer who is now a full-time writer, has published more short stories, novellas, and 35 romance and mystery novels, including Harlequin Romantic Suspense as well as the Alpha Force paranormal romance miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne.

 

Linda’s Pet Rescue Mysteries, a spinoff from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, feature Lauren Vancouver, a determined pet rescuer who runs a no-kill shelter. In this cozy series, “no-kill” refers to pets, not people!

 

[Note that, at the time this is being submitted, I've had 33 books published but will have a Harlequin Romantic Suspense published in December, and my upcoming Pet Rescue Mystery TEACUP TURBULENCE will be a January 2014 release.]

 

Author Links:
Website: www.LindaOJohnston.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindaOJohnston

Purchase Links:
Amazon     Book World      B&N