It is our pleasure to start the new year by introducing our
readers to Jessie Harleman. Her story is now available on a Kindle near you in Dressing Myself (our
first novel NOT in The Val & Kit Mystery Series).
Jessie has been happily married to Kevin for twenty-eight
years. With their two grown kids now out of the house and living their own
lives, Jessie and Kevin have reached the point they thought they longed for, yet
slightly dreaded. But the house that used to be bursting at the seams now has
too many empty rooms.
Still, Jessie is a glass half-full kind of woman, eager for this next period of her life to take hold. The
problem is, it just doesn’t go the way she planned.
Meanwhile, our two supersleuths, Val and Kit, remain in
dogged pursuit of a murderer in their latest escapade, Lethal Property, to be released this spring. This No. 4 in The Val
& Kit Mystery Series showcases their old cohorts along with the usual
sprinkling of new characters, including a special four-legged friend who's a big Downton Abbey fan.
Speaking of friends with four legs, we have a new guy in our
gang. Please meet Brew, the sweetest boxer we know. He was “rescued” by our
editor Sarah and her husband and is now a permanent fixture in their home. Although
he looks kinda tough in this picture, he’s really a pussycat . . . well,
maybe not a pussycat; he’d box us just for saying that.
When Roz was a child, she was very afraid of dogs, but for
no particular reason. Her family never owned a dog, and she never had an
encounter that justified her fear. But she can remember visiting another family
that did own one and literally climbing on the kitchen table to escape (Roz
doing the climbing, not the dog).
Now she wonders why. The first dog she owned was a Labrador
puppy (Oliver). A tiny bundle of black velvet with a face that could melt the
hardest heart. Even so, her husband had to assure her there was nothing to fear
before she reluctantly agreed to take the pooch on. Within a few weeks he was
sleeping in their bed, and she was rushing home from work every day, wracked
with guilt that she’d had to leave him alone for several hours. The only
solution was to add another Lab to their family. This time they went blond
(Duncan).
Today she’s rather suspicious of people who don’t like dogs.
What’s not to like? As an adult she’s
owned four dogs at one time or another (including Jessie, below) and has had a couple more for sleepovers
when their owners were out of town.
For her part, Patty grew up having dogs, as did her
children. Now she and her husband have three granddogs, all Labs: one black,
one yellow, and one chocolate (Harry, Hank, and Chester, top to bottom below).
Like all their grandchildren of the two-legged variety, each has a distinct
personality and a unique set of traits and, um, talents. Grandma and Grandpa
know immediately which one stole the Christmas dessert off the table, which one
pooped on the floor, and which one will run and hide in the chicken coop when
the Fourth of July fireworks begin.
But all the dogs in Roz and Patty’s lives have been sweet, loving, and loyal to a fault. Most of them have had a great sense of humor, and one was a little snooty; but without exception, they've all been good people.
