Make-Believe Mondays with Judi McCoy

Today my guest is Judi McCoy.

Judi, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

Judi: I’m working on book three in my new dog walker series. Book one, Hounding the Pavement, came out in March 2009 and it’s a brand new direction for me. I call the series romantic mystery, but I sure the term has been used before—if not I’ve coined a new genre.

Debra: Ray Bradbury said, “We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Judi: I have to admit, with the new series, keeping the cup full is easy. My characters are unique (a NYC dog walker who understands what her dogs are thinking/saying and the dogs who converse mentally with her in return) so there are plenty of situations I can put them in for fun and excitement.

Debra: It would be hard to resist a talking dog. What fun. Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Judi: I think about the idea/plot for a new book, then come up with the heroine and hero. When I created Ellie, my dog walker, she was fully formed in my head. Once I named her, Ellie’s voice rang out loud and clear. It was the same with Detective Sam Ryder, Ellie’s sometimes love interest, sometimes adversary. The real fun was creating personalities for each dog she walks. Rudy, Ellie’s own dog was easy because he’s exactly the way I imagine my real life dog, Rudy, to be. The others were carefully thought out so that each dog would be an individual.

Debra: It sounds like a fun series. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

Judi: Hounding the Pavement, the first dog walker book, was released March 2009. ALL royalties received by the author for this book will be donated to Best Friends.org the largest ‘no kill’ animal shelter in the US. Situated in Utah, Best Friends cares for dogs, cats, birds, goats, horses and other abused animals. Each breed of animal has their own compound and are worked with to be rehabilitated and adopted out, but if that doesn’t happen the animal can live on the sanctuary for the rest of its life.

The television series, Dogtown, on the National Geographic channel, comes out every Friday immediately after The Dog Whisperer.

BEST NEWS: Hounding the Pavement was recently sold to CBS Productions to be made into a weekly.

Judi, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers. It's been a pleasure.

Readers can visit Judi at www.judimccoy.com

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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

I just returned from a great little regional conference, the Ozark Creative Writers, which is held in Eureka Springs, AR every year.

I'll be in Jackson, MS this Saturday signing books at the Eudora Welty library. More information on that event and other appearance is listed on my website.
www.debraparmley.com

Today I'm catching up on being away for the past four days and then tomorrow I'll start back to work on the manuscript.

Come back and visit next Monday and till then keep reading, keep writing, keep smiling. :-)

Debra