Woof! Jake the Boston Terrier, Interviews Donna Winters

As you know, I love dogs and have three of my own. The most outspoken of the three is Jake, a rescue dog. Jake is a Boston Terrier that a fellow blogger willed to me upon his death all the way from Pennsylvania. And since this boisterous canine is more than able to speak for himself, I’ll let him take it from here.

Woof! Welcome, Donna. I’m always excited to get to know my mom’s skin friends who enjoy the company of fur kids like me. Tell me, what in your childhood created a love for God’s creatures?

When I was very young, about four years old, my parents bought a Cocker spaniel puppy. I loved that dog, but after several months of training it, my mother was unable to housebreak it and it was re-homed with a family who had a nice outdoor doghouse for it. Soon after, my mother went back to teaching, and with both of my parents working full-time, my mother said it would not be fair to have a dog or cat and leave them home alone all day. Thankfully, my best friend from third through sixth grades lived on a dairy farm. Her family had cats and dogs. I slept over many, many weekends at her place and got my fill of pet cuddling. I always liked cats, but my husband forbids them. He grew up with a marvelous mixed-breed dog and wanted to adopt a dog early in our marriage, so I became a “dog person.”

Author, Donna Winters

What in your childhood created a love for writing?

I was the kid who always wanted to write letters to relatives and pen pals. Other kids hated writing letters, and even my pen pals couldn’t keep up. No one else in our family was a writer so my mother was perplexed about me becoming a writer of book-length fiction. I explained it by saying that writing is one form of being creative, and many in our family are, or were creative, including my mother who went to her heavenly reward in 2008.

What do you write?

Mainly, I write for my Great Lakes Romances® series. The books are historical romances set in Great Lakes cities and towns, mostly in Michigan. You can find them at http://www.GreatLakesRomances.com.

What are your favorite:

Wild animals: Since I live in the north woods, I love seeing the deer. They are especially graceful and peaceful, making me wonder: why can’t all of God’s creatures, both quadrupeds and bipeds, be more like the deer?

Domestic animals: Dogs and cats.

What pets do you currently have?

Currently we have Babe, an American Staffordshire Terrier mix (some call the breed “pit bull”). She is ten years old and was rescued the day before her scheduled execution in June 2010. We also have Buster, a Siberian husky mix who is supposedly 14 years old but looks and acts like about five years old.

Tell us about your work with shelter animals:

I am currently working on raising awareness of Adventures with Vinnie so that people will buy, read, and enjoy an entertaining and somewhat informative book on shelter dog adoption. My earnings from this book will go to animal shelters. In addition, any shelter manager or veterinarian who wants to resell the title will get the biggest discount CreateSpace will allow me to offer them, which currently is 35% off of the $10 (full color) paperback price.

Woof! Good work, Donna! How can we help?

Thanks for asking! There are many ways to help.

• Read and review the book on Amazon and Goodreads.
• Tell your local animal shelter to contact me about the reseller’s discount so they can use my book as a fundraiser.
• Post your review on your Facebook timeline.
• Write a blog post about it. (I’ll be glad to do an interview and book giveaway on your blog.)
• Add the book to your blog sidebar for a while.
• Share your review on Google+
• Share your review on your other social media sites such as Pinterest, Reddit, and Twitter.
• Tell your email contacts about it in a way that is not a spam pitch.
• Offer to write a book review for your local newspaper.
• Mention the book to your associates in groups you belong to such as civic organizations, school groups, and the like.
• Give the book as a gift to your animal-loving friends.
• Tell your veterinarian about the book and suggest selling it at his/her registration desk.

Where can your fans find you?

 Find my links at the bottom of my website home page:  http://www.GreatLakesRomances.com

Here’s some more about Donna:

Donna Winters lives with her husband and two rescued canines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She has nineteen books in print including fifteen historical romances, one historical novel, one contemporary romance, and two nonfiction titles. Learn more about her and her books at www.GreatLakesRomances.com.

Book Giveaway

Donna is willing to give away either a paperback or Kindle copy of her book to someone who comments on the post telling in a couple of sentences what he/she likes best about his/her pet. If you do not have a pet, tell about a pet you’ve met and liked, perhaps a dog or cat belonging to a relative, friend, or neighbor. Please be sure to leave your email address and add mine (bigwaterpub at gmail dot com) to your contact list so my winner notification won’t get caught in your spam filter.

Tweet This: Woof! Read all about Vinnie the shelter dog!