Fabulous Friday Feature- Sharon Dunn

Today I welcome an award winner author, 
a Christ-like lady who has a gift for compassion,
Sharon Dunn

Enter to win Sharon's new release, 
Guard Duty. 
Scroll to the end of the post to see how to enter.

I first met Sharon at a Montana ACFW monthly meeting. It was held at Tracie Peterson's house! During the refreshment time, Sharon listened to my questions abut writing. She patiently taught me the answers. Talk about a wealth of knowledge! This was the only time the two of us went to the same meeting. Montana is a wide state with some pretty interesting weather. Frequently only members from one side of the state could attend. Still, that one meeting showed me what a Christ-like lady Sharon is. I asked Sharon to share how God has led her on her journey. This is what she answered:

God Knew Just What I Needed

I first fell in love with mystery and suspense when I read Nancy Drew mysteries in the fifth grade. My country school library had a whole collection of them with pink covers. 

I began taking my career as a writer seriously when my oldest son was born. 

Twenty years and three babies later, I am an award winning author of not only humorous mysteries but romantic suspense novels. 

Writing is by nature a solitary activity. While I love it, it can get lonely. After back to back books, I was feeling a little burned out. God knew just what I needed, an opportunity to work with five others authors.   

My new book Guard Duty is part of a larger Love Inspired Suspense series called the Texas K-9 Unit. 

Each book features a separate police officer and their canine partner and of course has a romance element to it. My book had the only female officer in the series. Valerie’s K-9 partner is    Rottweiler named Lexi. 

Even though you can read any book separately and get a complete suspense and romance story, all the books are linked together by a big storyline which concerns a missing police dog and a crime syndicate that has taken over Sagebrush, Texas, the fictional town where the books take place.

Though we each had a separate book to write, the work is very collaborative. We’re all on an email loop as well as having a place online to post files and pictures. A character who was the hero in book one, might have a walk role in book three. So we have to coordinate our descriptions as well as how the characters’ lives change from book to book. Also, the setting expands as each book is written, so we have characters frequenting the same businesses and restaurants and going to the same veterinarian.   

Once all the books are turned in and the individual books have been edited, a continuity editor reads through the whole series to deal with any inconsistencies. For example, Valerie Hansen wrote the book after mine, Explosive Secrets. Her heroine makes a brief appearance at the end of my book. In my book I said her heroin was four months pregnant.  At the beginning of Valerie’s book, the same character was three months pregnant. I just don’t think that’s physically possible. All those oversights need to be dealt with.  

The whole process rejuvenated me and helped me get my enthusiasm back for writing. Also, I am a recently converted dog person since I got my border collie Bart from the shelter, so it was cool to write about the special relationship between dogs and people. For years, I thought I was a cat person, but Bart changed all that.

Here is a list of the other books in the series: 

       

Jan. 2013. #1, TRACKING JUSTICE by Shirlee McCoy

Feb. 2013 #2, DETECTION MISSION, by Margaret Daley

March 2013 #3, GUARD DUTY by Sharon Dunn (that's me)

April 2013 #4, EXPLOSIVE SECRETS, by Valerie Hansen

May 2013 #5, SCENT OF DANGER, by Terri Reed

June 2013 #6, LONE STAR PROTECTOR, by Lenora Worth

Sharon's first book in the Ruby Taylor mysteries Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves was a finalist for the Romantic Times Inspirational Book of the Year. The second book in that series Sassy Cinderella and the Valiant Vigilante was voted Book of the Year by American Christian Fiction Writers. Her first book in the Bargain Hunters series garnered a second place award from ACFW for Book of the Year. 

Sharon is officially one cat away from being a Crazy Cat Lady (she owns three; you have to have four to be official). She spends her free time with her husband of twenty four years, three teenage children and a very nervous border collie named Bart. Her hobbies include reading, walking, trying to find things around the house and making pets out of the dust bunnies under the furniture. You can read more about Sharon and her books at www.sharondunnbooks.net    

To enter the contest for an autographed copy of Sharon's book: "Guard Duty":

leave a comment (and email address)

and become a follower of this site if you aren't already.

U.S. residents only. 

Winner announced on my facebook page.

Thank you, Sharon, for Joining us This Weekend!

Reader, have you participated in a group for a project/cause? While there can be challenges working with others, there can also be great benefits.

God has blessed me by participating with the Writers Alley group. We are ten writers learning, teaching, sharing, and working towards our next publication. Writers Alley