#bookdescriptions – Avonna Loves Genres

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Midwife of Auschwitz, The Midwife of Berlin, and The Children on the Train by Anna Stuart

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Book Description – The Midwife of Auschwitz

Ana Kaminski is pushed through the iron gates of Auschwitz beside her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak. As they reach the front of the line, Ana steps forward and quietly declares herself a midwife – and Ester her assistant. Their arms are tattooed and they’re ordered to the maternity hut. Holding an innocent new-born baby, Ana knows the fate of so many are in her hands, and vows to do everything she can to save them.

When two guards in their chilling SS uniforms march in and snatch a blond-haired baby from its mother it’s almost too much for Ana to bear. Consoling the distraught woman, Ana realises amidst the terrible heartache there is a glimmer of hope. The guards are taking the healthiest babies and placing them with German families, so they will survive. And there are whispers the war is nearly over… Ana and Ester begin to secretly tattoo little ones with their mother’s numbers, praying one day they might be reunited.

Then, early one morning, Ana notices the small bump under Ester’s thin striped clothing.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart is a compelling read. Ana Kaminski and her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak were sent to Auschwitz. Ana quietly steps forward and states she’s a midwife–and Ester is her assistant. The story follows their time there but also how innocent babies born in that horrific place were snatched from their mothers if they had blonde hair. The guards are taking the healthiest babies and placing them with German families, so they will survive. But before they are taken, Ana and Ester begin to secretly tattoo little ones with their mother’s concentration camp identification numbers, praying one day they might be reunited.

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Book Description – The Midwife of Berlin

1945, Berlin: Ester Pasternak walked out of the gates of Auschwitz barely alive. She survived against devastating odds, but her heartbreaking journey is only just beginning. In the camp, Ester gave birth to a tiny fair-haired infant, only for her precious baby to be snatched from her and taken to a German family. Now the war is over, Ester is desperate to find her little girl.

But Europe is in chaos, Jewish families have been torn apart and everyone is urgently looking for their loved ones. In every orphanage and hospital she visits, Ester searches the faces of tear-stained toddlers; each mop of blonde hair and pair of blue eyes she sees sets her heart racing.

Will Ester ever be able to find the child whose tattoo matches her own? Or is she already too late.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Midwife of Berlin, a continuation of Ester’s story is also riveting. Ester Pasternak walked out of the gates of Auschwitz barely alive. She survived against devastating odds, but her heartbreaking journey is only just beginning. In the camp, Ester gave birth to a tiny fair-haired infant, only for her precious baby to be snatched from her and taken to a German family. Now the war is over, Ester longs to find her little girl. But in doing so she is connected to a little girl, Olivia, an orphan, who Ester adopts. This story takes readers on a journey reuniting the family.

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Book Description – The Children on the Train

Grete always longed to be a mother, but it never happened for her so, as the clouds of war gather over Europe, she’s devoting her time to helping Jewish children escape the Nazis. She remembers the face of every single child she’s taken on trains to freedom in the Netherlands. The danger increases with each trip, but, today, she has to get her best friend’s children to safety, because they are closest thing she has to family.

But at the border, the train screeches to a halt and she hears the shout of a Nazi guard. Then the sound of boots coming towards their carriage. When the door bursts open, she draws herself up tall, and prepares to face the interrogation she knows will come. With shaking hands, she passes over Rosa and Adele’s tattered papers and hopes they aren’t scrutinized too closely.

Grete is ready to do whatever it takes to keep her small charges safe.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Children on the Train is not connected to the Midwife novels, but it’s a story of courage. Grete always longed to be a mother, but it never happened for her so, as the clouds of war gather over Europe, she’s devoting her time to helping Jewish children escape the Nazis. She remembers the face of every single child she’s taken on trains to freedom in the Netherlands, and then to England. The danger of the Kindertransport increases with each trip.

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The following is an interview with Anna Stuart about three of her books which can only be described as amazing.

Questions for the Midwife of Auschwitz

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Anna Stuart: I must give the credit for the idea to my editor. She suggested that I might want to explore stories in Auschwitz. I wasn’t at all keen at the time, as it’s such a horrific subject, but I had a look on the internet to please her, and discovered the true story of Stanisława Leszczyńska, who was the original inspiration for Ana. I was hooked immediately and couldn’t believe no one had written about her already. Her life felt like something that just had to be shared with the world and I was honoured to be the writer that, via a fictional interpretation of her life and that of those around her, got to do that.

EC: How would you describe Ana?

AS: I think she was a genuinely good woman. She was a committed catholic who believed it was her God-sent duty to help others. She did that via her career as a midwife, but when things got tougher and the Jews in her hometown of Lodz were shut into a ghetto, in appalling conditions, she stepped up to help them, even when it put her in great danger.

She stood up for what she thought was right, even in Auschwitz, confronting the cruelty of the kapos (block heads) and even evil men like Josef Mengele. Maybe something in her certainty and conviction got through, because she often won those battles, even if they were within a terrible framework. Somehow, despite being in her fifties in Auschwitz, she survived it for almost three years and got home after the war, where she continued to help others throughout her life. I admire her more than I can ever express and always love it when readers get in touch to tell me how much my version of her story moved them.

EC: How would you describe Ester?

AS: The inspiration for Ester was Stanislawa’s daughter, Sylwia. Ester is just a normal young woman, caught up in horribly abnormal affairs. Like Ana, she is inherently good, having been brought up to help others and stand up for what’s right. Ester’s ‘superpower’ in Auschwitz, alongside her friendship with Ana and Naomi, is her love for Filip, who she married at the start of the war. This gives her something to hold onto – something to believe it’s worth staying alive for, especially once she realizes that she’s pregnant with their child. The only thing I can think of that would be worse than being in a death camp, is giving birth in a death camp and Ester embodies that nightmare.

EC: Is it true that babies and their mothers had the same tattoos?

AS: In her brief testimony of her time in Auschwitz, given much later in life when urged to it by her son, Stanisława Leszczyńska stated that she tattooed the babies with their mother’s numbers in ‘a secret place’ in the hope of them being reunited after the war. Other witness testimonies suggested that this place was in the armpit, so that’s what I went with.

EC: Please discuss the Lebensborn program and why would Germans accept Jewish babies?

AS: Hitler – and many, many others – believed that the ‘Aryan’ race was superior to all others and that it was therefore their duty to suppress the supposedly inferior races around them and take over their land to allow the Aryans more room to breathe and grow the crops to sustain themselves. His plan was twofold: to get rid of those people he believed to be worthless, and to ensure that as many Aryans as possible were born.

We know a lot about Hitler’s vicious policies to exterminate the Jews, the Romanies, disabled people, homosexuals, and perhaps, had he been given his way, eventually all ‘Slavs’. What we know less about is how he pushed the German people to produce more children. There was a relentless pressure in the media for women to stay at home and have children ‘for the Fuhrer’. Mothers who had more than four children were given medals and there was also a push to be sure that any Aryan women who got themselves pregnant out of wedlock were offered places in discreet ‘Lebensborn’ (‘found of life’) homes to have their babies. It was all about populating the world with their own kind.

As the war went on and many German soldiers were killed fighting, especially in the bitter Russian campaign, this need for more babies became desperate and increasingly evil. Under the innocuous sounding ‘Lebensborn’ banner, German soldiers kidnapped thousands of blonde children from families in the occupied lands, especially Poland, Norway and, later, Hungary, to either put into homes in Germany or adopt out to German families. Many of these families did not know where their new babies had come from – often believing them to have been orphaned by warfare – but the truth was that they had been stolen from out of the arms of their mothers. Towards the end of the war, the same was done for any babies born in Auschwitz who looked even vaguely blonde. The irony of the Nazis taking in babies born to Jewish women is dark indeed, but it really did happen.

EC: How cruel was Klara and what did you want her to represent?

AS: Klara was the block ‘kapo’ – head – and, from all I read, is typical of the women who made it to the top of the prisoner tree in Auschwitz. Most of them were the original prisoners, sent there when it first opened in 1942 from prisons around Germany. They were often hardened criminals before they went in, even though some of them may not have done what we would see as terrible crimes. Klara for example (as she is inspired by a real woman) seems to have been imprisoned for offering abortions, which were illegal in Germany that was keen on bringing Aryan lives into the world. In Auschwitz, given a small amount of petty power, these women (and their male equivalents) became very cruel, ruling their block with an iron hand to curry favour with the Nazi authorities to get themselves privileges and safety. Not all kapos were so brutal – there are a few stories of some who did their best to keep their charges as safe as was ever possible in that terrible place – but many were, and Klara exemplifies them.

Questions for The Midwife of Berlin

EC: Idea for the story?

AS: I never intended to write a sequel to The Midwife of Auschwitz but when readers kept writing to me asking what happened to Pippa, the idea for the story was seeded. When I realized that Pippa and Oliva would have turned 18 in 1961 – the year the Berlin wall went up – the two events came together in my mind and I was ready to get researching. I knew a bit about the wall coming down, having watched it on television as a child, but nothing about it going up and I found it utterly fascinating. It was a horrific time in history, especially for people who had just been through all the horrors of war, and I was very glad to follow my fictional characters’ stories into that year and intertwine them with the shocking events of history.

EC: Do you think there was not much difference between the Stasi and Gestapo, Russians and Nazis? Please comment

AS: This is a tricky area to get into and not really the place of a fiction writer. My job is to put my characters into a true world and follow their personal stories, but inevitably I came up against many stark historical truths in doing so. Certainly, the Stasi was born from the same place as the Gestapo, and, indeed, the KGB, and became, if possible, even worse. The culture of fear created by everyone informing on each other was one of the most terrible features of life behind the Iron Curtain and it seems to me a bitter truth that, in this period at least, the so-called left was just as bad as the so-called right. If you ask me, any regime that can only operate by controlling its citizens, depriving them of outside news, censoring all they say and do, and keeping them trapped within its borders with guns is inevitably doomed to failure. It’s truly terrible that they ruin so many lives in the process.

EC: Describe Kristen and her predicament.

AS: Kirsten and her brother Uli have been brought up by their mother Lotti, in a small flat in Berlin. Their father, Jan, disappeared after the war and their mother never wanted to speak about him, so the children assume he must have been a Nazi. They’ve got on fine without him. They don’t have much money but they do have each other and are happy. The novel opens, however, when Jan comes home and everything is blown apart.

First, they find out that Uli is not Jan’s son, but the product of a Russian rape of their poor mother when they took Berlin. Then bitter, drunken Jan tells Kirsten that she is not his or Lotti’s daughter, but that he ‘found her’ and gave her to Lotti as a ‘present’. When her mother tearfully admits to this, she also tells Kirsten that she had a tattoo in her armpit – 41400. This most likely means she was born in Auschwitz to a mother who may, possibly, still be alive and out there looking for her.

EC: Describe Olivia and her predicament?

AS: Oliva knows that she was born in Auschwitz to a mother who died and that she was adopted by Ester and Filip. She has two brothers who are Ester and Filip’s full children and has always felt loved and part of the family. But the novel opens with her finding out that she also has an adoptive sister – another baby, born to Ester (and Filip) in Auschwitz and never found after the war. A baby who might be out there, still bearing the tattoo 41400, waiting to be found.

EC: Similarities and differences between both sisters?

AS: Kirsten prefers dancing and fashion, where Olivia is more into sport, but they are both hardworking, honest and loyal to those they love. They are also both curious – especially once they learn of the existence of a mystery sister. And they both have the drive to try and find each other.

EC: Lotti versus Ester as mothers?

AS: Ester is a kind, gentle, loving mother and an excellent midwife. But Lotti, despite taking in a child handed to her by the SS, is also a great mother. The Lebensborn programme was deeply flawed, and run by evil men, but not everyone caught up in it was equally evil. Lotti is a relatively simple woman, who took the child she was handed when she couldn’t conceive herself and worked hard to love and care for her. It was important to me to show Lotti as a good mother and explore the greys of the whole situation. She adopted Kirsten for genuine reasons but was, perhaps, wilfully blind to the wider world around her. In the novel she must face up to her own culpability in Kirsten’s story. This she does bravely. Motherhood has many facets I hope the novel explores that via Ester and Lotti.

Questions for The Children on the Train

EC: Idea for the story?

AS: As with many of my novels, the inspiration for this story came from a real woman – Truus Wijsmuller, a key figure in the Kindertransport. She was an astonishing person, bold, organised and very brave, and she put herself in danger time and again to make the Kindertransport work. In Britain we know a lot about Nicholas Winton, who brought nearly 700 children to safety from Prague in the same period, also under the umbrella of the Kindertransport. His work was wonderful, but Truus did far more than him with no real acknowledgement. I have a personal suspicion that this is because Winton was a man, so history feels the need to commend him for rescuing children, compared to women who we simply expect to do so. The facts are, however, that Truus was out there, on the frontline, facing down Adolf Eichmann, and riding the trains between Germany and the Netherlands time and time again to get the terrified children over the border to safety. That, to me, is astonishing, and I hope this novel brings her story to more people as it really deserves to be known.

EC: Are there any real characters or characters based on real characters?

AS: As stated above, Grete is inspired by the amazing Truus Wijsmuller, and her husband Aart by the real life Joop Wijsmuller. Several of the key workers of the Kindertransport, such as Lola Hahn-Warburg and Norman Bentwich also feature in the book in a minor way, as does the horrific Nazi Adolf Eichmann in an interview that is inspired by Truus’ real-life testimony, plus several of the guards who she dealt with regularly in her work.

The tale of Grete/Truus fighting her way back to the Netherlands from Paris as the German armies swept towards her is inspired by real testimony (and, incredibly, I had to dial back what actually happened as there wasn’t enough room for every crazy event), as is her getting eighty orphans out of the Netherlands on the very last boat before the country had to surrender. Various accounts of encounters with border guards are, sadly, based on real tales, as is the fact that Truus took her sightings of German tanks at the border just days before the invasion to the Dutch authorities and they would not believe her…

EC: How would you describe Grete?

AS: Astonishing! My Grete, inspired by Truus, is a sturdy, no-nonsense, middle-aged woman, who is prepared to cut through every scrap of red-tape to get to the heart of rescuing children from the Nazi’s clutches. She’s incredibly brave, hugely determined and one of those people who are prepared, when the rest of us are cowering, to stand up and be counted. She’s also, of course, a woman with her own fears and insecurities and I hope the novel explores what a toll public work can take on a private person.

EC: How would you describe Helena?

AS: Helena, a bit like Ester in The Midwife of Auschwitz, is a normal woman – a wife, a mother, and a daughter, trying to keep her family safe against terrible odds. I hope that readers can, perhaps, look at what happens to her and imagine themselves in her position, simply trying to live an honest, kind life, but thrown into terrible danger through no fault of her own.

EC: What is the Kindertransport?

AS: The Kindertransport wasn’t a set organisation, but rather a loose coming together of several different charitable groups who were keen to rescue children in danger in Hitler’s increasingly censorious regime. A variety of kind, brave people came together after Kristallnacht (The night of the broken glass when Nazi gangs rioted through the cities of Germany attacking Jewish people and their homes and businesses) to take a proposal to the Prime Minister to scrap visa requirements for unaccompanied minors. With tenacity and courage, and the backing of the Quaker Home Secretary, they succeeded in getting parliament to pass a law permitting this. They then all worked, in an ad hoc way, to organise transports to bring as many children as possible out of Europe under these new entry conditions. There was no limit on how many could come and they managed to free just under 10,000 before war broke out and made further operations impossible.

EC: Why do you think the parents were willing to give up their children and send them to an unknown foreign country?

AS: This is very hard for us to understand today, and even then, clearly, it was impossibly hard for people to put their beloved children on trains to a foreign country without them, but times were desperate. The Jewish people had seen their rights continually eroded each year. They had been declared ‘untermenschen’ – non-people – and had no protection from the law. As an example of the rampant prejudice and unfairness they were up against, after Kristallnacht, when their properties were trashed and many of them were beaten up and imprisoned in mass rioting, the Reich imposed a fine upon them to pay for the damages!

Jews in Germany were living in constant fear of attack. Many of the men had been taken away to brutal labour camps (the precursors to the eventual concentration camps). They weren’t allowed to work as teachers, doctors or civil servants of any kind. Notices were going up everywhere banning them from cinemas, swimming pools and parks. Many of their businesses were being taken from them with no remuneration whatsoever. It was desperate. That had been going on ever since Hitler took power in 1933, getting worse with every year, and they were under no illusions that he intended their destruction. In those circumstances, getting their children away must have seemed like the one tiny shred of hope, and if it meant parting from them, that’s what they had to do.

EC: Do you think that it was hard for the children to go to a foreign land and live with strangers?

AS: I think it must have been incredibly hard and there are very varying stories about how it went for them. Many were lucky and got kind foster parents, who did their best to look after them – though even then, of course, they would desperately miss their own families. Others were treated roughly, even made into servants for the families, or passed around homes like unwanted baggage. After the war, there is no doubt that almost all of them were desperate to find their own families – and that very few of them ever did, as they’d been killed in the concentration camps. The Kindertransport was an operation borne from wonderful charity and kindness and it did save lives, but it was inherently sad, being only a last-ditch rescue possibility and never something that anyone would truly wish for a child.

EC: Would you have given up your children?

AS: I honestly don’t know. How can any of us say what we would have done without living in those times? My instinct is to say that I would rather they’d died with me than gone away to strangers but that, in truth, is a selfish stance. Most of the Kindertransportees, interviewed in later life, appreciated how much love it must have taken from their parents to send them away to survive. Would I have been brave enough? I have no idea.

EC: What happened to the children after the war?

AS: Many different things. Some were adopted by their foster families; some went on to homes or hostels. Many went to America, or stayed in Great Britain. In essence, they grew up. They got jobs, met people, and started families of their own. I read many testimonies from Kindertransport children and rebuilding was very important to them – finding love, having children, continuing the line that Hitler tried so hard to destroy. I think it’s wonderful that, in that way, they fought hatred with love, but it cannot have been easy for any of them. They were very brave young people.

EC: Next book?

AS: My next book will be The Berlin Bookshop, also a story about Nazi victims escaping Germany in the hideous build-up to the war in that country, though more adults than children. One strand of the story is inspired by the amazing real women, Ida and Louise Cook, who helped many families to escape. It will come out in Spring 2027.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride and Winning the Bull Rider’s Heart by Melinda Curtis

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The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride by Melinda Curtis not a single but a home run. All of Melinda’s books blends romance, humor, and relationship issues.

Book Description

Hayden Bennett is done with love. After being left at the altar, the Montana rancher returned home determined to protect his heart and honor his grandfather’s final wishes. But dividing the family ranch five ways, managing a wandering grandmother, and holding everything together alone is more than even a stubborn cowboy can handle.

Single mom Eve Atkinsonis done with marriage, too. Recently divorced and rebuilding her life in Bentwood Creek, the licensed vocational nurse is juggling long shifts, a spirited toddler, and an ex-husband who uses custody threats to control her future. Becoming a registered nurse feels like a dream she may never reach.

When childhood friends Hayden and Eve strike a marriage-of-convenience bargain, it solves more than one problem. She gains stability and protection. He gains the help he desperately needs.

But sharing a home brings buried feelings to the surface. What begins as a practical arrangement soon tests their guarded hearts.

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Elise’s Thoughts

In The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride, Hayden Bennett has returned home after years away to settle his grandfather’s estate. Along with that chore comes the very real concern for his grandmother’s fading memory, especially when she manages to wander off and needs closer supervision. Then he is stunned when Eve Fisher, desperately said that Hayden was her fiancé and that she and Katie would be living on his ranch. She did it to escape her controlling ex-husband who wants her and Katie to return home. Yet, it soon becomes apparent that a marriage of convenience would benefit them both, and she would help him with his grandmother and he would help her deal with her selfish ex-husband. There is also the problem that he was jilted by Evie’s sister at the alter and she had a huge crush on him that she is trying to hide.

The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride is one of those special books where readers will be disappointed when it is over. These characters leap off the page and face real-life situations that need answers as they struggle with their emotions about each other. Katie stole every scene she was in, and Hayden’s grandmother’s situation felt realistic. In all, this is an excellent start to the new series.

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Winning The Bull Rider’s Heart is a fun, second chance romance story. It is a sweet, uplifting romance full of banter, humor, and drama.

Book Description

Bull rider Noel Emerson left Clementine, Oklahoma—and the girl he loved—to chase his rodeo dreams. When his foster mom’s birthday brings him home four years later, he’s stunned to find that his beautiful ex Sophie Jean is a bigger part of his family than he is. His jealousy chafes worse than a new pair of chaps. But what starts off as a fierce rivalry turns into a sweet reunion. Beautician Sophie Jean Shearer has turned into a fine cowgirl thanks to her ex’s family. And she’s found her own dreams, but will she saddle up for a second chance at forever with her unpredictable cowboy?

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Elise’s Thoughts

Winning The Bull Rider’s Heart story is emotional, full of laughter and tears, assumptions and revelations as they rebuild their relationship. The plot begins with bull rider Noel Emerson coming home to Clementine, Oklahoma, four years later, for his foster mother’s birthday but he is really coming home because of a bad concussion. He tries to keep it a secret but there is no hiding it from his former girlfriend Sophie Jean. They thought their past romance would go the distance, but their opposing views on his career pulled them apart. He struggles with how to fit Sophie Jean and his bull riding career into the same orbit, while Sophie Jean has other ideas. Although she too still loves Noel, she wants him to commit to settling down in Clementine, TX before the bulls he loves to ride end not just his career but his life. Now he must decide which is more important to him, Sophie or his career as a bull rider.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride?

Melinda Curtis: I hadn’t written a marriage of convenience in a long time, and I like them. I was trying to figure out how I could get a marriage of convenience, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, it would be fun if she had a crush on him, a taboo crush, so how could I do a taboo crush?’ Then I thought, ‘he needs to date her sister, her older sister, and what if they didn’t get married?’ This is the way it kind of started. I enjoy that trope, and I really wanted to do another one.

EC: How would you describe Hayden?

MC: He felt jilted. He has grudges. He’s organized. He broods. He’s cool. Um, He’s a teaser and guarded. He let that one event define him, for 10 years, what happened with his grandfather.

EC: How would you describe Evie?

MC: Evie, is a chatterbox, brazen, naive, impulsive, determined, brave, compassionate, and lonely. She comes home to start over and kind of lay that foundation where this is going to be the one place I can put a stake in the ground against her ex.

EC: Speaking of Evie’s ex, Steven, how would you describe him?

MC: Steven is a workaholic. He seems indifferent to his wife and daughter, selfish. He is sharp tongued, never really gave compliments to Evie, and was possessive. I did not like him although he was unhappy with his choices. But he was a jerk. I wanted to show how managing divorces and child custody, all that stuff is messy, and I didn’t want to gloss over it too much.

EC: What was the role of Katie, Evie’s daughter, and Hayden’s grandmother, Irene, in the story?

MC: Katie kind of worshipped Hayden and she appeared sometimes like she was the boss. Katie is such a girly girl pistol as the boss being an only child. And then the grandmother, she kind of pushed Hayden. The grandmother had a stroke and was trying to recover. It was sort of based on my mother-in-law, who had a stroke and then dementia, but she has not come back. I wanted to write a character where she came back from dementia because it’s been so draining on all of us with my mother-in-law. The doctor kept saying, ‘You know, we’re going to give it another six months.’ Well, it’s been a year now. And I just needed, for myself, to write a character that has hope, and I find that Irene was so plucky, with this love of her chickens. It’s been fun to write a continuing character that has dementia that is managing it with drugs. You know how I love my humor. And so, I do like to have an older character that says unexpected things. She is my outlet, because of the thing in real life that I can’t fix, and then, my, my need to have humor.

EC: What about the relationship between Evie and Hayden?

MC: Hayden and Evie were soulmates who maybe got along better now than when Hayden was dating her sister. They just needed to come back together at the right time, and now were forced into it. He doesn’t believe in love, and that upsets her, because she had a crush on him and realizes when they had to get married, it was based supposedly on friendship. He did not want to get too close because he was afraid of a broken heart again after what happened with Evie’s sister.

EC: In Winning the Bull Riders’ heart, how did you get the idea for the story?

MC: Well, funny enough, I was talking with my editor about what the next series would be. And we talked about the bull riding teams, which are getting more popular. The Bull Riding Association decided to be like other professional sports and find a way to train their athletes along with having them make money. So, they’ve created these bull riding teams that had a draft. And it’s kind of fascinating., Winning the Bull Riders Heart, had these coaches of these bull riding teams that were retired bull riders. So, this book is kind of the prequel to the new series, and I did stay in Clementine. This allowed me to have a bridge between the two series, even though I have two more books that are coming out in the series.

EC: How would you describe Noel?

MC: Family oriented, cool, has composure, a perfectionist, competitive, cutthroat, witty, and humorous.

EC: How would you describe Sophie?

MC: Fearful of opening her own business, and scared to make choices.

EC: What about the relationship between Sophie and Noel?

MC: They would probably still have been together if she hadn’t put her foot down and said, ‘I need I need you to commit’, and that ended things. And I think they had lots of unresolved issues. There was a lot of time spent on kind of feeling their way back to each other.

EC: Next books?

MC: The next book in “The Bennetts of Brentwood Creek Series” will have Irene, the grandmother, playing a key part in book two, and a key part in book three. Book two will be Cult’s story because I’m doing them in order of their age. So, Cult is the next oldest brother, and he’s a Bronx rider that’s injured, so he comes back to town, and he’s going to discover that he has some kids that he didn’t know about, having made promises to come back, that he didn’t keep. And then I’m just finishing up Rhett’s book now. Colt’s book comes out in October, and Rhett’s book comes out next April.

The next book in the bull riding series is Cowboys Christmas Twins that comes out in October. In December, I have Snowed in with the Cowboy.

THANK YOU!!

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Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Still Waters and An Amish Baby in Her Arms by Patricia Johns

Still Waters and An Amish Baby in Her Arms by Patricia Johns have gripping plots. The characters in the stories must navigate their Amish life with their desires and wishes.

The characters of both books make for wonderful stories. Anyone who enjoys an intense plot, with riveting characters, should read these books.

Book Description

Unsure of her future within the Amish community, Beth Peachy arrives in Lancaster County for the summer to care for her ailing grandmother. Yet with dementia threatening to steal away Mammi’s memories, Beth’s visit quickly evolves into an urgent search for answers to questions that her relatives seem determined to avoid. How can Beth possibly make a lifelong vow to the Amish church when her own family is concealing so much of the past from her?

Beth’s childhood friend Danny Lapp faces his own dilemma as his ex-Amish older brother turns his back on their family upbringing, dishonoring his Plain heritage. Struggling to find some sort of connection with his brother despite their deep difference of opinion, Danny is determined to find a solution before church leadership becomes involved. As Beth and Danny reconnect and seek to help each other in their search for answers, they find themselves stirring up not only surprising revelations about the past, but questions about a possible future–together.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Still Waters has two of the female characters trying to navigate the Amish world versus the English world. Tabitha Schrock left the Amish faith because she wanted to become a veterinarian. Although she has no regrets about that choice, she decided to come back to the Amish community after divorcing her husband who cheated on her. She is getting closer to a friend, Jonas who is willing to help her. Unfortunately, they are attracted to each other but because of Amish rules they can never be married. Tabitha is not the only Amish character who is struggling with her life choices. There is also Beth Peachy who came to Lancaster County to help her ailing grandmother. She wants answers about her dad’s history since he just died. She is also struggling with her Amish faith since she wants to pursue things she enjoys. Danny Lapp is hoping Beth will stay in the Amish faith because he is in love with her.

A powerful subject matter is how Beth’s grandmother, Mammi, has the first signs of dementia. This presents anguish, grief, and peace with the characters since it is hard for Beth to get answers.

***

Book Description

A widow reeling from loss…

Can the storm deliver her a family?

Miriam Yoder thought she’d never feel happy again after the loss of her husband and unborn child—until a baby is abandoned outside her workplace. Seeing this as an opportunity for her heart to heal, she cares for the helpless infant during a fierce storm with her late husband’s brother. But Amish farmer Isaac Yoder has been keeping secrets. Hiding them from Miriam as he temporarily works alongside her at his aunt’s chocolate shop is one thing…but caring for a baby together presents a new challenge. Can their growing connection withstand the weight of the truth and open Miriam’s heart again?

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Elise’s Thoughts

An Amish Baby in Her Arms is also a powerful book. The female lead, Miriam also questions parts of the Amish faith. She married her true love, Elijah, but he was a bad husband who drank, gambled, had infidelities, and abused her emotionally. She had a hard life after losing Elijah in an accident and the baby she was pregnant with. Now a feminist of sorts she has decided to never remarry and to be responsible for herself, never depending on a man again. Elijah’s brother Zach also has secrets since he was in love with Miriam and did not think she should marry Elijah.

They were thrown together in a storm after finding an abandoned baby. They navigated the dangerous weather to travel to her grandfather, but the storm got even worse and Zach had to stay there. Working alongside each other, caring for the baby, and being in such close contact, they both started having feelings for one another.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for Still Waters? Was it comparing life as an Amish person versus an English person?

Patricia Johns: I wanted to write about the well intentions of family and how different generations react to the traditions. The characters are struggling to find their place in life, and it is not all perfect.

EC: How would you describe Tabitha?

PJ: Tabitha has given up a lot since she has come back to the Amish life. She feels different and unique. She wants to fit in but also wants more from her life. She is impressive, confident, hopeful, lonely, and is compassionate. Right now, she feels like an outsider.

EC: How would you describe Jonas?

PJ: Jonas does not want to be under his father’s wing and to do something different, like raising sheep. He is loyal, trustworthy, and lonely.

EC: What about the relationship between Tabitha and Jonas?

PJ: He has only eyes for her and is frustrated because of their situation. They both have feelings for each other but realize there is no future.

EC: How would you describe Beth?

PJ: Beth’s family wants to believe that retaining an Amish faith will be an idyllic life. Yet, her family have many secrets they have not revealed. She is considerate, she questions if the Amish life can give her everything she wants. Because of this she is vulnerable, frustrated, and searches to find her place. She has a healthy rebellious streak because she constantly asks questions to get to the whole truth.

EC: What about the relationship between Danny and Beth?

PJ: She sees him at times unreasonable and feels he is not willing to bend or compromise. He wants to have the pure Amish experience. He does not want to acknowledge that times people do not have a great Amish life.

EC: What about the Beth’s dad experience?

PJ: He is the broken rule. He is the walking, talking exception. He is the key to the mystery.

EC: There is a lot in the book about the Amish traditions and rules. Please explain.

PJ: They only have education through the 8^th grade. Marriage is not allowed if divorced. Living in sin is absolutely forbidden. Women in the Amish community lead in the home but nowhere else. The problem comes up when the husband is no good then the women are very vulnerable.

EC: How did you get the idea for the book An Amish Baby in Her Arms?

PJ: I had this image in my head of a baby on a doorstep during a crushing storm.

EC: How would you describe Zach, the male lead?

PJ: Protective, feels guilty, has secrets, and is reserved. He questions why the Amish keeps the English at arm’s length. He has guilt surrounding his brother’s death, guilt about his feelings for his late brother’s wife, and guilt for not agreeing with the fact that the Amish separate themselves from everybody else.

EC: How would you describe Miriam?

PJ: She has grief over losing her baby and husband. She does not want to be reliant on any man again. Miriam is hardworking, stressed, kind, considerate, tough, and determined. She is an Amish feminist even though she herself would not describe herself in that way since she wants to support herself and not be reliant on a man again. She is not looking for a man to rescue her.

EC: What did Miriam go through while married to Elijah, who is now dead?

PJ: She has gone through a miserable heartbreaking experience and never wants to experience it again. She is determined not to put herself in that vulnerable position again. Her late husband, Elijah, broke her spirit, did not respect her, was irresponsible, uncaring, not devoted to her, caused her pain, disorder, unhappiness, and made her lose her self-esteem and sense of purpose.

EC: How would you compare Zach to Elijah?

PJ: Zach is the direct opposite of Elijah. He builds her up, is kind, and supportive. He makes her life easier, respects her, and sees her value.

EC: What is the role of the baby, Ivy?

PJ: She is most vulnerable who needs care and love. She is the catalyst that has Zach and Miriam opening their hearts to this baby, so their own hearts are more open to each other. They must work together to take care of this baby.

EC: What about the role of the storm?

PJ: It isolates Zach and Miriam together. It keeps the rest of the world out and forces them to deal with their personal problems.

EC: Next book?

PJ: It is titled Through the Valley and wraps up this series, “The Amish of Shepherd’s Hill.” The plot will have Tabitha’s long deserved, long awaited happily ever after. Although you could read this last book as a stand-alone you will appreciate it even more if the previous two books in the series are read first.

THANK YOU!!

***

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Lost Orphans and The Lifeboat Orphans by Ellie Curzon

Book Description – The Lost Orphans

Amidst the chaos of bombs and falling ash, eight-year-old Elsie has nobody left but her big brother Jack and their friends, all orphaned, runaway evacuees. Their world has shattered, their parents gone. Until Lisette, a beautiful jazz singer with golden hair and a voice that lifts spirits, finds them.

Lisette takes the children under her wing and soon Elsie, who hasn’t spoken since her mother’s death, begins to find her smile again. But Lisette, too, is healing from her own grief. As she cares for the rag-tag band of orphans with the help of enigmatic war hero Mr Wyngate, can Lisette open her heart to love again? And as the bombs continue to fall over their city, can she keep the children safe?

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Book Description – The Lifeboat Orphans

Fifteen-year-old Connie is leaving war-torn England for the safer shores of America, looking after a nine-year old orphan boy with sad blue eyes. But the ocean is rife with Nazi vessels. And when their boat is torpedoed, in the fear and chaos Connie can’t stop thinking about handsome Jack, who stayed behind in London. Will the orphans survive, and will Connie ever be reunited with her first love?

Back in London, sixteen-year-old Jack desperately misses Connie, his brave, kind friend, after their tearful goodbye when her ship set sail. As bombs set the skies ablaze, he listens to an old radio for any news about the dangerous Atlantic crossing. When he intercepts a secret message that could change everything, he races to the war office. Will they listen to a young lad like him, and can he save Connie and countless other lives?

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Lost Orphans and The Lifeboat Orphans in “The Runaway Evacuees Series” by Ellie Curzon, the pen name for Catherine Curzon and Helen Barrell, are two books that have touching, heart-warming, and heartbreaking moments, with a tinge of humor. The setting of London during the Nazi blitz of WWII shows how Londoners faced fear, survival, loss, and horror, but also were courageous, kind, brave, and strong. Both books are historical fiction based on the true story of the Blitz kids.

The Lost Orphans, known as Connie, Jack, Elsie, Ned, Ben, and Susan, were sent to the countryside to be safe, but instead were beaten, starved and were used as slave laborers. They escaped and fled back to London’s East End, sleeping where they could. The children banded together to not only survive but to help others by putting out fires, helping those buried under debris, and warning of unexploded bombs.

Readers meet two adults, Lisette Souchon and Adam Wyngate who become surrogate parents to the orphans after they helped rescue eight-year-old Elsie. This make-shift family stays together to make sure each survive.

The story began with The Lost Orphans and ends for now with The Lifeboat Orphans. The story flows from one book to the other. In the first book the narrators are Elsie and Lissette, while the second book is narrated by Connie and Lissette.

After an argument between Connie and Ned, he runs away and while rescuing someone has a wall fall on him, causing injuries. If he can make it to America Ned’s injuries might be helped by a specialist doctor. Connie, Ned, and Mr. Wyngate travel by ship to get to America that must navigate away from the German U-boats’ torpedoes.

With both books readers will experience, along with the characters, the intensity of the situation, the devastations, and the loss of life. People will worry for the children, while also cheering for them. These stories are gripping, riveting, and hard to put down.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: The idea for the series?

Ellie Curzon (alias for Helen Barrell and Catherine Curzon): Our previous series, The Codebreaker Girls, had Mr. Wyngate as a character. We loved him and wanted to get into his backstory. We wrote an entire novel about him, since he has been in each of our WWII novels as a returning character. He is essentially like a secret agent. We adapted the solo book about him, and it morphed into these stories with The Lost Orphans.

EC: Were these books based on anything real?

HB: My gram was an evacuee and did come home because she had an awful time. She was pinched and the family she was staying with in the countryside kept most of her rations. Her mom said, ‘come on home.’ She was a little girl traveling alone on the trains. We wanted to write about what war does to children.

CC: One of my interests is WWII history. The Lost Orphans were based on a real group of children who were called The Dead-End Kids. They were children who were evacuated and came back. They were befriended by a nineteen-year-old who led the group. They put out fires and rescued people from bomb blasts. Some were killed doing it. They became the spirit of the city. Their story had been forgotten. Their story is stranger than fiction. It seems far-fetched but is true.

EC: How would you describe Mr. Wyngate?

CC: He is based on the real stories of those in the SOE and intelligence services who did dangerous work. He is entirely fictional. He has very clipped language and never uses any spare words. Everything is snappy. I absolutely love writing him. Wyngate is direct, caring, brave, mysterious, proud, resilient, and has resolve. He is also the hero to one of the orphans, Elsie. He is her superhero. Based on Wyngate’s own past he knows what it is like to be a child that nobody wants. He wants to make a massive impact on these orphans’ lives.

HB: We have a joke that Ian Fleming knew him and based James Bond on him. Elsie has nobody except her brother Jack. He is like a hero to her who has walked out of the cinema screen. For him, Elsie represents his little sister. They have invincible links. Elsie feels that he understands her.

EC: How did you divide the stories of the orphans between the two books?

H & C: The first book was more Elsie’s story, while the second book was more Connie’s story. The first book was from Elsie’s and Lisette’s point of view, while the second book was from Connie’s and Lisette’s point of view. Connie is older and had a very hard life. In the first book, The Lost Orphans, they struggled to get out of dangerous situations and did not know what their life held, while in the second book, The Lifeboat Orphans, they are settled in a little home, have a profile, and have adults helping them. Connie daydreams that she and Ned were brother and sister.

EC: How would you describe Lissette?

HB: We each write different characters. Catherine wrote Mr. Wyngate and I wrote Lissette. She is French and a nightclub singer in Soho. We wanted to explore how Soho was a bit Bohemian. She makes Mr. Wyngate able to let his guard down with her. She and Mr. Wyngate became unofficial foster parents to the orphans. They stepped up to the plate.

CC: All these characters have no one. Lissette has her mom back in France, Wyngate is completely on his own, and the orphans lost everything. At first, they had no one and now they all have each other.

EC: What about the relationship between Jack/Connie and Lisette/Wyngate?

H & C: People think Wyngate is a bit of James Bond, with a girl in every port. But his lifestyle has it not happening. Both he and Lisette have emotional bruises along the way. Jack and Connie still have that youthful innocence with a belief in romance. This leads to a funny moment where Lisette and Wyngate realize they need to talk to the children about the birds and the bees. Connie and Jack had to grow up very fast. They acted as parents to the younger children. Both couples start as friends. We wanted to write the relationships with parallel lines.

EC: In the first book Elsie had become mute while in the second book Ned lost his hearing. Please explain.

HB: We like to explore different disabilities. I started going deaf when I was thirty and wanted to explore it with the orphan, Ned. Regarding Elsie, my brother who has different learning disabilities became mute.

EC: What do you want to say about the nuns and countryside farmer cruelty?

H & C: On a plotting level they were the springboard that pushed the story into action. My gram told us stories of being an evacuee. She was pinched and was left to go hungry. Some of the things did happen where the nuns did beat the orphan children with their rosaries. It was hard to write about it. I did not understand how they did not have compassion for the children left in their care. In this series the antagonist is the war. We wanted to show why the children were running away and from whom. At the same time there were good people as well like the Jewish Soup Kitchen that fed the orphans. We wanted to showcase the blitz spirit where most of the Londoners came together.

EC: What is the role of the blitz?

HB: We wanted to show readers a little of what the British went through by the Nazis. It brought Lisette, Wyngate, and the orphans together, and to show the abuses. Anyone writing about WWII cannot avoid writing about the blitz. When I wrote about sheltering in the station, a lot of it was remembering what my grandma used to tell me. Every morning, they would come out wondering if their house was still standing. That is why we wrote the scene where Elsie and Jack and the others came back to their house and found nothing there.

EC: Was the journalist Esther based on truth?

CC: She is not based on anyone real, but there were women who were war correspondent trailblazers. Like Esther’s reporting, the real orphans were reported on in the press. They became for a little while celebrities. They had their moment in the sun. They were constantly helping. A good story did help with wartime morale. It was quite an important weapon in the homefront arsenal, the morale of the British people. As reported, we wanted to show the bravery, tragedy, and selflessness. Here were these children who put themselves in danger to do something.

EC: Why the celebrities?

CC: The music was important. I love vintage music. Noel Coward and Vera Lynn are real. She is legendary and when someone brings up ‘wartime music’ in England people would say Vera Lynn. There are certain types of music that Englanders of any age would realize it came from WWII. For me, there are certain types of music that transport me. I vicariously lived Coward and Lynn coming to a benefit in England and Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in America.

EC: Is Pippa the dog based on any dog?

CC: Pippa is my dog. We started writing the series just after she died. Nothing has hit me as hard as her death. I felt like I lost a part of myself. Helen suggested to name the dog in the series after my Pippa. She is grey and peachy. I love having her in the book because that makes her immortal. She is Elsie’s dog and helps the children with their adventures.

EC: Next book?

H & C: It is a new book in the same genre with some returning characters, set in France. It is a story of remarkable women who pushed back against the Germans. Imagine a French village on the Normandy coast. The characters have bravery, friendship, and personal sacrifice. It will be out fall of 2026.

THANK YOU!!

***

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: National Forest K-9 Series and Colorado K-9 Rescue by Kathleen Donnelly

Elise’s Thoughts and Descriptions

Chasing Justice, Hunting the Truth, and Killer Secrets are the first books by Kathleen Donnelly of the National Forest K-9 Series. She is an author that should be put on everybody’s radar. Having been a handler for a private narcotics K-9 detection company, she is able to use her experiences to craft realistic stories in these novels.

Each of the three books explains more of former Marine Maya Thompson’s and Deputy Sheriff Josh Colte’s pasts, shedding light on the emotional and physical scars of the hero and heroine. They delve into topics involving law enforcement, military reentry after serving overseas, and PTSD within a suspenseful storyline.

After losing her military K-9, former marine Maya Thompson swears she’ll never work with dogs again. But when she returns home to Colorado and accepts a job with US Forest Service law enforcement, fate brings K-9 Juniper into her life just as another tragedy unfolds. The mountain setting in all the plots adds to the suspense. The mystery/action stories are riveting, plus there are added bonuses that have good descriptions and details of how K9s train and work.

Maya and Josh are both recovering addicts who self-medicated their PTSD. She is a K-9 handler with the Forestry Service, and he is with the Sheriff’s office. Throughout the books their mutual attraction grows into a relationship of love.

The plot of book 1, Chasing Justice, involves a deepening drug war and the disappearance of her grandfather, Sheriff Wayne. Book 2, Hunting the Truth, has Maya investigating her past when her mother and grandmother were killed. Killer Secrets, book 3, has an avalanche exposing a serial killer’s dumping grounds in Antler Valley, Colorado. Now Forest Service officer Maya Thompson and her K-9, Juniper, must catch the murderer before they become the next targets.

Donnelly has also written another series involving canines. The first book, Colorado K-9 Rescue has FBI victim specialist, Mckenna Parker, and her crisis canine, Mocha, assigned to a case with FBI agent Evan Knox. McKenna and Mocha help people who have been through major trauma. In this book it is someone rescued from being kidnapped. Now Evan, McKenna, and Mocha must find other local girls who disappeared.

The link to Donnelly’s newsletter is https://kathleendonnelly.com/contact/#newsletter, and if someone signs up, they will receive a non-fiction compilation of short stories about her time as a K-9 handler, titled Working Tails.

Donnelly writes gripping stories that are very realistic. They take readers on a thrilling ride of action-packed non-stop adventure that have twists and turns. The characters will touch people’s hearts as they try to make a life for themselves and lean on each other as well as their furry companions.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the Forest Service K-9 series?

Kathleen Donnelly: I had the setting in Colorado because I grew up there and loved the mountains. My dad was a researcher in the forest service. It is so beautiful, but the mountains can be very dangerous. It is the perfect Jekyll and Hyde setting. I am a retired canine handler, where I did it for nineteen years.

EC: Were you a canine handler for law enforcement?

KD: No. I worked for a private company and owned one, Sherlock Holmes Detection Canine. We went to schools, private business, and some rehabs. Our dogs were trained to find drugs, alcohol, and gun powder. We did go through the same training and certification as law enforcement officers. I try to keep it realistic as far as police procedure and all the drugs in the stories are fact based.

EC: Did you speak with any law enforcement or military people?

KD: One of our handlers was a retired handler officer who reads my books and gives me feedback. I have another friend, a retired chief of police. I have a lot of sources I can reach out to in law enforcement. I was also able to connect with a forest service law enforcement canine handler. He is very helpful because some of my friends would say we would do it this way in city PD, but that is not how forest service will do it.

EC: What about Maya’s PTSD?

KD: I also had a fellow writing friend, Tara Darlene Smith, who was an army veteran who suffered from PTSD. I believe she drove convoys in Iraq. She told me what it was like. She has published a book, Sunflowers in Iraq about what she went through. She helped develop Maya’s battle with PTSD. She told me you do not get over PTSD, just learn how to manage it.

EC: Was the scene where Maya overruled her dog realistic?

KD: The storyline for the first book in the series, Chasing Justicewas based on my own experience. I thought as a handler I wanted to add this realistic aspect, where sometimes things do not go as planned. I had Maya, the handler, not wanting to do the work anymore because of an experience she had, but realizes she is just meant to do it.

EC: Did you base Juniper’s personality on real life dogs?

KD: My dog, Boomer, although not a Malinois, but a black lab, is high energy and does check our house for drugs when we come home. I do have to watch him and keep him away from the tree ornaments. The K-9s are very driven and high energy even when they retire.

EC: How do multi-purpose dogs alert and know what to do?

KD: Dual purposes dogs have more than one job. They have different types of collars or harnesses to show them what job they were going to do. Anytime a dog latches on to a scent for finding evidence, a body, or tracking, their body language changes. Their body language is completely different: the tail can go up, body tenses, they can lie down, or their breathing changes. One of the handlers I spoke with told me, which I added in the story, his dog did a sit for narcotics and laid down to indicate evidence. The dog work I keep as accurate as possible and try to work the storyline around that accuracy even when I was working and my dog was telling me that there was something there, but I missed it.

EC: How would you describe Maya over the course of the three books?

KD: She was a Marine who fought in Afghanistan. She is broken, closed off, loves dogs, she feels grief and anger which shows in her PTSD, and feels guilty over losing her working dog, Zinger, in Afghanistan, blaming herself. She tries to shut off her emotions, and at other times spirals out of control. She can be stubborn, jumps to conclusions, resilient, and a fighter. Maya also wants to be more like her grandfather Wayne, which is why she joined the military and law enforcement, always wanting justice. Because she knows loss, she works hard to help someone find closure.

EC: Is she a recovering alcoholic?

KD: Yes, she now realizes as evidenced in the book quote, she “drinks to quit feeling.” As a character she shows why she got PTSD, dealing with PTSD, and trying to recover from PTSD. I wanted to portray this accurately. A lot of veterans come home, and they do not have a “normal” anymore. She tries to shut down the memories, flashbacks, and nightmares through alcohol. She had a friend, grandfather, and cabin to pull her out of it.

EC: How would you describe Juniper?

KD: She helped Maya with her anxiety, to feel calmness, and gave her purpose. She made her realize her past fear and to trust herself with another dog. Juniper is Maya’s ears, eyes, and smells. She needs structure, is high energy, and high drive. She can be intimidating and loves to destroy objects. She is a typical Malinois, wound tighter than any working dog. When I would look for dogs at rescues, I wanted them to be friendly but are so high energy with extra drive that they could not be just a pet, but a great working dog. They need to be entertained even when retired. The Malinois like Juniper are similar, but only on steroids. One of the best portrayals of a Malinois was the movie “Dog” with Channing Tatum. They did not exaggerate.

EC: The role of Grandfather Wayne?

KD: Protective, stubborn, gruff, a fighter, strong, and indestructible. He did not want her to follow in his footsteps. He raised Maya with her grandmother. He is very proud of her, but it is hard for him to tell her. It was easier for Maya to speak with her grandmother because she understood her so well. Losing her grandmother adds to the grief and loss for Maya. Throughout the books Maya and Wayne try to find if she was murdered.

EC: How would you describe Josh?

KD: A good listener, charming, can be arrogant, kind, and not judgmental. His backstory has affected him and caused PTSD. He wants to help people.

EC: How about the relationship?

KD: He really understood Maya on a level no one has. They are attracted to each other but also found each other annoying. They were good friends first. She thinks she is not good enough for him and does not think she is in a spot to have a relationship. The relationship seems to progress with each book.

EC: How would you describe one of the supposed bad guy characters, Eric Torres?

KD: Cunning, ruthless, smart, charismatic, manipulative, a bad cop who took bribes, and he is not who he appears to be at first sight.

EC: How would you describe the murderer of the third book of the series, Killer Secrets?

KD: Manipulative, a hunter, uses drugs to get his victim incapacitated, feels powerful, obsessed with Maya. He is also methodical, controlling, meticulous, knows investigative techniques and likes to play games with the victims. I developed him off some of the FBI’s research on serial killers and then used my own characteristics.

EC: What about the other series, Colorado Canine Rescue?

KD: It is different than the Forest Service K-9 Series. It is much more of a romance series. Each character has their own story.

EC: How would you describe the female lead, McKenna?

KD: Vulnerable, strong, determined, resilient, and anxious. She is a survivor and wants to help others who had traumatic experiences. She faced her trauma more than Maya had faced hers. There is a statistic where those in law enforcement or the military like Maya have faced over 800 traumatic events where someone like McKenna had that one trauma.

EC: What about the male lead, Evan?

KD: Sometimes rude. Untrusting. A workaholic, driven, and outgoing.

EC: What about the relationship?

KD: At first McKenna thinks of him as a jerk. He likes to tease. Both are sensitive. He makes her feel safe.

EC: How would you describe the dog, Mocha?

KD: He is a canine victim specialist dog. I heard the FBI started this crisis program. They comfort victims. The dogs are deployed to horrific events. Mocha brings joy, provides comfort, and helped McKenna with her trauma.

EC: What about your non-fiction book, Working Tails?

KD: It is free for anyone who signs up to my newsletter. https://kathleendonnelly.com/contact/#newsletter . I started writing short stories that I put into a collection of the working dogs.

EC: Next books?

KD: In book 4 of the Forest Service novels, Buried Lies, Josh’s past comes back to haunt him and he is framed for murder. This ties up a lot of his past. It comes out January 2026. Book 5’s plot has one of the bad guys coming back for revenge against Maya. It is titled, Deadly Revenge and comes out July 2026.

The next story in the Colorado Canine Rescue series will feature Cassidy, McKenna’s sister. Probably comes out in 2027.

THANK YOU!!

***

Friday Feature Author Interview #2 with Elise Cooper: Only Cry for the Living and Afghanistan by Hollie S. McKay

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Hollie S. McKay is an investigative and international affairs/war journalist who has written two non-fiction books, Only Cry for The Living and Afghanistan and a novel, Dictator’s Wife. She has put her life on the line as she worked on the frontlines of several major war zones including in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Her books cover terrorism, and crimes against humanity.

***

Book Description

Only once in a lifetime does a war so brutal erupt. A war that becomes an official genocide, causes millions to run from their homes, compels the slaughtering of thousands in the most horrific of ways, and inspires terrorist attacks to transpire across the world.

That is the chilling legacy of the ISIS onslaught, and Only Cry for the Living takes a profoundly personal, unprecedented dive into one of the most brutal terrorist organizations in the world.

Journalist Hollie S. McKay offers a raw, on-the-ground journey chronicling the rise of ISIS in Iraq—exposing the group’s vast impact and how and why it sought to wage terror on civilians in a desperate attempt to create an antiquated “caliphate.”

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Elise’s Thoughts

Only Cry for The Living takes readers on a journey of ISIS as it commits torture, rape, murder, and genocide. McKay provides a profoundly personal insight into the rise of ISIS in Iraq, exposing the desperate pursuit of a barbaric “caliphate” at the expense of innocent lives.

***

Book Description

Overnight, Afghanistan dramatically transformed. One chapter – a twenty-year epoch heralded by the attacks of September 11, the U.S. invasion and propping up an ailing government – shuttered on August 15, 2021. Another entirely new – albeit old – chapter flipped open under the stringent ruling of the Taliban.

Officially termed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it’s a government that triggers immense fear among the population, having reigned with an iron fist pre-9/11 and waged a brutal insurgency from the mountaintops that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Afghans and foreigners.

Veteran war reporters – writer Hollie McKay and photographer Jake Simkin – walk you through the fall of the U.S. and the rise of the Taliban, drawing you into the minds of the new regime and into the hearts of the Afghanistan people.

“Afghanistan: The End of the U.S. Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule” is a chilling bloody, yet beautiful visual expedition through one of the most magical yet wounded parcels of the planet. It is a place where poppies grow wild and men in the mountains cradle guns like children. It’s a place where kites fly high, and everyone has a war story, even though most never chose to go to war.

Welcome to Afghanistan after the cataclysmic fall. The band-aid over the bullet wound has been ripped off, and “Afghanistan” will guide you into the maze of dust, debris and delicacy the way no journalistic endeavor has done before.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Afghanistan, written by McKay with the photographs of Jake Simkin, delves into the fall of the U.S. and the rise of the Taliban, including how women lost any rights gained while the Americans were there.

Both books interviewed those who have been the perpetrators and the victims that describe the true horrors of what happened. The best summary is from Jocko Willink, a retired Navy SEAL, “She gives us all a better understanding of war and human nature.”

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Can you explain your quote about how the rule of law is lost in a war zone?

Hollie S. McKay: In the book on Afghanistan, I have this quote. “The budding and innocent always bear the brunt of war in its height and aftermath.” In the book on ISIS I have this quote, “If only the victims could tell the world what was happening to them, somehow it would all change the world.” These quotes emphasized how those in these situations feel incredibly powerless with a sense of injustice. Unfortunately, the perpetrators never have any accountability. I think telling the victims stories offers a sense of justice that they will never receive from the courts. I am hoping that people might understand on a microlevel what happened and maybe it will spur action.

EC: I wonder where the feminists are with all three brutal attacks on women by Hamas on October 7^th, what the Taliban has done in Afghanistan, or ISIS in Iraq. Please comment.

HSM: Women were raped, tortured, and had their freedoms taken away. There is an overarching narrative where people do not want to be perceived of being derogatory to a different culture. There are situations in life, these being one of them, where people need to culturally offend for any change to a happen. Women should not be MIA but should speak out about any cultural practices that are inherently wrong. More than 150 years ago there was a practice in Hinduism that was called SAATI. Basically, if the men did something wrong or died for whatever reason, they would burn the wives under the belief her life was meaningless without a husband. When the Brits came into India, they said they would kill anyone who practiced this and put a stop to it. My point being that people must step up. Another example, in Afghanistan, had little boys taken, dressed up as girls, and raped. It was a real mistake that the US did not clamp down on this practice. In fact, in 2014/15 a Green Beret was court martialed because he beat up an Afghan police commander he found doing it. He went through a trial and was discharged. That never should have happened. Eventually the charges were dropped and the decision reversed after public outcry. People need to speak out when they know something is inherently wrong, and that is just what he did.

EC: Why do you think the Taliban and ISIS allowed you to interview people and observe?

HSM: I was not treated like ‘their women.’ They recognize I was a western woman that has a different lifestyle and beliefs. Obviously, I was not a man. It was an arbitrary middle ground, which is quite advantageous in these places. I could go and sit with the men but also could sit with the women, which my male colleagues cannot do. In a way I had access others did not because of the middle ground.

EC: What about the Kurd fighters who are women?

HSM: It is a fascinating story. The PKK fought against Turkey but also ISIS. They have a Marxist point of view. They feel women and men are equal in the way that they fight. There are others like the Sun Ladies in Iraq where thousands were taken and used as sex slaves or killed. A number managed to escape but there are still a number still missing. A lot of those women joined the fight because they felt they could not rely on anyone else for their protection. Their motivation was to protect themselves. Generally, the Kurds have more of an open mind then other Sunni Muslims in that region. Another motivation was that these women knew that the extremists believed if they were killed by a woman they would not go to paradise. This put an extra layer of fear to the ISIS terrorists.

EC: What about the US pull out in Afghanistan?

HSM: In Afghanistan a lot of women cannot be educated anymore. A large amount of the poverty level is represented by women. Currently, women have no rights to do anything. Women who want freedom and education, feel a sense of abandonment. At some point there was needed a significant draw down by the American forces. What was frustrating was to see the Afghan Army throw down the weapons and give up the fight considering the training they had. During the evacuation there were able bodied muscular strength men filling the planes because they pushed through that gate above women and children. The evacuation did not need to happen the way it happened.

EC: Does Hamas, ISIS and the Taliban have the same goals?

HSM: Hamas relies on Iran for funding. The Taliban are a little more on their own without the global funding that Hamas has. Their objectives are different. The Taliban is focused on their own border while Hamas wants to eliminate Israel. In terms of extremism both have a Sharia Law system that is brutal. ISIS has the objective to broaden their Caliphate.

EC: What do you want readers to get out of the books?

HSM: I want people to care about everything happening. But human nature has a limit to deal with all the tragedy in the world and the Middle East region. People also get jaded. I wanted to find the micro stories that can tell a micro picture that people can relate to on a personal level. Statistics and numbers can be very desensitizing. People can understand the conflict in a broader way. I wanted to put the human face to the number. It is impossible for Americans to live in a bubble. It is important to understand the way the enemy thinks and the way they see the world.

EC: Are you writing another book?

HSM: I have a book with my agent delving into mothers in war, in crisis, and in conflict. It expanded twelve different countries from Yemen, El Salvador, Taiwan, Syria, North Korea, and Israel.

THANK YOU!!

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