WHAT ARE ROGER AND SUZANNE UP TO THESE DAYS?

            There are currently two Roger and Suzanne novels at the Work in Progress stage.   The first book, still untitled (but there’s a strong nominee for the honor), brings our two detectives to Alaska’s Denali National Park, a 6 million acre chunk of unspoiled wilderness capped by the highest mountain in North America.  If they’re going to leave South America, I reasoned, why not take them as far away as possible?  And, on top of that, Elaine and I had taken a vacation to Denali (and elsewhere in Alaska) a year or two ago in preparation for this book.

            The novel begins, as many of the Roger and Suzanne series does, with a brutal murder, this one in the National Park.  The victims, who we had met previously as supporting characters in “The Surreal Killer”, were close friends of one of our series regulars, Vincent Romero, Roger’s partner in his private detective agency in Los Angeles since “The Deadly Dog Show”.  Vincent asks Roger to investigate the death of his friends, and we‘re off for our usual mix of travel, tourism, and murder that are the trademarks of this mystery series.  The novel is complete, currently going through its third round of edits, and may be ready for publication as soon as the end of this month.   If anyone wants to volunteer to write a review for the book page on Amazon, I’ll be happy to send you a pre-publication copy to read as soon as the current round of edits (by Elaine and me) is complete.  Just e-mail me or message me on Facebook with your e-mail address if you’re interested. 

GERMAN SHORTHAIRED POINTERS AND HUNT TESTS-PART III: MASTER HUNTER

The third, and final, entry in my series of posts about hunt tests and our dogs follows. I hope at least some of my readers found this series interesting.  If all goes as planned, the venue of hunt tests will be the centerpiece for the next novel in the series.

Master Hunter is the third, final, and by far the most demanding, title a hunting dog can achieve in hunt tests.  Very few dogs achieve this title compared to the number of dogs who become Junior Hunters.

What are the judges looking for? Junior Hunter is all about the dog’s instincts and motivation to hunt.  Senior Hunter competition adds in the criteria of trainability and having the required skills to hunt with minimal guidance from the handler.  This third and most difficult hunt test degree, the Master Hunter level, adds the requirements of a polished and perfect performance by the dog without guidance in the field.  Now the judges are looking for the trained bird dog in all respects– steady to wing and shot, and able to scrupulously honor its brace mate as soon as it sees the other dog find the bird.  The handler is not allowed to give the dog any instructions in the field; the bird dog’s training has to be complete before the test.

GERMAN SHORTHAIRED POINTERS AND HUNT TESTS-PART II: SENIOR HUNTER

Like the movie Groundhog Day, each new puppy we keep starts off the cycle of conformation shows and hunt tests once again in our household.  At the moment we have four generations of dogs, great grandma Viña, Grandma Jolie, mother Schöne, and son Ries, still a puppy.  All three of the older girls are currently at the Senior Hunter level, with Jolie two qualifying rounds (of the required five) away from Master Hunter status and Viña functioning at the Master Hunter level in the field, even though she resists honoring random brace mates in hunt tests.  Today’s post will again focus on Ries, who has already completed his Junior Hunter certification (at 7 months of age), and what the earning of the title of Senior Hunter will require.

What are the judges looking for?  Senior Hunter competition, like Junior Hunter is still about the dog’s instincts and motivation to hunt.  But now we add in the criteria of trainability and having the required skills to hunt with minimal guidance from the handler.  At Senior Hunter level the animals need enough training to understand what is expected of them, but finding a bird and pointing it should be instinctual in a well-bred pointing dog.  On top of these skills the judges are looking for the fundamental skills of the trained bird dog – steady to wing, and the honor.

GERMAN SHORTHAIRED POINTERS AND HUNT TESTS-PART I

Good news today:  The Deadly Dog Show won today's (7/26/14) Indie Book of the Day Award.  This Roger and Suzanne mystery novel features Juliet, a poorly disguised Jolie, as one of the detectives in a complex murder case.  Romeo, a poorly disguised Ries, is born at the end of the novel.  Sooner or later Roger and Suzanne will have to solve a murder or two at a hunt test.

Like the movie Groundhog Day, each new puppy we keep starts off the cycle of conformation shows and hunt tests once again in our household.  At the moment we have four generations of dogs, great grandma Viña, Grandma Jolie, mother Schöne, and son Ries, still a puppy.  All three of the older girls are currently at the Senior Hunter level, with Jolie two qualifying rounds away from Master Hunter status and Viña functioning at the Master Hunter level in the field, even though she resists honoring random brace mates in hunt tests.  Today’s post will focus on Ries, who has already completed his Junior Hunter certification (at 7 months of age), and what it requires to earn the Junior Hunter title.

What are the judges looking for?  Junior Hunter competition is mostly about the dog’s instincts and motivation to hunt.  The animals need enough training to understand what is expected of them, but finding a bird and pointing it should be instinctual in a well-bred pointing dog.  At this level, the judges want the dog to show they want to go out in the field and search for birds.  The judge is looking for the dog to demonstrate using its nose and searching for birds by their scent.

LIFE WITH ONE OF “JULIET’S” PUPPIES

Well, life with almost one of “Juliet’s” puppies.  Our newest dog pack member, Ries, is the grandson of Jolie, the model for “Juliet” in “The Deadly Dog Show”.  Ries, in turn, is the model for Juliet’s new puppy Romeo, who will be featured in guest shots (or more) in upcoming books in this series.  He’s seven months old (that milestone happened on March 26^th), and most certainly has a personality.  In fact his personality is bigger than he is at the moment.   He shows every sign of potentially becoming our best hunting dog ever---and that’s quite an accolade with three of the women in his life (mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother) having their Senior Hunter certifications and some, if not all, of the necessary successful rounds completed to qualify as a Master Hunter.  Ries is working his way up the hunting dog hunt test ladder, currently completing his final qualifying round at the Junior Hunter level.

Dog psychologists have defined a “fear period” from 8 to 18 weeks when the puppy will fear any bad experience he/she has had for the rest of their lives.   The human analogue of the “fear period” takes place when a child is 8-18 months old.  As responsible breeder/owners, it’s our job to give the puppy as many different experiences as they can possibly handle during this period, and to make the experiences positive ones, to get the best possible temperament and self-confidence in the adult dog to come. 

RIES, THE PUPPY, UPDATE

A friend and fellow dog owner came by last week with an invitation to join him hunting Chukar (partridge) and to bring our dogs.  He had several birds left on his card, which expired the next day, to shoot at a local hunting preserve.   So, Elaine, the friend, and I, plus all four of our GSPs went bird hunting on a beautiful, but hot, 80-degree (F) day.   The rest of the story is about Ries, our 6-month-old puppy, one of the four hunting dogs we took along.

REBLOGGED FROM SUSAN TOY'S "READING RECOMMENDATIONS"

The following blog post appeared on Susan Toy's blog on Thursday, January 9, 2014.  Reprinted with permission.  Susan interviewed me about "The Deadly Dog Show".

What is your latest release and what genre is it? The Deadly Dog Show is a mystery. Because one of the lead characters is a dog, Amazon calls it a “cozy”. I’d call it “hard-boiled” or “noir”, but with clean language and no gratuitous sex. I guess that means it’s somewhere between those various genres.

Quick description: The Deadly Dog Show, a suspenseful journey into the world of canine conformation contests, provides an exciting backdrop for murder. Roger Bowman, private eye, is hired to investigate mysterious occurrences at California dog shows. Before long, Roger is working undercover at the dog shows impersonating an owner, dead bodies are accumulating, and a mysterious stalker is pursuing Roger’s wife, Suzanne. The reviewers are enthusiastic about this whodunit novel, which should appeal to mystery readers, dog lovers, and anyone else who wants to learn more about the world of dog show competition.


Brief biography:
The author is a Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California’s Medical School at Davis. He has a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and does research on asthma and health effects of air pollution on the lungs. He is also a big fan of California mystery novels. A quick search of Amazon will turn up books and articles in biochemistry previously edited or authored by Jerry, as well as his South American mystery novel series. The settings and locales for all of these novels are authentic; the author lived previously in Salta, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. He has collaborated with several local scientists in Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. The Deadly Dog Show, set in California, is the fourth novel in his Roger and Suzanne mystery series, following The Ambivalent Corpse, set in Montevideo, Uruguay and the surrounding region, The Surreal Killer, set in Peru and Northern Chile’s Atacama Desert region, and The Matador Murders, set in Montevideo and Santiago, Chile. All of these mystery novels are available as Kindle E-books from Amazon. Two shorter books in this series, a novelette and a novella, The Body in the Parking Structure, set in Los Angeles, and The Body in the Bed, set in Montevideo, are also available from Amazon. A novel-length anthology of shorter stories entitled Five Quickies for Roger and Suzanne, including The Empanada Affair, a novella set in Salta, Argentina, and The Haunted Gymnasium, a shorter and somewhat paranormal mystery set in Fortaleza, Brazil, is also available as a Kindle E-book from Amazon.
Jerry writes hard-boiled mystery books that are fast moving and entertain, while introducing readers to a region where he has lived and worked that is a long way from home for most English speakers. Montevideo, Salta, Machu Picchu, and Iguazu Falls are characters in these books, and the novels portray these places as vivid and real. He lives in Northern California with his wife Elaine, who breeds German Shorthaired Pointers, and with Vinia, Jolie, Schöne, and Ries, four generations of GSPs who contribute interesting material for his blog and characters for his books. Coming soon is a fifth novel, The Origin of Murder, a riff on Charles Darwin’s classic The Origin of Species, which brings Roger, Suzanne, Bruce the Nanny, and Paraguayan police person Eduardo Gomez to the Galapagos Islands where murder and intrigue once again await our detectives in South America.

Links to buy Jerold’s book:
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK

Jerold’s promo links:
Blog
Facebook

What are you working on now?
I’m editing the next novel in the series, The Origin of Murder, which should be published on Amazon Kindle some time this winter. This murder mystery takes Roger and Suzanne to the Galapagos Islands, off the Pacific coast of Ecuador in South America. I’m also starting the next book to follow in the series, which I think will take our detective couple to Alaska.

Jerold’s reading recommendation:
I just finished reading the mystery novel Unleashed by Emily Kimelman (available as a Kindle E-book and elsewhere). I like murder mysteries and I like dogs as characters, so enjoyed this novel.

LIFE WITH ONE OF “JULIET’S” PUPPIES

Well, life with almost one of “Juliet’s” puppies.  Our newest dog pack member, Ries, is the grandson of Jolie, the model for “Juliet” in “The deadly Dog Show”.  He’s almost four months old (that milestone will happen on December 26^th), and most certainly has a personality.  In fact his personality is bigger than he is at the moment.   The dog psychologists have defined a “fear period” from 8 to 18 weeks when the puppy will fear any bad experience he/she has for the rest of their lives.   As a breeder/owner, it’s our job to give the puppy as many different experiences as they can possibly handle during this period, and to make the experiences positive ones, to get the best possible temperament and self-confidence in the adult dog to come.  The human analogue of the “fear period” takes place when a child is 8-18 months old.

EARLY PUPPY LIFE: A REPORT AT FIVE WEEKS OF AGE

            Schöne’s puppies were 5 weeks old on Monday, so an update on their progress seems to be timely.  The eight puppies, four boys and four girls, have temporary names (pending the desires of their new owners) now.  They were named for a variation on a theme from the TV show “Wheel of Fortune”, the category of “before and after”.  The first theme is the movie “Pretty in Pink”, a logical extension of Mom’s name, “beautiful” in German.  The fused “after” theme is the band, “Pink Floyd”.  We thank an owner of the puppy’s Uncle Bruce for suggesting this theme. 

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE DEADLY DOG SHOW

            The newest book in the Roger and Suzanne series, The Deadly Dog Show, is getting excellent reviews (see a couple of previous posts below, July 26th and August 1st) and four of the more recent ones at the end of this entry.  It’s also selling well, apparently both to dog lovers and to mystery fans.  As indicated in the book’s foreword and this blog, the canine heroine of the novel, Juliet, is very much modeled after our middle dog, Jolie.  This post explores the real-life origins of a few specific scenes in the novel and takes you "behind the scenes" to illustrate the integration of reality and fiction in my creative process.

MORE REVIEWS OF THE DEADLY DOG SHOW---AT TEN DAYS OLD

The rest of the reviews for "The Deadly Dog Show", thus far. (N = 11, Mean score = 4.9 Stars out of a possible 5.0)

1. Doggonit.  What a good read...! Well done and captivating. I loved the character development and was truly drawn into the story with all of its' twists and turns.

2. Mystery, dogs and a quick read---3 simple reasons to buy: I rarely read anything other than cookbooks or lately informational books on raising farm animals. However, in the midst of a trying few months in my life, I was given the opportunity to read this mystery by Mr. Last. It was a great way to divert my attention from reality, yet seemed so familiar, as a Northern California resident, a dog owner and a foodie. We currently own a champion German Shorthaired Pointer named 'Bruce' and plan on owning this breed for the rest of my life. It is always nice when you can read something so entertaining and feel like you are almost part of the story. I am always particularly pleased when details about food are included because it allows one to not only visualize the story and the character, but also smell the scene. Like his many other pieces, this too is a pleaser!

Bonus: There's enough time in your busy schedule to read this book and it costs less than an espresso beverage.

THE FIRST BATCH OF REVIEWS FOR THE DEADLY DOG SHOW

As of today, July 26, 2013, “The Deadly Dog Show” has been published for six days and has garnered 9 reviews, with an average ranking of 4.9 out of a possible 5 stars.  Here are a few examples from the eight 5-star reviews (quoted accurately and in their entirety from the book’s Amazon page).

1.  “A must for dog show enthusiasts” by Sharon. 

“I've read several books in this series and found them entertaining, with good characterization and accurate feel for the settings.

This is much my favorite, however, because of my own dog show background. Have to say this is the first mystery with a setting/background in the show dog world that has no errors that I noted. The plot, involving dog show officials, might have been just a bit over the top in some ways but it did hold together.

Entertaining addition to the series and wonderfully accurate background and setting. Will appeal to mystery readers and if you're a dog show person, whether you usually read mysteries or not, this is a must read.”

THE DEADLY DOG SHOW

Did you ever think that you’d like to kill the judge who didn’t give you (your dog, your horse, your child) the victory?  Did you ever get a gift from a secret admirer who might not really admire you?  Have you ever been in a competition that was rigged so you couldn’t win?  The seventh book in the popular Roger and Suzanne mystery series finds Roger and Bruce hired to go undercover impersonating the owner and handler of a Champion German Shorthaired Pointer named Juliet to investigate certain irregularities that might be occurring at dog shows in California.  To complicate this case the bodies of dead judges start popping up and Suzanne picks up a mysterious stalker sending her most unwelcome gifts.  Throw in drug cartels and corrupt cops and it sounds like a typical job for our detective couple.  “The Deadly Dog Show” may be read as a stand-alone novel, but fans of the series should enjoy reconnecting with characters they have met in the previous books.  This whodunit novel should appeal to mystery fans, dog lovers, and anyone who wants to learn more about the world of dog show competition. 

LEFT BRAIN, RIGHT BRAIN

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With a B.S. degree in Chemistry and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemistry it’s a pretty good guess that I’m predominantly left brained.  My wife Elaine is excellent at all kinds of crafts and is an accomplished weaver.  It’s a pretty good guess that she’s predominantly right brained.   We can see the ‘he’s from Mars and she’s from Venus’ stuff when she edits my manuscripts.  I tend to plot and write linearly while she craves visual scenes and better realized minor characters.  We had several excellent examples of this dichotomy in the current WIP, “The Deadly Dog Show”.  For example I originally wrote a scene in Chapter 2 with Roger introducing Suzanne to hot pastrami sandwiches in a stereotypical New York City Delicatessen as follows.

SENIOR HUNTERS: A GRANDMOTHER-MOTHER-DAUGHTER THING

A few weeks ago Jolie and her daughter Schoene finished their senior hunter certification about two braces apart during a local AKC hunt test.  Grandma Vinia has had her Senior Hunter certification for several years, so we now have three generations of Senior Hunters to hunt pheasant, quail, and chukar with.  Vinia functions at the Master Hunter level, but refuses to honor any dog she doesn’t respect so only has a few legs on her MH degree and is now a spectator when the younger generations of the family compete in hunt tests.  Interestingly, Vinia has no difficulty honoring any of her family members (including all of the brothers and sisters of her pack mates) while hunting in the field so hunts at the MH level in real life as opposed to hunt tests.  A couple of months ago we were hunting five dogs at once---Vinia, Jolie, Schoene, Sarah (another granddaughter), and Tiger (a Jolie brother)---on a large field.  Somebody (either Jolie or Schoene) found a pheasant and pointed it.  Four other dogs stopped where they were and honored the point.  They’re trained to hold the point (and the honor) until someone human does something about the bird.  That’s a pretty spectacular sight!  It makes finding the bird pretty easy.