Writer Jace Constant hates snakes, dogs, and desert dust. Alice Treemont protects and studies all reptiles, rescues stray dogs and loves the Nevada desert. How can they fall in love?

Arlene Culiner, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author and owner of this blog. Happy to have you here! We support all furbabies, real life or fictional. We want to know all about your Fiction Furbaby, but first, please tell us about your book.

All About Charming Alice by J Arlene Culiner

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): Sensual

Alice Treemont has no intention of falling in love. Living in Blake’s Folly, a semi-ghost town, she cooks vegetarian meals, rescues unwanted dogs, and protects the most unloved creatures on earth: snakes. What man would share those interests?

Jace Constant is in Nevada, doing research for his new book, but he won’t be staying. He’s disgusted by desert dust on his fine Italian shoes and dog hair on his cashmere sweaters. As for snakes, he doesn’t just despise them: they terrify him.

So why does the air sizzle each time Alice and Jace meet? A romance would entail far too many compromises.

Meet Killer from All About Charming Alice

Full name: Unknown (he’s an abandoned stray)
Nickname: Killer
Gender: male
Species: Dog
Physical description: According to Jace Constant: “The dog was large—very large. Its bulbous head seemed to sway on a sagging neck. Its legs were long, knotted, and spindly, and its ribs wanted to punch through a dull, ratty-looking coat. Yet, ugly though it was, the damn thing had a strange appeal.”
Relationship to main character: Killer is a stray. Jace Constant finds him wandering along the road in Nevada and he brings him to Alice Tremont’s animal shelter.
Relationship to the villain/antagonist: What sort of person would abandon a stray dog? Only a villain!
Where this furbaby came from: Who knows?

Do you have any working or service animals in your stories? Tell us about them.

My heroine Alice Treemont studies and protects snakes. She knows how essential they are to our environment, and she is violently opposed to such horrendous sports such as snake bating and snake shows where the creatures are tortured to death.

What inspired you to create this character?

One afternoon, I discovered a fairly large snake—possibly 4 or 5 feet long—snoozing in my courtyard. I was surprised and wary, at first. Then I started to appreciate how wonderfully beautiful it was. In the sun, its scales were a phosphorescent green-gold, and it was also remarkably elegant.

I didn’t want to ruin the its obviously pleasurable sunbath, so I sat down and let myself bask in this rare moment with an unknown creature. So there we were for the longest while, both of us perfectly at peace, doing nothing, and enjoying the calm.

The snake eventually left, but the moment had been so enlightening, I wanted to pass on my appreciation of reptiles to others. Thus I created Alice Treemont, my heroine.

What does the main character think about this furbaby?

The first fur baby in the story is Killer, the stray Jace Constant finds on the highway. Jace doesn’t like dogs, he hates the dog hairs piling up on the back seat of his car, he hates dog hair on his cashmere sweaters, and as soon as he can, he drops Killer off at Alice Tremont’s shelter.

What does this furbaby add to the story?

Killer brings Alice and Jace together. He is also responsible for Jace’s change of heart.

What about this furbaby will readers like, and why? Like many scruffy, loving wonderful dogs…well, everyone eventually falls in love with them. And Jace’s instant attraction to Alice certainly helps things along!

About Virgule

Which, if any of the pets in your writing are modeled after your own pets? In what way?

I suppose that, in many ways, Killer is very much like Virgule, my big black dog. Killer comes from a shelter. He was an abandoned stray. He is very sociable, very loving, and he wins many people’s hearts. Eventually people who are afraid of dogs warm to him. he has great charm.

What do your pets do when you are writing?

I also have two rescue cats. Because my garden is a bird and butterfly shelter, the cats are indoor animals. What do they do when I’m working? They snooze or demand attention and some love… which I’m quite happy to give.

What’s the most unusual pet you ever had?

How about a pet snail? Not very affectionate.

Where did you find your pet?

I found Virgule at the local SPA. He had been there for almost two years, and loved the place. When I took him back for a visit, he wagged his tail happily, then went to his former cage and waited to be let in and fed.

Where to buy All About Charming Alice

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l2VyHtsY7A
Publisher Buy Link https://tinyurl.com/3wkcnunm
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTCD6RBD/thewildrosepr-20
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/all-about-charming-alice-3

J Arlene Culiner Social Media

Writer, social critical artist, and impenitent teller of tall tales, J. Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived in a mud house on the Great Hungarian Plain, in a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, a haunted house on the English moors, and on a Dutch canal. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest where, much to local dismay, she protects spiders, snakes, and weeds. Observing people in cafes, in their homes, on trains, and in the streets, she eavesdrops on all private conversations, and delights in hearing any nasty, funny, ridiculous, sad, romantic, or boastful story. And when she can’t uncover really salacious gossip, she makes it up.
Website www.j-arleneculiner.com
Blog www.j-arleneculiner.over-blog.com
Storytelling Podcast https://soundcloud.com/j-arlene-culiner
Twitter https://twitter.com/JArleneCuliner
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jarlene.culiner
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/jarleneculiner
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jarleneculiner/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7158064.J_Arlene_Culiner
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-arlene-culiner

Shout out to Rob’s Rescues – founded by a 9-year-old animal activist

Rob’s Rescues is a non-profit organization in Georgia helping people in need care for and feed their pets. It was founded in 2014 by a then nine-year-old boy. Rob’s Rescues is dedicated to collecting pet food for people in need to reduce shelter surrenders, and to advocating for the adoption of shelter pets. Rob writes monthly articles advocating for shelter animals in the Around About Local Media magazine publications. His column was first published in 2014. He also has pet food collection sites for people in need in the community and interviews amazing people. His interviews appear online once they are published in his column. Rob volunteers for Pet Buddies Food Pantry, the Cherokee County Animal Shelter and Cobb County Animal Control and collects pet food for these organizations and the communities they serve. He also wants to bring attention to smaller, rural shelters. Mostly he wants to get kids to be Rob’s Rangers to teach kids that they can help shelter animals. Rob has also talked to kids in a classroom setting. Rob’s Rescues is a Non-Profit Corporation and all donations are tax deductible. Website http://www.robsrescues.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/robsrescues/
Twitter https://twitter.com/RobsRescues

Shout out to SPA and Orangutan Project

From J Arlene Culiner: I have a monthly donation to the SPA here in the Mayenne region of France. This is where I adopt my animals (this is a no kill center). The SPA also runs inexpensive clinics for animals belonging to people with low incomes: La Société Protectrice des Animaux : donateurs@la-spa.fr

I contribute each month to The Orangutan Project. They rescue orangutans that are homeless or dying because of forest destruction: help@orangutan.org.au