Hello Ann and welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. Your readers are curious to learn about Ann Whitaker.

Why not recline in our cozy chair and tell the readers what your day is like once you wake.

In case you haven’t guessed, dogs are an important part of the Whitaker household. My day begins when Mardi, my 10-year old diabetic toy poodle, wakes up and needs to go outside. Then he has his blood glucose tested, eats his breakfast, and receives his first insulin injection of the day.

Once the dogs are taken care of, I eat breakfast, read the newspaper, and ride my Harley (really a recumbent bike, but I can dream) while watching 30 minutes of a Netflix movie. After a shower, I head for the computer, where I spend most of the day either writing, editing, or checking e-mail. Lately most of my efforts have focused on promotion for DOG NANNY, a romantic comedy released this month by The Wild Rose Press, but I’m eager to get back to the business of writing.

Other days, I play mah jongg or do volunteer work at the Animal Birth Control Clinic. I also read, play the guitar (poorly), and sing when time permits. Believe me, I’m never bored.

Ann, I am eager to learn more about your book, Dog Nanny, which has received some great reviews, why not tell us about this interesting book?

I call it love with a Texas twang. Set in Waco, Dog Nanny is about a doggy do-gooder who has one month to save two delinquent poodles from becoming doggies of divorce. Julie is also a self-proclaimed born-again virgin with a biological clock running out of juice and also needs to find a husband for more than one reason.

When a hunky pilot named Nick arrives at the Abilene airport to fly her to Waco, he sends her into a tailspin. But he also may be a drug trafficker and smuggler of illegal aliens. Not only that, he’s involved with another woman.

Julie's quest for a suitable husband leads to several misfires. Only Nick leaves her panting for more. She wonders if she’ll have to put a choke chain on him before the month is out.

That’s the love story.

An underlying theme is the importance of pet adoption, training, spaying, and neutering our pets. I didn’t consciously set out to write a lesson in dog-rearing. Those parts of the story are the result of my interest in dogs and living with and training my own two poodles.

Because I feel strongly about animal issues, I’m donating a portion of proceeds from the book to our local Animal Birth Control Clinic.

Did you get any of the experiences from your dogs, Jolie Blon and Mardi Gras, when you created Dog Nanny?

All I know about training dogs, I learned from our two and from the reading I did when Jolie, 13, was a pup. She’s a miniature poodle and our love child. Mardi is adopted. A former street dog who went on to have a career in pet therapy.

In 1997 when we got Jolie, my husband made the pronouncement that all the Whitaker dogs were “well-trained.” His family lived in Ohio then, and on our annual visits, I’d never detected anything to make me think otherwise. So I started reading books on dog training, took Jolie to obedience classes, and really worked with her. I discovered training is a lot of fun and also helps you bond with the dog.

Anyway, much later I learned that my in-laws’ Kerry Blue terrier had flunked out of obedience school. My husband claimed what he really meant by “well-trained” was that his parents’ dogs didn’t pull up a chair at the dinner table and ask for seconds.

So all the tricks that Julie teaches Noche and Blanco, the two dogs in the story, are tricks I’ve taught our two. But they deserve the credit. Poodles are so intelligent and easy to train they make their owners look smart.

In what order do you write? For example starting beginning to end, combining parts, in random order or in development cycle?

Before starting the first draft, I have a bare bones outline. I know where the story begins, ends, and a few of the conflicts. Other than that, it’s all subject to change. For example, the second scene in DOG NANNY was actually the first scene I wrote. I later added the first scene because I felt the story needed more setup.

While I was writing the early chapters, I took a wonderful online course on writing sex and sexual tension taught by Natalie Wolfe. So I jumped ahead and wrote a “sensual” scene knowing I could plug it in when my characters were ready.

After I finished the first draft, I added the computer dating scenes because I needed to show Julie actively seeking a husband.

Once I’m happy with the basic story and have given it a cursory edit, I run it by my critique group. After making changes based on their comments, my left brain really kicks in, and I continue to reword, tighten, line edit, and fact check till I’m sick of it.

When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first ms?

Long before I thought of writing fiction, I’d been published in magazines, newspapers, and literary journals—feature stories, reviews, essays, and poetry. But for some reason I’d steered clear of fiction, though I love reading novels.

When I finished my master’s in English, I felt a let-down because I needed a new goal. I asked my husband what I should do next, and he said, “Write a novel.” So I did. Or thought I did. It had words and sentences and paragraphs, but it wasn’t a novel. It was a colossal mess. After that, I wrote two more, each one a little better than the last.

During the 30 years I taught English full time, I really didn’t have much time to seek publication. After I retired, I decided to try again. But this time, I ventured from women’s fiction into the realms of romance. Mainly just to see if I could do it.

Should be easy, right? Hah! That’s when I realized how little I knew about writing any kind of fiction, even though I’d taught novels for many years. Reading and analyzing novels and writing them are worlds apart. Or were for me at any rate.

Why did I submit? I’d joined Romance Writers of America® by that time, and I was encouraged by my online “Elements” critique group. Too, I wasn’t getting any younger, and the idea of publishing posthumously held little appeal.

Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?

I’ve taken as long a year and as short a time as 22 days to write a first draft. It’s the re-writing and polishing that takes me the longest. Some writers edit as they go along. I don’t. I spew it all out and then go back and write and re-write and re-think.

What is your writing routine once you start a manuscript?

Again it varies. I wrote DOG NANNY at a leisurely pace. Some days I wrote several hours at a stretch, other days I didn’t write at all. But I was constantly thinking about it and jotting down notes.

The novel I wrote in 22 days was the result of a book-in-a-week class. For one week I set everything aside to write. After the week was up, I wasn’t quite finished so I pushed on. I’m as tenacious as a bulldog once I start a project.

What is Ann working on for future works?

I’m currently editing that book-in-a-week-that-took-22-days. It’s the story of Mahogany Marsh, a nightside editor for the Desire (Texas) Daily Democrat. When she loses a promotion to a good-looking Yankee with Kennedy hair, she thinks she’s getting even by reducing him to hero-fodder for her romance novel-in-progress.

It also has a dog. Carl, a 190-pound mastiff, is more of a minor character than the two poodles in DOG NANNY. As minor as a 190-pound dog can be.

I’m also working on a collection of essays called “Born To Be Fried.” The title comes from a comment my mother once made about chickens. She said, “Don’t you think some things were just born to be fried?”

Do you have many interruptions after you begin writing?

Life is always full of interruptions. I think we just notice them more if we’re focused on a project we feel passionate about. But, yes, there have been family crises, unexpected visitors, the telephone, personal illnesses. Actually, a case of shingles, painful as it was, helped me. I was unable to do anything for several weeks except sit home in a recliner and take pain killers. Thanks to my laptop, I got a lot of writing done during that time.

I admire writers who hold down jobs, take care of children, and still manage to find time to write.

How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

Since I write largely in first person with a comic bent, I think my personality probably comes through quite a bit. Like my heroines, I’ve got an upbeat, slightly irreverent way of looking at life’s events. I love the absurd and am sometimes prone to hyperbole for comic effect.

With DOG NANNY, I fabricated scenes by thinking what might happen or what might this character say or think. And I’d often have them react just the opposite of what I might do.

Julie’s take on Waco through an outsider’s eyes is pretty close to how I viewed the city when we moved here from Abilene in 2002. Her fear of flying is also something I can relate to. I’ve lost most of that fear, but flying will always seem unnatural to me.

You are at a picnic enjoying the quiet day until you are bothered by stirring ants, and pesky flies. Which of the two really irritates you the most?

First of all, you’d have to drag me to a picnic in Texas in the summertime. Ants, flies, any kind of crawly thing—in addition to heat, sweating, wind, uncomfortable seating—ugh. As a friend of mine once said, “The only country I want to get close to is the country club.” I don’t get even that close.

I do love the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, though. If someone asked me to go on a picnic there…or England…

Ann, would you please share your website, myspace, Facebook, or blog with us today?

Certainly. I’d be glad to hear from your readers at any of the following sites.

Website, Blog, Facebook, MySpace

Do you have any indulgent behaviors one might find surprising? What’s your favorite comfort food?

Indulgent behaviors? Me? I was a high school English teacher. Prim and very proper. I live vicariously through my characters. (Um, you do believe me, don’t you?)

Comfort food? Round up the usual suspects--red wine, chocolate, and ice cream. Low-fat ice cream. Have to cut back somewhere.

Which room in your home would you say is your favorite?

No question about it--the bathroom! My grandmother had only an outhouse for much of her life. Growing up, my mother took baths in a tub in the middle of the kitchen. I could easily live without the kitchen, but I’ve gotta have my shower.

Ann, thanks so much today for the lovely chat. I have had fun and wish you continued success in all you do.

It’s been my pleasure, Linda. I hope readers of DOG NANNY will find it a fun read and have a few laughs.

Interviewed by: Linda L.