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Interview with Carolyn Arnold, author of the Madison Knight series

Tell us about the Madison Knight series.

The Madison Knight series is designed as a stand-alone, which means you can read these books out of order and still pick up on the series’ characters and the storyline.

Major Crimes Detective Madison Knight, fuelled by determination to find justice for the victims, is a strong, independent female amidst a career dominated by men.  If you love a female protagonist lead, I invite you to meet Madison for yourself.

Madison Knight series in order:

TIES THAT BIND, 1st in the series
Meet Madison Knight as she and partner must pull together to stop a potential serial killer.

JUSTIFIED, 2nd in the series
See the softer side of Madison Knight in Justified as she’s assigned to a case on Christmas Eve.

SACRIFICE, 3rd in the series
Madison must risk all, including her career, to bring a killer to justice.

What genre is it?
Police procedural.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?

Readers who love a mystery and something to figure out along the way.  Comparisons have been made to JD Robb’s In Death series, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Amanda Kyle Williams, and Tess Gerritsen to name a few well known authors.

It has also been compared to television shows such as Law & Order, Rizzoli & Isles, Prime Suspect, and more.

Complete this sentence for us: If you like _________________, you’ll love the Madison Knight series.

A multi-layered mystery.

Madison is, obviously, not the stereotypical fictional hard-drinking policeman.  Tell us about her and how you decided what personality she would have.

Madison Knight, although she can have a tough edge, is vulnerable—not that she’d admit it.  She’s married to her career, has a fear of commitment, and has relationship issues with her mother.  Unique to her, and unusual given her career choice, she dislikes blood.  To find out more about that and how she works through it, may I recommend Justified, the 2nd in the series.  : )

To find out more about her psyche, you can read a fictional piece I wrote for this purpose.  It’s Madison meeting with a shrink…she loved that (sense the sarcasm?).

You write other novels outside of the Madison Knight series; can you tell us about them?

At the time of this positing, I have 1 other novel, a novella, and 2 short stories available for purchase.

Eleven is an FBI thriller, which has been compared to Silence of the Lambs and noted as a recommended read by The Examiner on their “Top 12 Fiction Books of 2011 List”.

Eleven follows a group of agents from the Behavioral Analysis Unit while they try to stop a serial killer from reaching his 11th victim.

Pearls of Deception is a mystery short.

Here’s the blurb:

When Christina finds out her husband of twelve years is cheating on her, she takes justice into her own hands. The question is: will she get away with it?

Hart’s Choice is a women’s fiction novella.

Here’s the blurb:

For the lucky ones, there is a love so powerful that when it comes along, it changes everything.

As teenagers, just a chance meeting at a county fair, would change Barry and Tessa’s lives forever. Yet with a summer romance that didn’t fully blossom and ended without warning, two hearts were torn apart by time and circumstance. Tessa pursued her love of dance and found herself a ballerina in the 1962 production of The Nutcracker in New York City. But she still thought of Barry. Reunited nearly a decade later, only to be ripped apart by war and loss, Tessa wonders if they will ever be together and dreams fulfilled.

Rings of a Tree is a poetic short. It draws a poetic correlation between the changing seasons and the stages of our lives.

The proceeds from some of your work go to charity. Which charities do you support and why those ones in particular?

The profit proceeds from Hart’s Choice and Rings of a Tree go to charity.

Rings of a Tree goes to the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, as this is one of the issues the main character faces.

With Hart’s Choice, it’s very personal. I lost my father-in-law a few years ago; he had Alzheimer’s. I wanted to dedicate this beautiful romance story to him and forward the proceeds to the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada in his memoriam.

We know that writing a book is only the start; what other tasks do you have to carry out before the book gets to us and how hard are they?

Research to ensure my facts are correct.

Editing, editing, editing, and should I say editing again. After I’ve run the gauntlet (as it were) with edit rounds, I forward the manuscript to a professional editor. Once I get it back from her, I go through it closely again. I find that by reading it on my Kindle I find small things I may have missed otherwise.

With all the writing you have to do, do you get much time for reading?

I read every single day. In fact, I can’t imagine a day going by without reading. The way I see it, not only do I enjoy it, but I want others to read my work so I should support others.

What’s the best book you’ve read in the past year?

Oh, you put me in a tough spot. I’ll pick a few “indie” books and one NY Times Bestseller’s book.

All for Love by Ann Swann
When Empires Fall by Katie Jennings
Dark Mind by Jennifer Chase
Promise Cove by Vickie McKeehan
Pushed Too Far by Ann Voss Peterson
Hidden by Kendra Elliot

The Innocent by David Baldacci

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’ve written 8 novels to date with many more planned. I’m a strong believer in supporting my fellow authors and that’s why I created Celebrating Authors (more information found on the blog listed below).

I was born in 1976 in the rural town of Picton, Ontario.  Currently I live with my husband of sixteen years and my two beagles in a city in Southwestern Ontario.

I have been an aspiring writer since my teen years when I began writing short romance novels.  But as life has a way of doing, it can mute your dreams into the background, and it wasn’t until 2007 when I was reunited with my love of the written word.  My drive to complete one novel, turned into several.

Have you got a blog where readers can keep up with your work?

I actually run two blogs, my author blog, and Celebrating Authors which I run to support my fellow authors.

For keeping current on my releases, however, I recommend my website.

Where can we buy your books?

My books are available for Kindle and in print through Amazon. Here is the link to my Amazon Author Page.

What’s next?

The official announcement will be made toward the end of this month, but there’s another series in the works.

For more information and for updates, please watch my website.

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Enjoyed this interview? Then check out our interview with Kenneth Hoss, author of the Kelli Storm series.

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