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Mini-Muse Monday-Animal Characters

As I was trying to decide what to write this week’s muse about, Ayva clawed at my legs, wanting to climb into my lap to snuggle.

I call her my canine writing partner, and she inspired me to chat a bit about animals as characters. I’m not just talking about main characters, like the famous pig and spider in Charlotte’s web, but the subtle roles animals play in romances.

I believe you can learn a lot about a person by the way they treat animals, or whether they even like them.

I had a professor who wrote an entire book about the roles animals play in prose. Granted he was the sort that always thought there was hidden meaning and symbolism that correlated with any animal an author introduced.

That is not the case with the animals in my books. I happen to like dogs. A lot. And given my quirky humor, I have them doing rude things. But I haven’t limited by animal characters to dogs. There have been cats, horses, cattle, sheep, an owl (really) plus a few more.

So you think animals add depth to a story and make for more realistic reading or do you think they are a waste of words?

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