No matter how well I plan my mysteries, characters behave in unexpected ways and take roles I didn’t intend to give them. For example, a Belgian Malinois named Achilles arrived on the page for a brief appearance in Show Me the Murder. He became a major character in the series. He’s been on every cover right along with his human, former CIA covert operative Phoenix Smith.

A character who can’t talk presents a writer with special challenges. Fortunately the K-9 dropout also offers special opportunities both in characterization and plotting. I wrote a guest blog about all of these for Wicked Cozy Authors at the invitation of Liz Mugavero, author of the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries.

To read “Going to the dog,” go to http://wickedcozyauthors.com/2015/08/21/carolyn-mulford-going-to-the-dog.

—Carolyn Mulford