Local writer Paulette Mahurin feels very lucky. Stricken with Lyme Disease after moving to Ojai in 1997, she took to writing. Battling chronic fatigue and an array of other symptoms, there wasn’t much else she could do to occupy her time. Prior to a tick bite, she worked as a Nurse Practitioner (NP) in the Antelope Valley Hospital Emergency Room.
Writing, she explained, saved her from depression. She took writing classes. In one class with Deb Norton, a storyline came to her. That was the seed from which grew her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap. To the amazement of this amateur writer, the book went on to be an international best-seller on Amazon.
More books came forth. Eight to be exact. Several making their way to Amazon best-seller lists. Feeling blessed and extremely lucky from the outpouring of support from readers when her third novel, The Seven Year Dress, hit number 1 in literary fiction/historical fiction in the United Kingdom and Australia, along with ranking in the top ten in the United States, she decided that she wanted to do more to help with her ongoing dog rescue work. The decision came easy.
The profits from her books would go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters. She had donated profits from her first novel to Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center, the first and only no-kill shelter in Ventura County at the time. Next, from her second book, His Name Was Ben, she had donated profits to the Canine Adoption and Rescue League. She then branched out to network with multiple rescue groups to help rescue dogs from kill shelters in Southern California. She has contributed to rescuing 2,380 dogs from kill shelters.
Yes, Mahurin feels lucky. Now with regained health and enjoying volunteer work, she continues to write and work along with her husband to help free more dogs from shelters. Featured on her blog site, http://thepersecutionofmildreddunlap.wordpress.com/ are the before and after photos of all the dogs she’s helped along with information on her eight novels.
Not only is Mahurin known for her work with dog rescue, but for the topics she addresses in her novels. Her latest novel, The Old Gilt Clock, (released December 2019) tackles Willem Arondéus’ brave fight against the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. All of Mahurin’s books can be found on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Paulette+Mahurin.
