From a Kid's Eye View

One of the absolute best things about writing books for kids is the feedback you get from readers about your books! Yes, great reviews in professional journals are great and all, but hearing how much someone from your intended audience LOVED your book--it doesn't get better than that!. I think that's one of the things I love about writing for kids and teens: they so passionately embrace your book.

My good friend and fellow Utah author, Sydney Salter, shared an advance reading copy of my book, A Dog's Way Home, with her youngest daughter, Sophie. Now, Sophie is a very discriminating reader. She doesn't like just any book. So I was pretty nervous to find out Sophie's verdict of A Dog's Way Home! Much to my relief, Sophie LOVED the book! She read it at the breakfast table, as soon as she got home from school, at the dinner table...you get the picture. Which was so great for me to hear! But imagine how thrilled I was when Sydney sent me these photos of dioramas Sophie had created from the book for a school project!

For those of you who've read the book, can you guess which scenes her dioramas depict? And for those of you who haven't read it, it'll be out in three weeks!

Fido and Friend in Five

In anticipation of my new book, A DOG'S WAY HOME, debuting in just a few weeks (!!!), I'll be posting interviews on my blog celebrating the unique relationship between dogs and their people. "Fido and Friend in Five" will ask folks in the wonderful world of writing and publishing to talk about the dog(s) in their life, now or in the past, in five questions in five minutes.

To get things started, I'm going to do my own "Fido in Five" with the sheltie who inspired my book, Teddy.

How did you and Teddy find each other? I had wanted a sheltie for a very long time. I first met Teddy when he was four at Sheltie Rescue of Utah. It was love at first sight! Unfortunately, he'd already been adopted and was just waiting to go to his new home. I was heartbroken. Then, two weeks later, Barbara at SRU called me to tell me Teddy was back! The family who'd adopted him discovered the dad was very allergic to him. They were very sad to have to return him but I was thrilled. It was truly meant to be!

If Teddy could change just one thing about you, what would it be? That I ever had to leave his sight. Teddy would be happiest if we were Siamese twins!

What is your all-time favorite dog story? Oh, there are sooo many great dog stories out there--classic and contemporary. If I had to choose one, though, it would probably be Lassie Come-Home. I think it's the best of the classics. I like to say my book is my own personal love letter to those great, classic dog stories.

What makes Teddy's tale wag? Food, food, and more food!

In five words, tell us what Teddy means to you: My heart and my inspiration.

Bonus question: What is Teddy's favorite TV show? Teddy loves all the English classics on Masterpiece Theater. He's a very refined kind of guy (except when he's eating cat poop).

A Dog's Way Home is available for pre-order and will be available in bookstores March 1!

Back in the Saddle!

Okay, I know it's been a very, very long time since I blogged. And the only excuse I had was I just didn't think I had much interesting to tell you! But in anticipation of my book, A DOG'S WAY HOME, making its journey into the world the end of this month, I figured I have quite a bit to share!

So first off, above you see the gorgeous jacket cover you will see when you get your own copy! Isn't it wonderful? Doesn't he look like he's talking right to you?

I also want to share with you a wonderful review of the book which appeared in the Galley Talk section of Publisher's Weekly. I cant' seem to post the link so I'll past it below:

Though she doesn’t normally gravitate toward stories about animals, Melissa Posten, children’s and YA buyer at Pudd’nHead Books in Webster Groves, Mo., was smitten by a forthcoming middle-grade novel written partially in the voice of a dog.
I am not really a dog person. Actually, I'm not really an animal person. And if I'm being absolutely truthful, animal books are not my favorite—except for maybe some fantasy, and Kate DiCamillo—so you can imagine how I might feel about a non-fantasy book with an animal as a main character.
There are some exceptions, of course, but not many. A Dog’s Way Home is an exception. A big one. It's like The Incredible Journey meets Because of Winn-Dixie, and those comparisons are not something I make lightly.
Here's something I know: if the writing is great, it really doesn't matter if you love the subject matter on the surface. I opened this novel a skeptic and closed it in tears. The plot is simplicity at first glance: girl loves dog; girl loses dog; dog tries to get back to girl; girl tries to find dog. This is where Pyron's raw talent kicks in for the elevation. The story switches back and forth between 11-year-old Abby and her lost, beloved dog Tam, each fighting to get back to the other, and the voices are extraordinary. If an author can write a dog's voice so truthfully that the dog springs to life on the page; so truthfully that you can hear the dog's voice in your head—that author is one to watch.

Bobbie Pyron is an author to watch. She has created two characters whom you root for from page one, and I followed them breathlessly—heart in my throat; tears in my eyes—racing through the pages to find if the wish I was clutching onto would be granted. Early in the book, Pyron writes, “And when the person he loves most in the world calls, a dog can do nothing but go.” When a writer of enormous talent gives the world a book, a reader can do nothing but love it. I was powerless against the pull of this book.

More reviews are coming in, and more exciting news to come! I'll post those soon!

Two Things I Know...

First of all, yes I am still on cloud nine after the endorsement I got yesterday from the amazing Patricia MacLaughlan for my book a Dog's Way Home! I mean, it just doesn't get any better! But I've been thinking about two things people said to me when I told them my good news yesterday: one person at work said to me something along the lines of, "Wow, it's really coming together for you and it seems like it's happened pretty quickly and easily"; my sweet husband said, "You've done it, babe, and you did it all on your own!"

Here are two things I know after writing for the last six years: for 99% of the writers out there (including me) it does NOT come easily or quickly, and no writer does it all on their own. For me, I've been writing seriously--meaning with the intent/hope to publish--for about six years. I first started submitting to publishers about five years ago. That was five years of languishing in slush piles, of amassing form, "Dear Author", rejections from editor's assistants and agents, five doubt-filled years. It wasn't until my wonderful editor at WestSide plucked THE RING from the slush pile a year and a half ago that there was any light at the end of the tunnel. Finding an agent who believed in me was also a huge step. And I found that agent through a good friend! Although writing in and of itself is a solitary affair, all you have to do is read the acknowledgements page in most any book to see that no writer does it "on their own." From the very beginning, I had my critique group to give me support and encouragement and to push me to be better; I have my family who has always believed and my other friends; I am so lucky to have an agent who I trust and to have now worked with two amazing editors who have taken my diamonds in the rough and made them shine, shine, shine.

So as I sit here in my little office at home trying to write a new story and looking out my window at more snow, when I doubt what I'm doing and whether I can do it, I try to be mindful of how far I've come and all the people who've helped me on this journey.

Awesome Jacket Blurbs!!!!

I want to share with everyone my excitement about the two amazing jacket blurbs I've gotten for my upcoming middle grade novel, "A Dog's Way Home"! Both are from Newbery-Award winning authors, which is quite humbling. The first is from Gary Schmidt, author of "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" and "Wednesday Wars." The second, just received by my editor today, is from Patricia MacLaughlan, who is, of course, the author of "Sara Plain and Tall." Here's what they had to say:

From Gary Schmidt:
This is a novel about the journeys that we take to find our own true North Stars—journeys that call for courage, loyalty, hope, and guts. A Dog's Way Home is at times hilarious, at times mystical, at times page-turningly suspenseful; the heartbeat of this story—like the strong heartbeat of the Sheltie at its center—will stay with you for a very, very long time.

From Patricia MacLaughlan:
"It takes a special kind of storyteller to speak from a dog's point of view with authenticity, as well as
from a child's true voice. Beautifully written, this is an important story that speaks to the special kinship between child and dog. I simply love this book!"--Patricia MacLachlan


Needless to say, I'm over the moon!

A Belated Poetry Friday on Sunday (and other stuff)

I am so lucky to be happily married to a sweet, funny, normal man. This as opposed to my first husband. I was single in between marriages for ten years. But in those years, I was involved with some pretty "interesting" guys. Or as my mother would call them, "colorful characters." A friend of mine is having doubts about her 15 year marriage. Understand, this is her third marriage. In an email exchange, she weighed the pros and cons of divorcing this husband and trying to find another man to share her life with. The idea of dating in my 50s is horrifying and, quite frankly, exhausting. I advised her to get a dog instead. So, in honor of the dating life, I give you this week's poem:

Ex-Boyfriends, by Kim Addonizio

They hang around, hitting on your friends
or else you never hear from them again.
They call when they're drunk, or finally get sober,

they're passing through town and want dinner,
they take your hand across the table, kiss you
when you come back from the bathroom.

They were your loves, your victims,
your good dogs or bad boys, and they're over
you now. one writes a book in which a woman

who sounds suspiciously like you
is the first to be sadistically dismembered
by a serial killer. They're getting married

and want you to be the first to know,
or they've been fired and need a loan,
their new girlfriend hates you,

they say they don't miss you but show up
in your dreams, calling to you from the shoeboxes
where they're buried in rows in your basement.

Some nights you find one floating into bed with you,
propped on an elbow, giving you a look
of fascination, a look that says I can't believe

I've found you. It's the same way
your current boyfriend gazed at you last night,
before he pulled the plug on the tiny white lights

above the bed, and moved against you in the dark
broken occasionally by the faint restless arcs
of headlights from the freeway's passing trucks,

the big rigs that travel and travel,
hauling their loads between cities, warehouses,
following the familiar routes of their loneliness.
"Ex-Boyfriends" by Kim Addonizio,

Latest Interview

Here's an interview with the Aurora blog folks. You might even learn some things about me you didn't (and may not necessarily want to) know! Enjoy!