The BIG Announcement! I did it!

What is “it”?

Well, it’s my book! Finally, I have finished and self-published my book Dear Hobie: Letters to My Heart Dog.

I started writing this book in 2014 when my dog, Hobie, was 14 years old. I guess it’s only a little bit ironic that his successor, Charlie Brown Hound, will be 14 in a few weeks. A fact that itself is hard to believe.

If you’ve ever dealt with multiple losses and major life changes, whether it’s the death of a human or a pet, having your house broken into, losing a job, a long-distance move, getting married, and more then you may be interested in reading my book “Dear Hobie: Letters to My Heart Dog”. The book delves into how I got through all of those things with positivity, a deep faith and spirituality. I had the opportunity to start over and reinvent myself. The book is written in the form of letters to my beloved dog, Hobie. You can get it on Amazon.

Hobie was 15 when he left this Earth in April of 2015, and I wrote more letters to him, on and off, during the ensuing years. I half-heartedly intended to publish the book, some day. I knew I wouldn’t go via traditional publishing because I have self-published a couple of other books in the past and it’s pretty easy for me. I also don’t intend to become a NYT Bestseller (though that would be kinda cool, maybe?). So why not just take the plunge and do it on my own? So that is what I did.

The book’s cover photo was once featured on the cover of Dog Fancy Magazine

I had put aside this project for about 7 years, when one day I was looking at it on my computer and my husband walked up and asked me what I was working on. I wanted to cover the screen up. I was scared and embarrassed. But I figured what the heck, and I showed it to him. He encouraged me to finish. Between him doing that, and a friend asking me to edit her memoir, I got inspired to at least finish mine.

I even put up a Poll on Substack asking followers’ opinions. The response was flattering and added even more encouragement.

Well, I have finally finished. We did take a 3-week vacation last month, but I had already almost finished the book, so I took it with me and proofread it a few more times. Always finding more errors!

Earlier this week, I was satisfied that I had the finished product. But no…while waiting at an appointment two days ago, I found more typos. Now it is really, truly “done” (but as someone on Substack said recently “Is art ever really ‘done’?”

Not sure if this qualifies as “art” but it’s ready to be revealed and I hope anyone interested in reading it really likes my work. It is a little frightening to put it “out there”, but here goes!

The book is my memoir, disguised as a story about my dogs, cats, and a couple of people in the form of letters to my beloved canine friend. You can get it on Amazon in paperback or a Kindle e-Book.

Thank you as always for reading and following along!

NEXT WEEK: Back to the Epic Road Trip!