Wonderful news! The audio version of my new book The Dog Who Wanted A Person aired on January 14 on our local community radio station KZYX, streamable from anywhere in the world.
Jamie Roberts presented the first half of the audio book starring yours truly on his long-running show Radiogram. The second half of the saga will air on January 21 at 8 PM PST. And these programs are archived and available at KZYX for a week or so after they air.
In my twenty years of living here in Mendocino and being a KZYX listener and supporter, I’ve rarely been able to convince any DJ at that station to play my/our music. But Jamie plays my short stories regularly on his show and he’s been a big supporter of mine for two decades now, so I’m thrilled he loves The Dog Who Wanted A Person and wants to share the book with his audience.
The audio book of The Dog Who Wanted A Person, in which I play all the parts, is funny, touching, thought-provoking, and did I mention funny? Appropriate for humans of all ages. Even cat lovers love the book, in which there is one groovy cat and several wonderfully talkative dogs, each with a distinct and breed-appropriate accent.
A few weeks ago I realized that the book I spent the last year writing was not something I wanted to share with the world. I had finished the five-hundred-page work, rewritten it several times, and was in the process of narrating what was to be the audio version of the book when I realized I no longer wanted to continue with this work.
For a few days after making the decision not to proceed with publishing the book I was in a state of shock. This has happened to me several times in my life, spending several months or years working on creations I ultimately abandon, but this hadn’t happened in many years because I’d become fairly astute about identifying such works before I spent much time on them.
In the wake of my decision about the big book, I wrote a long short story. And after writing two drafts of the story I realized I had written a miniature version of the book I had just abandoned. Clearly I was trying to resolve something through my writing, but I was not doing so in a way I felt would be of benefit to anyone other than me.
When I was a young writer these duds, so to speak, were a source of sorrow and disappointment for me. But as I continued to write every day, year after year, I came to understand that writing for me is a practice akin to meditation and yoga. The purpose of the practice is to practice, and to do so without forcing the practice. If I try to force myself to calm my mind, no calm will come. And if I force a yoga posture, I will very likely hurt myself.
So I have said goodbye to the big tome and the subsequent story, and a new something is flowing out, three connected stories so far. They are the children, if you will, of my marriage to that big tome. They would not exist had I not spent those thousands of hours practicing writing in the form of that novel. Will I ultimately publish the new something I’m writing? Time and more practice will tell.
Meanwhile my delightful new book for grownups and smart children The Dog Who Wanted A Person is now available as a beautifully illustrated paperback and e-book from your favorite book sources. However, several people have informed me that the paperback is currently NOT available from Amazon for some inexplicable reason, but the Kindle edition IS available there. I know the paperback is readily available from Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Alibris, and other online sources, as well as from your favorite actual bookstores.
At long last I can announce the publication of the handsome paperback of The Dog Who Wanted A Person, an illustrated fable about a charming one-year-old dog named Huleekalabulee.
On his quest to find a person or people to live with and love, Huleekalabulee meets several remarkable dogs (and one groovy cat) who help him on his way. In the course of his exciting and humorous adventures he learns many valuable lessons about life and love while overcoming hunger, danger, fear, and loneliness to ultimately discover what is most important to him.
The beautifully illustrated paperback can be purchased from the usual online book sources and you can order the book from your favorite Actual Bookstores!
Here are links to the book from online sellers we know have the book ready to order. The Dog Who Wanted A Person from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Alibris, Abe Books, Bookshop. More online sellers will have the book soon.
I believe if Actual Bookstore owners see and read The Dog Who Wanted A Person they will want to have stacks of copies near the cash register for bountiful sales. The trick, of course, will be getting said bookstore owners to see the book.
I’ll let you know when the e-book edition debuts in a few weeks, and when the hilarious audio version starring yours truly comes out around then, too.
If you live in England or Australia or Canada or myriad other countries outside the United States, you can order the book from your favorite book source there and your bookseller will get you a copy.
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The History of The Dog Who Wanted A Person begins in the year 2020 when I wrote and posted on my blog the first iterations of the eight episodes composing The Dog Who Wanted A Person. To my surprise and delight, nine people contacted me to say they loved the story. Among those nine were three people who had never contacted me before.
Nine people may not seem like very many people to you, but when two people let me know they’ve enjoyed one of my blog posts, I consider the post a huge success. When nine people let me know they loved The Dog Who Wanted A Person, I considered the story an international blockbuster. And then I promptly forgot all about it.
Five years went by. One day I got an email from my friend Doug Fields saying he hoped I’d do something with that story about the dog looking for a person. I only vaguely remembered the story and couldn’t remember the title. Nevertheless, I searched through various archives, found the eight episodes, made them into a single manuscript, read the totality, and decided to spend a few days rewriting the story before giving the manuscript to Marcia to read.
To my surprise, Marcia loved the story and encouraged me to publish the tale, which is a kind of children’s book for grownups and smart kids. The vocabulary is fairly sophisticated and there are some racy parts, so the story doesn’t really qualify as a children’s book, though if I had readThe Dog Who Wanted A Person when I was ten, I’m sure I would have read the story a bajillion times.
Why was Marcia’s reaction surprising to me? Well… though she generally enjoys my writing, she has never raved about anything of mine as she raved about The Dog Who Wanted A Person.
All we needed were eighteen terrific illustrations and the book would be ready to publish. I inquired of my friend Vance who illustrated my book Open Body: Creating Your Own Yoga, (Avon) and my chapbook Of Water and Melons. He said he was busy until the end of time and declined the gig. I then inquired of several artist friends if they knew any likely illustrators, and I queried a number of artists-for-hire online. The upshot of these inquiries was that illustrators whose work I liked wanted a thousand dollars or more per drawing, whether the drawing was used for the book or not, and I needed eighteen drawings!
Feeling over-matched by the fees demanded by illustrators, I gave up my search and turned my attention to publishing my novel The Farm at the East Cove Hotel.
Then one cloudy morning some weeks later I decided to walk to town to run some errands. I got about a quarter-mile down the hill from our house and realized I’d forgotten my wallet. So I hiked back home, got my wallet, and resumed my journey. The extra time spent retracing my steps is crucial to the outcome of this saga.
In town I ran my errands and started for home, but rather than walk home the way I usually do, I decided to take a longer route to see some sights I hadn’t seen in a while. And just as I reached the corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets, who should come walking along but Marcia and our charming friend Marius Constantin, the locally renowned singer possessed of enviably curly hair. They were on their way to the Goodlife Café for coffee.
I crossed the street to say hello and let Marius know The Farm at the East Cove Hotel was just out and he had a cameo in the novel. And then Marcia proclaimed, “But wait until you read Todd’s new book about a dog seeking a person to call his own. It’s fantastic.”
And I said, “Problem is I can’t find a good illustrator I can afford.”
To which Marius replied with his charming Romanian accent, “Well you know my daughter Miruna draws, and she is quite good.”
My first thought was I wonder what he means by quite good.
Nevertheless, trusting our unexpected meeting was arranged by the universe to aid the cause, I sent Marius a copy of the manuscript to share with Miruna. A few days later, Marius and Miruna, who was fourteen at the time and is now fifteen, came to my house and Miruna presented me with an early version of the drawing that graces the cover of The Dog Who Wanted A Person. Huleekalabulee! Exactly as I imagined him. Miruna’s drawing style was exactly what I wanted. We agreed on a per-drawing fee I could afford and she felt was fair, and we agreed she would receive 25% of the profits if by some miracle there are any.
Several months later, fitting her illustrating work into her busy school/life schedule, Miruna completed the last of the eighteen pencil drawings and I then had a graphics artist clean the drawings up in Photoshop. Then I placed the illustrations where they belonged throughout the manuscript, and after a frustrating series of printing snafus spanning a few more months, the book was born.
I hope you’ll get a copy. If you do get a copy and you love the book, I’d love it if you’d spread the word and help me break my current record for copies sold of one of my self-published books: 53.
Here is a brief excerpt from the book.
Coming down from Bullwinkle Butte, Huleekalabulee encountered two mutts blocking his way. One of the mutts was small and brown with enormous ears, the other a huge dirty blond.
“Slow down,” said the dirty blond. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To the beach,” said Huleekalabulee. “I’m questing for a person of my own.”
The two mutts found this so funny they laughed for a long time until the brown mutt said, “Hey, what’s your name?”
“Huleekalabulee,” said Huleekalabulee.
This made the two mutts laugh again for another long time until the dirty blond said, “What are you… Hawaiian?”
“Not that I know of,” said Huleekalabulee. “My mom is mostly Golden Retriever and my father, according to my mom, was a big brown mutt of uncertain ancestry.”
I grew sunflowers this year for the first time in several years and I’m so glad I did. Van Gogh bouquets for the table, gifts of bouquets for friends, a cheerful presence in the garden on the gloomiest of days.
We had a visit from my niece Lena and her daughter Della who is ten-months-old and rather cute, don’t you think?
Lena and Della and I went to the Mendocino Farmers Market together and Lena bought shishitos to go with our tamales.
Now Marcia and I are in love with shishitos. So easy to cook and so delicious.
The giant two-headed monster log that was way out near the mouth of Big River got moved inland on a big tide. Every time I go to the beach the behemoth is somewhere new. What a beauty!
Work moves apace on my book The Dog Who Wanted A Person with illustrations by Miruna Constantin, local wunderkind prodigy with a pencil. With good fortune we hope to publish the book ere long.
Marcia just posted a fun instructional video on YouTube teaching you how to play a 2:3 poly-rhythm with shakers. Not to be missed if you’ve ever longed to play such a thing. Such fun!
