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I am jonesing to start on A Band of Dogs...but one more character awaits..."Old Timer". This character was my son's idea, and I think it fits perfectly in with the book. My son has a large collection of stuffed animals acquired over many years...to him, buying a stuffed animal from a store is rescuing that animal (really, he does). Most of his stuffed animals are dogs. One day I was looking at his pile of stuffed dogs, and the story, A Band of Dogs, came to me.

Old Timer is the last missing character. It must be a dog that is found at an antique store, and not just any dog, but only a few breeds will qualify for purchase. So I believe today my son and I are off on our search for Old Timer.

If you haven't seen the teaser trailer for A Band of Dogs, it can be viewed here:

I really should figure out how to link my website blog to here, so I am not doing two posts almost alike!

I have switched out the order of my upcoming books, and for my fans, wanted to clarify what is upcoming and what has been moved.

1. A Band of Dogs (Christmas 2025)
2. TMA: Generations Lost (early 2025)
3. The Message (Summer 2025)
4. Naploeon and Elizabeth (2025?)
5. Mirror Friend (2025?)
6. RS: The Last of the Lion Hunters (2026)

I have not written much on Mirror Friend, but it is one moving up in my list. I like the concept and Idea and have enough notes on it to start writing. It may be a 2025 release, not sure yet. It is not a kids book, but would be for 18 and above. As well Napoleon and Elizabeth. Where I see Napoleon and Elizabeth as a fantasy/thriller, I see Mirror Friend as Horror/Fiction, but Horror is really too strong of a word because it's really not.

Enough of my banter! We (my son and I) have found Old Timer! This was indeed a prerequisite and the last stuffed animal I needed to write A Band of Times. I'll format tonight and will write tomorrow...I may start on it tonight, we shall see.

Old Timer was found at an antique store, he is a small Bengie type dog, perfect for the role. Based on his tag, he was manufactured in 1981, making him 43 years old. Old Timer indeed...he survived the 80s!

It's time to assembly the band and put pen to paper!

I've been quiet for a while now I guess, plodding along on A Band of Dogs. Making good progress, about 30 pages in, but then there is review and cleanup and connections and closing gaps...that's what really takes the time - writing is easy.

I still have a target date of Christmas 2024, but if completed early I may target Thanksgiving. I never planned for this to be a long book, but neither did I intend the Marsh Adventures to be a long book and it ended up 150 pages! You never know. I must write until the story is complete.

I have a conundrum though...I could just write a children's book and it would be great (and shorter), yet there are pieces I want to add that fulfill the story line and make the book complete, yet it would be for an older child again.

I am thinking of marking those chapters as "read with parent" or "Optional"...as the story line will hold without them, but it will make the book more robust with them.

I will figure it all out later...I have time.

Still working on A Band of Dogs - for a book I only intended to be 100 pages I am on page 71(?) and Annie and Bobby still haven't made it to Washington State, which is really where the story begins. And with every mile they travel, the rating on the book goes up. It started out to be G, then went to PG, and now I suddenly have it at PG-13...and there it will stop for sure. I find I must add some thematic elements to fill what would otherwise be gaps in the story. So now I will be releasing at ages 8-10 with adult oversight, or then 12 and up if reading alone.

I am going to be hard-pressed to get this one done by Christmas as planned...I was supposed to have the first-round draft finished by now.

I am fearful I shall not make my self-imposed goal of Christmas for this book! However, I guess that is the benefit of being an independent writer...I won't be charged a penalty for missing that date. However, I shall still try.

I realized why though, the other day. Why I have not put the effort into progressing the book that is. I don't get writer's block and I don't say that to brag. As I write, the story plays out in my head and I see the story portrayed as a movie and I hear the voices as it plays out. I write down what I see and that becomes my story. For some reason the progression of the book wasn't there. I knew where I wanted it to go, I just needed to sit down and write it, but I didn't. The movie was in my head still playing...I just wasn't putting pen to paper.

So it seems that each book I sit down and write, I want to write for a 6-8 year old...at about 100 pages max or less. That was with The Marsh Adventures, and although I came close to the mark on this one, it was at over 150 pages I believe and most parents tell me it is really for 8-10 year olds, or maybe 10 year old and up. I do deal with insect death, much in the way E. B. White does in Charlotte's Web, or death maybe more so I would say as it is in Watership Down or Rikki Tikki Tavi.

Then came along The Sun Also Sets...the original 100 pager I read to my son may have squeaked by at 8 years old, but really it was probably 10 and above. The final product, with the 100 added pages after I read to my son, was clearly 13 and above...10 if read with a parent.

So here I am on A Band of Dogs...I want to keep it 6-8 years old...but I can't. There are elements of the story that must be told, thematic elements that may cause stress or fear in a 6 year old, not bad elements, just real life elements, that cannot be left out of the story. Well, it could, but it will never be the story that it was meant to be. So this story has now moved to the 10 and above category. And that my friend was the stall in my writing. Not writer's block, final admittance that to finish the story and make it what it was meant to be...I have to add these elements and tell the story as I see it playing out in my mind.

I thought of releasing two versions...a 6-8 and then a longer, 13 and above. However, that would kind of be like censoring my own books and I don't really want to go there. And now I just crossed 100 pages.

So, A Band of Dogs is moving forward again, just in the direction it was always meant to be. It will be an enjoyable book, just for an older set of kids and adults.

Read on and write on!

I am sure by now everyone is saying, "Just write the book and be done with it!"

Ah, so I wish. In yet a deeper dive in my struggles with this book, I am now removing the timeline, I'll probably miss Christmas, it is just "my next book up."

Why?

I suddenly realized it is about the story that needs to be told. As I've stated before, I don't plan an outline for a book, I write chapter to chapter and let the characters speak to me. Meaning, where I start may not (in most cases, is not) be where I end up. Such is the case with A Band of Dogs.

It was to be a simple children's book, less than 100 pages. A boy has a lot of stuffed dogs, the boy gets lost, the boy is found, everyone is happy. I am on page 121 and I still haven't go the boy lost yet! Alas, everything is awry!

But there's hope...

Everyone, every character has a story to be told, and some great characters are popping up whose story will be left untold unless I tell it. Myrtle the head waitress, "The Landlord" or "The Counselor", whom I didn't really give names because they were never meant to be key characters. But now, they must have names, their stories need to be told.

Beyond that, is Annie dealing with loss, Bobby adjusting to new locations, my all too classic characters Charlie the Game Warden and Deputy Sheriff Sheree Hopkins. And the introduction of a classic dog my son has seemingly always had, but even I didn't know, Silent Jack. It will be a great story.

I just need time. This may be my longest, most poignant, and definitely most serious book yet.

A Band of Dogs will come...they just took a detour through the woods and are on the right path now...

Read on!

In the wee hours of this Saturday morning, A Band of Dogs was finished. The ending, I never saw coming. As I penned it, the end came to me in that same hour. I never intended for it to end this way, never had the idea, but I love the ending.

Now starts the tedious task of post-production work to get it cleaned up and ready for publication. Christmas...maybe...but doubtful.

Nonetheless, I love this book still above my other two...I love the storyline, the characters, the plot, and the ending. I love how it changed and evolved along the way. I can't wait to make this one available!

So I am editing Band of Dogs, still hoping to have a Christmas release, it will be tight. (Is everyone tired of me saying this by now : )

I never had any intentions for sequels to Band of Dogs...it was to be a stand-alone book, but I was going to leave it open to sequels should one day I decide to come back to it. And then it happened. Two sequels came to me. They so perfectly fit, I could not deny them, although I have vehemently fought my brain to withstand any sequel thoughts!

So yes, A Band of Dogs is now a trilogy. Each book will be very unique, but with a unified story line...if you cheered at the first book, you will cheer for the sequels...if you cried at the first book you will cry at the sequels. If you end up loving the first book...you will end up loving the second and third. You either love them all or hate them all, that will be the case.

And if you hate me continuing to write about them...then I am done...here...but just for today...

It is interesting, the maturation of my writing, as I go through the editing of a Band of Dogs. My first book, The Marsh Adventures: Of Times and Places, as I've stated before was around 100 pages and for my son who was five at the time. After editing it, I brought the age level up. Everyone's heard this part before, but I must set the stage for musings.

The second book for my son, The Roosevelt Series: The Sun Also Sets, was 100 pages and written for a 6 year old...the addition of another 100 pages for publication, changed it to a PG-13 book.

In editing the Band of Dogs, and actually in writing. I transition in the book from "children's" to "adult" and didn't even know it. Yet as I go back and look it can clearly be seen...like when Dorothy stepped out of the house into color. I was telling one of my fans about this the other day. As much as I try to be, I am not a children's author. Yes, I can sit down and write a story fit for my son's age...but A Band of Dogs was my first book written for publication, to my son, but not just for my son. And in writing I realized, my books for publication are written for an older audience. In running the draft of Band of Dogs through Grammarly, it rates it "High School or above".

Will I continue to write stories just for my son? I don't know...I hope so. But it is like I've crossed the line now into publication books. The Message, the third book I wrote for my son, was already PG when I read it to him, but I walked him through the details and he was mature enough for it. However, it's publication manuscript will roll it right into PG-13, and that is the book I will start work on in 2025. More to come on that.

So there you have it, in long form. In short form - I write for an older generation, and not children. My books are OK for children, but they need a parent to walk them through it.

I've said before, I write because I love to write, and where my story starts is not where my story ends, and I cannot, no matter how hard I might try, change that path.