Here we go.

Ugh. Another blog. Well, I’m sorry. I need to raise my profile as I search for a home for my middle-grade manuscript. So I thought, blog about the process of taking another one of my creative babies from inspiration to fruition. I began writing, THE PHANTOM FUNERAL COACH, in earnest in September of 2016 but the inspiration, which I tried to ignore, struck me much earlier than that. I had just a kernel of an idea that I wanted to immortalize my amazing dog, AJ. I missed him and I needed a way to have him in my life again. That was it.

I’m a dog person. I will always be a dog person. Since my first dog, Baby, a long-haired dachshund mix who my mother found abandoned, I was sold on dogs. Dogs love you no matter how crappy or wonderful you may be. They are amazing that way. AJ, he was special to me. He saved my life in more ways than one. I was a fat, miserable loser going through a divorce and he was my impetus that led to changes that needed to happen for me to survive. After my wife left me with all the bills, the house to take care of and three dogs to chase the dragon, his energy got me up off the couch. I stopped sitting still and started moving again.  He changed my heart, my health, and my life.

So I wanted to show the world the heroic heart I saw in him. I started thinking of how I could best do that. I’ve always been a creative person, but mainly I focused on the visual side of art. I had written scripts for a few movies I made with my friends and brothers. I also, when I was sixteen, wrote an awful horror novel. Weighing my options, paintings and drawings would never portray and touch people like I wished. With my meager means, I couldn’t produce a film or tv series. I could reach people with a well-written story though.

It was pretty clear, writing a novel about him made the most sense. Of all the art forms, writing has the greatest capacity for creating and sharing ideas. It’s taking an idea from your head, using your language to communicate it and having it thought in someone else’s head as they read it. It’s most likely the closest we will ever get to telepathy. It’s the clearest way to communicate your ideas and have them heard and considered. So this was the avenue to share my heroes with the world. It is the way for the world to know my beloved AJ.

This blog will chronicle my journey from a lowly car manufacturer assembly worker to a published author. Perhaps more importantly, my dog AJ from a hole in my heart and unknown to the world to a hero for many young readers around the world.