Fascinating Authors

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Tell us a little bit about your book.
Author:  Dog Park Diary: the social round of Goody Beagle relates the adventures of an opinionated beagle who visits her local dog park every day. Goody Beagle tells us, in her own words, which dogs were at the park each day, what they did, what they said or thought, how they got along, what games they played, how often they peed, and especially what they smelled. They chase balls and each other. They wrestle and play tug. They sniff butt. They enjoy being dogs.  Goody brought her human with her to write it all down, and invited a photographer to come along too, to capture to the dogs of the dog park in compelling, colorful action pictures. It’s a doggy soap opera come to life!

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What inspired you to create a work of non-fiction?
Author:  I’m not sure if Dog Park Diary is fiction or non-fiction.  Certainly the main character, Goody, is a real dog, and so are the dogs she encounters at the dog park – which is a real dog park located in a suburb of Seattle, Washington.  But the stories that Goody tells about the other dogs, plus her observations on canine and human nature – well, I must admit I had to use a lot of artistic latitude in ghostwriting for Goody. Some people might even call it fiction.  Although I’m an experienced ghost writer with over 30 ghostwritten books to my credit, Dog Park Diary is the first book I’ve ghost written for a dog.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What did you do to prepare – such as research – to write your book?
Author:  The only research I did was direct observation at the dog park. Goody and I go to the dog park nearly every day so she can run around and smell things. There’s a lot of drama and comedy at a dog park, both of the canine and human variety. So instead of just watching Goody smell things, I started to write down what happened – which dogs came, what their sometimes funny names were, what they did, and how they interacted.  I took photos of the dogs I wrote about, with my inexpensive digital camera. One day it occurred to me that I could write up these little “stories” in Goody’s voice, and if I had professional photographs (I knew mine weren’t good enough), I could make a book out of Goody’s dog park experiences. So the last little bit of research I did was to go get a good animal photographer. Luckily I already knew one, Anne Lindsay. Anne and I spent some days hanging out at the dog park together, so she could take the photos that go with the stories and which have made the book so visually captivating.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How did you decide which information to present in your book?
Author:  I let the dogs tell me. Dogs are natural hams, although some are hammier than others.  Most of them also have a sense of humor. There are a lot of funny dogs in this book.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What do you hope people will gain from reading your book?
Author:  I hope they will see the love I have for dogs, and the love dogs have for humans. I hope they’ll laugh a little, and I especially hope they will see that dogs are dogs – they are not humans. They have their own way of sensing the world that is totally different than ours.  Maybe we could learn something from them if we really paid attention.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How long did it take you to write the book – (was it longer or less time than you expected)?
Author:  I actually wrote Dog Park Diary twice.  My first group of doggy experiences was illustrated with my own photos, but when Anne, a real photographer, came along, she got some great shots of dogs that I hadn’t written about.  So I had to write new stories to fit with Anne’s photos.  It delayed the completion of the book, but now it’s a much better book.  All told, I suppose it took about 9 months to write the book from concept to conclusion.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Did you seek the support of a writer’s group or class?
Author:   No, although when the book was complete I showed it to a number of other professional writers to get their reaction.  (It was mostly positive, although I got some critical advice that was right on the money, and helped to make the book even better.)

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What surprised you the most about this process?
Author:  This was the first book I wrote that was illustrated.  I’m used to having words take center stage, but in this book the words had to share the limelight with the pictures. It took me a while to get used to it.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What tips would you offer to anyone writing nonfiction for the first time?
Author:  Actually it’s the same advice I hand out when coaching or teaching fiction or non-fiction writing:  Know who you are writing for. Learn to focus. Don’t write everything you know– you only need to write what your readers need or want to know. It’s not about you; it’s about your readers.  Writing is a communication medium, and good communication is always two-way.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What can we look forward to in your next book?
Author:  I’m working on a novel right now, but it’s too soon to tell you about it. I like to keep my working projects to myself.  I am working on a combination teleseminar/ workbook/e-book called “How to Make a Living as a Ghost.”  Obviously it’s about ghostwriting, and how to become a ghost without having to die first.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include?
Author:  Writing makes me whole. It’s the most healing thing I know to do.  So I hope that reading my work transfers some of that energy to my readers.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How has all this attention affected Goody Beagle?
Author:  Goody does not care about fame much. She would much rather have pot roast.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Are there any future projects planned with Goody Beagle?
Author: Goody is currently tweeting about her continuing dog park adventures on Twitter – check out http://twitter.com/dogparkdiary.  She’s still as funny and acerbic as ever, and the dogs she tweets about still annoy or fascinate her.  Goody is contemplating teaming up with her photographer partner and doing another book about her visits to dog parks throughout the Pacific Northwest.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!

More about the Author and the book can be found here – www.dogparkdiary.net