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We are still on Release Shenanigans for Paw Prints on the Wall, my novel that features a no-kill animal shelter that is currently AVAILABLE through multiple booksellers. I will get to funny shelter stories in my next post but for today I wanted to put forward a more serious discussion.

If you’re anything like me, the term Compassion Fatigue may be unfamiliar to you.

I certainly didn’t know about it until it hit me full force, so it seems important to mention.

I had already been suffering under the loss of a beloved animal at the shelter. It was nobody’s fault. The poor dog got bloat, which is a thing that happens sometimes in larger animals and there’s literally no means of anticipating it. In most cases, the moment symptoms show up you’re already too late.

But this dog in particular was mine.

Sure, she was in the shelter, but I was the one who worked with her the most. She was the dog I took special care of because I wanted her. If I could have worked out the logistics of getting her home with me, everyone I worked with knows I would have had her home in an instant. But we had some obstacles – she didn’t like other dogs and I already had Delta at home, and she was, quite frankly, a neurotic mess terrified of all new things ever.

In any case, I was already grieving by the time Hell Week showed up.

This particular week we had an elderly animal pass away overnight. Then another animal had complications with surgery – they had cancer and the vets were trying to fix it – and they too perished. Then we had a surrender that was heartbreaking because the animals owner died, which is always terrible because the animal knows. Say what you want, but they know when we’re gone.

Then came Saturday when two recently adopted dogs had to be returned to us.

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, an adoption does not work out. It’s just the way of things. We learn something a little new, we make the restrictions on who can adopt them tighter, and we pray the next home is the one that sticks.

Hell Week did me in.

I tried to put some distance between myself and the losses. I told my husband I needed out of town and I didn’t care where, just somewhere else. We went for a drive and wound up deep in New York State, in the Catskill Mountains. I remember the trip.

I remember struggling to find my sense of balance again. To find the willpower to get in my car on my next work day and drive to work.

I never really found it, regardless of how often I showed up to work. The losses became more prominent no matter how many animals successfully found homes. My patience took a flying leap into God Only Knows Where and I started to suspect adopters were going to fail, rather than holding tight to the hope that they would succeed. And so, when my husband got a new job and transportation started becoming a problem, I used the excuse to bow out of shelter work.

It took me a full year before I was able to pick up Paw Prints on the Wall and really start working on it again.

So.

Compassion Fatigue is a thing. If you know someone who works in a veterinarian’s office, or an animal shelter, or an emergency room, or a homeless shelter, or a police station, then I encourage you to thank them. Tell them they are amazing and they are doing important things, because they are. And because you never know when they are in the middle of their Hell Week.

It could be what they need to get them through.

With this in mind, I have a few people I want to give a public shout to. Most you will find in the back of the book, under the Acknowledgements page, but they deserve a round of applause here too.

Shauna Griffin, Wendy Hall, Zofia Anzak, DJ O’Gara, Amy Elizabeth Rich, Danielle Bowes, and Nicole Tremblay – you are all amazing. It was a privilege to work beside you. Some of you have moved on to different jobs, but for those of you still working with animals, you have a standing ovation from me.

And to every veterinarian, vet-tech, nurse, doctor, shelter worker (both human and animal), policeman or any other profession that puts you on the front lines where the need is great and the pain is in your face every day – what you do is incredible. On behalf of those who wish they could say in person, thank you.

Just, thank you.

Because Paw Prints on the Wall came out THIS WEEK and is currently AVAILABLE wherever you prefer to order your books, we are still in celebratory mode here in my house.

Basically this means I get to eat pie and I get a bottle of wine that’ll last me like 3 months. Red wine is the best.

This also means that I get to shove a ton of related posts up about the novel and because this book is about a no-kill animal shelter, I’ve decided to name the top 3 things you should know before you walk into an animal shelter to adopt your next family member.

And remember, I did work in a shelter for two years as an adoption counselor, so I’ve got some experience here.

#1 – We love all the animals in that shelter.

All of them. From the newly arrived to the long-time residents, we absolutely want to see these animals in a home with people who will love them for the rest of their lives. So when we’re discussing what each individual animal needs in their future home, it is because we know how hard it is on the animal when a new home doesn’t work out.

Home visits or interviews between pets and all the family members in the home (to include meet-and-greets between dogs) and paperwork from landlords that promise you’re allowed to have an animal on the premises, are all put into place for the animal’s safety. Please be open to what the counselors are saying to you about each individual animal. They really do want what’s best for everyone.

#2 – What you see in the shelter is an animal under stress.

No matter how nice the facilities, there is no denying that a shelter is still a shelter. Pets need and want love and while every counselor on the premises has loads of love to give, it is not the same as belonging to a home. So while they are in the shelter, they may exhibit behaviors that will not be seen in the home. The stress of having a ton of other dogs nearby can make a normally quiet animal quite vocal, and vice versa.

What does this mean?

It means that there is a transitional period when any shelter animal is brought into a new home. Generally speaking, you’re not going to see that dog or cat’s true personality for several weeks after you’ve opened your home to them. Once they have settled and truly believe that they are in their forever home, they will show you who they really are. And more often than not, that personality is far sweeter than you would have been able to see through the kennel door.

#3 – Shelter work is hard and it is physical.

Visiting hours in a shelter are set so that every animal in the facility is given the appropriate time for cleaning, walking, and socialization. Because we do love every animal in there, we don’t want to skimp on any one of them. Please be patient if you show up and the doors are not open yet. Sometimes there is a new arrival that needs a little extra attention and it has thrown staff behind. Sometimes a dog decided to make a third (or fourth or fifth) mess in their kennel and it needs to be taken care of.

Sometimes that mess has gotten in our hair and we need to clean ourselves up before we open the door too.

Often there are volunteers who come out to help at a shelter, and they are worth their weight in gold. I cannot count the number of times I internally blessed the volunteers who showed up and helped muck kennels because it meant every single animal was going to be loved a little extra that day. But in the end, I can promise that a shelter worker deals with more poop (literal poop) in a day than you probably do in weeks, so please just be patient.

A final note —

Staff love – and I do mean love – to hear progress reports about the animals who have gone home. Send them pictures of the animal loving life. Send a holiday card where they are lounging with their family. Because shelter work is so hard, these little reminders that an animal they’ve cared for is out there living their best life can mean the difference between throwing in the towel and pushing through another day.

Compassion fatigue is a thing and I will explore it a little more in my next post, but suffice to say, those updates are a lifesaver.

It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!

Paw Prints on the Wall can be purchased from any bookseller you want. If you want to go to Barnes and Noble and have them order you a physical copy, that’s amazing and you’re welcome to do so. OR you can go to Barnes and Noble’s website and order it there.

OR you can go to Amazon and purchase your copies from there.

OR you can go to your local bookstore and ask them to order a physical copy. The printer is Ingram’s, so they pretty much serve everybody.

Do you want Digital? That’s amazing!

Do you want a signed copy?

….

Well, the only signed copy in the world right now is in my grandmother’s hands, which I think makes sense because the novel is dedicated to her anyway.

For those of you who pre-ordered the novel ahead of time, I love you all and I hope you enjoy the book once it reaches you.

For those of you who waited for the release date to order, I love all of you too and I hope you enjoy Michael and Sarah’s story. I started writing this book when I was still working at the no-kill animal shelter and the experience was unforgettable. This novel is just a small way to try and pass along some of what I learned there.

Thank you everybody! I am so excited I could burst.

A small note about reviews from this little author to all you lovely readers out there –

Reviews or even just marking your “stars” really do help. If you loved or hated the book, the feedback is invaluable. So if you have the time and you feel compelled to do so, I would deeply appreciate your feedback. You’re all amazing.

Now excuse me, I am going to go eat some Release Day Pie.

The book that started my fascination with reading was a ghost story. I read it while I was supposed to be paying attention in class, holding the paperback in my lap and slightly under they desk, and I am 99% sure the teacher saw me and chose not to reprimand me for it.

God bless that teacher.

Seriously.

Because I would not have fallen in love with the written word were it not for that little paperback novel. The book was Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn and it captivated my little 12-year-old brain. More than that, it scared the skittles out of me.

I still can’t swim in water where I can’t see the bottom.

If I can see seaweed or kelp or any of those underwater plants, I will plant my butt on the shore and there’s no getting me in the water.

I suppose this showcases the power of a well told story, since I am now a full-grown adult with a teenager of my own and that tale remains my go-to when people aske me which book made me love reading.

Now that I’m older, I can point to another book that has become a favorite ghost story. Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie has a lovely mix of romance and ghostly shenanigans and I absolutely adore it. I am a romantic at heart, so if you can combine a romance with a ghost story I will almost always love it.

Which is probably why The Haunting of Tessa Pines came to be.

That is my ghost story novel wherein a paranormal investigation goes horribly wrong out at an old abandoned asylum. Because of course I had to use an asylum. Sometimes you have to embrace the cliche.

So, if you’re hunting for a novel to read for Halloween this year, those are my three recommendations!

Happy Halloween, everybody!

We’ve all heard the phrase “Everyone’s the hero of their own story“.

Authors tout this phrase whenever they’re dealing with a character who is doing ugly things. Good authors dig in deep and show the mindset that led to these atrocities. Even better authors make you understand the how’s and the why’s of the character on the page, sometimes to the point that you’re nodding your head and thinking – Can I say I would be any different?

Of course, nobody wants to believe they’re Sauron seeking to control all Middle Earth.

No, we’re the long-lost king hiding in the wilds, struggling to decide where our responsibility ends and begins when it comes to the people left behind.

But wait…

Isn’t that long-lost king a villain for abandoning his people?

When taken in that light, maybe villainy is just a series of choices and we’re all of us a contrasting mix of hero and villain, and it’s anyone’s guess which one will win the day. Sure, we hope the hero clings to their morality and makes the right choice, but nobody makes the right choice 100% of the time and if they do, are they really even human?

I digress.

This month’s Round Robin poses the question of whether or not any of my written villains have ever achieved redemption and my answer is… Maybe?

In Deviation, I deliberately set out to have the hero of Reesa Zimm’s novels turn into the villain. And the villain, Matthew, became the hero. Now, I know that sounds strange but the science fiction novel does a fun little time-travel thing and Reesa Zimms is considered a prophet in the future for her bestselling series, so having Reesa abducted by her hero – Hedric Prosser – makes a kind of sense within the fiction.

In any case, Hedric the so-called hero is reeling after the death of his wife. His unraveling was startling to watch and as an author I have to admit, I had a lot of fun with it. Becoming a villain is way, way more easy than becoming a hero.

Matthew Borden, on the other hand, was more businessman than villain. This was a novel that had a lot of stuff happening and very little going on beneath the surface outside of Reesa’s struggle to forgive herself. I had fun with it, but there are avenues I wish younger me had explored more while writing the story. In the end, I can say that the true villain of the piece is Reesa, or at least she feels like she’s the villain and has for a very long time. At the closing of the book she has managed to, maybe not redeem herself, but at least accept the things that have happened in the past.

And isn’t that the first step toward redemption?

Check out what my fellow authors have to say in this month’s Round Robin!

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

A.J. Maguire https://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ (YOU ARE HERE)

Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2KA

Robin Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com

As we’re inching our way closer to the release date for Paw Prints on the Wall, I’ve been thinking about all the pets I’ve had over my lifetime. Any shelter worker, or former shelter worker, is likely to have a ton of personal stories about their family pets. We’re all pet people, after all.

I grew up in a single parent home so our very first pets were limited. My brother and I had hamsters, mine named Furball and his named Little Foot because The Land Before Time had come out and we all loved that movie. We also had a cat named B.C. which stood for Brat Cat.

My mother taught us that pets were family, so we loved on our creatures a ton. Even though B.C. regularly tried checking our dental work by shoving her face in our mouths when we yawned in front of her. She was a Siamese and she was sassy as can be. This is the one that bit my mother’s ankles when the Vet tried to limit how much food she was eating.

The hamsters came and went fairly quickly. Their lifespans aren’t quite up to par with other creatures, after all. But I remember the Great Escape that Little Foot made where we lost him for a week or so. I’m pretty sure my mother was terrified B.C. would get him. Or the Landlord would make a visit and the hamster would somehow scurry into view, proving us terrible pet owners or something.

Then there was Hooper the bird, who I wanted and then became too frightened of to take proper care of. To be fair, Hooper bit the man at the pet store and there was a lot of blood for my young brain to process. I was terrified to pet the bird and basically only made sure he had food and cleaned his cage before we transferred him to my grandparents, who had no qualms letting him fly through the house and perch on their shoulders. It was a good move for Hooper, who is remembered fondly as an affectionate bird.

Being older now, I wish I hadn’t been so terrified. He was very handsome for a bird and he obviously loved my grandparents.

But by far, my memories center on two animals from my youth: Mr. Oswald (Ozzy) Hobbes and Miss Daisy-Mae.

Alas, I am old enough that print photos are all I have of Hobbes and Daisy-Mae.

Hobbes was a purebred cocker spaniel, buff colored, with floppy ears and more intelligence than he wanted you to know. We rescued him from the shelter and there were many weeks and weeks of struggling to potty-train him. At first we had no fence in the back yard, so we would have to take him out on the leash and then he would be too interested in playing to do his business proper.

Oh! And you had to hold an umbrella over him in the rain or he wouldn’t go.

Things got easier once the fence was built. He would dash outside, zoom through the yard, bark at squirrels. Typical pup stuff. I’m not sure how I was convinced to be the one to do 4-H with him, but I was and I remember our training sessions fondly. Like I said, he was more intelligent than he wanted you to know because once that training leash was on him, he snapped into “performance” mode and it was like the bratty, play-tug-of-war with your ponytail, never-listens-to-you dog that we were used to at home would disappear.

And then there was Daisy-Mae, who was grey and white with extra toes on her front feet. She was prone to swat you at random, too. If ever a cat had cat-ttitude, it was Daisy-Mae. She would daintily lay in front of you, purring up a storm, rubbing her face against your hand as you’re petting her, and then her tail would give one flick – Just one, mind you, so you had to paying attention – and if you kept petting her after that single flick of the tail she would box you with those massive front paws and wander off in a huff.

It’s been many years since all of these pets have passed, but my life has been the richer for knowing them.

Pets are family. And family is forever.

Since moving to Massachusetts I have deeply enjoyed traveling the length and breadth of New England. Sometimes we slide a little further west or south, but for the most part we stick to New England and all these lovely trips have fed my creative mind.

It’s why Pru in Melody of Bones lives under Mount Auburn Cemetery and takes dives under the Quabbin Reservoir. The Quabbin is fascinating for its history and its underwater ghost towns. And Mount Auburn is too gorgeous to ignore. (That book is still updating on NovelCat, by the way. The whole thing is completed and a chapter a day is revealed from now until October 3rd.)

But Melody of Bones isn’t the only novel to feature New England in it.

Paw Prints on the Wall is scheduled for release in November – Hurray! Throw virtual confetti! Watch that fun little Countdown Timer on this site to see just when you can get it! – and it too is based in New England.

I loosely reference the Berkshires in this novel, but the shelter and the lake house – even the lake – are all fiction.

I have a special place in my heart for the Berkshires.

Because they tricked me.

They tricked me most foul!

My family and I stumbled onto Kennedy park during our travels and on their map of the park they referenced “standing stones” and I got quite excited. We couldn’t make the hike that day, it was too late in the afternoon, so we went home and started planning for the next weekend.

We got a lovely little hotel room for a night, intending to set out early so we could hike the trails and find these standing stones. It was our first official trip with our newly adopted dog Delta. (Who, I might add, also made the cut into the PawPrints novel. She is a central figure, in fact, and has enjoyed having me read aloud passages with her name everywhere for the past couple of years.)

The hike was grueling. Likely because we took a wrong turn somewhere.

And because we were a little out of shape.

Or a lot out of shape, really.

Anyway, we get to the so-called standing stones and while Delta is having a lovely time – c’mon, she just spent several hours hiking through the mountains, chasing salamanders that my son kept picking up – the rest of us were panting and exhausted. And the standing stones?

Well, you can see by the pictures that they were the foundations of an old house.

We laughed about it all the way back down the mountain to our car. We laugh about it still. But there were some awesome sights on the path that struck my creative mind, so they continue to make their way into my novels. The cold spring well, for instance, made its debut as a portal to Faery in Melody of Bones. And because I loved that location, I went ahead and used it again in the second Nora book.

And there’s Balance Rock, where we met a large centipede.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood of the Berkshires, I recommend taking an afternoon to visit. And if you’re a writer like me, I’m sure you’ll see a bit of Faery there too.

As we are counting down to the release date for my shelter novel, I thought it was about time I properly introduced my pets. Presently I have three cats and one dog, and all have something to say about my work – especially when I’m reading it aloud.

Pest has been with me the longest. He is 14 years old, too large for his own good, and a happy mix of orange and white. He is also the cat that regularly rage-pukes if I leave for more than a day, and interrupts phone calls with my mother to give us a piece of his mind.

And it is mostly when I’m talking to my mother. I think he can hear her on the other side of the line and is trying to tattle on me for switching him to healthy weight cat food. The joke is on him, though. We had a cat when I was growing up who bit my mother’s ankles when the Vet ordered the cat go on a diet, so she is 100% on my side for this one.

Why have I named him Pest?

It seems awful of me, right?

Well, according to his official documents his name is Little Brother. But we all know that pets have two names: the one we give them, and the one they earn.

Pest earned his name by leaping onto the back of my computer chair and bopping my head – no claws, I guess I should glad of that much – to alert me when I have been on the computer too long. I thought maybe this was a matter of the chair being too high, so I purchased a new one that was shorter and he still finds a way to leap back there and make a… well, a pest of himself.

When I have finally had enough, I collect him for cuddles in my lap and we watch some videos. Lately it has been Masterclass videos since I accidently renewed that this year.

I call Pest my Editor Extraordinaire because he is generally the one closest to me while I am writing. The other cats will sometimes make appearances and cast judgement on my work, and the dog is often at my feet countering all those judgements with happy thoughts, but for the most part it is Pest I talk to when I’m brainstorming a troublesome scene. He is also the most vocal of the cats, so when I talk to him I don’t seem entirely insane because he responds.

OK, so it still seems a little insane to anyone looking in from the outside, but it works for us and we’re happy.

For this month, the lovely people here at Round Robin are discussing how much we leave out of our work when it comes to the character on the page. Sometimes we must leave things to the magic of the reading process and permit the Reader to fill in where they wish, and I will admit that I do this a great deal.

Or at least, I do this a great deal where it comes to physical descriptions.

I suppose this is because I start with a conversation, and never with a picture. I know some authors have detailed character sheets that go through everything from what type of peanut butter their character likes (smooth or crunchy) to the birthmark on their left thigh, but I don’t.

Books for me are as much about getting to know the character on the page as they are the plot that surrounds them. And when it comes right down to it, unless that physical description has ramifications to the plot itself – such as Trenna being far shorter than everyone else and having to struggle to reach the high shelf, or the taps embedded in Jorry and Seach Barlow’s skin – then I find it is much better left to the Reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks.

There are exceptions to this, of course.

When Nelek is looking at Trenna, the things he notices and the way he describes her are important because it reveals who Nelek is as a person. It reveals how much he loves her. She has a thin, uneven sort of mouth, but to him it fits perfectly against his own.

But I know this about Trenna because of the ongoing conversation I have with Nelek as I’m writing the story.

Which I suppose might sound weird to those who aren’t authors, but what’s life without a little bit of strange?

For my soon-to-be released novel Paw Prints on the Wall, I did something a little different. I went to Pinterest and created a page specifically for this novel and selected some faces that I felt mirrored the characters on the page. This didn’t stop the conversation as I thought it might, and if I’m honest I don’t think you can really peg the actors with the slight descriptions on the page, but in the end it was an enormous help. Because if I was stuck I could go to that page and skim through the photographs and eventually I would become un-stuck.

In the end, it’s more important to me that you know who they are than what they look like. I’ll give highlights – so-and-so has blonde hair, so-and-so is tall – but beyond that I’m willing to let you fill in the rest.

See what my fellow authors have to say in this month’s Round Robin!

Round Robin Participants

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Dr. Bob: https://bobrich18.wordpress.com/?p=10492

A.J. Maguire https://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ ( YOU ARE HERE)

Robin Courtright http://rhobincourtright.com

That’s right, we are saying goodbye to the placeholder cover for Paw Prints on the Wall!

As much as it tickles me to use Canva to create these little placeholders while I’m in the drafting and editing stages of the novel, they simply aren’t as eye-catching as a novel needs to be for the professional marketplace. I’m sure they could be if I were talented enough with colors and pictures, but that’s simply not my field of expertise.

So let’s do a little Before and After….

A few other things have changed, such as the back cover blurb, which I will happily place up here as well.

AND!

For those who really, really wanted the ability to Pre-Order the book, you can do so NOW through any bookstore (Yes, this includes Barnes & Nobles) and through Amazon.

EBOOK – Barnes & Noble Link

EBOOK – Amazon Link

PRINT BOOK – ISBN # 9798218071349 — You can take this ISBN to any bookseller and they will be able to order it for you.

From the Back Cover!

One look at Michael and Sarah knew he would be trouble. Bossy, with a hero-complex to rival Hercules, he storms into her life with his ailing dog and  though every instinct she has screams to turn him away, Sarah can’t let an animal suffer. Her fears are proven right when Michael becomes a permanent fixture at the Almost Home Animal shelter after only two visits. But with her ex-husband hounding her about the shelter finances and her Nana Faye bemoaning the entire shelter as a health risk, Sarah can’t afford to chase Michael off, especially after he proves that he’s earned that hero-complex. As Michael’s dog slowly recovers, Michael and Sarah discover that sometimes there is healing in the midst of crisis and they must both decide if they can risk putting their hearts on the line again.