​"Woah", you say, gentle reader. But before you turn to the blog of your next favorite writer, hang on a second. Honestly, facing the challenge of revising My Dog, Me with a focus on this point of view, I’m having more fun than a pig in mud - providing I am not the pig who is in rolling around in the mud…

It makes me wonder, though, how often or not we put ourselves into the psyches of other humans – our spouses, friends, random people we meet during the day. You know I was a counselor for many years and I did this all the time, just part of a day’s work, without realizing the importance of this exercise. To get into the head of a student who was struggling and articulate the root of the struggle, to understand what the student was experiencing--whether it was a personal issue like failing a test, or parents who didn’t understand them, or friends/lovers who were deceitful and hurtful--that's what I mean. Sometimes the issues were more serious, criminal even, which required a heroic effort to “turn it off” when I left my office for the day after I did all I could to rectify the situation.

The lesson for me was to stop thinking my thoughts and just sit for a moment in the other person’s world. To go there with them. To feel with them.  To listen to them. Most of the time we can’t fix the problem, since it’s not our problem. Or as John Travolta says in the movie, Michael, “It’s not my area.”

Sometimes, though, listening, bearing witness to another’s pain is quite enough. When problems rolling around in the head can be heard by another person, it gives the person with the struggle the strength or permission to come up with a solution. And I discovered, they often do.
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So, back to my symbiosis with Dundee… Wish me luck.  “Woof!”

Thanks to all of you who read the chapters of My Dog, Me that I posted on this blog and to those who requested the “rest of the story” about Tyler and Dundee. Are they forever stuck, each in the other’s body? Is there a way out? Can you unwish a wish?

For those who inquired about the ending, you will receive a complimentary copy of My Dog, Me when it is formally published. Your interest means more than you know.

I am revising the manuscript after working with an editor. It’s a lot more difficult to put the consciousness of one species into another than I originally thought. Yes, it’s a children’s story, but as a writer it is imperative that it be logical within the boundaries of experience. A human consciousness within a dog’s body carries its own experiences, but within the limits of a canine brain. And vice versa. Okay never mind… I hardly get it myself. But it’s back to the drawing board, or laptop in this case.  Whoever said “A great writer is also a masochist” was right!

Until then, here are some images that will be embedded within the text. Heather Lowrie, a local high school senior, is the illustrator. She’s exceptionally talented, don’t you think? Heather also designed a watercolor cover for the book which is best described in one word, WOW!
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I will provide updates on the dates of publication. Thank you so, so much. I love hearing from you.
Rosemarie