We are delighted to announce that our novel, the dog, is available free for a limited time on the dog website. We are proud of the novel and want to get the word out through friends and family. Just click on the private link here.
Simply input a working email address and our publisher will send you a download link in a responding email. There is no catch. The only thing we will probably do is send you a single prompt close to the publication date to let you know that if you did like it to tell your friends about it.
We don’t have a huge advertising budget for the dog, so our thinking is that the best marketing is word-of-mouth. Readers have responded favorably to it.
the dog is being published by Rabbit Publishers as its first foray into the YA category. the dog’s (no caps please) publication date is October 2, 2018. It will be available almost anywhere books are sold. YA is young adult so it is suitable for anyone over the age of fourteen.
the dog is a novel about the timeless friendship between a human and a dog. It spans the birth, life, and death of Shadow, a rescue dog, raised by a New England family in post WWII America.
The novel was co-written by myself and Steven James Taylor, an artist and storyteller, who I have known for well over ten years.
Steve and I both grew up with dogs. We wanted to do a simple story that featured our affection for our furry friends. But when Steve mentioned one day in a passing aside that he considered dogs to be spirit-guides, that was the eureka moment.
Like myself, Steve is a nature guy. Here he is hanging with some baby goats.
Having worked in movie-stories most of my life, I thought we had landed on something unique and unlike any other dog story I had ever read or seen. The dog as a spirit-guide. Anyone who has loved a dog knows of what I write.
Between jobs, careers, and lives, a collaboration between two people is not so easy . . . especially when it’s not a job, but a labor of love, and there’s no money coming it from it. Passing virtual drafts back and forth, growing the little story into what we hope is something special, took us a few years. The most challenging part was arriving at a tone and style that worked for the both of us, and hopefully, most importantly, the reader. Steve illustrated some chapter markers for the story. He also drew the cover art. He wanted to give the reader a sense of a book from a gentler, simpler time.
An interior illustration that became part of the cover design for the book
Our intent was to weave a thematic tapestry that rings the soul of any adult. We hope we have done that and opened up a new way of thinking for some readers.
So if so inclined, please have a look at the book. It will only be available through the link until July 8, 2019. The PDF was created in a single page format. Once downloaded, it is easy to read on a tablet or iPad. The PDF is watermarked, is not final, and is not for sales.
Thanks for reading the book. If you have thoughts or reactions, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at david@davidpaulkirkpatrick.com
I will be going out on tour this fall for three months and might be in your neighborhood, so let me also hear from you if you’d like to come to an event or grab a cup of java. Have an awesome day.
On the 100,000 Steps in One Day Challenge with my dog, Arthur. We made it!
