Dogging It...Some Friendly Advice to Writers

Sometimes I dispense advice to writers. Today's tip: make sure you have a dog if you're working on a novel.

Yeah yeah yeah, I have writer-friends with cats. I'm not arguing dogs vs. cats. This is my blog, my advice. Get a dog. If they have blogs, they can dispense the "get a cat" wisdom.

My blog.

Get a dog.

Or two.

Or three.

Or four if you're taking care of someone else's buddy for a while.

One of the four-legged denizens felt under the weather at 3 a.m. this morning. This meant I had to get up, let him out, make sure he was okay. Then I started working on my book. If the doggie hadn't been ill, I would have missed out on three extra hours at the keyboard.

Get a dog...'cause sometimes they get sick.

Dogs play crucial roles in my mystery novel that releases November 1. Of course I'm going to mention it. There's a pre-release sale going on the e-version of it. If you're curious how I wove dogs into the plot, why not order it and find out. At the moment, you can do that for 99 cents.

There's a dog in my new author photo on the http://www.imajinbooks.com/home page. And there's a dog in my Facebook profile picture, my Amazon author page picture, and on my Twitter profile page. Some of my favorite authors had dogs in their publicity photographs--always Robert Parker, check out the Spencer and Jesse Stone books. And he put dogs in his mysteries too.

Get a dog 'cause they make you look better in promo photographs.

They are the impetus to get up from the keyboard for breaks. I'm writing this after taking the pug for a brief stroll. The next break will be to toss some tennis balls to the Labs and the Bossy Terrier.

Get a dog...or two...or three because they make you leave the computer, and when you come back you're refreshed and the words flow better.

Dogs can help you craft characters. Back in the day when I wrote Dragonlance fiction my editor approached me with the idea of a goblin trilogy. When I was finished, he pronouced it the best fantasy fiction I'd written. The goblins and hobgoblins...the ones in lead roles...their personalities were based on dogs who had shared their lives with me.

Get a dog 'cause they help with writing.

Dogs can also be inspiration. For example, I thought it was about time I wrote another blog. It was easy to come up with this go-round's topic. Writer advice: get a dog.

Get a dog 'cause they make everything better.

The shelters are full, why not look there?

Get a dog.

As I mentioned, there’s a pre-order special price of 99-cents for the ebook of The Dead of Winter. The price goes up sometime after the November 1 release.

Find The Dead of Winter on Amazon by clicking here: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Winter-Piper-Blackwell-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01LY5X4BB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475603013&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dead+of+winter+by+jean

And my Amazon author page at: https://www.amazon.com/Jean-Rabe/e/B00J1QR5U2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_1

I have a newsletter filled with tidbits about my upcoming books, reviews of things I’m reading, and writing advice. You can subscribe here: http://jeanrabe.us14.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=89364515308e8b5e7ffdf6892&id=9404531a4b

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