Catherine Ryan Hyde Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than 25 published and forthcoming books, including the bestselling When I found You, Pay It Forward, Don't Let Me Go, and Take Me With You.
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I've been telegraphing the fact that the More Puppy meme would soon give way to a More Kitty meme. Lots of my fabulous readers have fabulous kitties, and this is nothing if not an equal opportunity meme. In fact, before I'm done, I'm planning a run of far more unusual pets, some of which I've had in the past (a boa constrictor, a peacock, a PO
Almost every day, unless I'm traveling, or on a more strenuous hike somewhere else, I walk my dog Ella on the boardwalk at Moonstone Beach, in my little town of Cambria. Now and then I'll run into a local I know. But, since Moonstone Beach Drive is lined with motels and inns, most of my fellow walkers are tourists. Some walk hand in hand, enjoying the view. Which is nice. Many stop to take photos. Also nice. And others are on their cell phones, lost in the conversation, eyes trained toward their feet. And this I find perplexing.
I have nothing against cell phones per se. And I
Dear Archarcharch, get well soon.Well...if you haven't read The Bet or The Bet, Part Two...I'd suggest it. Otherwise you're likely to feel like you missed something. But if that's too much trouble, there's always the short recap:
Okay, there were these four crazy authors. I was one of them. I still am. The other three were Andrew Smith, Brian Farrey and Kimberly Pauley. It was all Brian's idea, so I guess he's even crazier than the rest of us. Then again, he didn't end up having to write a story, so maybe he's crazy like a fox. The idea was to place a bet, the losers of said bet having to write a story with a title handed to them by the winner. We settled
You probably know by now that my dog, Ella, has a thing about being covered up. She's half Chinese Crested, so she has no undercoat, and not much hair at all on her chest and belly. She likes to stay warm. In fact, that's an understatement. She's a canine heat-seeking missile.
I once thought that either she was unusual in this, or that most people wouldn't let their dog under the covers even if the dog wanted to be there.
I was wrong.
Here's what I learned in the course of gathering puppy and kitty photos for this blog meme.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a package delivered from London. It was a few extra copies of the ucorrected proofs (what we would call advance readers copies over here) of Don't Let Me Go. My editor, Sarah, said she was sure I'd find a good use for them.
Of course, in my mind, this means only one thing. Giveaways!
If you haven't heard anything about the book, check out the Don't Let Me Go page. It's due out in late September from Transworld UK.
I've mentioned it before, but the books that are published in the UK only are about to get a lot more available here in
Okay. I'm sure you've noticed by now that, with the exception of Henry the Hero, the word "puppy" in this blog meme is a bit... figurative. Most of these "puppies" are full-grown dogs. But my reader and Facebook friend Linda Carton has a dog named Missy, who just had a litter of puppies. You know, the actual tiny ones, with their eyes still closed.
I started this More Puppy meme with, of course, Ella. She’s my “puppy.” Then I moved on to the “puppies” (mostly fully grown) of my fellow authors and valued readers. As I did, I made an observation. A few people sent tributes to late dogs, ones who were no longer with them.
That made me think about Jessie.
I got Jessie on the 16th of April, 1992. I remember the date because it was the day before my birthday. I was in my starving artist phase, and I didn’t have much money, to put it mildly. My lovely dog
Puppy HenryMy long-time faithful reader Sara Brandenburg writes, "Can you give Henry his much deserved attention...for More Puppy?
"My young man Henry is so much for a sweet 10-month-old Newfoundland. I won't lie, he can be such a pill! He daily spills his water on the kitchen floor, once when upset over being left behind for the day he scratched a hole in the wall, and at 100 plus pounds I still have to lift him into my suv, but on May 3rd he saved my life.
"My apartment building has been power washing/spray painting the last few days and using a generator for power. For whatever reason
Yes, this confirms it. We are authors, not horse-racing experts.
Dialed In came in 8th, Pants on Fire 9th, Archarcharch 15th (but, in his and my defense, injured) and poor Comma to the Top finished 19th out of 19. What happened to Comma to the Top? First or second through what seemed like the whole race, then dead last.
Archarcharch had to be taken off the track in an animal ambulance, but the early reports are optimistic. A non-displaced and non-life threatening lateral condylar fracture.
Boru and DianneUnless someone responds to my "last call" below, this is the final dedicated guest puppy post for the time being. My plan is to do a post on my own dear late puppy Jessie (I can't help noticing how many people sent, including today's puppy, tributes to pets who have moved on, and it's inspired me), followed by pets who like to sleep covered up (Ella's specialty, but wait till you see the others I've gathered) followed by More Kitty.
Appropriately, this last puppy, though his name was really Boru, went by the nickname "puppy." Many thanks to Dianne Greenlay for sending this story.
I think I’ve made it amply clear that I respect book bloggers as an invaluable puzzle piece in the modern book business. But of course that business is rapidly changing. A whole new model is becoming the norm—maybe not erasing the old model, but probably displacing it in terms of sheer popularity and volume. It will have its advantages, and a definite down side. I’m optimistic, however, and I’ll tell you why in this post. I think it will work. But here’s the linchpin of the whole deal: with the help of book bloggers, I think it will fill the needs of readers/book consumers. Without them, it could be a nightmare.
The self-published ebook, along with print-on-demand technology, has opened a
For those of you who didn't read my first blog post about the bet, the whole thing goes a little something like this. I'm in a 4-way bet with three other authors, inspired by the bet in this Atlantic article about a Stephen King short story, “Herman Wouk is Still Alive.” Fellow author Brian Farrey found and tweeted it.
“Every year my son Owen and I have a bet on the NCAA March Madness Tournament,” King said, “and last year the stakes were that the loser would have to write a story [with a title] the winner gave to him. And I lost. Except I really won, because I got this story that I really like.”
Along with the link, Brian tweeted, “Anybody wanna make a bet with similar stakes w/me?”
And the winner of the signed ARC (advance reader’s copy) of Pay It Forward is: Skip Middleton, who happens to be a Pay It Forward Foundation board member. But please don't feel there's any kind of fix in, because about one in every five of these entrants are people I know pretty well. I put all the names in the hat (literally, a hat), shake it well, hold it up high and pull one. And that's it.
Now, as I mentioned in the original giveaway post, I have at least half a dozen of these that I’ve decided to give away this year. I have so many, and I’m not sure what good they’re doing anybody sitting in my bookshelf. So, a new giveaway for a second ARC starts immediately. If you commented on the
I know when you hear the phrase disco boots, your mind goes in a very distinct direction. For the purposes of this blog post, it’s the wrong direction.
My new hiking boots are disco. This is not a compliment.
Many of you know Holly Schindler, the fabulous emerging Young Adult author. You may have read her debut novel, A Blue So Dark, and/or the brand-new Playing Hurt, which is getting rave reviews. But...do you know her friend Jake? I first knew Holly had a pup when she tweeted, during the tough winter weather, that her dog Jake was so bored she might have to teach him to fold laundry. That jumped out to me, because Ella folds laundry. Seriously. I set clean laundry on the bed, she presses creases into it. Never in the right places, though. Unfortunately.
Holly writes, "Got some puppy for you! I've attached a pic of my dog, Jake, and his baby, 'Roo.
Sweet Peas on Highway 46--todayWell, it's hard to explain. If anybody knows a lot about wildflowers, please let me know.
We had 30 inches of rain--at least, here in Cambria, but we weren't isolated from the rest of the county in that regard.
Today we had a little picnic out at Shell Creek, usually the wildflower capital of the Central Coast. And there was very little to see. Maybe
Okay. This was my morning. After five years of living with a camera-shy pup, this morning I was able to film Ella doing something she does often, that I think is a bit unusual: she washes her face like a cat.
I read somewhere that the Chinese Crested is the only dog who does this, and Ella is half Chinese Crested and half Scottie. I don't know if that's true, if all Chinese Crested dogs do, or if no other dogs ever tried it. I don't even know if anybody believed me..until now.
Maddie and MasonMy old friends (and two of my most devoted readers!) Paul and Bob liked the idea of a "More Puppy" blog meme, and they contributed the following about their three four-legged "kids."
Paul says, "All three of our kids are rescues.
“Jenny, seven years old, a sable, and the leader of the pack, was returned to our local breeder when
End of the "cul de sac"--the slideGot your attention, didn't I? Now I hope you won't be disappointed if this blog is only about Highway 1 north of Cambria.
For those of you who have never driven Highway 1 between Carmel and Cambria, it's famous for its instability. All it takes is a good rainy season to bring sections of cliff onto the highway, or sections of highway into the sea. This year saw both. First about 60 feet of southbound lane slipped into the ocean just south of Carmel, closing the highway to through traffic for a month, and creating one very long cul de sac. Then a slide of mud and rocks at Alder Creek, just south of Gorda, turned Big Sur from a cul de sac to an island for days. One lane is finally open at the northern end, but now "82,500 tons of damp dirt and rocks" are sitting on the road again near Alder Creek,
Have you ever seen a dog doing a walking meditation? Neither had I. Neither have most people, I suspect.
But when I began my "More Puppy" meme, I heard from an old friend and colleague, Lance Secretan. He linked my "More Puppy" Facebook note (the original one, featuring Ella) to an amazing video of his and his wife's late canine companion Spirit the Wonder Dog.
"Our Wonder Dog was named 'Spirit,'" Lance said. "She lived with us for 14 years and is now in hound heaven. But she had a unique habit -- meditating around a tropical plant in our house. We called it the 'Zen Walk.'"
