Coming in 2012, the third book in the Belle Series

 

featuring new characters and a move to New Mexico for Belle and her family. Darcy must attend a new school and deal with the bully Emily Robinson, while Belle discovers her new home has no 4-H agility program. Belle wonders what she will do until Darcy's new friend Susan and her Airedale, Jazzy offer what seems to be the perfect solution, especially for Belle. But will Belle feel the same way? What if it is perfect for Buster but not her? How will Darcy handle Emily? What about Emily's sister, Kathryn? Will Belle figure out how to help her learn time to read in time to save an important library program?

 

Artemesia Publishing will produce the book. John Cogab will illustrate.

 

 

One day about 15 years ago, I walked into the central office of the humanities department of San Juan College, where I am the program director of KSJE FM, public radio. The head of humanities wife, Laura, sat with a beautiful little dog on her lap. Falling instantly in love with its huge eyes, I asked if I could hold it. She said yes,  and I gathered the little ball of golden fur into my arms.

 

     Laura told me she had taken the dog away from a drunk who was beating her at a gas station. I looked at the dog’s black muzzle, exquisite pointed ears, her delicate white feet, and her sassy, stub of a tail and wondered how anybody could be so cruel to a creature with such a sweet face. It resembled a fox’s. The little body I was holding felt sturdy like a Red Heeler’s. The thought of anyone desecrating it brought tears to my eyes. I asked Laura why she had brought the dog into the office. She said her household had too many pets, and this one needed a home. I said I’d take her.

 

     The dog was sweet and shy when Laura’s husband, Chris brought her to me. I named her after a very gentle opera singer I once interviewed, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Dame Kiri had come to New Mexico to sing with the New Mexico Symphony. She who could have sung in any opera house she wished said, “I hope the Albuquerque audiences like me.” It takes a lot to shut a reporter up, and that comment did the trick to this one. The wistful pleading gaze the little dog turned on me after Chris put her in my living room and walked out the door, brought the incident with Dame Kiri to mind. The dog could have no other name.

 

     I got her a companion, a setter Lab cross named Ben. They communicated with each other in ways I could never figure out. Ben loved to be outside and would spend hours romping in the yard. Kiri always knew when he wanted to come in, but I didn’t always. Sometimes they had doggie arguments, standing nose to nose growling. After a while, they’d step back, shake themselves and wag their tails. They often touched each other on the nose, as if they were kissing.

 

     Reel forward a few years. I gradually had worked my way into the creative writing community in my little town of Farmington. A fireplug of a woman with iron gray hair named Gwynne Spencer lived just over the Colorado border from us. She wrote for kids and did art therapy projects with troubled youngsters. If a sick animal existed in the universe, she’d find it, nurse it, and seek a home for it. I told her about Kiri and Ben.

 

     She said, “You know, Kiri’s story would be a great one for abused kids who aren’t ready to read about humans who have been abused, but need something to help them get their feelings out. Write a story from Kiri’s point of view.”

 

     Fascinated by the idea of understanding life as a dog, I read about their keen senses of hearing and smell; their abilities as service, police, therapy, and companion dogs, and set to work. “Belle’s Star,” with Kiri as the central character and Ben in a supporting role, came out in August 2009. The story empowers youngsters 8-12 to cope with life’s tough stuff. It tries to teach them that while they may not be able to help what the world does to them, they can choose how to respond to it. Belle was nominated for a New Mexico Book Award in 2009 and it won a Mom’s Choice Award for 2010. With Belle’s Star comes an activity book written by retired school counselor, and award winning journalist, Margaret Cheasebro, who lives in Aztec, New Mexico. Parents, teachers, counselors, and youth organizations may use it to discuss issues important to becoming a responsible adult. Belle ’s Star is illustrated by nationally known artist, John Cogan. www.johncogan.com

 

     My publisher, Artemesia Publishing (apbooks.net) has asked for a sequel, to Belle’s Star so Belle’s Trial, which stresses self-discipline, came out in summer, 2010. Later, Belle will encounter show dogs, police and or rescue dogs, service dogs, and therapy dogs. In each book, she will learn something. Each volume will come with an activity book.

 

     Ben and Kiri have gone wherever good dogs go when they finish their lives here. Through all the writing and editing of Belle, Kiri came and laid her head on my lap while I sat at the computer. She attended book signings with me. Because of her, I am having a wonderful adventure I never would been able to enjoy had I not walked into the humanities office at San Juan College one particular day. I hope I am helping some kids who need guidance, and providing a fun story for others.  Kiri and I had a special relationship. I gave her shelter and love; she returned love and inspiration. I never felt like I owned Dame Kiri. Laura entrusted her to me. Someone Up There made her do that for a purpose. I will always cherish my little fox faced girl, and always have her memory, and the books she inspired.

 

     Ben, by the way, was not left out of the story. Full of energy and love, he lollopped through life, tongue hanging out in an nonstop doggie smile. He became Buster in the Belle series, and Sam in the Shelby McCoy mystery series for grownups. In the first installment, Snap Me a Future, reporter Shelby McCoy and Sam chase an antiquities thief in New Mexico's beautiful Four Corners back country. When the thief corners her and her lover at a lonely pueblito, she must employ her wits to save them both, unless Sam gallumphs onto the scene in the nick of time. In E-book format, Snap Me a Future is published by Casa de Snapdragon.