A kind gentleman from the printer that physically assembles books for my publisher sent me this lovely musical video (above). A fan of TV shows like How Stuff is Made, I’d never seen the whole building of a book — How a Book is Born: Where the Lost Dogs Go comes off the presses.
For day-to-day updates and fun pictures of dogs from The Possibility Dogs, Scent of the Missing, and Where the Lost Dogs Go in action, please visit my public Facebook page, Susannah Charleson Author.
— 2022 —
Two new books in progress–one a long-distance collaboration between Texas and New York, the other very close to home, down to earth, with a dog at my side.
Many thanks and (many recommendations to writer friends) for the splendid Word format troubleshooting services of NikkiMel. over on Fiverr. A woman of many skills, she is a godsend when a deadline is dropping, a delivery is pending, and suddenly Word has got an invisible mind of its own.
Find her on Fiverr, here.
— A New Book in 2019 —
Hardcover, ebook, and audiobook released 2019; paperback released 2020.
Where the Lost Dogs Go: A Story of Love, Search, and the Power of Reunion drops June 04, 2019. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Audiobook from Blackstone Publishing / Blackstone Audio. On the face of it, the book follows my turn, as a search specialist for missing persons, to the question of what happens in the search for lost pets. What is similar, what is different, and how can owners, searchers, and rescuers make reunion possible? But the book’s deeper story is a personal one, when a lost dog with a mysterious past, a candidate for euthanasia in a shelter, returns me to my own estranged family before we are, ourselves, out of time.
Available through your favorite bookstore.
This summer brought radio, television, and podcast interviews, while personal appearances really begin ramping up in the fall. A pinned post at the top of my Facebook page gives quick and easy updates to appearance and signing schedules, which have additions or changes almost daily, and links to media interviews.
I had a great time taping Hallmark’s Home & Family with Debbie Matenopolous, Cameron Mathison, and Larissa Wohl. Watch the interview below!
This spring I returned from Ashland, Oregon and the wonderful facilities and folks at Blackstone Publishing / Blackstone Audio, where I narrated the new book. Ashland is a beautiful city whatever the season, but spring is especially glorious, and when I wasn’t in the studio, I walked its neighborhoods, historical sights, and splendid parks.
Day 1 narrating ‘Lost Dogs’ — we typically recorded 100 pages a day.
Possibility Dogs release highlights (2013)
June 3rd-5th, 2013
Book tour began with New York City! A lovely flight, followed by service dog Jake Piper and I caught in a half-hour downpour in Central Park. Soaked to the skin we both were, but it was warm and — in an odd way — fun. The green scents of Central Park rushed up as the rain beat down, and Jake was able to plunge through a few mud puddles and be washed clean of them almost immediately afterward.
With a single exception in a small diner, New York City, that dog-friendly town, was gracious to service dog Jake Piper and I. Two restaurants particularly so: Fig and Olive on E 52nd between 5th and Madison and Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at 102 5th. Both establishments took care to give us a table where Jake could settle easily out-of-the-way of foot traffic and still provide a great view of the restaurant
NYC involved three days of media coverage, including CBS New York, Fox and Friends, and an interview with journalist Bob Woodruff of ABC, that would later air on Good Morning America.
Had a wonderful time visiting with SAR colleagues from New Jersey Search and Rescue and journalist/photographer Jeff Bush of the Wall Street Journal, a friend of more than thirty years.
June 2nd, 2013
A lovely evening with service dog Jake Piper at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, where Ira Glass of This American Life informed and entertained. I’m a big fan. As though set up on some strange cosmic wheel, I learned that he’ll be performing at Carnegie Hall tonight, just across the street from the hotel where I’m about to nest for the next three days.
Packing, packing, packing–and recognizing that a service dog, when attended properly, has as much or more gear for a road trip than I do. Certainly more food!
May 30th, 2013
I have been some time away from the keyboard, working search or consulting on therapy dog capabilities in the aftermath of recent flash floods and tornadoes. My heart breaks for neighbors in Texas and Oklahoma that have suffered such tremendous loss, and I hope that the generosity of spirit that brought so much help so fast will continue across the weeks and months, years even, that it will take for these areas to repair.
A recent interview at Blackstone Audio alludes to the comfort provided by therapy dogs in the periphery of disaster. That interview, drawing from the new book, The Possibility Dogs, out on June 4th, can be found here. Click the Watch Interview button, though this is audio only.
Book tour for The Possibility Dogs begins with a flight to NYC on June 3rd. Three days or so there, and then on to Boston, before a brief time home … and then off to Seattle. Service Dog Jake Piper is making the trip, complete with a handsome bow tie for meet-and-greet events.
May 9th, 2013
This is a spider’s-eye view of my writing desk in the Haunted Office–as local rumor so calls it–in a 1929 building that once housed lawyers next to a county’s 19th-century jail. I’d have to zoom or squint to tell, but this was taken sometime in the draft manuscript process for The Possibility Dogs, which was completely written here. This desk is now home to the next book, the new work-in-progress. The Haunted Office is a good space, exclusively for writing. I feel happy the moment I walk into it. This may be partly due to the fact that the office sits over a cafe that bakes cupcakes all day long. If that’s not a feel-good fragrance, I don’t know what is!
May 3rd, 2013
Helping paws. MoonPie and JiffyPop get in on the action, checking out the box of new books just arrived today. The Possibility Dogs goes on sale June 4. I have a little over a month to look at this box of books and be amazed! amazed! at the beautiful end result of a creative process that began in late autumn 2010.
May 1st, 2013
In excerpt from the new book, The Possibility Dogs: What a Handful of “Unadoptables” Taught Me About Service, Hope, and Healing now in the summer issue of The Bark magazine. Check it out!
April 26th, 2013
Finished recording the audiobook edition of The Possibility Dogs today. Recording booth, sweet recording booth. This is the second time I’ve narrated one of my own books with Blackstone Audio, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The pillow is to muffle/hide narrators’ stomachs from growling after long hours of reading aloud.
April 17th, 2013
Madcap puppies taking spring by storm! In addition to the much-loved and motley dog population reflected The Possibility Dogs, two Pomeranian puppies have joined the crew as therapy dogs in training. Chocolate-and-white MoonPie and orange-sable-and-white JiffyPop are six months old and running the house ragged, but happily so