Monthly Archives: August 2012

More books I’m reading, Part Two: International Assistance Dog Week

I’m about two-thirds of the way through Bob Goff’s book, Love Does… It’s Bob Goff’s memoir, with anecdotes about his life and how they relate to his understanding of his faith – Christianity. He’s a great storyteller. As a reader, I’m enjoying it, and as a writer, picking up some tips.

In my previous post I also listed Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him. It’s a powerful autobiography about the importance of his service dog, Tuesday, in dealing with the physical and emotional wounds suffered by Luis Carlos Montalván. While some of the details of the story have since been questioned, the book made me look into the training of service dogs for veterans. This particular author’s tale is the one that was published, but there are many others whose stories have not been told who need the support of a service dog.

August 5-11, 2012, is International Assistance Dog Week, which recognizes and celebrates assistance dogs around the world. It was started by a woman who has dealt with paraplegia for decades, according to International Assistance Dog Week‘s website. They provide a link to Assistance Dogs International, which establishes standards for assistance dogs, programs, and trainers, and provides education and information.

People dealing with disabilities who use service dogs have rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Getting a dog can be a long process, though.

Dogs are used in the field for combat stress relief, in military and veterans’ hospitals as facility therapy dogs, and as guide dogs and hearing dogs. These dogs can be trained to perform specific tasks that are difficult or impossible for the human, as well as to respond appropriately to his psychological needs. The author’s dog, Tuesday, was specially trained to perform the services Luis Carlos Montalv. 

The VA provides information about, and links for, service dogs for the military. VA Service and Guide Dogs I found a few other links as well. There’s the program Puppies Behind Bars, featured on Extreme Makeover Home Edition, that provided a service dog to a veteran in addition to the home rehab. These organizations need volunteers, and foster families for early raising and training. They also don’t turn down donations.

I found this organization near my home; it’s based in Brookeville, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Hero Dogs

Hmmm 🙂

A Few More Books I’m Reading…

Lat night I laughed out loud as I read Bob Goff’s Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World. (If you read it, just remember Ryan, and you’ll know what made me laugh) Written humility, heart, humor, and describing the author’s faith, it drew me through the first eleven chapters in one sitting. I didn’t want to put it down. I texted my friend, Jennifer, here in Sacramento, to thank her for recommending it. It’s a great story to have on your mind as you fall asleep.


My friends, family and I are all voracious readers, on both coasts and between, constantly on the lookout for another good story. I search the New York Times bestseller list, American Library Association recommended reading lists, Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes & Noble 5-star books, and even the covers of books to which strangers’ eyes are glued at airports, cafes, the beach, and poolside. 

I realized it’s been a while since I posted what I’ve been reading. 
The titles may give away where I saw each of these books. I’m not saying they’re all equal in literary artistry. You can check their ratings and read free samples on Amazon or B&N. (I again left off the list the books that make you say to yourself at the end, “I gave away those minutes of my life for THAT?”)  But here are a few of the others!
  • Lucimarian and Robin Roberts – My Story, My Song: Mother-Daughter Reflections on Life and Faith (as told to Missy Buchanan.) I recognized Robin Roberts from Good Morning, America. This is her mother’s fascinating story, including how music graced her entire life, before, during, and since the civil rights movement 
  • Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail)
  • Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, for which she won the Pen/Faulkner Award, and The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life
  • Jennifer Hanson’s Hiking the Continental Divide Trail: One Woman’s Journey
  • Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain. I loved this book, as a reader, and as a writer.
  • Catherine Ryan Hyde’s When I Found You follows the lives of a man walking in the woods, and the abandoned infant he finds there
  • Liane Moriarty’s The Hypnotist’s Love Story
  • Dianne Mott Davidson’s Crunch Time. (I’ve read all of Dianne’s culinary mystery novels, set in and near my former town, Evergreen, Colorado)
  • Juan E. MĂ©ndez and Marjory Wentworth – Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights. Click the link to understand the credibility of his perspective  
  • Martin Crosbie’s My Temporary Life: set in modern day Scotland and Canada, the first half is like a YA novel, second half grownup, following a young man to adulthood 
  • Nicholas Sparks: The Best of Me
  • Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life. Intersects Bob Goff’s book, above
  • E L Kames’ erotic and funny Fifty Shades of Gray, 
  • Abigail Thomas memoir: A Three Dog Life
  • Paul Harding’s Pultizer-winning Tinkers
  • Helene Cooper: The House at Sugar Beach
  • Mary Karr’s Lit, which I also just started, and now read only in the morning
  • Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! 
  • Tina Fey: Bossypants
  • Juliette Sobanet’s Sleeping With Paris
  • Luis Carlos Montalván’s Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him
  • Jessica Parks – Flat-out Love
  • Jennifer Richard Jacobson’s Small As An Elephant, with an eleven-year-old protagonist, was treasured by this adult reader.
So, what have YOU been reading? 

Revision, revision…

“I’ve found the best way to revise your work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it, then rip the living sh#% out of it.”    ~ Don Roff, YA fiction writer

The dearth of new posts on my blog is explained by Don Roff’s quote, above.

My YA novel, currently titled Through the Fog,  is undergoing major revision. My poor main character has a few new trials to endure.

Having reached a storyline crossroads, I made a few difficult decisions:

  • move the dead body
  • sink the ship
  • alter reality
I’ll let you know how it turns out. ~M

Natomas Best Buy…patience and persistence

I was home in Maryland in May and June, eagerly looking forward to using my new camera for a graduation. The matching zoom lens I bought would let me get great closeups. 

Wouldn’t you know it? Despite taking some great pictures the day before, and charging overnight, the camera froze just in time for the graduation. Not one picture! 

I bought it when I was in California, so when I next visited Sacramento I found the paperwork and original container and took it back to the store. I took it to the Geek Squad at Natomas Best Buy on June 14th. It was still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, so they said they’d send it off, with an estimated return date of June 26th. An email on June 28th let me know it was still in service.

Due to a family member’s illness, I returned home to Maryland earlier than planned. Imagine my surprise when I received an online survey from the Geek Squad asking for feedback now that I had my camera back. I tried to fill out the survey, but there was no choice for: 

“Wha??? I don’t have it back!” 

Fast forward through hours of phone calls to the store, “Best Buy Public Defender”, and emails to Customer Care – all lost writing time trying to track down and retrieve my camera.

But…today, over seven weeks after I dropped it off, and five and a half weeks after it was supposed to be returned, I finally picked up a replacement camera, along with the $25.00 gift card I suggested might be appropriate given the circumstances. I was patient and persistent, and it paid off.

When a manager, let’s call him “Buck”, finally spoke with me, he provided the gift card with a sense of humor about its Christmas greeting. He then suggested I purchase the extended warranty for the camera. I’m accustomed to this, having purchased many products from Best Buy in the past. However, I was not prepared for his reason:

“Look how accommodating we have been, replacing this camera for you.”  

Grrr.

Fortunately, everyone else I spoke with in the store today was generally kind and helpful. Only “Buck’s” suggestion was that Best Buy had somehow gone above and beyond what should be expected. The camera was originally given to Geek Squad on June 14th. It was estimated to be returned to me on June 26th. Today, August 3rd, I finally received the replacement, not because the store was proactive in tracking my camera when it was late, or contacting me, but because I spent a great deal of time repeatedly contacting the store and Best Buy’s Public Defender. 

What do you think? 

I thought it was the store’s contractual obligation under the terms of purchase and the warranty, to produce either the repaired camera or the replacement. That’s what they finally did.

So what’s the silver lining this time?  

Patience and persistence pay off.  Keeping good notes was worth the time.  And even after missing so many great shots this summer, the mountains are still calling. There are beautiful photos to be taken every day.