October 23, My Birthday

o my dear friends near and far,

Today is my birthday.  I am four years old, and this last year has been a very different year for me.  I suppose it has been a different year for all of us as we navigate the days of our lives during a pandemic.  It has meant that I have not had a very exciting year, so far.  Mom and Dad  have mostly led the life of shut-ins, but it is keeping us safe and hopefully keeping their son and his family safe as well.  Well, being shut-in, meant Mom had to find something to do with her time. 

It all started out with moving into our new California home, unpacking, and refinishing some furniture, but then what?  Well, she decided to write her book about Italy.  This should be no surprise to anyone as she has wanted to do this for some time.  But as she rethought her original story, it became my book about Italy because I am the narrator.  So I am very happy, on this my birthday, to report that earlier this week my book, Dog Days In Italy: How I Became An Expat Dog, went live on Amazon in both eBook and paperback book form.  Obviously, I am quite excited about this and wanted to share the news with everyone. And more than sharing the news, I wanted to post a link to my book so you can check it out.  For you wine lovers, obviously, knowing my mom, there is a lot about wine and especially Prosecco in this story, not that I ever drink the stuff.

This is my book pitch.  I hope it gets you all interested in my story. 

Meet Dino, one pazzo (crazy in Italian) California dog and journey with him across the Atlantic Ocean to Le Marche, Italy where this story unfolds. Join Dino as he narrates his humans' twenty-year love affair with Italy, their numerous Italian adventures, and their hunt for the perfect old stone farmhouse to call home. At times pure dog, but often so much more, Dino recounts the tale of his folks' trials and tribulations living in a land where their language skills were never adequate and their misconceptions about the country proved, at times, to be disastrous. On this madcap Italian pilgrimage, Dino is besieged by the Mom character who thinks she knows best, bewildered by the absurdities of the English language and human behavior, but totally secure in his often irreverent opinions about life and humankind. Dino's story is a laugh-out-loud romp through the country of pasta and pizza told with a dash of wit, a splash of sarcasm, and an overabundance of poetic license.

Well, what do you think, friends?  I sure hope it's a winner.  My second book: I Bark Therefore I Am: Dog Days In California will be out in early 2022.  Must keep the Mom character busy or she will go nuts.  Actually, I think she's already a little nuts, but I am okay with that.  If she wasn't nuts, I probably wouldn't have my little sister, Mia.  Oh, many of you didn't know anything about that.  Well, Mia joined my family in late May.  She was so very tiny and curly.  You see she is half poodle and mixed with both Australian Shepherd and Yorkshire Terrier.  Mom thinks she has a lot of terrier traits, unfortunately.  But I do love to play with her which was the purpose of getting her anyway since I have not had one trip to the dog park.  I'm still rather confused about that because in my mind the whole purpose of moving back to California was to go to the dog park.  I'm still, obviously, confused by what motivates my people.  Mia is now seven-months old and she is a little terrorist.  Fortunately for me, that means I'm now the good dog in the family. 


Mom and Dad are rather disappointed that getting me a playmate didn't stop my barking.  Now they have two barking dogs who just sit there looking at each other barking as loud as possible,  Mia has one of those very loud and sharp barks, so when she barks it is even worse than me.  I don't think my folks will ever be able to take her anywhere.  Well, if this pandemic ever goes away, we will see. 

I hope all of my friends are safe and well.  We miss all of you. 


Love from Dino, the Author

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