PUPPPppppyyy 🐶

Not mine, but I'm an aunt again!

For more than 20 years now, I’ve had a dog. At one point before I left Chicago, I had two dogs at the same time, which was quite a feat conidering I lived in an apartment and one dog weighed 90 pounds an the other weighed five! When my sister decided to adopt a seven-week old puppy the week before her kids went back to school, I knew she was in for a ride. (Did I mention it’s her first-ever dog?!?!)

As a childless dog-mama, I’ve been so, so fortunate to be close enough to my sister geographically that I can be a part of her kids’ lives. I’m even more fortunate that my sister and I are close enough emotionally that she wants me involved!!

This puppy has been the latest challenge, and oh, how a puppy brings the feels.

In so many ways, raising a puppy is like writing a book. In the beginning, you’re obsessed. There is nothing more exciting, more important, or more immersive than your puppy. You want to talk about it to everyone you know, look at pictures when you’re lying in be with the little furball finally conked out—even though it’s just a few feet away. You obsessively Google puppy raising advice and instead of BookTok, you’re on DogTok or YouTube watching puppy training videos.

Writing a new book is the same. When I first come up with an idea, I’m overtaken by it. I spend hours thinking about what I need to research, I wildly change names and research the origins and meanings of names. I want to share excerpts and get feedback. It’s so, so fun to get lost in a new world that is so beautifully and uniquely yours.

But then, the puppy chews up a laptop cable. Or a couch. Or they poop on your plush pink bathmat. Puppies get the zoomies, they bite everyone and everything. They revenge pee. They eat shoelaces but not food. They are, in a nutshell, completely feral monsters who for some reason we let sleep in our homes. We pet them. We feed them. We love them. We obsess over whether we’re raising them right.

THE PUPPY!!!!

Just like birthing a book.

There comes a time with almost every book I’ve written that I wonder why on Earth I ever thought this was a good idea. Instead of Googling names, I start trolling Indeed for any job that won’t require me to write. My characters don’t chew power cords, but they can fight me in their own ways—not being funny or urgent or clear or magical or anything else that I know they were meant to be.

But there is always a turning point. When I’m with the puppy and he’s nipping and tugging and acting like a little fool, I think of my adult German shepherd, a dog who is so good, so trustworthy, reliable, and loyal, I could put her in a room piled high with cheeseburgers and she’d sit and wait for my signal before even trying to take a nibble. (Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration… But pretty close to it.) She protects me, she loves me, and like with any living creature I’m going to love, getting there took work.

Just like my sister’s little goofball, when the going gets tough, many writers give up. I’ve taken breaks from books and I have set projects aside and started new ones—thinking a new puppy would save me from the challenge of raising the puppy I have.

Thankfully, in my dog-owning years, I can see that it does get better. They learn. They form bonds. They grow up. And hopefully they don’t chew power cords.

I’m like a lot of writers. I have a day job (I’m fortunate that I love it, but it’s a huge time commitment nonetheless) that drains me and requires me to be really organized. I sometimes (all the time) have to choose between writing a few pages and doing that load of laundry before it gets ANY taller.

My not-a-puppy Molly (using me as a pillow)

But I’ve been pushing ahead and trusting that consistency, faith, and working through the problems little by little, day by day, will get me to “the end.” Just like consistency, discipline, and belly rubs will transform the feral little monster who’s taken over my sister’s house into an amazing, loved pet.

I hope to have not one but three amazing books for you in 2025. I’m fighting the restrictions of time and life and yet managing to write at least one chapter per week, all while making time to support my sister and help with the new puppy.

I hope you have something you’re passionate about. Whether it’s a book, a puppy, a hobby, or just making the most of every day, I hope you weather the tough days. I hope you know that you’re not alone—that we all struggle to have enough time, patience, money, energy, clarity. If you’re not, maybe volunteer with a rescue and spend some time rubbing bellies. I can tell you that all that cuteness really is good for the soul. And for the creativity.