Keepin' it Real, Keepin' it Right

Coming very soon...!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak about my novel Dog-Eared Life. This was my first official speaking engagement, and I was asked to talk for forty-five minutes! Oh my goodness! Truth? I was nervous. When I mentioned this to my friend Buddy, though, Buddy said, “Forty-five minutes? That’s nothing for you, Buddy! You’re great at telling stories and could make just about any story last forty-five minutes if you really wanted to!” 

I took this as a compliment. 

I knew she was right, too, because hello? I was talking about my novel… and there are very few things that I enjoy talking about more than the characters in my head. 

Surprise, surprise: I had zero issues filling the forty-five minutes! There were some tangents about bands, and some other tangents about early readers, and still more tangents about books that fall in other areas of the Hannah Rae Literary Universe… Everything’s connected, you know? My mom says that all the time. 

Actually… 

Quick tangent? “Everything’s Connected” would make a great title for a novel – and I just so happen to have a novel in mind. Ha! Gosh, life can be funny sometimes!

Anyway, back to Dog-Eared…

For those who maybe haven’t read Dog-Eared Life (yet), it tells the story of Kenny Russo and Henrietta Jones. Russo plays drums for Flannel Lobster, so by this point, you really ought to be familiar with him. Henri is (was, I should probably say) a new character at the time of writing Dog-Eared, and in my opinion, she’s one of my strongest, most badass ladies. I aspire to be like her. So many of Henri’s insecurities were inspired by my own insecurities, just as so much of Henri’s bravery was inspired by my own life. I took things that I did that were kind of brave and turned them into very brave things accomplished by Henri. I just love her.

I’m not going to get into the where, what, and who of it all, because that could result in a real spoiler for this particular novel, but I will tell you that in writing Dog-Eared Life, I ended up doing quite a bit of research about the trans community. I corresponded with several folks who are trans and even exchanged a couple emails with Jennifer Finney Boylan. (For the record, I absolutely love Jennifer Finney Boylan; her memoir She’s Not There has impacted my life so, so much – it’s one of those books that I think about often.) And I guess my research paid off because I received two amazing compliments:

1. I was told that even though I’m not queer, I “have queer energy” and that I’m “queer on the inside.” I just love that! It put me on cloud nine, you know?

2. I learned that some folks in the trans community complimented Dog-Eared and feel “it perfectly encapsulates the trans experience.” And friends? To think that I was able to do that with my words is just… Well. I sort of have no words for how good that makes me feel. Ironic, right?

Dog-Eared Life is available on Amazon (paperback and ebook), at Bantam Coffee Roasters in Gettysburg, and will soon be available on Audible and iTunes as an audiobook.