The Shelf in the Corner

By Teresa J. Rhyne

I write about dogs.

There. I said it. Did you scoff? Did you think “she is not a serious writer”? Did the word “cute” pop into your head? No? 

So, it’s just me. 

I didn’t plan on writing dog books, or dog-oirs as I call them (memoir meets dog book). I read, studied, and wrote fiction (note I did not say “published”). Then, as they say, life got stranger than fiction. I got a divorce. I got a dog. I started dating a younger man. My beloved beagle got cancer. The boyfriend dumped me under pressure from his parents (straight out of a Jane Austen novel, I know). The dog started chemo a week before Christmas. The boyfriend came back. The dog lived. I got diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer. I wrote. First it was a blog, then a magazine article, a book proposal, and eventually a memoir, The Dog Lived (and So Will I).

I found an agent, and while she liked dogs, she was not a “crazy dog lady.” Her focus was on the love stories—mine with both the dog and the man—and the survival theme. When she took the book out on submission, we got some “it’s a cancer book; we wanted a dog book” and some “it’s a dog book; we wanted a cancer book” responses. That was confusing but still did not clue me in that I had written a “dog book.”

When the book found a publisher and a cover was designed, I was ecstatic—because there was my dog, a diabolically cute beagle, staring up at me, at you, at future readers everywhere. Still, I did not think “dog book.” I had shared a very intimate love story, a cancer story, a survival story, a story to help others diagnosed with cancer. The dog is much cuter than I, so of course he was on the cover.

My publisher sent me to Book Expo America in New York. When I first saw their booth, I blinked in disbelief. Over the booth was a massive display (I’m talking 8’ by 4’) of the cover of my book. My dog was staring down at the good people of the Javits Center. And yet, I did not think “dog book.” When a buyer for Barnes & Noble said to me, “I was just saying we were due another big dog book,” I only thought “Okay! My book!” I did not think, “but this is a memoir about cancer,” because I’m not a complete idiot.

And then the book was published. It was in bookstores, in Target, at airports. Like any writer, I was overjoyed just to know it was out in the world. I never gave any thought to where in bookstores it would be shelved. 

After the initial hoopla of publication, a few weeks on the front tables of Barnes & Noble locations, in Target’s “Recommends” display, and even a breast cancer awareness month display at Whole Foods, reality struck. The book was relegated to the “Animals & Nature” section of bookstores. This is generally in the back corner of a bookstore, and more importantly, not the section a newly diagnosed cancer patient is likely to be looking.

I had written a dog book.

Don’t get me wrong. I love books and I love dogs, so dog books are a wonderful thing. I just had these thoughts that dog books weren’t serious books, that the people I thought I was writing for wouldn’t find the book, that I wasn’t a “real writer” if I was on a shelf in the back corner of a bookstore. (How quickly one goes from “I’m on a shelf in a bookstore!” to “but that shelf?”)

Two important things changed my mind. The Dog Lived (and So Will I) hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and my beagle, Seamus, was diagnosed with another cancer. 

I wrote. I wrote about trying to save my dog, changing our diets, eliminating the toxic chemicals in our house, the things I learned about animals testing, and the two additional beagles I adopted after Seamus passed away. One came from a laboratory where they test on animals, the other was found on the streets, riddled with pellets with a large tumor protruding from her chest (cancer, again). Those dogs, like Seamus before them, eagerly learned to trust and love, taught me perseverance, and gave me the courage to reshape our lives. 

The Dogs Were Rescued (and So Was I) was published two years after my first dog-oir. Both dogs graced the cover—double the cuteness. But could I keep writing about tragedies that happen to me and my dogs? Happy endings and life lessons aside, it’s not fun to live through. 

And yet.

In 2019 I fostered a little beagle mix rescued from the dog meat trade in China. I named her Poppy. During a time I was estranged from most of my family (short version: politics), Poppy escaped the home of a potential adopter. I spent five days searching a wilderness park, helping her find a way home, and refusing to give up until she was found. (Reader, I adopted her.) The lessons were not lost on me. A third book—Poppy In the Wild: A Lost Dog, 1500 acres of Wilderness, and the Dogged Determination that Brought her Home—was published in October, 2020.

I write dog books. Which is to say, I write about love. 

Teresa J. Rhyne is a lawyer, speaker, cancer survivor, dog lover, NYT bestselling author, coffee connoisseur, and wine devotee (though probably not in that order). You can find her at https://linktr.ee/teresajrhyne 

POPPY IN THE WILD

From the #1 New York TImes bestselling author of The Dog Lived (And So WIll I) comes a tale of love and devotion defying all the odds.

After losing her beloved beagle Daphne to lymphoma, author Teresa Rhyne launches herself into fostering other dogs in need, including Poppy, a small, frightened beagle rescued from the China dog meat trade. The elation of rescue quickly turns to hysteria when Poppy breaks free from a potential adopter during a torrential thunderstorm and disappears into a rugged, mountainous, 1,500 acre wilderness park, bordered by a busy road.

In the quest to find Poppy, Teresa will work with rescue specialists, volunteers, psychics, a Native American who communes with owls, helpful neighbors, decidedly unhelpful strangers, a howling woman, the police, crushing dead ends, glimmers of hope, and her own emotional and physical limits as she sits in the wind and rain in the wilderness park for hours each dusk and dawn with bags of roasted chicken and her dirty socks, the human lure for a terrified beagle and packs of less terrified coyotes.

Meanwhile, Poppy encounters heavy rains, a homeless encampment, the Sheriff and his wife, a series of strangers, speeding traffic, hawks, and, ultimately, a world of people willing to do anything to protect rather than harm her. Through an unexpected late night encounter, Poppy is finally caught.  After her time in the wild, a surprisingly transformed Poppy reunites with Teresa. Now newly confident and brave Poppy is ready to be welcomed into her forever home.

 

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing