What Happens ?

Here is some sample text to fill in the “What Happens” Section from the design specification. Images can be uploaded in the editor to fill in the spaces on the sides.

Long Story Short

  • You’ll Love This If . . .
    This where I am going to put who the book is most appropriate for. Happens” Section from the design specification. Images can be uploaded in the editor to fill in the spaces on the sides.
  • The One Thing You’ll Learn Is. . .
    And what are the key points people need to know. Happens” Section from the design specification. Images can be uploaded in the editor to fill in the spaces on the sides.
  • Making space for one more bullet point here. Not sure what the topic will be or if just generic but there ya have it! Happens” Section from the design specification. Images can be uploaded in the editor to fill in the spaces on the sides.

My Two Cents

Early on, Edward summarizes the first cover story he wrote for Guideposts Magazine. Bill, a 50-something blind alcoholic whose only hiking experience is ostensibly walking from home to liquor store and back, gets the call from God to sort himself out. Specifically, god told him to walk the entirely of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine alone with his seeing eye dog Orient.

This is your sign you’re in for inspirational stories often centering on second chances and god, but always revolving around a dog. 

Guideposts: Dog Edition would have been a better title.

Edward is a good storyteller and clearly understands how to get and keep his readers engaged. When there is a specific story about a dog it’s a true page turner. How did a dog convince his wife to start dating him? How did Mike turn an aggressive dog into a pal ready to be adopted? What happened to Winky when they went hiking and did she survive?

Just like in the magazine, he pairs each of these stories with a directly stated strong spiritual message. Faith-seeking readers who love dogs will really enjoy this book. (Details) 

The book is a different experience for those of us who are not into traditional organized religion and who prefer inspiration to emanate organically from the content itself. The first half has all these wonderfully engaging and entertaining dog stories mentioned above but there does not seem to be any organizing literary design guiding the structure. It’s more like a random stream of consciousness in which it’s not clear why one story was told, when another is coming and how they are connected. And I don’t mean this in a post- post- modern Booker Man prize kind of way. This disconnectedness is exacerbated by the tales being one step removed: he’s on the outside looking in when he’s talking about other people and their dogs. This combined with the recollections of prayer and god leave us a bit confused and bored. 

Luckily, he really pulls it off in the last inning.  The lost in the wilderness XXX style is replaced by the intimacy of hearing his own personal story of having and then losing Mille, his beloved Golden Retriever to cancer.