It's Been a Long Road...

And many times, Rudy ran straight off the road and I had to bring him back! For seven years, from the first day my daughter Raya and I came up with the idea to write a book about a misfit dog and a bullied boy, to the day I first hit publish on Amazon (September 10, 2022), then just one week later I halted publishing, spent two months correcting a hundred printed errors, reformatted, and republished, this book has been nothing short of a wild, sometimes impossible journey.

The story of Rudy started out as a very simple idea and grew into something much bigger than either Raya or I expected. Rudy's Rescue will eventually be children's books, middle school books, and two more adult books following Book One. with side-story novellas about some of the most amazing characters in Manny and Rudy's world. I'm so excited to share with you what I learned along the way.

Getting here wasn't easy. It took me a long time to figure out how to tell my stories—and even longer to try and do it well amid horrible circumstances, scams, and inept paid help.

I wish I could say that everything fell into place naturally, but that's not true. It took a lot of work and a lot of learning and there is still so much to learn! Surprisingly, seasoned writers with best-sellers will admit to this. We hit so many roadblocks on this journey that we almost gave up; we set it aside; we put it off for more years because it seemed impossible. But we kept going because we knew the story was worth fighting for—and because there was no way we were going back out on Rudy and the wonderful people in his world.