After Benny
A Senior Dog, a Blue Bowl, and the Life That Came Next
The dog after the dog you thought could never be replaced.
In Development. No release date yet, and nothing is available to buy or preorder.
About the book
After Benny begins in the rooms grief leaves behind. Benny is gone, but his blue bowl, leash and ordinary architecture remain. When Walter arrives already carrying a vanished life of his own, the narrator must confront the difference between replacing love and allowing life to enter again. It is a companion novel about senior dogs, second chances, need, shame and the strange courage required to be helped.
Before Walter, There Was Benny
Before Walter, there was Benny.
I did not know then that the next dog in my life would arrive already grieving. I did not know someone else would later ask to take him before I had admitted he had become mine. I only knew the room was full of everything I had lost, and I had mistaken that fullness for proof that nothing else could enter.
That is the simplest way to say it, which means it is also completely inadequate. Benny was a dog, technically. But calling Benny a dog was like calling the ocean damp. It was accurate, but embarrassing.
There are creatures who love you. And then there are creatures who become part of your architecture.
Excerpt only. The full manuscript isn't published here.