DAD IN TRAINING AND HOW IT CAME TO BE.

September. Where did it come from? I'm still looking for summer and it's nearly autumn. Greetings from Gail Gaymer Martin, an LI author since 1999 when I sold my first novel, UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR. Whew! That was exciting.

But then every book is exciting. DAD IN TRAINING is a special book to me, and I loved writing it. I grew up with dogs and cats in my life and, until a few years ago, rotated my pets between two dogs and a cat to two cats and a dog, then one dog and one cat, then one cat. My pets tend to live into their 20s so they become family to me, and the heartbreak of losing them is difficult. But my animals have left me with wonderful true stories that I've been able to weave into the Man's Best Friend series. In fact the second book, GROOM IN TRAINING, acknowledges my dog Jinx whose true story plays out in that book.

The idea to write a series about dogs began after the death of our daughter, Brenda, three years ago. We suffered the horrendous emotion of losing a tremdnousl daughter to ovarian cancer, but from her death, we learned so many wonderful things about her we might have never known. Learning them, we could grasp those things and hang on, and we know that she's out of the world of suffering and I think she's in heaven taking care of dogs that need obedience training. (Chuckling here).

Brenda loved animals, first fostering dogs and training them to be adoptable, and later owning two border collies of her own. They participated in agility and flyball, and she delighted in her pets. A series on traiing and adopting dogs seemed so appropriate to write in memory of Brenda.

This photo was taken during her chemo treatments, hugging her two border collies--Nike and Miranda--and wearing a sweatshirt with Miranda look-alike image.

Check out this eharlequin link to read the full Story Behind the Story DAD IN TRAINING

http://community.eharlequin.com/content/story-behind-dad-training-gail-gaymer-martin

In February 2010, you can enjoy Steph's story in GROOM IN TRAINING and in July, BRIDE IN TRAINING will finish the Man's Best Friend Series. If you're an animal lover or not, I hope you enjoy these three novels from Steeple Hill Love Inspired