A Smiling Dog is coming your way
My new "healing fiction" novellas
When I was young, I read a series of books by a British schoolteacher who wrote under the name Miss Read. They were charming stories about English village life in the 1950s and 60s in two series: Thrush Green and Fairacre. No heavy plots, just tales of ordinary people. I also recalled reading some of Cat Sebastian’s recent MM romances, in which there’s no dramatic turn in the third act—just a slow revelation of the way two people come together.
In 2024, I was the head judge for the Lilian Jackson Braun award, given by Mystery Writers of America for the best cozy mystery. I read about 80 books that year and learned a lot about structure, including that third-act incident. I have found that as I’m reading I don’t want to have to worry about what will happen to tear the lovers apart (before they reconcile) or see the amateur sleuth thrown into peril.
I just want a story to make me feel good. And that’s what the stories in The Smiling Dog Café are intended to do. There is certainly a plot—we meet a character who is in trouble, and over the course of the book he or she or they understand the roots of their problems and how to overcome them.
At the Smiling Dog Café, lost souls find their way home, guided by mysterious dogs and comforted by the scent of perfectly brewed coffee. This collection of two interconnected novellas brings the Japanese tradition of healing fiction to the streets of Brooklyn, where an unassuming café holds more magic than meets the eye.
In "Code of Silence," Jeff Hodges has spent his life afraid to speak his truth, until the day he loses everything and follows a golden retriever to a café that seems to exist between worlds. There, proprietor Betty Martinez serves coffee that tastes like memories, while her wall of dog portraits holds secrets that could help Jeff finally find his voice – if he's brave enough to face what he's been running from.
"A Mother's Heart" introduces us to Sophia Greenwood, whose young daughter has just been diagnosed with the same heart condition that claimed Sophia's mother. As she grapples with this inherited legacy of both loss and love, Sophia finds herself guided to The Smiling Dog Café by an Irish Setter who seems to know exactly what her heart needs. There, surrounded by Betty's gentle wisdom and the café's subtle magic, Sophia discovers that some inheritances are stronger than fear.
Drawing on the Japanese tradition of healing fiction while grounding itself firmly in American soil, The Smiling Dog Café explores how we heal from past wounds, find courage to face our futures, and learn to trust love again. Through Betty's carefully crafted coffee blends and the watchful eyes of her painted dogs, these stories remind us that sometimes the path to healing requires a little magic, a lot of courage, and the perfect cup of coffee.
I know a lot of people who are upset at the state of the world—politics, war, poverty and global warming. I want these smiling dogs to bring a bit of peace to those people, and the hope that everything will turn out all right in the end.
The Smiling Dog Cafe will be available in print from all vendors on January 12. It will be available from Amazon as an e-book, and in their Kindle Unlimited program for 90 days. Then I will make it available on all e-book platforms.
If you’d like to try before you buy, I’ve attached a short PDF to this newsletter. It took me several tries to get my character to the cafe, so I took a deleted version that is just two pages long, and converted it.
I hope the new year brings you a measure of peace, as well as health and happiness.
And if you don’t mind, please hit the silly little heart button at the top of the post. It feeds the Algorithm God who runs the Universe.
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