November 2016

   I feel in so many ways my life has been an incredible journey, filled with great adventures, so much joy as well as my share of pain and sorrow. Knowing only too well that I have far more yesterdays than I have tomorrows, I decided a while back to pursue a dream I’ve had for more than forty years. The dream was to write a book.

   In my sophomore year of college, I took an English class in which one of our assignments was to write a short story. I’ve long since forgotten what the subject matter of my story was but a week or two after submitting it, my professor, after dismissing the class, asked me to remain. I remember thinking, “Yikes, what did I do?” To my surprise what she told me was that she thought I had a knack for writing and encouraged me to explore that side of me. Since I was an impressionable nineteen-year-old and she was an English professor, I was pretty full of myself afterwards. That always stuck with me and I figured someday I might take her up on it. That time has finally arrived.

   In late 2013 I began writing a novel, hoping to have it published the following year. Then a series of events happened in my life that disrupted my writing. Time passed and inertia set in. Somehow the fire in my belly about writing the Great American Novel flickered out, although I do hope to finish it eventually. In its place though I am now writing a memoir about the events in early 2014 that so dramatically changed my life. The story centers on a sweet though somewhat damaged dog named Tink that I was fostering. In February of 2014 she disappeared and I spent four weeks trying to find her. Those four weeks amounted to one of the most challenging and difficult periods in my many years; there were times when I was in deep despair and feared I would never feel whole again.

   After the search ended, my life gradually returned to a more normal routine. A very talented and close writer friend told me that I needed to write about what inspired me and that my dedication to Tink was the perfect subject. Furthermore, she jokingly told me that if I didn’t write the book, she would. It was the best advice she could have given me. I now hope to have my Tink tale completed and published sometime in 2017.  It is a compelling story and my fervent hope is that my telling of it will do the tale justice.

   Feel free to contact me at Ed@EdHartnett.com if you have any questions or comments. Thanks for your interest.

Here's to good reading and great writing!

Ed Hartnett