My next book, “The Second Chance Dog: A Love Story,” will be published Nov. 5, but it is available for pre-ordering now. I will do the first reading from this book on May 31st at the Hubbard Hall Writer’s Workshop readings at Hubbard Hall, Cambridge, N.Y. some tickets still available for that.

I’d like to make a special offer in advance of publication for “The Second Chance Dog.” It is a  very special book for me, an account of how I came to be with Maria, our first years together, and of Frieda’s great role in that story.  It is also the story of how I finally trained and came to terms Frieda, a Rottweiler-Shepherd mix who had been abandoned in the Adirondack and lived in the wild for several years before the was finally caught by a determined SPCA worker. I called Frieda “the dog who kept men away,” and for one year, it was her mission in life to to keep me away from Maria. If you wish to buy the book, I’d love it if you purchased it through Battenkill Books, where I work happily as Recommender-In-Chief.

This book is important to me for many reasons, but more than anything else, because it is the story of an older man who had given up on love – we are not believed to need love in our lives – and who found it in the most unlikely place in the most unlikely way. It is many things, but the message in part is to never give up on love. In our culture, the elderly are mostly seen in creepy ads for medical products or pills, or not at all. It is also the story about the meaning of dogs in one’s life, and the extraordinary training challenge Frieda brought to my life.

If you purchase the book at Battenkill Books, my local bookstore, I will sign and personalize it for you (Maria also, if you wish) this offer is exclusive to Battenkill Books. You can call the store at 518 677-2515 or e-mail them – [email protected] – or visit their website. They take Paypal and ship anywhere in the world.

The book is also available at Amazon, Bn.com or through Ibooks on Itunes, indiebound, or at your local independent bookstore. It will be available in both e-book and paper form.  I will be reading from on Podcasts, as soon as I get that going. Publication is still seven months away, but that will go by in a flash. Thanks for your interest in this book.