Speaker 1: He is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets. Welcome to
Animal Rights on pet Life Radio. It's your host, Tim Link,
and I'm so glad you're joined us today. We have
a great show, wonderful guest coming on. He's a New
York Times bestselling author, Stephen Rollie, and we're talking to
Stephen a little bit about his latest little book here
called The Dogs of Venice. Want a fun, fun book,
so I want to talk to Stephen a little bit
about the book, talk about how it all came about,
and then of course we'll pick his mind. Since he
is a New York Times bestseller. We always try to
get the goods on how you do it the best
you can, so we'll pick his behind and brain a
little bit on how he writes and everything. Hopefully not
like me. Throwing a dart against a board usually works
best for me. Play that aside, So everybody hangsi, we'll
come back writer for this commercial break. You're listening to
Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio.
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Speaker 3: Let's talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to animal rights on pet Life Radio. Joining
me now is New York Times bestselling author Steven Rollie. Steven,
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're glad to have you on in. And I
love the book. I mean, it's just I call it
just a sweet, heartwarming type of book, but there's some
background behind it. I wanted to get what you to share.
Of course, we're talking about the latest book, The Dogs
of Venice. So tell us a little bit about the
book and just how it sort of came about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my very first novel, which came out in twenty sixteen,
was a book called Lily and the Octopus, which was
inspired by a dog that I had named Lily a
Docsun who passed away gosh, about twelve years ago. Now, wow,
And you know, I was really surprised by the grief
that I felt from the loss of that relationship. You know,
writing is a very solitary endeavor, and I don't think
I realized how much I'd come to rely on the
company of that dog. And it's also a very sedentary occupation.
And so you know, without that little cold nose on
my leg to get me up out of the chair,
I felt like I had lost a big part of
my life and I realized, you know, the inspiration for
that book was you know, I don't think we talk
about the grief we experience in losing pets. We have
promoted them to full fledged status, a family member status
of the course of my lifetime. You know, I had
dogs as a kid, and you know, the dogs lived
in the barn, you know, and now and now you
said you kept your dog in the barn, you'd call
the aspca, right, But we haven't evolved the conversation about
how we grieved them. So I had always been fascinated
about writing about animals and dogs, and this, this book
is a much happier one. In fact, I joked with
my publisher we should just call it Nothing Bad Happens
to the Dog, because we know the tropes of you know,
animal books. But this is a much happier story that
I wanted us a nice little sort of bookend to
that first to that first novel, and this is really
about how dogs can bring us back to life.
Speaker 1: Nice And I love the aspect of it because obviously,
you know Lin the octopus, Obviously there's a marvelous job, fantastic,
a wonderful hit for you there. Because I don't think
people talk enough about the grief of losing an animal.
I've lost many over the years, or boy or toy
snows or Kramer passed away in January, and you know,
not in a second goes by that they don't think
about him, and you imagine he's going to be right
beside me the whole way through. And I think that's
part of it, you know, Dad, we as we grew up,
you know, the dog perhaps was a pet, maybe a
working dog, kept outside, those type of things, and now
it's much different. But still we don't know how to
talk about the grief of it all. You know, people
tell us okay, you know, move on, get you another dog,
you know, do something mast sort And so I have
to meet. When I got to copy of the book
The Dogs of Venice, I thought, okay, well what am
I going to learn now? What? You know, what are
we talking about grief here? And all of a sudden, hey,
this book's a this is a happy book.
Speaker 4: This is indeed a happy book. But I do think
it's an important discussion, right, you know, we don't you know?
It is one of my favorite things about people who
love animals, is I do think they have such brave hearts, right,
you know, so many of us we love them fully.
You know, they don't let us keep them at an
arms distance, and you know they work their way right
into our arts, and we love them fully and we
know the deal going in. They don't sadly live as
long as we do. But so many of us, you know,
lose them, grieve them, and then get right back to
the end of the line and sign up for that
heartbreak all over again, because it's worth it, right, It's
so worth it. And you know that's in the Dogs
of Venice, we're dealing with someone who is mourning the
end of a marriage, you know, So the end of
the loss of a human partner in a way and
really looks to dogs for their own resilience and to
see what they can teach him about finding confidence in
newfound independence. And I really think think dogs are sort
of wonderful for that. And of course you add in
a magical city like Venice, which is known for having
some street dogs, some wild street dogs who roam through
the city quite freely. It's it's you know, it was
kind of like a magical combination of many ingredients.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing thing. You have a perfect backdrop. And
I think it's true about Venice a lot a lot
of the places we think of as you know, touristy
type places, romantic type places, these saints, they do have
a large influx of you know, feral dogs, feral cats around. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Rome is known for its cats. Venice has dogs, and
so it was really quite fun to explore them, you know,
and of course other cultures, you know, the relationships with
their animals are different than ours necessarily in the US.
But it was fun to sort of look at them
through the eyes of a tourist. And in this book,
in particular, he spots a singular dog that he admires it.
It's sort of the air of confidence that it exudes,
and he's looking for that confidence again in his own life,
and it sort of sparks a little adventure following this
dog around around the canals of Venice.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the thing about the book is I was
reading through The Dogs of Venice, you know, it was
more of he's trying to find himself, you know, after
this heartache, after this terrible situation. And the impression I
got when I read through it was he wasn't necessarily thinking, well, hey,
if I got a dog, everything would be better. Yeah,
even though we know dogs make everything better, but that
wasn't the purpose. But it was more of, hey, I
found this dog. I see this dog, and he's really
now getting me back into the world, teaching me things
about life and being part of life and society and world.
And without even you know, necessarily thinking, hey, that was
my master plan all along, is find a dog to
helped me get out out of this grief.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, well, you and I know that dogs
make everything better. Not everyone knows that secret, however, you know,
this originally was a book that I wrote as an
audible original. It was narrated by Neil Patrick Harris and
came out at the end of twenty twenty, which was
a dark year for a lot of us where we
were sort of sheltered at home and not able to travel.
So I had some wanderlust built up from that year.
And people remember COVID hit Italy particularly hard and first
before it hopped the Atlantic, and so you know, my
heart was with Italy and the Italian people and wanting
to you know, sort of reminisce about my times and
visits to that great country. But I also at the
time had a dog named Tilda who was a rescue dog,
and my partner and I had rescued her from an
organization where she had been found living on the streets.
She'd been shot up pretty good with a bb gun.
You know, she'd endured some horrific things, and she was,
you know, a little bit slow to come around. She
was into very independence. She wasn't you know, affectionate right away.
She had some trust issues and don't blame her, and
so she was kind of the inspiration for this dog too,
you know, and just sort of being able to observe
her when we rescued her and give her the space
to feel safe and trust that she would warm up
on her own time. Was really you know, it was
a really special relationship.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. You know, you've had many animals in your
your life and dogs in your life. I've had well,
my wife is the regular Elie may Klamp that she
hasn't seen an animal she didn't like. So we've got
them all. We've had them all, we've got them all,
and I'm sure there'll be many more to come along
the way. But each had one of them, I think,
come at the right and perfect time and bring you
what you need, whether you know it or not. And
that's one of the things I also loved about the
premise of the books. The fact that it you know,
he got him up and about but also taught him
the things that he didn't even realize he needed at
that point until it was.
Speaker 4: After also one of my it's remarkable that you say that.
It's also one of my favorite things about books. Books
have a remarkable way of finding us at the right
time when we need them to, you know, and I
always say, you know, there's no shame in not finishing
a book. If a book is not speaking to you
in a certain moment, that doesn't mean that there's anything
bad about it. It may not just be the right moment
for you. But I'm always amazed when the right book
finds me at the right moment, and that definitely has
been true with dogs as well. You know, I have
two more rescues right now. But every relationship with you know,
each dog that they've had is they've been different. And
I think there's you know, a couple maybe if you're
lucky in a lifetime, that you have that special soul
connection with and the rest are like kind of goofy
roommates sometimes too, but.
Speaker 1: That's okay, that's right, that's okay.
Speaker 4: You know, their own unique relationship. But yeah, I do
think each dog enters your life for a reason for
you to learn something, and then they just teach us
so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it, and I love you your take
on books because I often look at my plethora of
books and think, well, what does Seashells have to do
with dog books? And you know that I realized was
it's a phase I was going through. It's like, no,
you have certain things at certain times, and books are
that way. So it's a great take on that. I
love that.
Speaker 4: I love that well, The one thing a good thing
about The Dogs of vent is it's a novella, so
it's a nice short read, but hopefully with a big
but hopefully packs a big punch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it definitely does. It definitely does. So it's
a fantastic book. Well, we're going to take a quick
commercial break and we'll come back to talk to Stephen
rolling about The Dogs of Venice a little bit more
and also talk about writing in general. So everybody hang tight.
We'll come back right after this commercial break. You're listening
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Speaker 3: Let's talk past, Let's done, Talk about Life Radio HETLFE
Radio Atlife radio dot com.
Speaker 1: And welcome back to animal rights on pet Life Radio.
Continue our conversation with the New York Times bestselling author
Steven Rowley and his book The Dogs of Venice now Stein.
When you put together the book with the little novella,
was it more of a you wanted to You had
a story, idea and you wanted to put it out there.
Was it a sort of a cleansing, like you said,
it came out around the time of COVID and you know,
we all needed healing and something that would have a
good impact on us. Or was it more of you
thought this thought of this idea and this concept and
how to write the book, and then it totally changed
by the time you got it out there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's had its own interesting evolution. You know, I
mentioned that it came out as an audible original in
twenty twenty. I've rewritten it, I've expanded it for this
print version, and I think it's a rare opportunity that
a writer has to revisit some old work. And you know,
we learned so much with each book that we complete.
You know, we're a different writer by the end of
a book than we were when we started it, and
so to go back and revisit something from five years
ago was a real privilege of sorts. And I was
able to sort of tackle it again with the skill
set that I have now, and I was happy to
discover that I was just as charmed by the story,
and we were able to sort of open it up
and expanded a little bit for new readers.
Speaker 1: Love it, Love it definitely. So So let's get let's
get down the brass tacks or writing in general. I
always love this. Put this question out there. Are you
a five thousand word a day kind of guy, a
five thirty am to kind of guy, or like me,
wait till a week before deadline and get it out
the door.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm the wait until a week beforehand and light
myself on fire. Now I am. I won't say five
thousand words a day. That seems ambitious to me, but
I definitely, you know, I am the definition of a
what we call him the biz, a pants er, fly
by the seat of your pants a little bit. I'm
not a big outliner. I like to see where this
story takes me, and I like to leave room to
surprise myself. But I do try to stick to a
strict word count and if I have a good amount
of time, that's between one and two thousand words a day.
When you know, writing a first draft. That's not to
say there one or two thousand good words a day.
I can't go back whatever head. I was like, whoa,
that was a day. But you know that's that's, you know,
something good for a first for a first draft.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's that's the way. I did two
thousand words a day, and then my editor says, no,
two hundred were actually good words.
Speaker 4: So yeah, actually not a bad ratio.
Speaker 1: Then I tell my editor, hey, I got some words
for you, buddy, So that's great. Well, when you're writing,
then in general, do you have multiple ideas and things
going through the process. What I'm trying to say, I
guess is have you ever started a book and thought, Okay,
I need to let that simmer a little bit because
I've got this other idea that I want to go with,
Or maybe I'm going to let this simmer because my
editor contact me. It says, hey, you haven't have anything
on this topic. We'll pay you to write on this topic.
And you're like, yeah, I think that's a good idea.
Maybe maybe I'll write on that one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I mean, I says, I mostly work
in the sort of novel space. You know, it was
so fun to work on a shorter story like this,
and because sometimes you think you have a great idea
for a novel and you get eighty twoe hundred pages
in and it starts to peter out and you realize
it really doesn't have the engine to go the distance.
And so yeah, sometimes things fall apart. The hardest part,
you know, in writing a book is the is the
lure of new ideas constantly. You know, it is like
you know, you know, you're in a marriage with a novel,
and a hot new idea comes walking in the door.
It's hard not to drop everything sometimes and be seduced.
But that is, you know, sort of keeping your eye
on the prize and sticking with the idea you have.
Then hopefully there'll be time for more down the line.
Speaker 1: Whise words for writing and whise words for relationships. We'll
just put it dol way. I guess if a hot
new topic comes to the door, turn your head and
pretinue on your head. I know, I love it. I
love it. Well, Steve tell us a little bit about
where people can find out more about you, pick up
a copy of the book, any activities and events you've
got going on so they can keep track of what's happening.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So the book debuts the October fourteenth. I'll be
doing some events around southern California where I live in
the following couple of weeks. All information is on my website,
Stephenowi dot com. And I have a new novel coming
out next year, so I'll be doing a more of
a more of a national tour next next year with
the with the novel. But until then, I'm very active
on Instagram and you can see my dogs right now
if you want to rain Drop and Shirley the rescue dogs.
And I met mister m r Stephen Roy on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Very good. We'll get all that that information out and everybody,
if you're in southern California, definitely pop out and have
a chat with Steve and see what's going on. And
hopefully that new new novel has a dog or some
sort of animal in there.
Speaker 4: So I think all my stories will always have an
animal of some kind.
Speaker 1: That's the way.
Speaker 4: It's not complete without it.
Speaker 1: No, you got to put a dog or some animal
in there and put it on the cover.
Speaker 4: If you do that, then maybe I'll do cats. But
it doesn't have to be such a world divided.
Speaker 1: But that's right. We all need to come together nowadays.
So dogs living together. I love it. I love it.
Pick up a copy of the book. It's from New
York Times bestselling author Stephen Rowley, The Dogs of Venice.
You're gonna love it. It's a fun, fun book. It's lighthearted.
It's just perfect. I think it's great. So Steven, great
job on the book.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Well, everybody, we're coming to the end of the show today.
I want to thank you everyone for listening to Animal
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