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Speaker 1: He is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets. Welcome to

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Animal Rights on pet Life Radio. It's your host, Tim Link,

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and I'm so glad you're joined us today. We have

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a great show, wonderful guest coming on. He's a New

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York Times bestselling author, Stephen Rollie, and we're talking to

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Stephen a little bit about his latest little book here

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called The Dogs of Venice. Want a fun, fun book,

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so I want to talk to Stephen a little bit

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about the book, talk about how it all came about,

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and then of course we'll pick his mind. Since he

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is a New York Times bestseller. We always try to

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get the goods on how you do it the best

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you can, so we'll pick his behind and brain a

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little bit on how he writes and everything. Hopefully not

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like me. Throwing a dart against a board usually works

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best for me. Play that aside, So everybody hangsi, we'll

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come back writer for this commercial break. You're listening to

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Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio.

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Speaker 2: Say goodbite out of your competition. Advertise your business with

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Speaker 3: Let's talk pets on petlifradio dot com.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to animal rights on pet Life Radio. Joining

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me now is New York Times bestselling author Steven Rollie. Steven,

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Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're glad to have you on in. And I

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love the book. I mean, it's just I call it

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just a sweet, heartwarming type of book, but there's some

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background behind it. I wanted to get what you to share.

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Of course, we're talking about the latest book, The Dogs

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of Venice. So tell us a little bit about the

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book and just how it sort of came about.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, my very first novel, which came out in twenty sixteen,

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was a book called Lily and the Octopus, which was

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inspired by a dog that I had named Lily a

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Docsun who passed away gosh, about twelve years ago. Now, wow,

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And you know, I was really surprised by the grief

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that I felt from the loss of that relationship. You know,

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writing is a very solitary endeavor, and I don't think

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I realized how much I'd come to rely on the

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company of that dog. And it's also a very sedentary occupation.

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And so you know, without that little cold nose on

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my leg to get me up out of the chair,

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I felt like I had lost a big part of

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my life and I realized, you know, the inspiration for

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that book was you know, I don't think we talk

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about the grief we experience in losing pets. We have

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promoted them to full fledged status, a family member status

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of the course of my lifetime. You know, I had

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dogs as a kid, and you know, the dogs lived

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in the barn, you know, and now and now you

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said you kept your dog in the barn, you'd call

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the aspca, right, But we haven't evolved the conversation about

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how we grieved them. So I had always been fascinated

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about writing about animals and dogs, and this, this book

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is a much happier one. In fact, I joked with

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my publisher we should just call it Nothing Bad Happens

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to the Dog, because we know the tropes of you know,

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animal books. But this is a much happier story that

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I wanted us a nice little sort of bookend to

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that first to that first novel, and this is really

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about how dogs can bring us back to life.

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Speaker 1: Nice And I love the aspect of it because obviously,

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you know Lin the octopus, Obviously there's a marvelous job, fantastic,

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a wonderful hit for you there. Because I don't think

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people talk enough about the grief of losing an animal.

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I've lost many over the years, or boy or toy

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snows or Kramer passed away in January, and you know,

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not in a second goes by that they don't think

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about him, and you imagine he's going to be right

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beside me the whole way through. And I think that's

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part of it, you know, Dad, we as we grew up,

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you know, the dog perhaps was a pet, maybe a

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working dog, kept outside, those type of things, and now

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it's much different. But still we don't know how to

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talk about the grief of it all. You know, people

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tell us okay, you know, move on, get you another dog,

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you know, do something mast sort And so I have

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to meet. When I got to copy of the book

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The Dogs of Venice, I thought, okay, well what am

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I going to learn now? What? You know, what are

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we talking about grief here? And all of a sudden, hey,

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this book's a this is a happy book.

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Speaker 4: This is indeed a happy book. But I do think

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it's an important discussion, right, you know, we don't you know?

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It is one of my favorite things about people who

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love animals, is I do think they have such brave hearts, right,

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you know, so many of us we love them fully.

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You know, they don't let us keep them at an

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arms distance, and you know they work their way right

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into our arts, and we love them fully and we

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know the deal going in. They don't sadly live as

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long as we do. But so many of us, you know,

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lose them, grieve them, and then get right back to

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the end of the line and sign up for that

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heartbreak all over again, because it's worth it, right, It's

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so worth it. And you know that's in the Dogs

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of Venice, we're dealing with someone who is mourning the

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end of a marriage, you know, So the end of

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the loss of a human partner in a way and

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really looks to dogs for their own resilience and to

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see what they can teach him about finding confidence in

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newfound independence. And I really think think dogs are sort

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of wonderful for that. And of course you add in

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a magical city like Venice, which is known for having

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some street dogs, some wild street dogs who roam through

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the city quite freely. It's it's you know, it was

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kind of like a magical combination of many ingredients.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing thing. You have a perfect backdrop. And

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I think it's true about Venice a lot a lot

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of the places we think of as you know, touristy

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type places, romantic type places, these saints, they do have

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a large influx of you know, feral dogs, feral cats around. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Rome is known for its cats. Venice has dogs, and

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so it was really quite fun to explore them, you know,

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and of course other cultures, you know, the relationships with

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their animals are different than ours necessarily in the US.

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But it was fun to sort of look at them

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through the eyes of a tourist. And in this book,

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in particular, he spots a singular dog that he admires it.

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It's sort of the air of confidence that it exudes,

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and he's looking for that confidence again in his own life,

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and it sort of sparks a little adventure following this

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dog around around the canals of Venice.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And the thing about the book is I was

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reading through The Dogs of Venice, you know, it was

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more of he's trying to find himself, you know, after

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this heartache, after this terrible situation. And the impression I

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got when I read through it was he wasn't necessarily thinking, well, hey,

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if I got a dog, everything would be better. Yeah,

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even though we know dogs make everything better, but that

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wasn't the purpose. But it was more of, hey, I

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found this dog. I see this dog, and he's really

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now getting me back into the world, teaching me things

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about life and being part of life and society and world.

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And without even you know, necessarily thinking, hey, that was

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my master plan all along, is find a dog to

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helped me get out out of this grief.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, well, you and I know that dogs

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make everything better. Not everyone knows that secret, however, you know,

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this originally was a book that I wrote as an

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audible original. It was narrated by Neil Patrick Harris and

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came out at the end of twenty twenty, which was

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a dark year for a lot of us where we

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were sort of sheltered at home and not able to travel.

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So I had some wanderlust built up from that year.

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And people remember COVID hit Italy particularly hard and first

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before it hopped the Atlantic, and so you know, my

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heart was with Italy and the Italian people and wanting

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to you know, sort of reminisce about my times and

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visits to that great country. But I also at the

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time had a dog named Tilda who was a rescue dog,

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and my partner and I had rescued her from an

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organization where she had been found living on the streets.

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She'd been shot up pretty good with a bb gun.

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You know, she'd endured some horrific things, and she was,

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you know, a little bit slow to come around. She

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was into very independence. She wasn't you know, affectionate right away.

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She had some trust issues and don't blame her, and

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so she was kind of the inspiration for this dog too,

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you know, and just sort of being able to observe

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her when we rescued her and give her the space

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to feel safe and trust that she would warm up

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on her own time. Was really you know, it was

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a really special relationship.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing. You know, you've had many animals in your

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your life and dogs in your life. I've had well,

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my wife is the regular Elie may Klamp that she

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hasn't seen an animal she didn't like. So we've got

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them all. We've had them all, we've got them all,

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and I'm sure there'll be many more to come along

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the way. But each had one of them, I think,

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come at the right and perfect time and bring you

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what you need, whether you know it or not. And

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that's one of the things I also loved about the

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premise of the books. The fact that it you know,

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he got him up and about but also taught him

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the things that he didn't even realize he needed at

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that point until it was.

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Speaker 4: After also one of my it's remarkable that you say that.

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It's also one of my favorite things about books. Books

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have a remarkable way of finding us at the right

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time when we need them to, you know, and I

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always say, you know, there's no shame in not finishing

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a book. If a book is not speaking to you

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in a certain moment, that doesn't mean that there's anything

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bad about it. It may not just be the right moment

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for you. But I'm always amazed when the right book

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finds me at the right moment, and that definitely has

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been true with dogs as well. You know, I have

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two more rescues right now. But every relationship with you know,

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each dog that they've had is they've been different. And

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I think there's you know, a couple maybe if you're

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lucky in a lifetime, that you have that special soul

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connection with and the rest are like kind of goofy

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roommates sometimes too, but.

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Speaker 1: That's okay, that's right, that's okay.

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Speaker 4: You know, their own unique relationship. But yeah, I do

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think each dog enters your life for a reason for

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you to learn something, and then they just teach us

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so much.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it, and I love you your take

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on books because I often look at my plethora of

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books and think, well, what does Seashells have to do

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with dog books? And you know that I realized was

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it's a phase I was going through. It's like, no,

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you have certain things at certain times, and books are

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that way. So it's a great take on that. I

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love that.

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Speaker 4: I love that well, The one thing a good thing

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about The Dogs of vent is it's a novella, so

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it's a nice short read, but hopefully with a big

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but hopefully packs a big punch.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it definitely does. It definitely does. So it's

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a fantastic book. Well, we're going to take a quick

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commercial break and we'll come back to talk to Stephen

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rolling about The Dogs of Venice a little bit more

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and also talk about writing in general. So everybody hang tight.

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We'll come back right after this commercial break. You're listening

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to Animal Rights on pet Life Radio. Hi, this is

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Tim Blink, animal communicator and pet expert and host of

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Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio. Have you ever wanted

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to know what your pet is really thinking? You want

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to find out they truly understand what you're trying to

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tell them, or wish you could build a better understanding

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and closer relationship with your pet, Well now you can.

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Learning to Communicate with Animals is a four part on

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Speaker 3: Let's talk past, Let's done, Talk about Life Radio HETLFE

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Radio Atlife radio dot com.

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Speaker 1: And welcome back to animal rights on pet Life Radio.

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Continue our conversation with the New York Times bestselling author

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Steven Rowley and his book The Dogs of Venice now Stein.

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When you put together the book with the little novella,

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was it more of a you wanted to You had

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a story, idea and you wanted to put it out there.

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Was it a sort of a cleansing, like you said,

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it came out around the time of COVID and you know,

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we all needed healing and something that would have a

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good impact on us. Or was it more of you

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thought this thought of this idea and this concept and

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how to write the book, and then it totally changed

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by the time you got it out there.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's had its own interesting evolution. You know, I

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mentioned that it came out as an audible original in

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twenty twenty. I've rewritten it, I've expanded it for this

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print version, and I think it's a rare opportunity that

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a writer has to revisit some old work. And you know,

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we learned so much with each book that we complete.

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You know, we're a different writer by the end of

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a book than we were when we started it, and

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so to go back and revisit something from five years

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ago was a real privilege of sorts. And I was

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able to sort of tackle it again with the skill

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set that I have now, and I was happy to

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discover that I was just as charmed by the story,

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and we were able to sort of open it up

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and expanded a little bit for new readers.

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Speaker 1: Love it, Love it definitely. So So let's get let's

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get down the brass tacks or writing in general. I

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always love this. Put this question out there. Are you

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a five thousand word a day kind of guy, a

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five thirty am to kind of guy, or like me,

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wait till a week before deadline and get it out

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the door.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm the wait until a week beforehand and light

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myself on fire. Now I am. I won't say five

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thousand words a day. That seems ambitious to me, but

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I definitely, you know, I am the definition of a

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what we call him the biz, a pants er, fly

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by the seat of your pants a little bit. I'm

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not a big outliner. I like to see where this

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story takes me, and I like to leave room to

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surprise myself. But I do try to stick to a

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strict word count and if I have a good amount

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of time, that's between one and two thousand words a day.

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When you know, writing a first draft. That's not to

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say there one or two thousand good words a day.

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I can't go back whatever head. I was like, whoa,

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that was a day. But you know that's that's, you know,

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something good for a first for a first draft.

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Speaker 1: I think that's that's that's the way. I did two

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thousand words a day, and then my editor says, no,

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two hundred were actually good words.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, actually not a bad ratio.

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Speaker 1: Then I tell my editor, hey, I got some words

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for you, buddy, So that's great. Well, when you're writing,

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then in general, do you have multiple ideas and things

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going through the process. What I'm trying to say, I

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guess is have you ever started a book and thought, Okay,

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I need to let that simmer a little bit because

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I've got this other idea that I want to go with,

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Or maybe I'm going to let this simmer because my

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editor contact me. It says, hey, you haven't have anything

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on this topic. We'll pay you to write on this topic.

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And you're like, yeah, I think that's a good idea.

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Maybe maybe I'll write on that one.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I mean, I says, I mostly work

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in the sort of novel space. You know, it was

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so fun to work on a shorter story like this,

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and because sometimes you think you have a great idea

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for a novel and you get eighty twoe hundred pages

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in and it starts to peter out and you realize

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it really doesn't have the engine to go the distance.

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And so yeah, sometimes things fall apart. The hardest part,

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you know, in writing a book is the is the

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lure of new ideas constantly. You know, it is like

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you know, you know, you're in a marriage with a novel,

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and a hot new idea comes walking in the door.

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It's hard not to drop everything sometimes and be seduced.

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But that is, you know, sort of keeping your eye

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on the prize and sticking with the idea you have.

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Then hopefully there'll be time for more down the line.

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Speaker 1: Whise words for writing and whise words for relationships. We'll

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just put it dol way. I guess if a hot

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new topic comes to the door, turn your head and

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pretinue on your head. I know, I love it. I

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love it. Well, Steve tell us a little bit about

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where people can find out more about you, pick up

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a copy of the book, any activities and events you've

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got going on so they can keep track of what's happening.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. So the book debuts the October fourteenth. I'll be

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doing some events around southern California where I live in

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the following couple of weeks. All information is on my website,

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Stephenowi dot com. And I have a new novel coming

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out next year, so I'll be doing a more of

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a more of a national tour next next year with

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the with the novel. But until then, I'm very active

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on Instagram and you can see my dogs right now

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if you want to rain Drop and Shirley the rescue dogs.

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And I met mister m r Stephen Roy on Instagram.

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Speaker 1: Very good. We'll get all that that information out and everybody,

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if you're in southern California, definitely pop out and have

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a chat with Steve and see what's going on. And

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hopefully that new new novel has a dog or some

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sort of animal in there.

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Speaker 4: So I think all my stories will always have an

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animal of some kind.

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Speaker 1: That's the way.

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Speaker 4: It's not complete without it.

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Speaker 1: No, you got to put a dog or some animal

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in there and put it on the cover.

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Speaker 4: If you do that, then maybe I'll do cats. But

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it doesn't have to be such a world divided.

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Speaker 1: But that's right. We all need to come together nowadays.

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So dogs living together. I love it. I love it.

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Pick up a copy of the book. It's from New

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York Times bestselling author Stephen Rowley, The Dogs of Venice.

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You're gonna love it. It's a fun, fun book. It's lighthearted.

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It's just perfect. I think it's great. So Steven, great

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job on the book.

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Speaker 4: Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Well, everybody, we're coming to the end of the show today.

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I want to thank you everyone for listening to Animal

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Rights on pet Life Radio. I want to thank the

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producers and sponsors for making the show possible. Give any ideas,

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comments or people you want to hear from on the

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show or any of the shows, drop us a line.

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You can go to pet life radio dot com and

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we'll answer your questions, entertain your comments, and bring on

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the people you want to hear from most And while

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you're there, check out all the other wonderful shows and hosts.

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It's a cornucopia barking fun that's at pet life radio

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dot com. So until next time, write a great story

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about the animals in your life, and who knows, you

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may be the next guest Animal Rights on pet Life Radio.

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Have a great day.

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Speaker 3: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlife

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Radio dot com.

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Speaker 1: Potford, Pasport, Basford, Port Port, Pamford, Platford, markland Burn, Pardon