Many years ago there was an awesome search dog named Sierra. She used her nose to help find missing people.

Sierra the Search Dog will soon return to life in a series of books for children and young readers. We’ll start out with stories that parents and grandparents will enjoy reading over and over (and over and over and over) to the youngest members of their families. As the children learn to read for themselves, they’ll be able to enjoy age-appropriate tales of Sierra’s exploits into their teenage years.

These books are mostly intended as entertaining fiction. However, rest assured the characters will model ethical behavior and have positive messages for young minds. We might explore why someone would go missing, but always in the context of learning from that mistake. Thanks to Sierra, the stories will always have happy endings.

For grownups, we’ll be writing some mystery fiction based on Sierra’s younger brother Magnum, who at age nine is still a working SAR dog. Those might be a little darker but should be equally entertaining to read.

This blog is about the dogs, not about me. But a couple friends have asked that I write about the experience of becoming a first-time author. I’m putting together a great team of advisors to help me work the business side of creative writing. I can tell a decent story, but the book publishing world is new to me. Hopefully this blog will include mostly great stories about search dogs, but maybe a little bit about the publishing world.

I might even take time to explain why thoughtful dog handlers refer to themselves as the dog’s “ball and chain.” Stay tuned!