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Happy Friday from Bella and Wolfer!

What a great way to start a Friday...with a pic from Bella (King Charles) and Wolfer, her neighbor and BFF!  Have a great Friday everyone!!

Thursday pick-me-up from Slumdog!

I love this movie!  I love this song too...it's just fun!!

New Dog in the White House!

We have just learned that the Obama's have chosen a four-legged pup-in-chief...a Portuguese Water Dog.  Word is they will adopt a rescue, just after they get back from Spring Break.  No confirmation on whether this will be a sir or madam. 

Way to go first family!   Isabella would welcome any invitation to play on the South Lawn, as long as she can have a chat with President Obama on the need to educate the nation on the importance of spaying and neutering your furry friends. 

In the Car With Katherine!

I am so excited to share this amazing author with everyone!  This is actually a re-post of a story I did for Brett's blog, but I HAD to share with all of you Houston Dog Blog readers.  Katherine Center's writing is fun, poignant and most of all...purposeful! Her first novel, Bright Side of Disaster is awesome and her newest novel, Everyone is Beautiful, dropped February 17th!  In addition, you can get a daily dose of Katherine by checking out her blog by clicking here!

Hope you enjoy our chat! Don't forget it was done a year ago, so to learn the latest about what Katherine is up to, visit www.katherinecenter.com!  Hopefully we will have a chance to chat again for Houston Dog Blog soon!  She has a book signing for Everyone is Beautiful tomorrow evening at Brazos Bookstore and another March 3 at Blue Willow Bookshop if you want to get a signed copy and meet the lovely Katherine!

In the Car with Katherine Center!

On a rainy day in June of 07, Brett and I ventured out to go to a book reading for a client of his whose novel had just been published by Random House.  We pulled up to the Brazos Bookstore to find a line out the door and no parking. After parking what seemed miles away, we entered the packed store and found a space on the floor.  It was there that I was first introduced to the literary genius of Katherine Center.  Having gone with no expectation other than seeing the great shot Brett took of Katherine on the book jacket, I was instantly drawn to her cheery personality and, by the size of the crowd, I was not the only one. 

Leaving the reading with a huge smile on my face and a personalized copy of the book, I couldn’t wait to curl up and read.  Everything about the experience made me want to drop whatever I was doing and dive in. Even the cover had me excited! All of you who know me well know of my freakish love of Rubber Duckies and there in my hand was a bright blue book with a perfectly placed ducky.  What more could I want? Knowing my habit of starting a book and not finishing, I decided to save this for a planned excursion to Playa Del Carmen.  There I would have plenty of free time and the distraction of a novel to get me through the flight and shuttle ride to paradise. 

From page one, I was hooked.  Eagerly turning pages to see what the main character, Jenny, would do next.  As the book progresses you find yourself not only routing for Jenny, but yelling out loud “No he didn’t!” and “Hell no!!”  You can’t help but love Jenny and relate to her struggles as a parent or recognize her characteristics in yourself or one of your closest friends.  From page to page you join Jenny on a journey that proves that there is a bright side to disaster.  In fact, after reading the final line you can’t help but have a positive outlook on life.  All of life’s troubles can lead to happiness and each journey builds strength and character that you didn’t know you had.

Since that rainy day in June, I have had the pleasure of meeting Katherine and her family at Brett’s studio and I knew I would love the book.  She has the type of personality that makes you want to hug her and the witty humor that legends are made of.  What struck me most was the way she interacted with her children. It is obvious that they are the center of her life and she handles the job of motherhood with patience and poise.  This is not a stuffy novelist with an entourage.  This is a mom, with a gift for storytelling and a passion for life.

Fast forward to February 2008 and I am getting ready to have a chat with Katherine for the blog.  I  have transitioned from an admirer to a huge fan. I touch base with her to confirm our scheduled discussion and she asks if I would mind talking while she is waiting in the carpool line at her daughter’s school.  Nothing is more fitting than talking to Katherine while she is on the move. As a matter of fact, I doubt there are any times that she is not on the move.  She, like her character, is a busy mom!  Between raising two young kids, maintaining a household and spending time with her husband, she is an award winning writer with one book published and three more on the way.  She has toured the country promoting the book and is gearing up to start a national promotional tour for the paperback release of Bright Side.  Her book has been chosen as a Breakout Selection by Target and will be featured in the Barnes and Noble Book Club.  Sounds a lot busier than anyone I know, and yet here she is on the phone with me, grabbing a latte at Starbucks and headed to the growing line of carpoolers.  Knowing that she had a window of time before the car was filled with the laughter of children, we got down to business. 

After a few minutes of me spouting praise and favorite excerpts, the first thing I had to know is when is the next book out?  I knew that she had an initial two-book deal with Random House, but learned that they have extended that offer to four books.  Book two is complete and books three and four are on their way.  Looks like we will see a new book a year till 2011.  How exciting!  Of course, based on the success she has had thus far, I predict we will be reading Katherine’s work well beyond 2011.

Her second book will be released in about a year as Bright Side will be released in paperback, with a new cover and the afore mentioned retail giants backing the work. 

The new book features “totally different characters” than Bright Side according to Center.

“The new novel features a woman with three boys under 4 who is swamped,” said Katherine.  “She moves from Houston to Massachusetts and finds that she is isolated with just the kids.  She is looking for the new her…who she is beyond kids,” she offered.  “It carries a similar tone of comedy related to life and is a bittersweet look at life and motherhood.”

Faced with nearly a year of waiting for the newest work, I revisit Bright Side and how the story came to life.  Following is a recount of our conversation:

RR:  I found all of your characters so familiar.  Are they based on people you know or a combination of people? For the main character Jenny, you paint a picture of controlled chaos and at times, hilarious visualizations of her struggles with motherhood.  Are these based on experiences you had with your tots? 

KC:  Everything is a collage.  As a story takes off characters come to life.  I actually never intended for the character Dean to be as bad as he was.  The story just wrote itself!  I would hear the characters talking in my head while I was in the middle of doing daily tasks and scramble to write the conversations on a paper towel with a crayon.

RR:  So you already had your first child when you were writing Bright Side? How and when did you find the time to complete the daunting task of writing a novel?

KC:  “I always wanted to be a writer.  I went to Vassar College on a creative writing scholarship and won the Vassar College Fiction Prize and was later accepted into the nationally recognized writing program at the University of Houston.

In the beginning I wrote a lot of short stories.  Peep Show, a collection of short stories led to me being a finalist for The Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction.  I was not very brave about sending work out, which is one of the most important factors in successful publication.  You must have a rock-solid faith in your work, which I didn’t have at the time.  I was not convinced the stories were going to interest others.  I would quit and say I was getting a real job, but I never could stop writing.

In the midst of this, I had my daughter.  Having a baby was not at all what I imagined.  It was so much better and harder. I didn’t write for a year and a half after the birth.  Everything was too frantic.  One night I was complaining that I couldn’t get any writing done and my sister said I should write a novel about being a mom.  That night I started writing and didn’t stop until I had a draft. It took six months to draft and nearly a year to revise. 

Then I became pregnant with my son.  There I was, novel in hand and baby on board.  He came early and before I knew it I was back in the baby life.  I put the book in a drawer and forgot about it.  One day, on a trip to the park with my kids I ran into a novelist acquaintance and, in the course of chatting, she offered to read my story.  She read the first three chapters and then offered to pass on to her agent.  After several months and a bidding war, Random House bought the book and we were on our way.

RR:   At your book signing party last summer you told the crowd about the Vanity Fair Party thrown for you the night before in NYC.  Did you ever imagine that you would receive such an honor?  What other fun stories can you share?

KC:  Just before the launch Vanity Fair threw a party for the book. We flew first class and hobnobbed with the publisher of Vanity Fair.  Twenty-four hours earlier I was changing diapers! A surreal and amazing experience.  A few months later, we were in LA for a reading and a man walked by who looked like Ben Affleck, to our excitement, it was!  I ran over and gave him a book signed to his wife Jennifer.  I told him that she may enjoy reading the book as a new mother.  He laughed and said “what about me, wouldn’t I enjoy it?”  As he was leaving he was snapped by paparazzi and the next week he was on this site with the book in his hand.  That was fun.

RR:  Can you describe yourself and your view on life?

KC:  In life, I like funny banter.  My husband Gordon is very funny.  I look forward to our fun banter daily. I believe in happy endings and that the suffering makes us better people if we are careful about it.  I also feel it is important to tell stories of struggle to show that people get through and triumph – it’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond. 

RR:  Last question, although I could go on for days…what is your favorite book?

KC:  Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books.  It’s all about overcoming misery and rooting for the character!  To me, that is so satisfying!

Words to live by if you ask me.  Stay tuned for much more Katherine Center in the future and run, don’t walk, to buy your copy of Bright Side of Disaster and Everyone is Beautiful!   Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.