Monday, September 19, 2011

Coffee with a canine: Lauren B. Davis & Bailey

Today's featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Lauren B. Davis and Bailey.

The author, on how she and Bailey were united:
After my friends Lisa Pasold and Bremner Duthie came to visit with their dog, Barclay (which should, of course, be spelled Barkly), the urge to share my home and life with a dog, which had been a long time low-level nagging, felt suddenly urgent. I’m not sure why, but I suspect it’s a soul thing — mysterious and hard to pin down, but no less real for all of that. I can’t explain it. It just was.

Although I’ve since heard a number of stories from people about how hard it was for them to find the right dog — months of searching, filling out applications, meeting dogs, applying for adoption, being disappointed – for me, once I’d seen Bailey’s photo on the Petfinder site, it was miraculously easy. He was being fostered with a wonderful family through an equally wonderful organization called AFEW (Animal Friends for Education and Welfare), not far from us. I contacted them and filled out an application. They wrote back a few hours later -- Did we want to meet him that Saturday at an adoption fair? You bet.

His foster mum, Mary brought him. He wore a little blue sweater and flipped over on his back, tail wagging, the minute we walked in. I’d...[read on]
Among the early praise for Lauren B. Davis's new novel, Our Daily Bread:
Our Daily Bread is a compelling narrative set in a closely observed, sometimes dark, but ultimately life-enhancing landscape. Lauren B. Davis’ vivid prose and empathetically developed characters will remain in the reader’s mind long after the final chapter has been read.”
—Jane Urquhart, prize winning author of Away and The Stone Carvers

“Rendered with gorgeous prose, this compact, fast-moving novel features an astonishing range of tones, from hope to heartbreak, from black humor to white-knuckle terror. It will stay with you long after the covers are closed.”
—Dexter Palmer, author of The Dream of Perpetual Motion

“Wow! From the first chapter of Our Daily Bread, ‘up here where the view was like heaven and the living was like hell,’ I was hooked – by the characters, by the flow, by the clean, rhythmic prose. This is a novel that will make you want to do something about poverty, hunger, ignorance and the people who are subject to such conditions. An outstanding, absorbing, page-turning novel!”
—Thomas E. Kennedy, author of The Copenhagen Quartet
Learn more about the book and author at Lauren B. Davis's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Lauren B. Davis and Bailey.

--Marshal Zeringue