Coffee with a canine: Sarah McCoy & Gilbert

Today's featured duo at Coffee with a Canine: Sarah McCoy and Gilbert.

The author, on how she and Gilbert were united:

I went through a breeder outside of Chicago. Gilly was my second fur darling. Our first was a loving cockapoo named Gatsby who sadly passed away of cancer at age two. The breeder contacted me on Facebook when she saw how heartsick I was over Gatsby’s dying. She said she felt a divine connection—and it turned out to be so!

I was waiting for Gilly before he was even conceived, then had the privilege of watching his dog mama grow beautifully round with his litter and give birth. From his first breath of air, I knew he was mine. When he was...[read on]

Sarah McCoy is the author of the international bestseller The Baker’s Daughter, the forthcoming novella, The Branch of Hazel (Penguin, summer 2014) and the forthcoming novel New Charlestown (Crown, summer 2015).

About The Baker’s Daughter, from the publisher:

In 1945, Elsie Schmidt is a naive teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she is for her first kiss. She and her family have been protected from the worst of the terror and desperation overtaking her country by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry her. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door would put all she loves in danger.

Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine. Reba is perpetually on the run from memories of a turbulent childhood, but she’s been in El Paso long enough to get a full-time job and a fiancé, Riki Chavez. Riki, an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, finds comfort in strict rules and regulations, whereas Reba feels that lines are often blurred.

Reba’s latest assignment has brought her to the shop of an elderly baker across town. The interview should take a few hours at most, but the owner of Elsie’s German Bakery is no easy subject. Reba finds herself returning to the bakery again and again, anxious to find the heart of the story. For Elsie, Reba’s questions are a stinging reminder of darker times: her life in Germany during that last bleak year of WWII. And as Elsie, Reba, and Riki’s lives become more intertwined, all are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.

Learn more about the book and author at Sarah McCoy’s website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico.

The Page 69 Test: The Baker's Daughter.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Sarah McCoy and Gilbert.

--Marshal Zeringue