Dog Park Wisdom
(Skipstone, May 2008)

Real-world advice on choosing, caring for, and understanding your canine companion

Dog Park Wisdom is a book of practical advice, homespun tips, and stories—direct from the dog park—for and about living with your dog. It's a grassroots approach to pet care gleaned from everyday “dog people.” I didn’t seek out vets, trainers, behaviorists, or anyone else with advanced degrees or training in canine-ology. Not because they don’t provide excellent counsel but because they write their own books and, let’s face it, sometimes the best advice comes from a wise friend.

Read the full introduction.

Unleashed
(Skipstone, fall 2007)

Climbing Canines, Hiking Hounds, Fishing Fidos, and Other Daring Dogs

When Wrigley sprints down the dock near her Mercer Island home, ducks and geese flutter off in every direction. At full speed, she leaps off the end and—stretched like a smile, the wind whistling through webbed paws—she snatches a T-ball in mid-air before splashing down and swimming it back to her right-hand man Todd Busted. It is a display of beauty and athleticism that could move Greg Louganis to share some of his four gold medals.

Read the introduction.

Backyard Blaze
(Sasquatch Books, spring 2006)

The Outdoor Fireplace Lifestyle

Even when a fire pit has more concrete than the Guggenheim, an open flame brings out the guitar-playing, rounds-singing camper in all of us. That’s because fire is not so much a thing, as an event—a self-perpetuating chemical reaction of oxygen and fuel that generates light and heat. It’s showy, unpredictable, and more than a little bit dangerous; so, like mosquitoes, we are drawn to it. A smoky, crackly blaze makes us giddy. We poke at a fire. We melt things in it. We stare at it like zombies.

Read the introduction.