A Band of Dogs: Foundations

by Steve Patton

Overview

Bobby Hodges, a little boy from Southern Indiana. He owns a lot of stuffed dogs and animals, or "stuffies' as he calls them. The only thing Bobby longs for is a real dog. His dad works too many hours and refurbishes grandfather clocks as a hobby. Along with his wife Annie, they live an idyllic life.

As circumstances often dictate, Bobby has to pull up roots and move clear across the country to Washington State. It is there, while following a real dog one day, Bobby goes missing. Annie, his mother, is frantic - there is already a manhunt going on for a known criminal in the same area. Enter Fish and Wildlife Officer Charlie Spitz and Deputy Sheriff Sheree Hopkins - "...we will find your son..." - and with a little help from Bobby's, Band of Dogs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798991123839
Publisher:	Mepho Press
Publication date:	02/02/2025
Series:	A Band of Dogs , #1
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

I live on a ridge in Southern Indiana with my wife and son. We enjoy hunting and fishing and spending time together doing different events around the area. It is a great place to live, and it's a great place to write!

I have always written stories. My earliest memories will be in 2nd and 3rd grade in elementary school, but in first grade I won our reading contest. I loved books and I loved to write.

Although I did well in college English, and was encouraged by my professors, I only wrote to write good papers for grades. "Real Life" was setting in and the need to begin focusing on a career took the time away, as well did marriage and a job that paid the bills. I did little if any writing, at least that I recall, after my junior year in high school. But the yearn to write was always there burning like a strong flame that I just did not, for whatever reason, follow through on.

Fast forward some 30 years...yes, that is right, some 30 years. My son was 5 and he was home schooled - he had a strong engineering mind and even at age 5 the children's books just didn't fit him. Let's just say, he was not a "see spot run" kid. He wanted tangible, real, no fantasy stories with action, learning, and logical endings. Try to find that kind of book for a 5-year-old. So, I opened the laptop and began penning a chapter a night of what was originally just The Marsh Chronicles. My son loved it. As soon as it was finished, I followed with The Sun Also Sets and then a while later, The Message.

At the completion of The Message, I looked back and thought I had a good book in what was now called The Marsh Adventures: Of Times and Places. I submitted it to a publisher, they loved it, and as they say, the rest was history. One thing in all those 30 years - I would write down story concepts as they came to me, unique ideas and story lines out of the ordinary - so it behooves me to say, I have a lot of writing to do, as I would like to bring all these stories over the past 30 years to life.

I am, just a writer on the ridge.