By Lisa Cohn
Our “Bash and Lucy” book project began with a sad event–the death of our beloved dog, Lucy, about three years ago.
To help us overcome our grief, Michael, who was 5 at the time, and I decided to write a series of children’s books that starred Lucy. In March of 2013, we started writing our first book, “Bash and Lucy Fetch Confidence.”
With some trepidation, we presented our first draft to Ally, Michael’s big sister, who was 14 at the time.
Ally always has a book in hand, and has strong opinions about everything she reads.
In fact, she has strong opinions about everything. That’s why we call her “The Boss.”
When we handed her our draft, we held our breath while Ally paced our kitchen, flipping through the pages .
And then she gave her review. And made a request.
“Mom, Michael, I love this and really want you to follow through and publish this,” Ally said. “I’m going to make sure you do this.”
So we took the Boss’s feedback–and order–to heart.
We found an illustrator, shared our draft with many friends and family members, revised many times, and self-published our first book in September 2013.
Along the way, we appeared in many media outlets –including the Today Show, AM Northwest, The Oregonian and others. Ally was always by our side, prepping us for our appearances, helping write our press releases, organizing our book release parties, and even selling books at pet fairs and book fairs.
To acknowledge everything that Ally has done for us, we dedicated our second book, “Bash and Lucy Fetch Jealousy” to Ally, shortly after she read the draft and made critical changes to it.
The dedication reads: “For Ally, who blesses us every day with her enthusiasm, creativity, wisdom and love.”
We wrote that dedication with gratitude and sadness in our hearts. We knew that within a year, Ally would be going to college.
A few weeks ago, we accompanied Ally to college, helped move her books and clothing into her dorm room, attended her college’s “meet and greets” and convocation, then said good bye. Of course, we also said thank you.
While Ally is not available to attend pet fairs and book release parties and to prep us for appearances, her job isn’t done. We’re writing out third book, which features a feminist character inspired by Ally.
We’re sure Ally will have lots to say about the “girl power” theme, and expect that she’ll voice her strong and much valued opinions.
Ally, you may be in college but we’re still counting on you back at home.