Life with McDuff and the Henderson Writers' Group

I sat in a chair placed against the wall to accommodate the overflow crowd in the too small conference room at the Las Vegas-Clark County Library. As I listened to the members of the Henderson Writers’ Group (HWG) seated around the center table, thoughts flashed through my mind. You’re in way over your head. These people are writers and published authors. You’ll never belong with this group. But I didn’t stop attending the weekly meetings held in Henderson and Las Vegas.

Each week I listened to the gentle and informative critiques of writers who read from their works and soaked it up like a sponge. Most of it was over my head, but I didn’t get discouraged. Even though the thought of reading something I wrote in front of a group of writers terrified me. When I asked for comments from a friend about the chapter I intended to read at my first critique, he said, “It sounds like an essay.” I still tease him about that.

I encourage every fledgling writer like me to find and join a writers group. Without the guidance and encouragement of the HWG, my first book, Life with McDuff: Lessons Learned from a Therapy Dog, would probably still be in the incubator. The expertise and experience of fellow writers will benefit you in many ways. My eternal gratitude to the HWG members who took me under their wings and hatched out a published author.

Life with McDuff Blogs

My friend Annie of Desert Muse Publishing has motivated me to start blogging. There's no excuse for someone with the discipline it takes to write a book for two years who cannot compel herself to write a paragraph a few times a week. Another friend Linda Lou has taken blogging to an art form. She blogged her way across the country from Nevada to New York recently. If I blog about my Scottish terrier therapy dog, McDuff, I'll never run out of material. He was mystical, stubborn and hilarious enough for me to fill a book. Even though I put him down on Halloween morning, October 31, 2003, through my book, Life with McDuff: Lessons Learned from a Therapy Dog, he is still with me.