Meet Lenny

    Meet Lenny the dog. Lenny's a one year-old pit bull mix who was recently found lounging on someone's porch in Bertie County, North Carolina. Lenny's stray status ended yesterday, according to the Bertie County Humane Society's Facebook page. That's not as bad as it sounds. All it means is that Lenny got transferred to the Peninsula SPCA in Newport News, VA today.

     Prior to this, I contacted a nice lady at Bertie County's SPCA last night to inquire about Lenny. She told me he was getting transferred to Virginia today and that all his shots and vaccines were UTD and he's fixed, microchipped, housebroken and trained in basic commands.

     I tell you all this because Gina at Bertie County said she'd put in a good word for us with Peninsula SPCA after taking some basic information from us. Generally, they don't transport animals this far north unless they partner with another rescue kennel in the area. But we're in the running to adopt Lenny.

     Gina had told me last night that the ballpark figure to adopt a dog from down south is $100-200. As we live on a fixed income, that's a bit beyond our price range. But as Mrs. JP and I are committed dog lovers from way back, we always secretly harbored a desire to get a canine rescue even when Popeye was still alive and well (and always in hushed tones in case he could understand us).

     Another reason for this plea for help is a bit more complicated. Some of you may know that I have an interview going live on NBC in a few hours. As stated a week ago, my main reason for talking about my next-to-last release The River Never Speaks was because of the audiobook project on which my narrator and I had been working since last winter.

     What you don't know is that yesterday, that same narrator whom I'd talked up last week and exalted to the heavens, decided to go completely insane and terminate the entire project, including all 17 audio files she'd recorded. Bottom line, she'd put me in an embarrassing position knowing I'd recorded an interview that would get broadcast on syndicated NBC radio about an audiobook project that suddenly wouldn't exist.

     Undeterred, I went right back on ACX and looked up another narrator who'd submitted a pretty good audition for Hollywoodland last winter and, after talking to her on the phone twice last night, I hired her to narrate both books. But it can't be by a pure royalty share arrangement. My new narrator is going to need cash compensation to the tune of $10 an hour. ACX estimates River will be a 15 hour project and Hollywoodland 20 hours even.

     That's about $350 total, between now and when Hollyoodland is put in the can at the end of the year.

     So, I'd say a pooch and two audiobook projects are two good causes. But it's really ultimately up to you good people to decide. And any largesse wouldn't benefit me so much as Mrs. JP, who'd recently been diagnosed with a serious neurological condition that precludes her from reading books normally, which was my main motive for getting into the audiobook market. Plus, having a dog in the house would get her more active physically and help center her as she struggles through this deteriorating condition.