Love at First Bite

Meet Bert – or at least the puppy version of Bert – he’s our rescue lab-mix and the main inspiration for my Princess of Barkness picture book series.

With Bert, it was, in fact, love at first bite!

He was actually pretty quiet and calm those first days back in March of 2021. But, it wasn’t long before he found both his fangs AND his voice.

He loved to bite, that’s for sure. Or as illustrator Steph Laberis called it, giving “tooth hugs.” Adorable. But seriously, he injured a few people, and I mean drew blood.

So it’s really no surprise that when the Fall Writing Frenzy came around that next year, I was inspired and began drafting a Vampire Puppy story.

Also at that time, my daughter deeply loved snacking on Pumpkin Seeds, AKA Pepitas, so I figured we had ourselves a fall-themed winner, right there.

And I was right! PEPITA was a 2022 Fall Writing Frenzy WINNER! Woooooo!

But that was only the first part of Pepita’s journey…

Pepita: Vampire Puppy would go on to enchant my Writing Barn Picture Book teacher, Ann Marie Stephens and our wonderful TA Maria Marianayagam who encouraged me, along with my fellow classmates, to give Pepita even more space to grow!

Soon after, I added another hundred words or so to the story. And little while later, my now-agent, Morgan Hughes, got a chance to read it and was intrigued. How could she NOT be?

But Bert would be three whole years old and Pepita would be on submission for an entire year before I’d get a GENIUS idea (right after visiting “Dracula’s Castle” in Budapest) that pushed this manuscript from “I’m just wanting a little more here,” to a MUST BUY.

Now at the precious age of four, Bert continues to inspire! He’s taken to singing, matching pitch perfectly on certain songs, I’m serious, which created pitch-perfect fun for the second book in the Princess of Barkness series, Pepita: Werewolf Puppy! I cannot wait for you to read it!

The Princess of Barkness series, written by me and illustrated by the incredible Steph Laberis releases Summer of 2027, published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky.

Thank you for entertaining my whimsy here. And if you enjoyed this content, you should follow @weratedogs on all of their socials – it’s a constant stream of puppy dog fun! 14/10 recommend!