[Dailydrool] From movie star to published author

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

Our Elsinore is now a published author. Of a guest blog entry. For  
which she hired a ghostwriter (me). So I'm not sure how excited I'd  
get about her foray into the printed word. But it's still something  
she can add to her resume, and who knows but what it'll lead to even  
more interesting life experiences for her.

It's been sort of a consequence of her film debut, which happened  
last month when the hospice she does pet therapy work for asked if  
she'd be willing to put in a cameo appearance, playing the role of  
Pet Therapy Dog in the new publicity videos they're making. The week  
after she faced the big cameras for the first time and wowed the  
director with her natural acting abilities, the hospice asked me to  
ask Elsinore if she'd be up for writing a entry for the hospice web  
site's blog.

Of course Elsinore would be up for that because it's not like she had  
to actually do it or anything. She has me. I'm not feeling taken for  
granted, but it did feel as if something was very wrong with the  
picture when I was slaving away on drafts of her blog and she was  
snoring quite loudly on her bed in another room altogether. She  
didn't even want to proofread what I wrote for her.

This ghostwriting thing was a first for me. I normally avoid putting  
words in my hounds' mouths. After all, I wouldn't want them speaking  
for me on a lot of topics, so I like to show them the same courtesy.  
But the hospice was really enchanted by the whole "Blog by a Dog"  
idea (though they wound up giving it a completely different title),  
so I said I'd give it a try. This afternoon I put Elsinore on my lap  
in front of the computer screen so she could see her blog, and so far  
she hasn't bitten me, so I guess she's okay with the results of my  
masquerading on paper as her. Actually, she was a whole lot more  
interested in looking out the window at some guys in the alley than  
she was in focusing on the computer screen, even when I pointed out  
her photos to her.

The editor of the hospice blog ran most of his changes past me, but,  
as I discovered today, not all of them. I'm okay with some of his  
"unauthorized" changes, but I wish he'd left what I'd written about  
Elsinore's hobbies. The last item in the list should read, "and  
swearing at the mail carrier"--not "having fun with the mail  
carrier." So when you read her blog, you'll know what it should  
really say. Elsinore is most certainly not having fun with our  
carrier. She's telling him through the glass in the front door to go  
to hell, and doing this is the highlight of her day. To put it any  
other way is to grossly misrepresent her. But Ken says it probably  
wouldn't look good to have a warm, fuzzy pet therapy dog sound as if  
she can also be Cujo, even if it's justifiable because it's a mail  
carrier and everyone knows that all dogs are supposed to harbor a  
violent dislike for mail carriers.

The other thing the editor didn't do was include the caveat I added  
after the link to the YouTube video of Caroline Scott and Rookie  
dancing. In the manuscript I submitted, I noted quite clearly that  
Elsinore isn't nearly as good a dancer as Rookie. Rookie was the  
consummate pro who trained and performed much more seriously and  
frequently than Elsinore ever will. Hence, he was an exceptionally  
good dancer. So expectations for Elsinore in the hospice may be  
unrealistically high now. But I'm happy the editor didn't delete the  
name of Elsinore's alma mater. Whoever reads her blog will be able to  
see living proof that not only can bassets be good pet therapy dogs  
but also that rescue dogs can turn out to be pretty wonderful dogs.  
Heck, that there's even such a thing as rescue groups for dogs.

Elsinore's blog can be found on the Alive Hospice (Nashville) web  
site: http://alivehospice.org/blog. It was so long (surprise,  
surprise) that they're going to run it in two parts. So you'll see  
the first part this week and the second part next week. No word yet  
on when her video will be up on the web site, but I'll let everyone  
know when it's there.

Elizabeth