Getting chemo for the Big 5-0 birthday kind of knocked the wind out of me. Took a good long while, and I'm sure a few existential crises to finally sit myself down and ask what did I always want to do before I hit the Big 6-0 or a Stage 4 surprise creeps up ever again and takes options away from me altogether?

Then the next question that was the loudest it's ever been shouted at me demanding an answer:

So what "thing" on my dreams & bucket list was I actually going to say damn the torpedoes and just finally give myself permission to DO THAT THING?

After years of professional volunteer managing, my fave groups - as many of you already know - were the Middle Schoolers and Senior Citizens. I've been blessed with over 40 years watching resilience and transformations, seeing the joy in self-discovery flash across someone's face as they step up to own the amazingness that they are and me getting to be their biggest cheerleader in that moment.

It was about dang time I gave myself the same courtesy, right? If not now, when?

So, I did.

I gave myself permission to do THIS THING.

Between end of January and June this year, I first let myself sketch characters and think about who they are, what their backstories were, the small community they live and work in, and how family is a choice about who you let into your heart, and then I let my fingers dance and pour the first story out and I'm well into the second one.

I am very pleased, and pretty proud, I might add, to let y'all know that on Friday evening of Summer Solstice, June 21, 2024, I hit "Publish" on Amazon for both the eBook and paperback editions of the first story in my new Dog Cove Chronicles.

And I figured it behooves me to actually, well, tell people, right? 'Cause that hasn't exactly been my strong suit beyond an 'oh, by the way' mention! LOL

Drum roll please . . . . . . .

Dog Cove Chronicles, Book 1: Go With the Flow was published last week!

The blurb on Instagram I posted:

🐾❤️⚓️ My Dog Cove Chronicles series launched this week with Book 1: Go With the Flow - available now on Amazon as paperback and ebook! 🎉🍻🍾The series is set on a fictional saltwater cove in Florida featuring residents and their small businesses that sprung up around a century-old marina.

This full length sweet romance set in close-knit Dog Cove features Dylan who was taken in as a young teen after the marina’s mechanic learned the boy’s birth certificate listed his father as unknown and the mechanic’s brother’s granddaughter Kelly who moves here to help the family business grow after getting disillusioned with corporate ladder climbing.

Tropes: small town, found family, resilience & healing after loss, uplifting & inspirational sweet, clean romance - and of course, pets as family!

Grab your summer read today!!

And THANK YOU to those who encouraged me this year to finally put my heartwarming stories of resilience “out there” for y’all to read!!

Hope you love it and will star it up and share the news to help it climb the ranks in the ‘clean & wholesome’ and ‘small town’ categories so others discover it!!

#sweetcleanreads #bigblackdogstudio #sweetromanceauthor #suzyryanknotz #smalltownromance #dogcovechronicles

I even ordered my first two hard copies of the book - one for me now sitting proudly on my bookshelf (the book, not me), and the other sent up to the one who first put the idea in my head when we crossed paths the summer after I had chemo as a thank you.

I've always, always said that we can never know all of the times we did or said something that inspired someone else or gave them hope when they needed it or blessed them in some other way.

I want to make sure the wife of my guy's childhood pal knows she inspired me to go beyond the Booger Books and my artwork in coloring books.

Have a lovely, safe holiday week those in the U.S.A. with me! Keep your pets safe from the panic of firecracker cacophony if that goes on near any of y'all.

I'll be here working on Book 2 and remembering Eenie Meenie MyNemo's birthday. That big boy surely still inspires me yet, and I know he sent itty bitty Jen here to me.

Suzy Ryan Knotz​
Sweet Romance Author,
Chief Encouragement Officer
& Cat Herder at Big Black Dog Studio

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