Book Spotlight: The Puppy Book by Dawn Greenfield Ireland

Dawn Greenfield Ireland is the author of several award-winning novels, nonfiction books, and screenplays. To date she has 12 published novels that consists of three series (cozy mystery, YA science fiction/fantasy, and adult shape-shifter), a dystopian, and a sci-fi romance adventure. The Last Dog, a dystopian novel set in 2086 is closely related to the Covid/Corona pandemic! Who knew there would be so many parallels from the time she wrote the book (2010) to this crazy pandemic of 2020! Three of her nonfiction books have won awards. Nine of her 15 screenplays (comedies, dramas, horror, action adventure and science fiction), have won awards. She has also written three short scripts. Her former day job as an award-winning technical writer (34 years) played a major role in her fiction writing – she is detailed oriented, the organizational queen of the known universe, and never misses a deadline. Dawn writes full time in addition to editing books for authors, and coaching people through the writing process.

*Guest Post*

If there is one thing you want readers to remember about you, what would it be?

I follow through! That translates to you can count on me. If you ask me to do something and I say yes, I would never, ever back out. I know when to open my mouth and say no when someone wants something from me.

Commitment is very important, no matter what you commit to. The problem is, many people are afraid to stand up for themselves and say no. They’re afraid how they would be perceived… judged. It’s better to say no up front, than to not follow through, or return, tail between your legs all humble-like and make up some flimsy excuse why you couldn’t do whatever it was you committed to.

How would I face someone I swore to help at the last minute before an event, or a deadline—or whatever it was I made a promise for and backed out? Talk about losing a friend, or at the very least, that friend losing respect for me.

There are people out there that don’t seem to care what their word means. I learned through my work early on, working with a team of people as a technical writer, what it meant to be responsible for my commitments.

As a tech writer I had schedules I had to adhere to. If the manual was late, it wouldn’t get in the box with the product. All hell would break lose. In my creative writing I go by the same deadlines—these are self-imposed, but I don’t stretch them.

I have to allow X time for the editing. Then X weeks for the proofreaders so they can catch all my gaffes, and believe me, there are plenty. They have to make a commitment to me. If I have a date set for publishing, I need their markups so I can make changes and get the book uploaded to meet my publishing date.

There are a lot of people who have approached me over the years asking me to write their story. That is not anything I could ever commit to. I have too many stories of my own to write and not enough time.

Years ago, I used to brush these people aside by telling them, sure, I’ll write your story, but you need to cough up $30K.

Then I worried that someone would actually write the check and I’d be stuck having to write their story and putting up with all their nonsense for who knows how long. I changed my response to a firm, NO.

You can think about a commitment closer to home: your paycheck. What would happen if your employer suddenly had a memory lapse and didn’t pay you when he was supposed to? In this day and age of living paycheck to paycheck, all hell would most likely break lose in your checking account.

So, if you make a commitment, stick to it.

Connect with the author:  website ~ facebook ~ twitter ~ pinterest ~ instagram ~ goodreads