Canine Action
Novels about dogs come with a built-in problem that a writer had better be able to confront long before committing to the project. The author may be the most skilled writer of dialogue on the planet or be able to create hair-rising thrilling conflicts at the snap of fingers, but without the skill to create imagery that powerfully conveys a dog in action, it will almost certainly be all for naught. Here’s an example of how to do things right:
“Sam saw this for what it was: a kill-or-be-killed proposition. And no naked wild man was going to sling Sam’s running partner around by the hair of the head so long as Sam could no anything about it. Sam tore into the Indian with his eyes glazed and his hackles standing in ragged ridge along his backbone. His fangs cut bloody grooves in the Indian’s neck and shoulders.”
Subtle as a Bark
An even more difficult task than writing action sequences is conveying the subtlety of the communication between dogs and owners. Much like parents can detect the difference between the cries of a hungry baby and the cries of a stinky baby that would sound identical to everyone else, the relationship between some dogs and owners are complex enough to delineate the difference between a bark at the neighbor and a bark at a stranger. This relationship can be difficult to covey without dialogue, but the author demonstrates a master of imagery that is just as effective:
“A slight but steady breeze blew out of the west, bringing Sam’s voice straight back to us, loud and clear. But now there was a difference in the pitch of that voice. It was such a hair-thin difference that nobody who hadn’t trailed varmints with Sam would have caught it, but I did—that little extra drive, a shade more urgency, a keener, wilder lift to the ring of it.”
A Western
Although the book is a about a dog, it is also an example of the western genre that isn’t focused on cowboys the far frontier. The setting is Texas and the setting is brought fully to life even without the addition of gunslingers, Sheriffs and Indians. Well, actually, there is an Indian that is pretty significant to the plot:
“A big tall Indian with longs ropes of hair down his back was lashing my feet against the bay’s ribs with a strip of rawhide pulled up tight under the horses’s belly. The way was snorting and lunging sideways, but couldn’t do much on account of a squat Indian swinging to his head. This Indian had a leg and one arm hooked over the bay’s neck. He held a tight-handed grip on the bay’s underjaw, and his teeth clamped shut over one ear. Most of his weight swung from that ear.”
Texas
Even a western story about a dog rather than a cowboy that is set in Texas is going to need description of the natural world in which that story plays out. One simply doesn’t sit down to write a novel about Texas without being equipped to use imagery to describes its natural rather than man-made wonders. After all, there is just so much of it:
“We rode till the sun sank behind the ridges, its last rays setting the fire to the underbelly of a thunderhead that threatened rain. We topped out a high, rocky, cedar-covered ridge and plunging down a long slang toward Llano River. In the fading light the water looked like gold running between red rock bangs. When we got closer, the gold grayed to silver.”
