Ever Wonder What Your Dog Is Thinking - Youll Love Abbys View by Local Author Dan Dial

Local Author Dan Dial signed copies of Abby’s View.

MIDDLEBURGH — “I was proud to know her. I was made better by knowing her.” This excerpt was read aloud by author of Abby’s View, Dan Dial, as The Middleburgh Library’s Author Spotlight shone on him during the evening of May 29th. The book’s fun and heartwarming mixture brought attendees along for the ride as Dial relived meaningful memories of life with his dog Abby and shared about his writing process.

The description of this April release for ages 13 and up reads, “Abby’s View is a series of stories originally published in The Roane County Reporter. It is her unique take on life at Lordan Farms with all her many animal friends and her dear humans. Why is it unique, you may ask? Because believe it or not, Abby was our German Shorthaired Pointer. She certainly brings her own perspective to life and at times stretches our imagination as she takes on issues big and small. So, sit back and enjoy as Abby regales us.”

The book is a collection of 52 articles published in The Roane County Reporter of West Virginia from June 2019-July 16, 2020; transcribed into 26 Chapters made up of two weeks of columns each, with 10 additional stories (where Abby gets a little more philosophical according to Dial) in the epilogue titled, The Adventures of Abby, The Remarkably Cognizant Canine. 

Dial had an amazing connection with Abby, especially after she got very sick in the Spring of 2019 and was thankful that she recovered after a couple of weeks. Dial gave her credit saying, “I put my name on here, but I’m not sure I’m the one who wrote it. We had a whole bunch of ideas and the whole book is full of stories. I really felt, and still feel this day- I know I said and wrote the words, but…” when sitting down to write, Dial would ask Abby questions like, what do you think? How would you say this? How would you tell this story? What do you think of this? Then, he would watch her wander and visit with critters and creatures in amazement. Endearingly, Dial said she was an old dog whose stories would sometimes randomly go in different directions, and she would forget things; similarly, “Dan was getting old too” and would randomly go in different directions with his stories and forget things.

Dial has been writing for forever and showed Library attendees a glimpse into some of the several notebooks he keeps. Flipping through pages revealed bits and pieces of poems, starts to read many fantasy and reality stories, and notes written to himself along the way expressing frustration when ideas weren’t coming or reminding himself to “focus!” Intriguingly, left-hand notebook pages are one story, while right-hand pages are another story he is working on at the same time. Dial cracked everyone up when he called his journaling process insanity. 

Dial read a notebook passage from November of 2018, “One time, not so very long ago, there lived a goat,” Dial waved arm and said “slash. Goldfinch, slash. A German Shorthaired Pointer named Abby.” Dan had been a business manager for The Roane County Reporter but was still surprised to get the OK to be able to share Abby’s stories as a column within it, and the articles ended up getting a good response from Roane County Reporter readers. 

When Dial, wife Laura, and Abby moved from West Virginia to New York in 2020, he shared Abby’s stories online. Dial’s brother, also a self-published author, encouraged him to publish. Abby enjoyed many adventures with her dog sisters Cassie and Belle, with chipmunks, and with other dogs when Dial’s daughter came to visit. When his daughter asked why her dogs are in the book but not her or the family that visited, Dial jokingly explained, “Abby wrote it!”

Abby has since crossed the rainbow bridge, but her stories live on through Abby’s View. Dial still writes, but will not write any more of Abby’s stories without her. Abby meant so much to Dial, who connected with everyone at his presentation that has ever loved a pet like family when reading excerpts from his book, “She had a heart as big as the world around her. I’m very happy to be able to share her stories with a larger audience.”

Thanks to his wife, Dial currently has an American Stafford/Huskey mix named Maggie Mae, and it’s obvious that Dial not only draws inspiration from animals, but also from nature. After the presentation, Dial handed everyone a booklet filled with thoughtful poetry & vibrant photography titled, Thought of the Other. Those poems have titles like, “From My Deck,” “Golden lay the windswept fields,” and “Yellow Leaf Road” where one line reads, “Autumn always calls to me.”

Dan Dial is the co-author of A Trail of Two Brothers; both that book and Abby’s View are available on Amazon. Abby’s View has amazing 5-star reviews, including this one from Russell Scalzo: “Great read for everyone who loves their dog. Look through Abby’s eyes a German Shorthaired Pointer living on a farm. Funny and heartwarming,” Remember to help the author by leaving your review after reading Abby’s View as well, and if you are a local business reading this article, reach out to Dan Dial for more information about your opportunity to sell his works in your shop. Dial is on Facebook and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@dandial6955.

We end of this article where Abby’s View begins; the forward starts with an Albert Einstein quote; “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”