In last week’s blog, I shared a YouTube playlist with a whole lot of cute guide dog and dog videos, showing my guide dogs both at work and at play. I hope you enjoyed digging into those videos and that they made you smile.
While on the subject of guide dogs, I’ve started working on Fiji’s book again after a few months’ break. I’m embarrassed at how long these final steps towards the relaunch seem to be taking. Still, it’s been a time since I last shared my progress.
While I was on vacation in Mauritius in June, I worked through the suggested edits from my talented editor, Melanie Harvard. I also approached a beta reader to go through the text and let me know her thoughts. Perhaps the strongest feedback that they both gave me was about the ending of the book. They felt the ending was too abrupt, that after spending so much time in Fiji’s head, that the final Paws for Thought blog post was something of a sucker punch that needed to be softened down. It’s taken me time to think of a way to do that, and I couldn’t progress further till I had made up my mind.
Eventually I came upon an idea that I felt might work for me. Not only that, but I also knew how to frame it so it would fit into the existing narrative I was telling. Basically, the solution I decided on was to include an additional piece of content, and have it presented by my new guide dog, Normandy. And suddenly everything began falling into place. It makes me smile to have both my current and previous beloved guide dogs together in Fiji’s book, even if only for a short while. If they had ever met, I’m sure they would have been firm friends!
I am now working on image descriptions for the photographs that are in the book. Since so much of my work is related to the disability sector, I feel it is important for me to try and showcase inclusion in all the content I produce. While I am by no means perfect, I am constantly mindful of finding different ways to make my work accessible. I’m probably two-thirds through the process of creating descriptions for each picture, and so far it is going well.
Part of my brain is encouraging me to try and publish the book on the anniversary of Fiji’s passing, the 27 October, but in my more sensible moments I think that may be unrealistic. Perhaps sometime in November will be more attainable. Still, we shall have to wait and see what happens, won’t we?
That’s all I can tell you about the update of Paws for Thought for the moment. Let’s hope the next time I mention it, it will be to tell you about the publication of the book.
As a final note, if you’re interested in learning more about how to make your content more accessible to persons with disabilities, contact me on https://www.loisstrachan.com/contact-lois/
and we can chat.
