Garth_Stein wrote:
I made that trailer. That's my dog, Comet. I had cast another dog, who looked the part terrifically, but didn't act the part very well--though he was a very sweet and good looking dog! So I used Comet. The woman in the video is my dear friend and her daughter, and we shot in the park by my home in Seattle. The racing footage was donated by Red Bull. The voice was Mark Lund, a local voice over guy.
The point of using Comet, who is not how I imagined Enzo to look, is that Enzo is Everydog. The exact look is not important; the emotion is.
Vivian, it's GoEnzo.com, not EnzoGo.com. Or you can go to ArtofRacingintheRain.com, which is the same thing....
And, of course, check out my website: garthstein.com
G
Oh duh! My bad, and I even knew the difference. I did go there after all. So sorry Viv and thanks for the correction Garth. I did tell people the correct website, apparently I just can't spell it. 
Thanks for the info about it as well. That makes it even more interesting for me. Comet is a very cool dog. A movie star even! You did a great job on the trailer and it would have led me to the book if I hadn't heard about it already. It was very clever and tied in so well with the story. And using your dog, your friends, a local park - that must make it even more special for you.
Comet didn't quite look like Enzo to me but neither did the one on the cover. I have Enzo in my head made up from the descriptions you created. The same way I do all of the people and places I read about. But using Comet, the dog on the cover and the dog in the book does make Enzo Everydog. They are all now part of the same. Thank you for yet another layer of this amazing story.
Wrighty wrote:
Garth_Stein wrote:
I made that trailer. That's my dog, Comet. I had cast another dog, who looked the part terrifically, but didn't act the part very well--though he was a very sweet and good looking dog! So I used Comet. The woman in the video is my dear friend and her daughter, and we shot in the park by my home in Seattle. The racing footage was donated by Red Bull. The voice was Mark Lund, a local voice over guy.
The point of using Comet, who is not how I imagined Enzo to look, is that Enzo is Everydog. The exact look is not important; the emotion is.
Vivian, it's GoEnzo.com, not EnzoGo.com. Or you can go to ArtofRacingintheRain.com, which is the same thing....
And, of course, check out my website: garthstein.com
GOh duh! My bad, and I even knew the difference. I did go there after all. So sorry Viv and thanks for the correction Garth. I did tell people the correct website, apparently I just can't spell it.Thanks for the info about it as well. That makes it even more interesting for me. Comet is a very cool dog. A movie star even! You did a great job on the trailer and it would have led me to the book if I hadn't heard about it already. It was very clever and tied in so well with the story. And using your dog, your friends, a local park - that must make it even more special for you.Comet didn't quite look like Enzo to me but neither did the one on the cover. I have Enzo in my head made up from the descriptions you created. The same way I do all of the people and places I read about. But using Comet, the dog on the cover and the dog in the book does make Enzo Everydog. They are all now part of the same. Thank you for yet another layer of this amazing story.
wrighty, np on the website, I knew one of you would get the right one to us,
. Whats funny to me is, I am with you on part of it. I didn't picture Enzo looking like the dog on the cover but actually, Comet was just how I pictured him! Did someone say that you can get the book on audio? If so, is it the same voice as the promo? I have been trying to think of like an actor,whose voice would match what I hear in my head when Enzo talks but I cant think of who right now to share with you how I hear Enzo. I will think on that tho. I will miss hearing Enzo and it would be a little hard to put him in another book, cause he dies in the end and no prequel because we know about his whole life from puppyhood lol. That's a bummer. I am not normally into too many sequels but darn, would be nice to listen to Enzo's take on whats going on again. I guess I will just have to read the book more than once huh.
Nuhad wrote:Dear Mr. Stein,Do you think this book will be made into a movie? like Marley and me? who do you see as the narrator voice and actors, someone like Morgan Freeman since he's an old dog really throuh the book. i know we should only ask one question but i think you can handle two being a writer and stuff, i notice a commonality in Eddie, Evan and Denny in the sense that they are like totally kindharted through and through. is this a counterego for youI mean like to project to the world to spread kindness?Nuhad
Now there ya go! I was trying to think of someone's voice who I would think of for Enzo being an older dog but very "listenable" if that's a word lol. And you hit a good one. Morgan Freeman's voice would be awesome for Enzo. I can hear him reading, or saying, those first lines in the book. I like that idea a lot.
Thank you Vivian.even when reading the book i pictured people in the parts. i do that sometimes being a john grisham readers. i picture John McAvoy or Keanue Reeves as Denny. Jennifer Anniston as Eve, the twins maybes Dustin Hoffmanor Gary Sinese and Meryl Streep. Zoe not sure. it would be a exciting movie with all the action on racing and then the dramas
even when reading the book i pictured people in the parts. i do that sometimes being a john grisham readers. i picture John McAvoy or Keanue Reeves as Denny. Jennifer Anniston as Eve, the twins maybes Dustin Hoffmanor Gary Sinese and Meryl Streep. Zoe not sure. it would be a exciting movie with all the action on racing and then the dramas
Garth,
When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Was it there at a young age? I loved to read as a kid and I wrote all the time. My stories and my poems were often to get things out in me that I couldn't express any other way, or maybe not to anyone, when I wrote for myself. But as I grew, I really understood the power of words, good and bad. I have never published, never tried, well I take that back, I had two articles published in the same magazine with about 750,000 publication but that was different. I mean I guess, that thing inside you that has to tell stories and in writing. If that baser thing in all of us that we don't want to manifest or see in others is perhaps our own Zebra, there must be something similar in people who write, something that almost feels instinctual, a part of us that wont be denied that drives writers to write, singers to sing. Did you write as a young boy? What did you write about? I bet you as a boy, would love this book now.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Was it there at a young age? I loved to read as a kid and I wrote all the time. My stories and my poems were often to get things out in me that I couldn't express any other way, or maybe not to anyone, when I wrote for myself. But as I grew, I really understood the power of words, good and bad. I have never published, never tried, well I take that back, I had two articles published in the same magazine with about 750,000 publication but that was different. I mean I guess, that thing inside you that has to tell stories and in writing. If that baser thing in all of us that we don't want to manifest or see in others is perhaps our own Zebra, there must be something similar in people who write, something that almost feels instinctual, a part of us that wont be denied that drives writers to write, singers to sing. Did you write as a young boy? What did you write about? I bet you as a boy, would love this book now.
vivico1 wrote:
Did you write as a young boy? What did you write about? I bet you as a boy, would love this book now.
Yes, Vivian, I wanted to write as a young boy.
My mother wrote children's stories for Cricket Magazine, and she wrote a wonderful YA novel that was never published. She would let me proof read her material, as it was all done on a typewriter and she had to use Write-Out to correct it....
I remember, at 9 years old, making a fort for myself in the rec room and dressing up in my father's Army uniforms, which he kept in a duffle bag in the garage. And I laid in a stock of food and water and hid with a notebook and pencil and waited for the story to come of a young soldier on the front.
The story never came. And I think at that moment I realized that to write a story, I had to have a plan. I couldn't wait for the story to come to me, I had to go and get a story. And I had to learn about structure and dialogue and character and all that stuff.
And that's what led me to acting and the theater, where the most important things of all are structure and intention and motivation.
I still say, if you want to be a better writer? Take acting classes!
It's true! Especially improvisation!
Garth
Garth_Stein wrote:
vivico1 wrote:
Did you write as a young boy? What did you write about? I bet you as a boy, would love this book now.
Yes, Vivian, I wanted to write as a young boy.
My mother wrote children's stories for Cricket Magazine, and she wrote a wonderful YA novel that was never published. She would let me proof read her material, as it was all done on a typewriter and she had to use Write-Out to correct it....
I remember, at 9 years old, making a fort for myself in the rec room and dressing up in my father's Army uniforms, which he kept in a duffle bag in the garage. And I laid in a stock of food and water and hid with a notebook and pencil and waited for the story to come of a young soldier on the front.
The story never came. And I think at that moment I realized that to write a story, I had to have a plan. I couldn't wait for the story to come to me, I had to go and get a story. And I had to learn about structure and dialogue and character and all that stuff.
And that's what led me to acting and the theater, where the most important things of all are structure and intention and motivation.
I still say, if you want to be a better writer? Take acting classes!
It's true! Especially improvisation!
Garth
Thats interesting. And I can certainly see how improv could help. I have written a lot of poems and short stories for friends that they ask for, not ones from me to them but ones they wanted to give to someone else, or even a story they wanted about themselves involving some fantasy, whether it was meeting the person of their dreams, or living in a certain time period in a certain place. With just a few details about who they wanted a poem for and the intent or a few details they wanted in their story about themselves, I then just let my imagination run wild and it came as I wrote, even the poetry. I wrote free verse and what my mother used to call her favorite "the rhymy kind" lol, which I think was mostly like iambic tetrameter, sometimes many verses of four lines each. I am not familiar with all the forms or correct terms as I did not study poetry, it just seemed to be there. It was suggested to me to study it from 4th grade on. Even in college, I shared a few poems with one of the comp professors and she said I should submit something to the poetry department. You had to have at least 7 good pieces, to take the class and she thought I had some good stuff. She said she couldn't get in it but thought I could. But I didn't want to study it, I just wanted to write and this is how it came out. I found too that people really liked that kind too, better than free verse. But the most I could plan, was just those things I mentioned above, then I would sit down and it was like it all came out of my fingers almost, instead of my head because I never had to look for the words to rhyme, they just did. One woman wanted this whole elaborate story but she wanted it in rhyming poetry, not a short story or free verse. I wasnt sure if I could do it but was a nice challenge. It turned into a 48 verse poem! Can you imagine even staying interested that long lol but she LOVED it. It all came at once, one night about two weeks after I had said I would do it for her. Some of my best short stories that I just wanted to write, came from dreams.
I knew you had to be a writer as a kid. Its inside you. And you have honed your skills and talents well. I think writing is a gift to those who can write but also to those who read what you write. I have a definite affection for writers because they share their gifts with others and often these gifts impact our lives, lift our spirits, inspire our thoughts while entertaining us at the same time. I love when I find a book that does this. Thanks for sharing your gift. It's very enjoyable and thoughtful.
I absolutely loved your book! I passed it along to my sister and she has emailed me after reading every couple of chapters just to tell me how much she loves it - she said she thinks her dog wrote it 
! My dog, Millie, currently living with my son, is 14 years old and is a Border Collie/Springer Spaniel mix with arthritis, cataracts, allergies (for which she gets monthly injections), and poor hearing, but she still has moments during every day when she runs around with her "bear" and can still enjoy fairly long walks. We constantly remind ourselves that her days are numbered and I'd like to think that she is looking forward to her "next life" as much as Enzo did. More than anything, I'm PRAYING that Millie, like Enzo, will spare us the agony of making that agonizing decision when she has accomplished her mission as a dog - probably wishful thinking on our part but we're hoping........
What kinds of things do you think your dog is thinking? Does he do anything special that makes you think he might really understand what's going on around him? I am constantly amazed at how "in tune" dogs are to the human condition and I would give anything to get inside their brains!
Thank you so very much for a wonderful book that invokes every human (and canine) emotion - I will read it again and pass along to everyone I know! 
