Hi, all. I hope you are all enjoying 2024 so far.
Throughout this year, I’m giving sneak peeks of my story-in-progress. It’s a middle grade novel called The Galdur Snow Dog, and the main character is—that’s right—a dog. Only this dog has golden sparkles in her fur, can sneeze colors into snow, and run across water.
The dog’s name is Joy. She starts out as a puppy on the island Galdur, then gets taken by humans who sell her to a human family on the island Brinnacla. The family owns a tailoring business, and they need Snow Dogs to pull their sled for transporting tailored clothes. Joy can talk, though her words are garbled at first (if you’re familiar with how huskies and Malamutes vocalize, you would have an idea what that sounds like). But when the family sprays Velvet Maple Sap at her, she speaks human (though she starts out talking with a toddler’s lisp).
This video I found captures how I’d imagine her speech sounding like before the Velvet Maple Sap.
What is Joy’s personality like? Her passion in life is to have fun and eat yummy treats. She’s a go-getter when she wants to be, and as long as she gets rewarded with a toy or a treat, she’ll do what you ask her. However, she is expressive about her dislikes, and the following video is how I’d like to picture Joy the puppy when she’s having a fit (though she uses more words than this video’s puppy, ha-ha).
If you’re bored this January, there’s still time to beta read a copy of The Galdur Snow Dog. Click on the link to learn more. The deadline for sharing your input is January 31.
K.A. Ramstad 