Meet Buster – The Dog Who Got Me Out the Door and Into My Novel

There's a Welsh Terrier named Buster in my novel. He belongs to Tara Fisher, my protagonist. He is there for the downfall — completely clueless that her world just fell apart. He goes absolutely crazy when Mason comes home from college the following summer. He gets left at the kennel for all the big races.

He is every dog I have ever loved.

Buster: Headed home from the kennel after a race weekend

He was the easiest character to write. He was also the hardest.Here's something I haven't told anyone yet.
The real reason I started running was a Welsh Terrier named Buster.

Burning off some energy Cesar Millan style

Humble Beginnings

Cesar Millan said the key to a calm dog was exercise — daily, consistent, purposeful. So Buster and I started walking. Then we discovered he liked running. And slowly, without either of us planning it, so did I. It wasn't the whole story — P90X and a Facebook post about a triathlon class and a coach named James Cotta would come later. But Buster got me out the door first.

NOTE: I even wrote about it at the time — What I Learned About Running from My Dogs — though I had no idea then where those miles would eventually take me.

I think James and Zoe feel the same way about running

After a few miles I would bring him home. Drop him at the door. And then I would keep going.

He would have kept going too. I knew that. But somewhere in those first solo miles — door closing behind him, road still open ahead of me — something shifted. Those were his miles first. Then they became mine.

Waiting for me to get home from a run

I didn't know it then but that moment...Buster done, me realizing I wasn't...was the first threshold I ever crossed as an athlete. Everything that came after, the triathlons, the marathons, the IRONMAN finish lines, started at that door.

Novel Buster doesn't know this yet.

Story Change

As written, Buster is a domestic presence. He reads the room during arguments. He retreats when things get heavy. He licks Tara's face at exactly the right moment. He is a barometer, not a training partner.
But soon he will...

Somewhere in the early chapters, there will be a scene, maybe just a sentence or two...Tara dropping Buster back at home and then her continuing on her own. Her first solo miles. The unremarkable moment that started everything. It belongs in the book because it happened in real life, and the best things in this novel did.

To All My Pups

I have had five dogs who made a real impact on my life. A Welsh Terrier named Buster was one of them. And here is the thing about dogs — our dogs reflect us. So it is not a surprise that they all seem like him. 

NOTE: The bernedoodles would like me to clarify that they do not share Buster's enthusiasm for running. Or his and Hannah's enthusiasm for barking at absolutely nothing, each other, and everything in between. Cesar Millan's training plan was put to the test by the Welsh Terrorists (as they were called at the kennel).

The Bernedoodles: not fans of running, but they do enjoy a walk

Tara's Buster reflects Tara. Which means, in the way that all fiction works, he reflects me too.

He was the easiest character to write because I have known him my whole life.

He was the hardest because you only get so many dogs like that. And every time you write one you are writing all of them.

Buster is one of the characters in Transitions — Through Hardship to the Stars, my debut novel currently in progress. If you want to follow Tara's journey — and Buster's — sign up for updates below.