The Dog Year
Dr. Lucy Peterman was not built for a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her warmth, compassion and fierce support, Lucy has always worked hard and trusted in the system. She’s not the sort of person who ends up in a Twelve-Step program after being caught stealing supplies from her hospital.
But that was Lucy before the accident -- before her husband and unborn baby were ripped away from her in an instant, before her future felt like a broken promise. Caught red-handed in a senseless act that kept her demons atbay, she's faced with a choice: get some help, or lose her medical license.
Now, she’s reluctantly sharing her deepest fears with a bunch of strangers, avoiding her loneliness by befriending a troubled girl, pinning her hopes on her husband’s last gift, and getting involved with a rugged cop from her past. It’s only when she is adopted by a stray mutt and moves her group to the dog park that she begins to truly bond with the rag-tag dog-loving addicts—and discovers that a chaotic, unplanned life might be the sweetest of all.
Ann Garvin
Ann Garvin is an Easterner who lives in the Midwest and a fiction writer who makes a living as a scientist and educator. While working as a nurse she completed her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in exercise psychology publishing extensively in the area of exercise, mental health and media.
Decades of teaching and studying characters in their natural habitat proved a perfect backdrop for her novels THE DOG YEAR and ON MAGGIE’S WATCH, stories about loss and how the deep affection between friends and animals can save lives. Ann writes with both humor an empathy giving tough topics wings.
Ann is a sought after speaker and educator at writers conferences and festivals in between her full-time position at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater and her adjunct MFA position at Southern New Hampshire University. She lives in Wisconsin with her family and two dogs Millie and Peanut.