Strike Three, Marley! (I Can Read Book 2 Series) by John Grogan, Ellen Beier (Illustrator), Richard Cowdrey (Illustrator), Susan Hill

What are some of your favorite films, and what makes them unforgettable to you?
My wife rolls her eyes at my favorite films, mostly because they are such downers. What she finds depressing, I find cathartic. I loved The Deer Hunter, Sophie's Choice and Ordinary People. My taste in action guy flicks runs to Braveheart and Gladiator; I'm an easy mark for the righteous revenge theme. I'm also a sucker for pretty much anything Emma Thompson has ever been in (and yes, I realize I'm jeopardizing my good standing in the action-guy-flick fraternity by confessing this). There are many more recent movies out there that I enjoyed, but I suppose it says something that I can't recall a single one by name right now.

What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you're writing?
I never listen to music when I'm writing. I work best in quiet, or with the white noise of the dishwasher humming or the furnace rumbling -- or a busy newsroom buzzing around me. When I'm not writing, though, I'm glued to my music. A hobby of mine is digging up quirky covers of famous chestnuts, such as R.E.M. doing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" or Nirvana doing early Beatles covers.

One of the great perks of living in the Philadelphia region is we have one of the world's all-time greatest radio stations, the commercial-free, member-supported WXPN (www.xpn.org). It plays this incredible mix of great, established artists and new talent that I would never have heard of otherwise. That said, my lifelong favorite musician is Bob Dylan, whom I have listened to religiously since I was 12, and imitated (badly) on the guitar since I was 16. I also love Miles Davis, but you won't catch me trying to imitate him.

If you had a book club, what would it be reading?
Right now, we'd be reading Marley & Me, of course, the author says shamelessly. But when we were done with that, we'd move on to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, which I am now reading and finding to be just brilliant in its voice, vision and delivery. In a sea of formulaic books, this one is a total original. We'd definitely have Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking on the list, too.

What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?
Garden books because I am an enthusiastic gardener (and former gardening editor), and I'm a total pushover for what someone once called "horticultural pornography," those glossy, brilliant color-photo spreads of flawless fantasy gardens that have as much to do with real gardens as airbrushed pinups have to do with real women. As with Playboy, I pretend to read the text but catch myself mostly staring at the photos and fantasizing.

Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you're writing?
I wrote Marley & Me almost entirely between the hours of 5 and 7 a.m. I'm usually a night owl, but I forced myself to go to bed early and wake up at 4:40 a.m. three or four mornings a week. After a strong cup of coffee I was good to go. Using this schedule, I averaged one chapter a week for 30 weeks. I started the book in February 2004, and finished it Labor Day weekend.

There's something about the early morning that works for me. Not only am I fresh and rested, but dawn and the hours preceding it have a special evocative quality for me. The smells are different, the sounds. You can almost taste the air coming through the cracked window. Things flood up in me then -- moments, experiences, connections. If I don't get them down by the time the sun's up and the kids and my wife are downstairs, they're gone forever.

The one thing I always keep on my desk as I write is my Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on the proposal for my second book. It's still too early to talk about it in any detail, but it will be autobiographical nonfiction and will mine my childhood growing up in a strong Irish Catholic household.

Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
I, too, had heard and read all the horror stories. And I've worked hard over the past 25 years, much of it in backwater newspaper jobs, to build my skills and credentials as a writer, storyteller and journalist. But I must say that this particular book project -- my first -- was anything but a horror story. It's been almost a fairy tale for me. I sent out 12 queries -- blind -- to agents I had gleaned off the Internet. Eight totally ignored me; three sent me snippy responses, and one, a young agent named Laurie Abkemeier, bit. Two days later, I officially was a represented author.

As I mentioned in my acknowledgment, Laurie played a big role in coaxing the book out of me, cheering me along, offering encouragement and direction. When I finally had a completed manuscript, Laurie, a former editor at Hyperion, did a pre-edit and I tightened and polished. She then began shopping it with publishing houses as I worried no one would be interested. After all, this was a book about my family and our dog. I found it scintillating, of course, but how many others would? Several days later, Laurie called me to say six publishers were interested. She held an auction, which is actually a blind bidding process via e-mail and phone, and my manuscript sold to William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, in October 2004.

My editor, Mauro DiPreta, was a big believer in and advocate for my book through the whole editing and pre-publication process. I know writers who moan about their inattentive publishers, but I must say Morrow and HarperCollins really did everything right in the execution of this book, from the great cover design and layout to the custom web site (www.marleyandme.com) to the marketing and pre-release publicity. They brought me into New York for the Book Expo America to introduce me to booksellers and flew me to Chicago to chat up the nation's librarians at the American Library Association convention. They also printed and distributed a slew of Advanced Reader's Copies to familiarize booksellers, industry insiders and the media with the book.

One of those early copies made it into the hands of one very influential book critic. A week before my October 18 publication date, Janet Maslin of The New York Times published a positive review, and suddenly I was on the map. I always knew the clout of the Times, especially when it comes to its arts and literary criticism, but this was my first time experiencing it firsthand. Marley & Me debuted in its first week out at #10 on The New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller List and hit #5 seven weeks later, by which time it was in its twelfth printing. It took me 25 years to find my way here, but the last few months have been like a rollercoaster ride. I'm holding on for dear life and watching, with equal parts exhilaration and terror, where it will take me.

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
Write every day no matter how discouraged you get. Force yourself out of your comfort zones and do things, visit places you wouldn't otherwise. Keep a detailed journal of your daily life and use it to hone your narrative skills. I've been a faithful journal keeper since grade school, and many of my published pieces got their start as rough journal entries. Many readers have asked how I remembered detailed moments and dialogue in Marley & Me. I didn't. Many of those scenes came directly out of lengthy journal entries I had written within hours of the event, and that's what I credit for giving those scenes their immediacy. For instance, the chapter on Jenny's miscarriage came almost verbatim from a long entry I made the night it occurred.

More than anything, believe in yourself and your voice. Write about what you know and care passionately about. Don't write it for an agent or publisher or market niche. Write it for yourself. Write it from your heart. Write it without flinching. If you do, it will touch readers. And it will sell.