The article below, was taken from the Orlando Sentinel:
A DOG'S TALE EXPLAINS 'CANES
Vicki Desormier Special to the Sentinel
November 20, 2005
Thunder roared with a huge downpour,
As I hid my face upon the floor.
Lights went out and the house grew dark.
The only thing I could do was to bark.
'Maddie's Great Adventure'
When Amy Allinson moved to Florida from Pennsylvania four years ago, her family never gave much thought to hurricanes. And for two years, they didn't need to.
That all changed in the summer of 2004, when Hurricane Charley stormed across the state.
"We didn't have plywood. We didn't have flashlights. We didn't have batteries," she said. "Looking back, we had no idea what to expect."
So Allinson, a former teacher, wanted to make sure people, especially children, would be prepared and could feel secure if a storm strikes. She's written a book that shows how one member of her family, a pug named Maddie, managed when the winds blew through.
Two of her children who live out of state had come home to Longwood for a vacation with the rest of the family, including her twin daughters, Kara and Kate, who attend the University of Florida. Her son Matt, who is in veterinary sales in Albany, N.Y., brought his pug, Maddie, along.
"Really, every word in this story is true," Allinson said. "Everything in the story happened to a little pug named Maddie who lives in Albany."
The family headed for the beach, but when they heard the storm was moving toward Central Florida, they returned home to batten down.
They also did what they had always done as a family: They pulled out the Dr. Seuss books and started to read.
"We just lived and died with the Dr. Seuss books when the kids were little," Allinson said.
As time dragged on, with the power out and little else to do, Allinson decided to write her own rhyming story and chose Maddie as her centerpiece.
"It just started flowing out of me," Allinson said.
It wasn't long before the story was finished. She started passing it around to family and friends.
"They loved it," she said.
So, what had been just a little something to keep busy in the aftermath of the storm turned into an idea for a children's book.
In addition to the rhyming story, Allinson wrote an introduction explaining what a hurricane is and giving a little information about pugs.
She asked Matt, who has had several of his poems published, to read over it and make suggestions. She asked Kate, who is majoring in digital arts and sciences in UF's School of Engineering, to draw a few pictures.
"It was so wonderful being able to work with my kids," she said. "I loved it."
Soon she was sending the 24 pages of text and 19 drawings to publishers. She has a pile of rejection letters, but she said they were all very positive.
"I thought that I'd keep sending it out, but if it was going to be depressing, I wasn't going to do it," she said. "Everyone was so encouraging, even though they said they couldn't use the material."
Some companies didn't do children's books. Some didn't want pictures. It was all a learning experience, she said. She turned to Trafford Publishing, a self-publishing service that allows people to order the book online. Each book will be printed when it is ordered.
Author services representative Kathryn Brown said that Trafford specializes in giving authors a way to market their own books on the Internet.
Maddie's Great Adventure sells online for $12.
Copyright (c) 2005, Orlando Sentinel
Visit OrlandoSentinel.com
For questions or comments regarding this site, please contact the Website Developer.