Today we’d like to introduce you to Cara Achterberg

Hi Cara, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I’ve always been a writer, ever since my mom gave me a tiny pink diary with a key when I was in first grade. Writing has seen me through every kind of adventure, trauma, and love story (which could be both adventure and trauma). It has been a big part of nearly every job I’ve held, but it has not been my primary job until 2015, when I got my first book deal. Since then it hasn’t paid the bills, but it has inspired my life.

Writing articles for magazines and newsletters graduated to writing a blog and teaching classes, which morphed into writing novels. Fostering dogs led to writing about dog rescue, which resulted in my first memoir, Another Good Dog. Touring with that book took me to the animal shelters and a real turning point in my life.

Seeing what was happening in our southern animal shelters, particularly the rural ones you find down dirt roads in out of the way places, often near the sewage treatment plant or the county dump, shocked me. I thought dog pounds were a thing of the past. Dog Catchers had been the villians of the stories I wrote in elementary school in that little pink diary. But traveling through Tennessee and then Georgia and Alabama, I realized that dog pounds are still very much a reality.

My book, One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues tells the story of how my current odyssey started. Now I run Who Will Let the Dogs Out, the nonprofit I cofounded. We work to raise awareness and resources for homeless dogs and the heroes who fight for them.

I travel to shelters all over the south and write the stories I find, working to bring change to the places that too many people have forgotten about and save dogs who deserve so much better than lives spent struggling in local pounds and overwhelmed shelters, suffering from treatable situations, overwhelmed people, and not enough resources.

I’m still writing, but now I’m writing to save lives.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

It has definitely not been a smooth road, but I’d guess smooth roads are boring (although I wouldn’t know first hand!).

In terms of writing, the challenges have only grown with time. Every writer can attest to the shrinking margins in publishing which lead to bigger obstacles to publication and much smaller pay checks. As is true in most of the arts, people often don’t want to pay for the privilege of enjoying your work. We all have to come to terms with the reality that making a living writing (at least writing what you want to write) is nearly impossible.

I have always struggled with and not been completely comfortable marketing my writing or my brand. But these days ‘successful’ writers are the ones who know how to market themselves. I’m sure that will remain an obstacle, and I’ve long ago accepted that I write because I love to and I have a message to share, not because I will make money.

In terms of saving dogs, the obstacles are many, but the opportunities are also everywhere. I believe in focusing on the solutions instead of the struggle. The struggles can exhaust you and take precious energy which is better spent in practicing solutions.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

I write to change lives. That’s always my plumbline. Will the words I’m sharing inspire someone? Will they teach them, challenge them, change them? If not, then they are words to keep to myself. Even in my fiction, my aim is to entertain, to offer an escape, and beneath the story, I hope there is a nugget that makes the reader pause, reflect, wonder.

I teach for the same reasons. Whenever I have the opportunity to lead a class or a workshop, I’m excited to meet students and to find ways to help them. I want them to leave with a list of practical ideas and fresh motivation for their own writing.

I aspire to be a writer who is generous – with my own words and time, but also with my support and encouragement of others.

I don’t take a paycheck for the thousands of hours I spend traveling, writing, and working to help shelters all over the country. I think work like we do at Who Will Let the Dogs Out is rent for my time on this earth.

I want to leave it better for the animals I meet, but mostly for the people I encounter everywhere, whether it be a shelter or a classroom or the pages of a book.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?

Don’t worry too much about ‘success’. Focus on why you write and what message you want to share. Keep that in front of you at all times. Read far and wide, especially in your genre. Connect with other writers and be generous. Don’t guard your time or hold anything back – write from your heart EVERY DAY. Build your writing muscles and be kind to everyone you encounter. Those two investments will pay off in the long run.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.carawrites.com/
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/carasueachterberg
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carasueachterberg
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/caraachterberg
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyD9bQAa91M7R1grQZe1yKg
• Other: http://www.whowillletthedogsout.org/

Image Credits

Nancy Slattery