This blog is a best-selling book.

A few days ago, my wife and I—masked up and social distancing—strolled into a wonderful bookshop in a small river town in the far west suburbs of Chicago. It was our little respite under the current conditions, a safe getaway with plenty of hand sanitizer to go around. Harvey’s Tales in Geneva, Illinois is named after…

Franco, the Golden Doodle needs your help Hello everyone who had been following this blog for my best-selling book, WALKS WITH SAM. I am reactivating this site for a short bit to ask for your help and to SHARE this story wherever you can. My son’s dog is quite sick. Had to have emergency surgery…

If your pet had a theme song, what would it be? I thought of this the other day when Sam was lounging near the entrance to the kitchen, her legs outstretched. Sam has incredibly long legs. It is as if she has no shoulders! That’s when it hit me: “Long Cool Woman in a Black…

It’s snowing outside Chicago. Some of it sticking, but not staying long. It’s fleeting. Gray. Chilly. And temporary. Temporary like autumn. Cold like the November air. And it is close. It’s right . . . over . . .there.   The heavy breath of winter can be felt on the back of the neck, and…

From ROUNDFIRE BOOKS, John Hunt Publishing, UK BUY IT HERE Praise for WALKS WITH SAM . . . Publishers Weekly: “Berner’s plainspoken manner reveals moments of true enlightenment. Dog lovers and spiritualists will adore this.” James Dodson, best-selling author of Faithful Travelers, The Dewsweepers, Final Rounds, A Golfer’s Life with Arnold Palmer, and The Range Bucket List : “The poet Wallace Stevens wrote…

As many of us have come to find out, working from home is not as simple or as appealing as we first believed it would be. We can drop in some laundry, do some gardening, take morning coffee on the deck, go off on a midday neighborhood walk. But the reality is we are tethered…