'Holiday Happenings': Grand Island author shares stories of beloved dog

Story and Photo by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Joelle Koti is creating an entire series of books to honor her dog, Frankie, who passed away almost a year ago.

“He was that canine soulmate,” she said. “In your life, you have a lot of pets maybe, but you always get that one dog you’re so attached to.”

Koti brought books, as well as T-shirts, hats and other images of Frankie to sell at Holiday Happenings. She also brought Frankie’s story to share with anyone who was interested in the life of a well-loved dog.

“Frankie was an English Mastiff,” Koti said. “I adopted him in Romulus, Michigan. He was 4 or 5. They weren’t quite sure because he was a rescue. When I brought him home, he just fell into my routine. As (I am) a med tech and a CNA in nursing homes, he would go to work with me. He traveled with me. Everywhere I went, Frankie went. People knew that, if they didn’t invite Frankie, I didn’t go.

“As he was getting older and as arthritis started kicking in, he couldn’t lie in the car as long to travel. So, I thought, why don’t I create Flat Frankie and let him travel for us? I belong to this mastiff group on Facebook. There’s over 1,000 members. I put a message out, and I said, ‘This is what I’m doing. Would anyone be interested in taking a Flat Frankie and take him on adventures?’ ”

A Flat Frankie is a laminated image of Frankie that can be held up for photos.

“He is in 114 families’ homes right now, in the U.K., Canada and the United States,” Koti said. “What I did was I took his picture. I blew it up to an 8-by-10. I cut it out. I laminated it, and I would send it to these people. The package would be a letter written to them from Frankie and a return address envelope. I put stickers, bookmarks and bracelets in there. Just stuff to keep the excitement going. And yeah, it’s been amazing the way people have been so receptive to wanting to help me create these books.

“The first place he went to was Alaska. He had a grand old time in Alaska. He did a lot of fun things. Not to give away too many secrets but, at the end of the book, when he was home in his return envelope, he brings home a worm. So, you’re going to start seeing the worm on random pages. By the fourth or fifth book, it’s going to be how he meets Ernie the Wormie.

“He comes home as an actual worm because, in Alaska, Flat Frankie went fishing. He didn’t want to use the worm to fish. He wanted to make friends with him. He brings a worm home and, in the next couple of books, you’re just going to see the worm on random pages. Like the second book, ‘Frankie in Space.’

“You’ll see Wormie with a space helmet on. It will be really cute. By the fourth or fifth book, I’ll write a book about how they met and how they became buddies.

“As the stories go on, because I want to do all 50 states, including the families across the seas, who have helped us with adventures. When I do their books, I want to start bringing characters home with them.”

Koti said she designed the series of stories to attract young readers by being “very interactive. Every book has a lesson in it. This first book in Alaska, the lesson in that book for the children is never approach wild animals or run across a busy highway. Every book will have a lesson of some type in it.”

Koti also talked about her teammate in the process of creating the Flat Frankie stories. “I have an illustrator who lives in North Carolina, and we do everything over the phone and emails. She works for a marketing company. She did the first book totally pro bono for me. She’s amazing. She’s created all the little characters that are on the tumblers.”

After Koti sends the laminated Flat Frankie images to people, she said “they send me the pictures. That’s how I create the stories.” The illustrator then turns the photographs into caricatures, “where he is more of a cartoon than a real Frankie. Kids who are 10 and under and even 12 and under would probably really enjoy this book.

“In the book, he’s a cartoon, but he’s actually a real live dog. Well, he was. I lost him on Nov. 20 of last year at 11 and a half, so he lived a nice long life.

“It’s pretty exciting for me. It’s helping to keep his legacy alive. Losing him was a huge blow for me. It just hurt so much. But this is like he never left. It keeps me active, keeps me going.”

Koti had recommendations for other people who are thinking about writing books: “Find your subject first. It’s a lot easier to start writing, and the words will flow. If you get a day when you can’t think of something, put it down and walk away. Give it a week. Come back to it. Reread what you wrote. It will just start flowing again.

“It took me two years to get this book out. I jumped in, not knowing what to do. I always wanted to write. When I was going to college, a lot of my undergrad classes were in literature, English. At NCCC, I took how to write a children’s book. I took a lot of those classes, and I really didn’t know what I was doing.

“Do your research. I went self-publishing, instead of traditional publishing. If you have the backing and a sponsor, you could do the traditional, but it’s very expensive. So, I self-published on Amazon through a program called KDP. They get so much of my proceeds because they’re the ones printing it on demand for me.”

Promoting your own book is a big part of creating success for yourself as a writer, Koti noted.

She said, “I do book readings at the schools with the elementary kids. (The illustrator) made me some props. I’m pretty excited. This is really taking off for me. It’s always been a dream to write a book. I never knew what kind of book I wanted to write, but the children’s book is it. That’s where I’m at. I would like one day to do a memoir for him of his legacy and where he started out, from the time I found him on line to the day I adopted him to the day he passed and everything in between. That would be more for the adults.

“For the month of September, I gave all of the proceeds for the books I sold to a dog rescue called Heaven on Earth. It’s a pug rescue in Lockport. I have no problem picking a rescue a month. I don’t mind at all.”