ROSCOMMON – With his first book, local author and animal lover Phil Bendily delivers intrigue and laughs galore. ‘MurphyTails, Amusing Tales of Adventure From America’s Most Lovable Dog’ is a collection of humorous stories involving his dog, Murphy.
His dog’s adventurous and amusing stories have gained an expanding fan base since the stories first appeared on Bendily’s Facebook page almost six years ago. Readers of the tales wanted more stories, and they wanted them in a book.
“Murphy has been a very special dog,” Bendily admits. “During our walks in the forest around the south end of Higgins Lake, and around our neighborhood, I would watch him and imagine all kinds of adventures for him.”
Those stories were shared on his Facebook page with the tag #MurphyTails. Fan reaction was quick and decisive.
“My Facebook ‘friends’ really took a liking to Murphy and his stories,” Bendily said. “They wanted more.” “So, we would take more walks and end up writing more stories.”
There are more than sixty stories written and shared, so far. ‘MurphyTails,’ the book, is a collection of 17 of those short stories.
Through these stories, Murphy has had adventures with Bigfoot, has led the neighborhood protection corps, solved crimes as a Private Eye and even took a turn as a chef.
“It really means a lot to me when folks would say how much they enjoyed reading the stories,” Bendily said. “It means even more when we could make them laugh.”
Writing has been a part of Bendily’s life since he joined the Navy in 1978. He served as a journalist in the Navy for 14 years. He wrote stories for military newspapers, magazines and broadcast news events. He also served as reporter, then editor, for the Roscommon County Herald-News in the early ‘90s.
He recently retired from Roscommon County as IT Director. Writing, once again, occupies his time.
“I really do enjoy writing,” he said. “In fact, I have at least two more major book works underway.”
“Right now, I’m just anxious to introduce everyone to Murphy. I also hope they get a great laugh as they read each story,” he added. “Of course, there are a couple of stories that will pull at the heart strings in there – I don’t think there’ll be any laughing there.”
The 81-page book is available on Amazon but Bendily plans several ‘Meet the Author’ and book signing events to introduce his new book locally.
Those events are planned at the CRAF Center in Roscommon on Wednesday, Aug. 3 from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m., at Tip’n The Mitten in Grayling on Saturday, Aug. 6 at 1 p.m., and at the Houghton Lake Public Library on Tuesday, Aug. 23 from 4 – 5:30 p.m.
For more info, you can message Bendily through Facebook or send an email to murphytails1@gmail.com. You can buy the book in paperback or eBook at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/author/philbendily.
