Please Support One of My Favorite Independent Authors
Note: I’m honestly devastated to report that my friend and fellow author Leland Dirks died in early 2024. Here’s the tribute I wrote then.
Members of his family inherited the copyrights to his books. They chose to stop all book sales and erase Leland’s digital legacy. Because I adored Leland and his writing, I am choosing (in late 2025) to keep all his book reviews on this site.
If you also followed Leland’s work and would like to connect with others actively keeping his legacy alive, you can find us in this Facebook group called Friends of Leland Hermit.
Recommended ! Books by Leland Dirks !
Over the holiday break, we received the devastating news that our amazing border collie friend Angelo earned his wings on an ordinary night in his sleep. If you don’t already know Angelo’s story and other tales and images from his epic love story with Leland Dirks — Angelo’s human companion, our friend and one of my favorite independent authors — now is the perfect time to show some support by buying and reading one (or all) of the books by Leland Dirks.
Books by Leland Dirks – Fellow Colorado Author and Border Collie Lover
We first reviewed Angelo’s Journey back in 2011. The novella / collection of short stories tells of a time Angelo went missing for 40 days. The narratives include a combination of imagined adventures Angelo had while away from home as well as real-life, real-time musings from his distraught human companion, fellow Colorado author Leland Dirks.
I reread Angelo’s Journey over the holiday break in remembrance. All these years later, I love it even more and recommend it. If you are new to Leland’s writing, start with Angelo’s Journey and work your way forward from there.
I’m also a big fan of Leland’s novel Jimmy Mender and His Miracle Dog. We first reviewed it in 2012, and I reread the novel in 2019 while recovering from surgery. It holds up well on second read and provided me a much needed boost at a tough time.
I’m realizing that I’ve been lax in my book review duties because I’ve read many of Leland’s other books, so I hope to make up for that with this post in honor of his loss of beloved Angelo.
Remembering Angelo
Leland created this tribute video slideshow with many of the very best photos of Angelo from over the years. Like me, he takes scads of photos every day, so I’m sure it was a real task to choose some favs. The chosen music and images are perfect. Notice the one of a young Angelo yawning and see the resemblance to our own Clover.
Unfortunately, the family also took down all of Leland’s videos. I’m sorry you cannot see his tribute to Angelo.