W. Bruce Cameron is author of #1 New York Times, USA Today International bestselling novel A Dog’s Purpose. The Amblin/Universal film of the same name is the most successful international live-action dog movie of all time. His latest novel, Love, Clancy: Diary of a Good Dog is a deeply moving story with a brand-new cast of characters, including one very good dog and one disdainful cat. Told in Cameron’s signature style, a tremendous cast of wonderful characters find themselves navigating the challenges of life.

PLEASE ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF

Hi, I am your Death and I am here for you.

No wait, don’t go!

Aside from the fact that you can’t get away, I’m not here for you in that way, at least not now, although to be honest with you we do have a date and I am always with you whether you acknowledge me or not.

Want to know when I am coming in that way?

Sorry, I can’t tell you. It’s part of the Great Mystery. You know. That place where

you came from and where you are going.

If you want to know the truth I'm not your death, but you are mine. Now don't freak out on me. It's only a visit. I want to spend some quality time with you before the big event and seeing as you took the time to stop by and I have you as a captive audience I thought it would be nice to have a little visit and get acquainted.

Sorry, if we got off on the wrong foot, but that happens more often than not, so let’s give it another try.

Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name, but what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game. No, I’m not who you think from that song – well maybe I am. In truth I have many names and many faces. I’m formally introducing myself to you this way, but I’m really just messing with you, hoping that maybe you will lighten up and think of me a little differently. Who knows? You just might learn something.

We are far more intimate than most people care to admit. Whoever came up with the expression love it to death was a lot closer to the truth than those other idiotic sayings you have about me. Not only am I always with you, but my love for you is unconditional, all consuming, and infinite from your limited perspective. With a love like that you’d think that my feelings would be hurt by the way you portray me, but one of the benefits of being omnipotent and omniscient is that I am beyond those infantile emotions, and if I were affected by them my love for you wouldn’t be unconditional, would it?

Yes, I admit to being a know-it-all. That is the definition of omniscient, so forgive me if I go a little overboard at times. It’s not my ego, it’s just that I sometimes forget myself. I have access to everything there is to know about you, and everyone else for that matter.

I have friends in more places than you can imagine and my eyes and ears are everywhere including all knowledge in each and every molecule and cell of your neurons, dendrites, mitochondria, organs, and anything else you can imagine. Yes, sometimes I get a little too technical and scientific at times, but every thought, emotion, and the collective knowledge of anything humanity has ever thought, imagined, or experienced is at my disposal.

There are no secrets from me.

I’m here to tell you stories and share some science, history, and myths, all of which are your creations that I want to enlighten you with to help you understand me more. You have seen me as Satan, Anubis, Mot, Thanatos, God, the Devil, loving, punitive, dark, light – the list goes on and on!

It is my sincerest hope that our friendly reintroduction here will change the way you think of me, and maybe in some small way reflect the depth of the love I have for you.

One of the most enduring ways you depict me is as the Grim Reaper, a skeleton wearing a shroud holding a scythe who comes to collect you. Yes, there is some truth to that and many of your stories are about people trying to trick, bribe, or avoid me and hold on to the...

Moderator, Perie Longo, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, 2007-2009, has published 4 books of poetry, the latest Baggage Claim (2014) and poems in numerous literary journals. This was her 40th year teaching poetry at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and she’s thrilled and awed to be still poeting and standing.

Enid Osborn Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara 2017-2019, published When the Big Wind Comes, set in New Mexico. A Pushcart nominee, her work appears in regional California and Southwest journals. She has a series of themed chapbooks, and she co-edited A Bird Black as the Sun / California Poets on Crows & Ravens in 2011.