(WENY) -- Gary Brown, an author from Hammondsport, wrote a book about dealing with grief for a good cause. Brown published “Maggie of the Crooked Lake” a year ago. 

Brown and his four-legged friend Maggie are the storytellers who wanted to make a difference.  

“The book was based on the idea that this is a shelter dog,” he said. “We had rescued the dog but then the dog ended up rescuing me.” 

Brown and his late wife Martha rescued their dog a few years ago from a local SPCA shelter. Brown remembers when Maggie became his wife’s special friend. Sadly, Brown said, after Martha passed away from glioblastoma on April 13th, 2014, Maggie had to find a way to heal with him. 

“Eventually, the dog decided that I was the only other human in the house, and I was the next best thing,” he said. “She began to follow me around and... we are very tight now.” 

“Maggie of the Crooked Lake” is a story for people who are dealing with the passing of a loved one. Brown said he drew a lot of inspiration for the story from what he went through. 

“I needed to get up, to take the dog for walks, I needed to remember to feed her...so she made me do these things and that kind of helped me with my grief, "he said. 

Since the book was published, hundreds and hundreds of copies have been sold to those who do not want to walk through their grief alone.  

“The book has some sadness in it, obviously,” he said. “It begins with Maggie coming to us, then it has the story of my wife’s death in the middle, and then...how the shelter dog rescued me.”  

Every penny from book sales is donated to two local Hospice care providers, CareFirstNY in Pained Post and Bampa’s House in Corning. 

“I wanted to give back to them for everything they had done to teach us care and to be thoughtful and supportive of us,” he said.  

Brown self-published 1,000 books with his friend Bonnie Mitchell. He said he is hoping to publish more. His books have already raised $10,000 and that number continues to grow.