Blaine author chronicles local harbor dog in children’s book

Combine a 22-year-old oyster farmer, a Blaine High School freshman and a woman who walks the waterfront every day. What do you get? A book about a dog.

“I went to the waterfront every day. Seeing Beamer made such a big difference,” said Diana Warner, the author of “Beamer, An Oyster Dog: The Interview.”

After losing her late dog, Cactus, Warner’s spirit was invigorated by the dog she met at Blaine Harbor in 2020. Beamer approached Warner with a captivating presence: A purple hoodie and blue doggie goggles.

In fact, Warner was so touched by Beamer that she decided to write a book about his adventures in Blaine.

Village Books is slated to publish the book this month. It will be sold for $15 at Village Books in Fairhaven, as well as the Drayton Harbor Oyster Company in Blaine.

Warner met Beamer’s owner, Ethan King, at the harbor. “Ethan, I want to write a book about Beamer,” she remembered saying to him.

King, 22, is a Blaine High School (BHS) graduate who works at Drayton Harbor Oyster Company’s oyster bar and oyster farm. He rescued Beamer three years ago.

Although it didn’t take long for Warner to write the book, she said the process of finding an illustrator and publisher was difficult.

In search of an illustrator, Warner called the BHS art director and was referred to the then-14-year-old freshman Marcela Sarantes, who eagerly volunteered to be included in the project.

Sarantes illustrated the entire book, sketching images of the oyster bar, Beamer and the waterfront where Warner originally met Beamer. 

It took Sarantes three months between February and March 2021 to illustrate the book. She and Warner would collaborate on ideas for sketches, and then Sarantes would get to work using Procreate on her iPad.

“I have been drawing my whole life but I recently started digital drawing in December 2020,” she said. “I really enjoyed getting to work on my art and working with Diana. She is very sweet.”

Warner said she has been a writer her entire life. Now she has a book published about something that changed her life.

“Beamer delegates and he’s very independent,” she said, adding he’s friendly with an attitude. “It’s my first time in my life without a dog. Beamer changed my life.”