Early Morning Cat Chat

SCENE: Dena at her desk, madly typing away, trying to get a bit of work done before it's time to leave for her radio interview. Into the room wanders a large black and white blob. It is Lucy_Cat. 

Lucy: Mrow.

Dena: Hi, baby.

Lucy: MROW.

Dena: I don't have time to pet you, sweetie.

Lucy places herself at feet of busy writer. Sighs and gazes upward: Mrow? Mrrr-ow?

Dena: Later, I promise.

Lucy: whine-whine-whine

Dena: Stop it!

Lucy: Eh-eh-whine-mrrr-eh-eh-eh-mrrr...

Dena relents and reaches down to give the blob a quick scratch behind the ears.

Lucy: Purrr.

Dena returns to her work.

Lucy: ACK-ACK-ACK-MROW. Eh-eh-eh-whine-eh-eh..

Dena: Enough!

Sullen silence.

Lucy: Mrow? Mow? Mow? Mrrr-ow?

After banging her head fruitlessly on her desk, busy writer relents and spends 10 minutes combing a purring cat who informs her the bonding is over by reaching back to bite her hand. Writer returns to desk. In wanders fuzzy furball #2, Olivia.

Olivia: Mew? Mew? Mew?

Repeat scene.

Not even 8 AM and I've already been emotionally manipulated by two creatures small enough to fit into a grocery sack. And I wonder why I'm not more productive. 

Custom Pet Cartoons

Buck Jones & BlazeAll friends with pets beware: I have found my holiday/birthday/anniversary gift for all of you for the next five years. Ready? Here is it.

CUSTOM PET CARTOONS. 

Buck Jones (seen here with his dog Blaze) is a national cartoonist and, I recently discovered, a friend of a friend. The idea for the custom cartoons is that you send him 1-2 photos of the pet and brief written description about the scene you'd like illustrated. For example, I might send him a photo of my cat Olivia, my husband Blair, and request a true-to-life cartoon scene of Olivia's butt in Blair's face as he's tucked into bed at 4 AM with the caption, "Feed Me." 

Another option is to send a picture of my friend and neighbor Barefoot Josh running with his three dogs. I watch this little circus go by daily and would love to see it captured in full cartoon glory. 

So my tip for the day is to bookmark Buck's site for future use, especially around the holidays. (And no, I am not being paid to endorse this site. Dammit.)  Who needs a manger scene when you could have cartoon cats and dogs in a tree?

Cheers,

Dena

I'm A Pit: Learning to Deal with Negative Reviews

So the other day I'm hanging out at my desk, pretending to work but really surfing the web for low-carb vegan dinner entrees (don't ask) when a Google Alert e-mail pops up, alerting me that a website called The Second Pass has posted something about my upcoming book, Who Moved My Mouse? Self-Help for Cats (Who Don't Need Any Help). Yea! How sweet. 

Or not. Turns out I'm a pit. A pit is a book not eagerly anticipated by the site's editor, John Williams. A pit is BAD.

Oh, cruel reviews! It's an arrow to the heart. Only, not really. Mr. Williams hasn't read my book--he just didn't like the title. (Maybe he had a bad experience with a cat as a child. Or maybe a bad experience with a cat as an anal-retentive adult. Whatever.) And considering the site reviews some bind-busting books of a high-minded literary nature, I'm quite pleased I even made the radar. Go little cat gift book, go!

Here's the lesson: Once the book is released (or sooner--hey Mr. Williams!), reviews will be coming my way, both good and bad. The trick is to not read too much into either of them and just keep writing. I shared with a friend that I thought the best course of action would be to not read any reviews that come out, period. He laughed in my face. "Yeah, good luck with that," he said. 

He's right. I'll read 'em. And laugh. And weep. And then, hopefully, keep writing. 

I may make a special effort to send Mr. Williams an autographed copy though. Packaged in kitty litter. Poor man sounds like he could use a good laugh.   >^..^<

"Who Moved My Mouse?" Coming Soon To A Bookstore Near You...

Sorry to be blog-silent for so long. I got back from Ohio and had an e-mail waiting from my editor at Ten Speed Press. We're on round two of revisions. Round one was the editor going through the book and making suggestions/comments. I was surprised (and quite happy) at how few revisions there were. I'd heard stories of books coming back with all but five words crossed out, asking for rewrites. I had tissues and Tylenol standing by but, thankfully, they weren't needed.

This round is all about the copy editing. And this copy editor is GOOD. Straightening up my prose right and left. Plus, she's a cat person, and had some helpful comments/suggestions on some of the text outside copy editing. 

It's hard to believe I'll have to wait until October for the finished product. The book seems to be just winging along. I've got sample pages for how the book will be laid out and I've been approving illustrations for over a month. The book is already listed on Amazon and on Random House's author page. 

This is it though. This week is my last chance to make any substantial revisions to the book, so I'm going through with a fine tooth comb. My writer friends have been there in spades for me, responding to my anxious e-mails about "which is the funnier cat litter joke" as though they had all the time in the world to spare. 

I'm surprisingly calm about the whole thing. The only thing that makes me ancy is thinking about all the publicity I need to stir up. I've got a mile-long to-do list when it comes to marketing and promotion and I'm at the point where I need to start making things happen. 

Got any great ideas for making a cat self-help book a bestseller? Send 'em my way!

Cheers,

Dena