Category: Life with Coon Cats

Oh, the buzzin’ of the bees in the peppermint trees ’round the soda water fountains

So, I think I failed to mention here that, after research and consultation with the resident cats, and some really hard shopping, we ordered in a cat tree, which arrived today.  I have already declared it a success, as Mozart immediately jumped onto the box and declared himself the King of the Cats.  I will note that the cat tree is still in the box, because I need to do stuff like move the sofa and take down some pictures before I can actually build the tree.  This may happen tomorrow.  Or it may not.  Pictures will be posted, when and if.

Mostly though, I’ve been writing.  I really, really want to finish this draft before we head off to BEA, and, barring something Tragic, it looks like I’ll be able to do that.  Phew.

Sometime in the last. . .month or so, I received a mailing from Planned Parenthood that included a “membership card” — has anyone else gotten one of these things?  It has my name on it, and an ID number and states that I’ve been a “member” since 2001, which is apparently as far back as their database goes.

Here’s the thing, though.  I don’t consider myself a “member” of Planned Parenthood.  I support their work, but I didn’t join; I wasn’t aware that Planned Parenthood was a club.

Am I alone in being annoyed by this?

To top it off, Planned Parenthood has been calling (and calling and calling) for the last few weeks, because they have this matching grant thing they’re trying very hard to qualify for.  I wish them well, but I really resent it when they tell me that my “usual” donation amount is $150 and can they put me down for $300 this time?  All said in the perkiest voice imaginable.

First of all, my “usual” amount is more like $25; the $150 was the result of the fundraiser Pinbeam Books did for Planned Parenthood when they were hosed by the Pink Ribbon People.  We donated the proceeds of all sales of The Cat’s Job, for a month, I think it was, to Planned Parenthood.

Also?  Here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, three hundred dollars is Serious Money.

So, yeah, I’m annoyed on a couple of fronts, here.  And I’m also saddened that they feel they have to adopt hard-sell tactics, which are going to lose them donors like me, who don’t want to be manipulated, and who have limited funds, and more than one charity worthy of those funds.

Sigh.

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Progress on Carousel Seas

73,968/100,000 words OR 74% complete

“This just come in — express, Kate.  Ain’t nothin’ comes in express.”

Still life with Mozart

As I mentioned elsewhere, yesterday, I need to write eight scenes (now seven-and-a-half) and a wrap-up in order to finish a Compleat Draft of Carousel Seas.  I spent some time yesterday mapping out those scenes (which is how I know that the number is eight), and everything seems solid, all the way to the finish line.

In other news, we need to go to town today, to take on groceries.  We had been going to go to breakfast, but suddenly! realized! that?  Today is Mother’s Day.  So, Steve is prepping for Omelets at Home, which will be very pleasant, and then we’ll go grocery shopping.

Fans of Mozart will be pleased to know that he’s back on the case.  Here he is, already at work on the pages I wrote yesterday:

Mozart is on the job May 12 2013
Mozart is on the job
May 12 2013

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Progress on Carousel Seas

67,842/100,000 words OR 67.84% complete

I felt it then, the weight on the land.  The same weight, I was certain, that I’d felt before.  Slowly, I turned toward it.  As before he-or-she was located in the blackness of the alley between the Sun Wheel and the carousel’s storm wall.

“I’m glad you came back,” I said softly, while I sent warm tidings and promises of safety through the land.  “Please don’t run away.  I’m Kate Archer, the guardian.  I’d like to see you, and to get to know you; to serve you, if I may.”

As on the previous occasion, the weight shifted on the land.  I had the impression that whoever it was had come one or even two cautious steps in my direction.

Which was approximately when all hell broke loose.

Blowing through

My intention is to be off the interwebs today, so that I may beat feet on Carousel Seas.

However, it occurred to me that I failed to update Mozart’s Fans regarding the results of his blood work, yesterday.

Everything is normal, normal, normal.  Kidney values are high normal, which means Keeping  A Close Eye, but even these aren’t unexpected in a fifteen year old cat.

The sadness is probably just that; he misses having another guy around to help him “know his place,” as the vet put it.  We pointed out that Scrabble keeps him in his place, but apparently that wasn’t exactly what he meant.

I did just drop by the cat hammock to ask if Mozart had a few words for his fans, but Mozart is not granting interviews today.  Below is a picture, illicitly taken by a paparazzi.

No interviews, please
No interviews, please

And, now?  I’m turning the internet OFF.

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee

So, yesterday was a previously-arranged Day in the South to do the accumulated Southern errands, and, ohbytheway to stop by Pine Point and Old Orchard Beach, Camp Ellis and the Great City of Saco, to make sure everything there was all right and tight.

I’m pleased to report that we look to be in good shape to meet the summer.

Tide's REALLY out. Old Orchard Beach May 7, 2013, about 4 p.m.
Tide’s REALLY out. Old Orchard Beach
May 7, 2013, about 4 p.m.

 

This morning, we took Mozart to the vet.  He has not recovered his spirits since Socks left us, and even though we’re giving him lots of Mozart time and flying mouse (Mozart is not a fan of the Red Dot; Scrabble, however, is a Mighty Red Dot Hunter), he clings and cries and is clearly unhappy about something.

On examination, the vet finds him to be in pretty good shape, for an Elder Cat; his teeth are good, his heart sounds strong, lungs clear.  There’s what might be a touch of arthritis in his right hip, but, really, at 15, you can expect to be a touch stiff.

The vet did do blood work, and we’ll hear back about those results this afternoon.

In the meantime, we have an email interview to finish up for the BEA, and I’ve gotta get some  work done.

Hope everyone is having a reasonably enjoyable day.

Whenever the trees are crying aloud, and ships are tossed at sea

Slow-moving morning, here at the Cat Farm.

Mozart is dozing on the blanket-covered box at the kitchen-end of the hall.  Scrabble has mounted a watch in the window, and she’s keeping a Very Close Eye on the bird feeders.  Especially the woodpecker block, which has been the center of a number of antics this morning.

Bird discursion:

I mean, I know woodpeckers aren’t terribly bright.  By my observation, this usually works for them, because they don’t tend to notice scary stuff.  But this morning, we have a visitor who can’t figure out the chain from which the woodpecker feeder is suspended, and it’s distracting him something terrible.  He’d come in, start whacking at the seeds, see the chain, and forget to eat, as he looked at This Strange (and Shiny) Device, first from one eye, then from the other.  It was sad, in an amusing sort of way.

He has finally seemed to have figured out that, if he hangs upside down from the bottom of the feeder-cage, he doesn’t have to see the chain, and he can eat in peace.  Which is what he’s doing now.

In publishing news. . .

For those who do not tweet, last evening it was Revealed that Carousel Sun (the sequel to Carousel Tides) will be published in early-ish 2014.

So!  This is what we now know about the Lee/Miller and Lee publication schedules for the next little while:

Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume I:  July 2013
Dragon Ship mass market: August 2013
Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey & Pern: August 2013
Trade Secret: November 2013
Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume II: January 2014
Carousel Sun: Early-ish 2014

From the hey, that’s cool pile. . .

We hear from Madame the Agent, who gets her Locus before we get ours, that Necessity’s Child has hit the Locus Bestselling Hardcover list at Number Two.  Not too shabby — and you did it yourselves!  Well done, and thank you.

And! Under the topic Discussions Worth Having:

Kyle Cassidy, photographer extraordinaire, muses on pockets and women’s clothes, here

. . .and there’s a follow-up, here

This is a useful and thought-provoking discussion about what pockets (or the lack of pockets) says about autonomy.  Really worth a read.

Eye Candy:

Really interesting series of pictures of the remains of plane wrecks (all wrecks depicted are non-fatal) in remote places, right here.

In writing news:

Today! Is the day! That I will break 50K.  I know this because I’m only 172 words short of the goal as I start my work day.  It’s nice to occasionally have some certainty in life.

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Progress on Carousel Seas

49,828/100,000 words OR 49.83% complete

“You kill that shark?”

She raised disdainful eyebrows.  “Must you ask?”

“In fact, I don’t have to ask.  I’m curious about your motivation.”

In which the author plays in the dirt

Today, I schlepped dirt.  Dirt is heavy.  After a while, even shovel-fulls of dirt are heavy.  However!  I have finished now with the dirt, and with broadcasting the seeds mixed with purple sand, and with the raking.  All that remains is for the seeds to grow.

Grow, little seeds, grow!

After playing in the dirt, I cleaned the cat boxes and took a shower; ate the lovely lunch Steve prepared for us, and wrote some words.  In a few minutes, I’ll write some more words, and then I’ll break for supper and perhaps read (Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance) for a bit before going to bed.

I know.  I know.  You’re asking yourselves, How does she do it? How does she continue at this brutal pace which is the price of her fame?

Years of practice, children.

Years and years of practice.

In other news, Mozart wants me to come into the living room and play chess with him.  Or something.  I know this because he’s marching up and down the hall declaiming at the top of his teensy, tiny little Maine Coon cat voice.  Despite this, I believe that there will be no chess this evening.

So, what did you do today?

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Progress on Carousel Seas

45,708/100,000 words OR 45.71% complete

“The elephants are definitely disquieting. In fact, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb if I say that they look downright drunk. Who wants to snuggle up with a bunch of inebriated flying elephants of a cold winter’s night? And it’s definitely not the kind of thing you want to put in the baby’s crib.”

“Never had much to do with elephants.”

“Me neither — and I’m here to tell you that blanket isn’t making me eager to seek them out.”

 

 

Boring old Saturday

For those keeping score, You’re All Just Jealous of my Jetpack did arrive in this morning’s mail.  Its arrival was the most exciting thing that happened today.

Which, after the week that just was?  Is not a Bad Thing.

Mostly what I did today was sit on the couch and write, ably assisted by Mozart, who took up his post on the floofy blanket beside me, and never wavered in his duty.  The sacrifices one makes for Art.

Three thousand eighty-eight words were forged upon the day, which I think is pretty exciting, though I’d hoped to crack forty grand, total, today.  Perhaps tomorrow, for which I also foresee the excitement! of!

Cleaning the bathroom.

Hope everyone had a satisfying Saturday, without alarums or excursions.

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Progress on Carousel Seas

39,464/100,000 OR 39.46% complete

“The famous Archer wit. Well, I’ll tell you something – I ain’t laughing! As for even trying to talk to Jess Robald about anything sensible, I guess I know better’n that. Woman’s a fool, always been, an’ if there were still state sanitoriums, you’d’ve never had the chance to use her as a cat’s paw! Me, I know where the brains are in this. It’s you, just like it always was!“

In which Monday was a holiday

. . .so the pleasure of setting the trash out is deferred until tomorrow.

Yesterday, I did a little more yard work — bagging leaves, raking mats out of the rosebush, sweeping the dirt and dead leaves off of the statue in the Cat Garden.  The ground’s thawing, but you hit the frozen stuff about four inches down.

In cat news, Scrabble appears to have decided that Socks has gone on to another of his fan clubs.  Mozart, however, is spending a worrisome amount of time in the cat circle with two of the stuffies Socks favored.  I don’t think he’s sick, just. . .sad.  Anybody know how to do grief therapy with an aging Coon cat?

In this morning’s inbox is notification from BN that You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, by Tom Gauld is shipping.  I think this is splendid, but. . .

I pre-ordered this book many, many months ago.  Three months ago, I got a note from BN that the book had been delayed, did I still want it?  I assured them that I did.  Two months ago, they again wrote to tell me that the book was delayed, did I still want it?  Yep, I did.  One month ago, they wrote in all sorrow to tell me that the book was never going to be available — and canceled my preorder.

Two days ago, I ordered it directly from the BN website, and today it’s shipping.

This wouldn’t worry me quite so much if I hadn’t also gotten a note from BN telling me that there were canceling my order for The Abandoned because they had not received, and had no expectation of receiving, the book from the publisher.  I received that note the day after the book arrived here at the Confusion Factory.

In other news. . .the news is horrifying.  I see that the explosion in West, Texas last night registered as a 2.1 seismic event.  That’s. . .quite an explosion.  I’ve been staying away from any place that offers me pictures of what’s left of the town — the narrative is quite enough.

Added to the attack on the Boston Marathon, and the rupturing of the crude oil lines in Arkansas. . .

Everybody stay as safe as you can, OK?

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Progress on Carousel Seas

34,897/100,000  OR 34.9% Complete