Break Out The Bubbly! by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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Time to celebrate! All the Furs and Feathers, the first book in the Cat Tales series just won First Place Best in Category for Humor & Satire. It was awarded by Chanticleer International Book Awards under their Mark Twain Award category.

To say I'm delighted is an understatement. As the book made it through each stage in the process, my excitement grew. First it had to clear the slush pile and make it to the Long List. Next came the Short List. After that was semi-finals. I had my fingers crossed each time an email arrived announcing the books that advanced to the next round. When All the Furs and Feathers finally made it to Finalist, I knew it had a good chance at winning one of the prizes.

The awards banquet was held on April 20th in Washington State. That's on the other side of the country from me, and I was unable to attend. None the less, I knew all the CIBA winners would be announced shortly afterwards. 

Day after day, emails trickled into my inbox announcing winners, usually two at a time. Every day I'd open an email only to find announcements of winners in categories other than Mark Twain. 

Finally, on May 1st the email announcing the winners in the Mark Twain Humor & Satire category landed in my inbox. I clicked on the icon holding my breath. It was a short but torturous scroll down the page to find the list.

And there it was. Right after the grand prize winner's name (Congratulations Mike Murphey!) I saw it: Eileen O'Finlan - All The Furs And Feathers

Okay, it was hardly the Nobel Prize for Literature, but it definitely made my day and then some!

The first thing I did was text or email my family, writing group, friends, and coworkers. Then I posted it on my Facebook page. Most importantly, I gave my cat, Autumn Amelia, a huge hug and thank you. After all, she's one of the main characters in the book. Without her and her sister, Smokey, (who is at the Rainbow Bridge), the book would never have been written. They inspired it.

Autumn Amelia assisting in the writing process.

As I write this post, I am more than halfway through the first draft of the next book in the Cat Tales series, All in the Furry Family. With an expected publication date of February 2025, readers won't have to wait too long for the further adventures of Smokey and Autumn Amelia. Expect a lot of surprises, silly antics, new characters, and even a wedding in Book 2.

Writing with Pets by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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As people who share their homes and lives with pets can attest, their furry companions are often involved in everything that goes on at home. For me, that includes writing. My two cats, Smokey (now a Rainbow Bridge Angel Kitty) and Autumn Amelia even inspired my latest book, All the Furs and Feathers. In some ways, they helped me write it since I often took my cues from their personalities.

It's one thing to pay attention to the pets, think about how they might respond given various fictional situations, and put it in a story. It's quite another to have them physically involved while trying to write that (or any other) story.

About a year ago, I became a Rover.com sitter and began boarding small dogs in my home for weekends while their pet parents were away. Two of them, Chewy and Bruce Lee have become regular clients. They are getting used to me spending time on my laptop while they are staying with me, though if a writing session runs too long in their estimation, they make their feelings known and cut it short. However, the last time they were at my house, Bruce Lee decided that rather than trying to drag me away from my writing, he'd help out. Here's how that went:

Does this mean he's now co-author on my next novel?

Not to be outdone by the dogs, Autumn Amelia has been spending more and more time huddle as close as she can get to my laptop whenever I'm working on it, inching ever closer to the keyboard. A strict editor, she keeps a close eye on my writing. I can tell when she thinks her editing skills are needed. Here, let me show you in pictures how that progresses:

Autumn settles in, ready to start assessing my current writing session.

Hmm...this could use some help.

Autumn thinks she can write it better so she takes over

It's well-known that pets bring us many joys and having them in our lives offer a number of benefits. Who knew writing help was one of them!

A Little Help From My Friend by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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My cat, Autumn Amelia, has developed a new interest - my writing. Or more specifically, anything I'm doing on my laptop. Lately, whenever I'm working she insists on joining me. I'll be typing away, totally "in the zone" with my writing, oblivious to everything around me when suddenly an adorable furry face appears, obscuring part of my screen. She sidles up beside my laptop to take a peek at my work. If she approves, I get a head bonk. If not, a pair of white paws appear on the keyboard to help me out.

I must admit this can be rather bothersome at times. Helpful as she may think she is, the sudden emergence of a long string of random letters across my screen can be a bit disconcerting. Worse is when she hits backspace or delete and I lose what I've written. Once when I left my laptop unattended I came back to find that everything on the screen was upside down. I had to call a techy friend to walk me through putting it rightside up again. It took several steps so I've no idea how Autumn Amelia managed to get it into that condition in the first place. She's obviously very talented.

Lest you think I could ever get mad at her, check out this face. No one could get mad at this face!

Autumn Amelia behind my laptop plotting the right moment to "help" with my writing

She's been known to do a little proofreading, too.

Ghosts and Haunted Houses by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

 

As far as I know, I have never seen a ghost. However, I did live in a haunted house, although without my knowledge. When my husband and I and my brother and sister-in-law first moved to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island we bought a house that had been converted into a duplex. My sister-in-law told me that she was continually seeing a man coming and going from their side. I saw no one on our side.

I returned to Alberta to visit family and friends and was describing where our place was to a friend. She began asking questions about it and said that a friend of hers had lived in that house years earlier. She also asked me if I had seen the ghost who occasionally wandered through the house there. I said no, but my sister-in-law had.

She said that a man had died in that house and her friend had seen his ghost often while living there.

I’m not sure if the reason I did not encountered that ghost nor any others in my life is because I don’t believe in them or because I’ve been lucky. However, if a ghost is reading this, this is not an invitation to come to me and prove you are real.