Bewitching Felines by Eden Monroe

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Ahhh, bewitching felines…. I lost my heart to them many years ago.

Our first cat at home was named Tiny, because she was, well … tiny, and I loved her completely with a child’s trust that she would live forever. But of course she didn’t, and I can still feel that horrible wrenching grief when she met an untimely end. I was the one who found her and it was my first experience with that kind of loss.

There have been several others who have soft-footed their way through my days, both real and imagined. Like the very spicy Cinnamon in Almost Broken:

“The telephone stopped ringing, finally, and as she stood there willing herself to relax, a dark orange ball of fluff strutted proprietorially into the hallway, stopping for a moment to massage the beige tufted hall runner with extended claws. It created a rhythmic picking sound that would only be appreciated for its usefulness by another feline, and never by an antique wool rug.

‘Cinnamon, you stop that,’ Viola scolded the cat gently, having recovered herself. ‘You’re going to damage my runner. I’ll put you in the back room and leave you there if you keep it up, my dear.’

The cat ceased its mistreatment of the hall runner as requested, regarding her mistress with wide olive green eyes that said she knew Viola would do no such thing….”

It’s been said that animals sense when people are good, or maybe they simply respond to whatever good there is in a person. Viola Callaghan in Almost Broken was not a nice person by anyone’s description, but she loved her cat. It seems that was one of her few redeeming features:

“Cinnamon yowled impatiently again, clearly not pleased that Odell was in the house. The cat tolerated him at best, hissing if he took liberties such as trying to pet her long thick fur, tickling her behind her ears or trying to get her to play with her yarn toy, dangling it annoyingly in her face. That was last week, and she’d ignored it with a sour look, stomping away in disdain. He got on her wrong side just by being here because she was fiercely protective of Viola, and Odell had felt the sting of her claws often enough to verify that.

‘I’ve got to feed the cat,’ Viola explained when the yowling shot up a notch. ‘She’s on a schedule and I have to keep to it because she’s diabetic.’

‘I thought it was her thyroid.’

‘It is, and during her last check-up they discovered diabetes, so….’

‘Well, she’s old, but she couldn’t ask to be any better cared for. You are devoted to that cat.’

Viola stooped and picked up the cat, Cinnamon settling into her arms and immediately beginning to purr loudly. ‘She’s the only one I have in this world who loves me unconditionally, so why wouldn’t I be devoted to her?’’”

The most recent feline star of my life was Daisy, for fifteen years anyway, and she was actually part of every BWL book in the about the author section. She was amazing, thirteen pounds of feisty devotion.

I remember the day Daisy came into my life, a spirited, orphaned, barn kitten. She made her debut the day after the exterior boards on the barn had been oiled. That’s when we saw this little cream coloured kitten march out of a horse stall early one spring morning. She was maybe four or five weeks old at best, with a jet black nose, matching ears, tail (white tip) and paws (except for one cream-coloured toe), and our first thought was oh no, she must have gotten into some barn oil residue. But how was that even possible? Any unused product had been safely stored away when the job was done, but however it happened, she would have to be cleaned immediately.

On closer inspection we saw that it was not oil at all, those were her natural markings! So … how on earth did a Himalayan kitten get in the barn where that spring’s crop of feline babies were either orange, grey, white, black or an interesting combination thereof? Only Daisy had Himalayan markings; the typical flat face, pretty blue eyes, and a bit of orange on her forehead, obviously in salute to a ginger tabby mother who was apparently now missing. And where had the kitten been all this time? It seems her mother had gotten into a small opening in front of one of the horse stalls and had her baby in there.

We placed Daisy with another mother cat and her kittens in the haymow, and she was quickly accepted, the latest addition soon nursing contentedly.

The mystery of Daisy was solved the very next day at the local convenience store when I saw a lost pet poster for Gabriel, a beautiful Himalayan tomcat. So we knew where at least one of his stops had been while he was on the lam.

At about eight weeks Daisy made the journey from the barn to the house in a pet carrier, and to ease that transition we brought along another kitten, Irene, whom Daisy had become attached to.

And so continued Daisy’s life on the farm, still as feisty as ever, with one feline fiasco after another. Such as leaping unexpectedly onto the bannister at the top of the stairs. When she reached the bottom she flew through the air and landed with a thud. Another vet visit, but there were no injuries and in a couple of days she was raring to go again

When she and Irene were spayed, we had to keep them both quiet for a few days. Once home I opened the door to the pet carrier and Daisy shot out like a cannonball, leapt into the air and flipped over onto her back. The vet said I should bring her in right away to be checked, and Irene watched from her little bed as we loaded Daisy into the carrier once again. Thankfully though, Daisy’s stitches had held.

She was sassy and irreverent by times and doled out affection strictly on her terms. If you violated that trust with an impromptu hug or tickle you were soon to know it wouldn’t be tolerated. Still, she was loving and loyal and enjoyed keeping me company when I wrote. She was my muse.

Daisy left us in June of 2021, her health slowly going downhill during the two years prior to her death. Her vet had warned me that her breed would likely only live to the age of fifteen or sixteen, and with the aid of regular meds she made it just two months beyond her fifteenth birthday. And then things took a dramatic turn and sadly it was the end of the road. We miss her terribly; I still expect to see her around every corner, even after all this time. I couldn’t even write about her until now because it was just too difficult; the painful goodbye still too fresh. But I want to remember her in a significant way, and so this is for her

Writing During Vampire Hours -- Secrets Writers Keep By Connie Vines #Writing Tips, #NightOwls, #Cowboys, #Western Romance, #Fantasy

⏰🦇🌙 

Vampire Hours?

According to the Urban Dictionary:

When someone keeps vampire hours, they are awake all night and sleep all day. They are unreachable by phone, text, or social media during daylight hours when the rest of their friends are up.

While I do not sleep all day...  

"I don't 'rise' from my bed at sunrise, either.  😎. 

🌞 vs. 🧛

The conventional wisdom is that morning people are high achievers and go-getters, while late risers are lazy. But what if going to bed in the wee hours is actually an advantage?

🕯  On the school site before 7:00 a.m. was my day job (my-oh-my was that torture.) until I recently retired.

The Wonder Years

Staggering into the kitchen, adjusting the curtains so that I was not blinded by the sunrise. And wondering how I was going to get through the day on 4 or maybe 5 hours of sleep.

Wondering: Would I wake up if I spent my lunch break in the car and fell asleep?  

Wondering why I could only write at night? Life would be simpler if I could write during my lunchtime. Le Sigh.

Admissions

While I don't broadcast to the world, I write until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning; nothing goes unnoticed when you live in the burbs. 😎 

Everyone is up at sunrise going to work or working in his/her front yard. 

I wear sunglasses at 10 a.m. when I check the mail. No one 'sees me' until an hour or two before sunset when I sit on my front patio with a cup of coffee. 

They all seem to go to bed (all lights out between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m.) not long after sunset.

My sweet neighbor across the street said, "Whenever I get up at night, your lights are still on..."

"I know..." 😉

🦇 Writing should never be a race to the finish. It should be an extended immersion in a hot tub or a relaxing meditation. Good writers write at night because it's devoid of distraction, there's nothing else left to do in the day, and there's no one else to hurry to.

🦇Bursts of inspiration like this at night frequently within the creative community. Writers, artists, and inventors throughout history have all said they've been most inspired during night-time— think of Tennesee Williams. He spent so much of the night writing he would be found asleep in his bed the next morning, still wearing the same clothes as the day before (source: Williams' notebooks). (Connie doesn't do this.)  

📖📱💻

Do you have a favorite time you like to read?

Please visit my website/blog. Remember my books are on sale at Smashwords, too.

Happy Reading, everyone.

Connie Vines

XOXO

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Editing a book, like editing a movie – by Vijaya Schartz

Available on amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

I recently watched a documentary on film editing that got me thinking. The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing is a 2004 documentary film directed by filmmaker Wendy Apple. The film is about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles. It’s available on several streaming services, and you can also find it here: 

https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Edge-Magic-Movie-Editing/dp/B0009PVZEG

When I watched this documentary, I couldn’t help making comparisons. To me, it was exactly like editing a book. Action and reaction, how to handle dialogue, what to cut and what to keep, what to enhance and what to gloss over, closeup vs. wide lens, seamless transitions, when to speed up and when to slow down, pace and rhythm, focus, and using all these elements together or one by one, to enhance emotions. 

I’m often told my books are fast paced and read like movies, and maybe that’s the reason. I think like a movie editor. I’m very visual, and in my head, when I write I see the scene on a big screen in full action and color. After all, no matter the medium, writers like film makers are first and foremost storytellers. 

From this documentary, I also learned that film editors in the early stages were women and remained anonymous. Later, when it became clear that editing was an important part of the creative process, more men joined the teams. Only recently did film editors get recognized by the movie industry and received well deserved awards. 

Bad editing can ruin a good movie, and brilliant editing can save a mediocre one. So, it also is in book editing. 

That’s why I like to take time to thoroughly rewrite and edit my books like a movie, cutting, pacing, enhancing, and moving paragraphs around, breaking up descriptions and sprinkling them as dialogue tags, removing the fat, then looking for inconsistencies. Editing a book is not just looking for typos or grammar mistakes, although I hunt for them relentlessly. 

After I’ve done my very best and I like the final result, I send my new baby to my publisher… then I pray they like it, and hope my publisher’s editor will catch what I didn’t. 

I’m currently working on ANGEL SHIP, the first book in a new science fiction fantasy series (BLUE PHANTOM) set in the Azura Universe, and scheduled for release in October. 

In the meantime, you can read the two other series in the Azura Universe: Byzantium and Azura Chronicles. Available on amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

Vijaya Schartz, author

Strong Heroines, Brave Heroes, cats

http://www.vijayaschartz.com

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How do you choose your character’s names—Tricia McGill

Find all my books here on my BWL Author page

We writers get asked many questions. Main one being, “Where do you get your ideas from?” Next on the list is, “Don’t you run out of ideas?” Then there’s, “How do you choose the names?”

Of course, we do not have trouble answering these queries as after years of writing the main one comes easily. Our ideas come from our imaginations. We all have one of these, just some use it more than others. Since I was knee high to a grass hopper I have dreamt, and can honestly say still do most nights. Sometimes I awake with the dream still there vividly and at other times it is just a thought that drifts into my sleep and slips out again as swiftly and can barely be recalled next morning.

My latest book is another Australian historical. I love writing about Australia’s vivid past so it seemed practical to begin another. As far as naming my characters goes, I rarely have trouble finding names for my main characters. I already more or less know the characteristics of the person, their age, their personalities, so their names seem to come naturally. As this book is set in 1860 Australia, I can’t give them modern names although of course some names are still as popular now as they were back then. When I take a look through the current popular names for boys I see that Jack, William, Thomas and Henry are still going strong. As far as girls go, Charlotte, Amelia, Grace and Chloe are still popular and will probably always live on. My mother’s name was Annie, so that will always remain one of my favourites and is timeless.

My hero’s name this time is Walter (Walt) as it suits him to a tee, and my heroine is Faith of the title which is, ‘For The Love of Faith’. Good solid old Walt is always there for Faith who deserves his devotion. I seem to have more trouble finding names for my secondary characters as we do not want them to outshine our main people. Often I will name one of the secondary characters and out of the blue decide to change it. Thank heaven for good old ‘find and replace’.

I do have a lot of characters who play a very small part in my stories so to me their names are often just as important. I always keep a running character chart as it wouldn’t be a good idea to start calling somebody Charlie and then on the next page rename him George. My characters are very important to me so must be named carefully. 

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Adjectives - avoid or use?

https://bookswelove.net/martin-paula/ 

Adjectives

When I was at school (a long time ago!), my English teachers insisted we used lots of adjectives to make our writing more descriptive.  In contrast, writers today are warned against the overuse of adjectives. 

Various reasons are given for this: too many adjectives give your novel a ‘purple prose’ tint, or clutter the text with unnecessary modifiers, or give the impression that the writer cannot quite find the right word.

Mark Twain said: "As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out."

The question is – which adjectives should you strike out?

First there are the redundant adjectives – the tiny kitten (aren’t all kittens tiny?), the large giant (ever seen a small giant?), the narrow alley (an alley IS a narrow passage), the cold snow (if snow wasn’t cold, it would be water!). Omit the adjective if the noun is self-explanatory.

Secondly, there are the adjectives which can be replaced with a much more descriptive word e.g. ‘a downpour flooded the streets’ instead of ‘heavy rain flooded the streets’, or ‘the witch cackled’ instead of ‘the witch gave an evil, sharp laugh’.

There are also some adjectives which have become almost meaningless and should be avoided (except occasionally in dialogue), including wonderful, lovely, gorgeous, stupid, foolish, horrid – and the obvious one, nice.

However, a story without any adjectives could end up as very clinical and dry. As with most things, moderation is the key. We are not advised to avoid adjectives altogether, but to avoid overusing them. Eliminating all adjectives would be as big a mistake as overusing them. Adjectives can clarify meaning and add colour to our writing, and can be used to convey the precise shade of meaning we want to achieve. We should save them for the moments when we really need them and then use them selectively – and sparsely. 

Adjectives should only be used to highlight something the noun can’t highlight. We’ve already seen that the ‘narrow alley’ has a redundant adjective, but what about the ‘dark alley’ or the ‘filthy alley’?  Not all alleys are dark or filthy so in these examples, the adjectives are adding something that is not already shown by the noun. This is the main reason for using an adjective.

And now I'm off to take my own advice and look through my ms. for redundant adjectives!

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