0 An Intellectual Feline

This is Lickety. (Some of you have met her before.) Lickety is a most
precocious cat. But does she really read Herodotus, who wrote about
the Greco-Persian wars? Lickety, can you tell us who won?

Does she really read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (upside-down, no less)?
Lickety, what's a genre?

I would say that Lickety loves her people, her people love books,
and therefore, she snuggles up to her people, then wakes,
innocent and ignorant, to the books they've left behind...

except that those are the eyes of a cat who has learned compassion.
Lickety, what's life like in a Siberian prison camp?

(Sunny, on the other hand, makes no pretense of being an intellectual.)

Detail: An Intellectual Feline

0 Kittens! And Other Links for a Wednesday Evening

YOU GUYS. Over at Written? Kitten!, every time you write one hundred words, YOU GET A PICTURE OF A KITTEN. (Thanks, S!)

Over at Teen Librarian Toolbox, I really like the post "Dear Media, Let me help you write that article on YA literature." It begins, "Recently, there have been a voluminous number of articles written about YA literature. And they are mostly wrong. So if you are a member of the press and given this assignment, I thought I would help you out a little.  But first, let me start by telling you why I am, in fact, qualified to help you out. Credentials are important, something these articles always seem to lack..." (Thanks, R!)

As a companion to her recent blog post, "Some things to consider when writing fat characters," Rebecca Rabinowitz has written "Some things to think about when writing thin characters."

******

Pardon me for a minute while I copy and paste everything I've written in this blog post so far and GO GET ME A KITTEN.

*flops*

******

Okay, I'm back. Over at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, I like Cathy Butler's "Sir Gradgrind and the Great Amphibium; or, a Peripatetic Defence of Fantasy."

On my writing desk:

And my plan for the evening:

Happy Wednesday :o)

Detail: Kittens! And Other Links for a Wednesday Evening

0 Tiny Vid in Which I (Attempt to) Talk about Upcoming Books

I tried to make a video about what it's like to be working on my upcoming books with my editor, Kathy Dawson. It's 40 seconds long. I think you'll like it.



(If you can't see the video, go to my Blog Actual.)

Detail: Tiny Vid in Which I (Attempt to) Talk about Upcoming Books

0 Alternative Uses for Cats

When writing or reading seated while not at a desk, you should try to prevent neck strain.
Pile items on your lap to create a makeshift desk. Pillows, books...

whatever's available.

The best makeshift desk is a blissed out desk.

Detail: Alternative Uses for Cats

0 Christmas Critters

The Australian cattle herder awaits his Christmas stocking.

Do you herd what I herd?

Christmas catnip and the adolescent cat. *ecstasy*

This is my 17th Christmas. Catnip is for children.
I choose to look beautiful
and comport myself with dignity.

Except that this thing keeps
following me around, guys. Guys?

I am such a good boy. I know because
this human keeps telling me so.

Detail: Christmas Critters

0 Press Play if You Need a Smile

Thanks Lora :o)

Detail: Press Play if You Need a Smile

0 "God have mercy on the [domestic longhair] who doubts what [s]he's sure of"

I've been listening to one of the best Springsteen albums ever, Tunnel of Love. When we were kids, my sister (codename: Cordelia) and I came up with a theory, convincingly backed up by textual evidence, that the song "Brilliant Disguise" was about our cat Sugar, a beautiful and secretive creature one was likely to cross paths with "out on the edge of town." The person "call[ing her] name from underneath our willow" was, of course, Mom (who went outside every night to call her in), and the thing Sugar had "tucked in shame underneath [her] pillow" was, as I recall, a hairball.

It made sense at the time.

This is the album with "Tougher Than the Rest," "Spare Parts," "Cautious Man," "Tunnel of Love," "One Step Up," etc., plus, Bruce Springsteen wearing a bolo tie. If someone said to me, "For a period of one month, your half of every conversation about anything that matters must be conducted solely in lyrics from this album," I would say, "That is not a problem. Where did I put that harmonica?"

This is actually the nail polish post I mentioned a few posts ago, but I'm getting there in a roundabout way. It has to do with Springsteen's Bill Horton, the "cautious man of the road." Do you know about Billy's tattoos? "On his right hand Billy tattooed the word 'love' and on his left hand was the word 'fear.'" I've been feeling a kind of camaraderie with Billy lately when I paint my nails, because while I don't know that I've ever been moved to paint my nails in "love" and "fear" colors, the colors/arrangements I choose always have significance to me. I love that Billy knows what matters to him and has the urge to be representational about it on his own body. I love being thoughtful about the way I decorate my body, which is, after all, the container of my life.

Some recent expressions:

Also, you should read that story in the background.
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes," by Roger Zelazny -- so good.

On my left hand, little suns rising...

... and on my right -- this was really hard to photograph, so it might
be hard to parse, but those are little moons in a dark sky over water.
If you look closely you'll see the moons are crossing the sky nail to
nail. It's time-lapse nail polish :)

Maybe clearer here?

Or here. If you're curious about what I was
reading when I snapped these pics, it's the story
"Judith" by C.E. Montague.

By the way, I've blogged before about how important it is to make messes when you're writing. I also recommend it when self-decorating.

Left hand in progress.

Almost done with the left hand.
Wait for it to dry...

...so you can use that hand to paint a mess on the right :)

***

Final note: I am planning a small blog break, starting now, during which I intend to contemplate my bloggy equilibrium. Be well, readers, and see you on the flip side.

Detail: "God have mercy on the [domestic longhair] who doubts what [s]he's sure of"