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While I was slaving over the taxes today, the rest of my family was enjoying a nice lazy sleepy afternoon.

Wendell. Wendell Shmendell. He was home from the hospital, then went back in 2 days later for another 5 days, and is newly home again. We now know has some neurological bladder thing that isn't fixable. So I don't know how long he'll be with us. I can't think about it.

For now though he is so happy to be home on the comfy bed instead of the intensive care ward with a catheter and IV and all the other strange sounds and people and kitties and doggies and mediciney things. And you know I'm very very very very happy to have him!



Charlie. My love. My big lug. "Thanks Mom for putting these towels on this chair, they make a really comfy bed!"


Shmoopie. My little quiet shadow kitty who likes to sit right on top of whatever I'm doing, especially if its "money papers" (bills).


Isabella. In another month or so she'll get taken to the groomers for her summer shave ~ they do a "lion cut" which is just the cutest thing. They leave her mane and feet and a little bob on the end of her tail. The rest is all bare! But in the hot hot hot summer weather, she's much cooler, and best of all, she loves the haircut!


And Saachi. Last but not least. He's my newest. He showed up a couple of weeks ago and just glommed onto us. He's an older, ratty, beat up sweet sweet sweet tomcat (who's not a tomcat anymore!). You can't see how cute his face is here because he's lolling in a post-catnip toy session and is a little stoned. (If you want the BEST catnip toys EVER, get these ~ HotCats Catnip Toys ~ OMG, they're fabulous, you won't be sorry!)

So that's pretty much how things go around here. I work, they lay around.
Next time I'm coming back as one of my own cats, if that's possible.

I recently had a manuscript returned to me with a--reasonably--kind rejection letter. It was a submission to a magazine, and while the editor liked certain aspects of my story, she felt that it was "a shade gruesome". Well, it was an adaptation of a fairy tale, and fairy tales can be gruesome, cruel, and twisted at times (must be because they're not just for kids!) I did not feel that my story fell within those parameters, but there was the slight matter of the giant chopping off the heroine's feet. Be that as it may there are some well-regarded picture books which would qualify as "a shade gruesome". I think of The Amazing Bone by William Steig. Or The Wretched Stone by Chris VanAllsburg. And Chocolatina by Eric Kraft (a teacher is quite prepared to eat a child simply because she is made of chocolate!) I think you can add to that list The Shivers in the Fridge by Fran Manushkin. The book tells the story of a family living in a refrigerator, and each day they endure a giant earthquake and a monstrous hand which removes a part of the landscape. One day, the hand removes father, too. The hand returns, replacing a jar of jelly, but no father. Day by day, members of the family are picked off, until only the little boy is left, cold and alone, telling himself stories in the dark for comfort.

Now, this is a picture book, so you can rest assured that all turns out fine. But the book lost me about half-way through, when the mother is whisked away after becoming trapped in a bowl of jello (she took a dip in it, and then it solidified around her.) The picture of two gnarled hands removing the bowl, with the mother stiff in place, and looking, frankly, terrified, was a bit much for me.

So what's my point? Well...has that editor, who rejected my manuscript, read this book? Because clearly there is a market for creeping out kids. Or at least their parent readers. And "Shivers" has been well received, too, with a stared review from Booklist and favorable words from School Library Journal. Both reviews comment on the potential to scare, but clearly it is not a detraction, because the scare is balanced by humor. I guess if you can laugh a thing off, you won't cry later when you actually stop and think about it.

Trust me--the giant cutting off the heroine's feet--it's funny!