Mollie Hunt's Blog, page 86
March 16, 2014
Night Verse
There is a shade of indigo that describes night. I’ve chased it all my life in order to paint the nocturne, if only in my mind. Add to it, some Van Gogh stars, a hint of Coltrane, a string of lanterns, a time warp.
Stillness pools like breath held. I walk outside, air warm as silk; not a thought in my mind.
March 11, 2014
SHAMELESS PLUG FOR MY NEW BOOK. And a cat.
The plug is not for the cat. Cats don’t need a plug from me; there are many wonderful affiliations helping the homeless find homes, the sick become well, the lost be found, and all without any help from my blog. Mention of the cat was just a ploy to get your attention.
On the other hand, I am, in fact, a cat shelter volunteer, as is Lynley Cannon, the protagonist in my book, Cats’ Eyes, a Crazy Cat Lady mystery, for which this shameless plug is aimed. Lynley and I have a lot in common: we are older (nearing sixty); we love cats. She’s retired; I’m not, and I envy her every day I’m at stuck work while she’s out volunteering or visiting with her granddaughter or attending a Scottish social, but such is life.
Writing about Lynley comes very naturally to me. If you liked Cats’ Eyes (if you’ve read Cats’ Eyes), you’ll be glad to know I will have the second of the series out soon and am working on writing the third. Writing is more fun than editing, so I like to do a little of both. It keeps the words flowing, rolling, gushing, sliding and whatever else words do to be birthed as an image in the mind.
I’m also working on publishing Cats’ Eyes as a real book, one that can be held in the hand. eBooks are amazing and much easier to read that I could have guessed, but they don’t have that paper-ink smell, that smooth weight to them. And it’s always nice to see a good cover, a colorful visualization of the treasure inside.
Bottom line is, I like my book and want to share it with other readers who enjoy a cozy cat mystery. Sincere and profound thanks to Lillian Jackson Braun whose Cat Who series opened my eyes to a new guilty pleasure so many years ago, to Shirley Rousseau Murphy, who traces her cats from their magical mystical roots, and to the many story tellers who pioneered a new frontier for us ailurophiles. Without you, I’d be writing romance novels
.
“Happiness is a good book and a cat.” Anonymous.
March 8, 2014
CAT SPRING
Today is March
March the first.
Third month of the calendar year.
The month that brings spring. Ah, spring….
Today I am at the coast. The sun does a slow strobe: in and out, bright and gray, then bright again. Through the window, clouds cruise past, fast like they have some place to go. Probably heading to Portland to rain on someone’s parade. Portlanders are used to it. Everything they say on Portlandia is true.
My cats are napping. Big Red bigger than his bed, sprawls onto the couch at both ends; Little purrs as she sleeps, curled into a ball. Tinkerbelle is awake. She watches out the window for prey, a bird or a squirrel. I’ve seen her growl at deer that go past in the forest. Brave tiny girl, I’m so glad there’s glass between her and her foe.
~Dirty Harry~
And Harry. Harry is king. He sits so proud, at seventeen years of age, on his heated mat in his chair by the fire. Harry is in renal failure, end-stage – Hush, don’t tell him because he doesn’t seem to know. But that’s absurd; certainly he knows. He accepts; that’s what cats do. They live till they die. Unlike people who run and hide and fight to defer facing the inevitable.
But I digress. Where were we?
Oh, yes… Ah, spring.
March 6, 2014
KITTY HOW-TO INSTRUCTION MANUAL: Notable
Freddie Mercury
Notable ailurophiles include Albert Einstein, Florence Nightingale, H.G. Wells, Sir Winston Churchill, Pope Benedict XVI, George Burns, John Lennon, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Queen Victoria, Nostradamus, and Vanna White. Freddie Mercury of the band, Queen, phoned home to his cats when he was on tour.
Notable ailurophobes include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Hitler.
Find this and other cat tips and facts in Cats’s Eyes, a Crazy Cat Lady Mystery, and read a cozy mystery at the same time.
February 26, 2014
KITTY HOW-TO INSTRUCTION MANUAL: Wild and Crazy Cat
By nature, the big cats are elusive and reclusive, preferring to avoid all contact with humans. Though they will fight to protect themselves and their kits, there have been only 88 confirmed attacks on humans between 1890 and 2004 in the US and Canada, and of those, only twenty were fatal. Though cougars were once found in all forty-eight states, now only fifteen are home to them.
Find this and other cat facts and tips in Cats’s Eyes, a Crazy Cat Lady Mystery, and read a cozy mystery at the same time.
February 18, 2014
KITTY HOW-TO INSTRUCTION MANUAL: Sniff Snippet
Cats depend on their sense of smell for survival, to sniff out food, mates, as well as alert them to danger and potential enemies. A cat’s sense of smell is about fourteen times as powerful as a human’s; they have twice as many scent receptors in their noses.
Find this and other cat tips and facts in Cats’s Eyes, a Crazy Cat Lady Mystery and read a cozy mystery at the same time.
February 17, 2014
KITTY HOW-TO INSTRUCTION MANUAL: Sad Cat
~ Nelson ~
Cats can be extremely stoic and are very good at hiding their pain. Often by the time their symptoms become apparent, the cause may be fairly advanced. Know your cat; note any changes in eating, sleeping, litter box habits or general well-being. If there is any question, take kitty to your vet – it’s always best to err on the side of caution.
~ Sir Mantequilla ~
All these cats are now happy and well in loving homes. Find this and other cat tips and facts in Cats’s Eyes, a crazy Cat Lady Mystery, and read a cozy mystery at the same time.
~ Prince ~
February 15, 2014
CATS, BOOKS, AND THE BEACHES OF MAZATLAN: Part 3, BEACHES
Día de la Constitución, Mazatlan 2014
February 5 was Día de la Constitución (Constitution Day), and everyone was celebrating. The beach was alive with colorful sun umbrellas and wandering bands. Air thrumming to the um-pa of tubas, boom of drums, sizzle of horns, and ring of guitars. Voices mingled, some fine, others not so fine. But the tubas were what fascinated me the most. How do you carry a tuba around all day, through the sand, under the hot Mexican sun, playing one’s heart out?
There are often a couple of bands strolling the beach for tips from the tourists, but on this holiday, they were everywhere. One would break as others played on, echoing up and down the beach. Then, as the sun cooled into the blue Pacific and night came, indigo and splashed with stars, the celebrations dwindled; the umbrellas folded up; the bands went home. Constitution Day was over.
I woke, three in the morning, to the tentative um-pa that I had come to know preceded a tuba serenade. In my half-dream, I saw him: a lone, player-less tuba, personified like an ancient Disney cartoon. He swung and swayed up out of the ocean to perform his happy melody on the shore till I drifted back to sleep.
February 9, 2014
CATS, BOOKS, AND THE BEACHES OF MAZATLAN, Part 2: BOOKS
Vacations and books are meant for each other. Hours of endless, uninterrupted reading… This time I read three books. The first was “Spock’s World”, a well-written TOS Star Trek story Diane Duane, 1988. (Yes, I’m a Trekkie) The second was a cozy cat mystery which I will not name since I didn’t think it was very good. Still, it sold widely, even in the check-out aisle of Walgreens. Go figure? The third, which I am still reading and enjoying, is “A Bitch Called Hope”, by Lily Gardner, Portland mystery author. Phillip Margolin calls it “…a well-crafted mystery novel with a heroine you can root for, plenty of action and a satisfying ending.”
For me, writing is right up there with reading. The perfect weather, sunshine and warmth; the rolling thunder of the surf; the timeless time with no obligations – all are totally conducive to the creative spirit. I am well into my third Crazy Cat Lady mystery. Here’s how it begins:
“I’ve been called a crazy cat lady all my life, but I never knew what crazy was until now. Languishing in this dingy hole, knowing my freedom is in the well-meaning but inept hands of amateurs, I fear I shall lose my mind. The options are simple: I could be released; I could be arrested; I could be convicted and sentenced to a horrible, public death. I have to laugh. The thing I regret most in this gray limbo of incarceration is not the fear of an uncertain future; not the anger at being judged without proof; not even the terrible food. It’s the absence of my cats.”
Lynley Cannon, “Cat’s Paw, a Crazy Cat Lady mystery”
I wonder what comes next. Because I write like I read (only slower), I do not yet know…
February 8, 2014
CATS, BOOKS, AND THE BEACHES OF MAZATLAN
What is your dream vacation? Your dream Mexico vacation? Late nights, loud music and pitchers of Margaritas? Since I drank my life’s allotment of Margaritas (and more) in my formative years, I needed to find something else to do with my time.
Not a problem.
Part 1: Cats
There aren’t a lot of cats in Mazatlan, at least not where we stay, in the tourista Golden Zone. There are plenty of ferals at the marina, and a volunteer TNR group to care for them, but for many years, my Mexican vacations were bereft of cats. No so now; I know where to look.
Up the street from the hotel is a bookstore with a bookstore cat names Zoey, a well-fed silver tabby who enjoys her siestas. And across town is Amigos de los Animales, the Mazatlan Humane Society where they care for both cats and dogs. The facility is basic compared to our state-of-the-art Oregon Humane, but a dedicated group perseveres to help animals against all odds. I love to visit and give the kitties some petting time. (Check out the link from this page to see what they do.)
Kitties at Amigos de los Animales
But the first cat I saw was a kitten who had hidden away in an SUV. A boy had heard his meow and extricated him. The black kitten was in perfect condition but a little surprised by his adventure. No more surprised than I.
Kitten in the wheelwell
Next, Part 2: BOOKS
