It's a cat thing

like smelly breath, for one. To put it more starkly, Kitty O's breath truly does stink, and yet I don't mind it. Why? because it's a cat thing, like the fact that he never listens to me, or the furs he drops all over the house. I handle it all with a smile because it's part of who he is, and I never forget the kitten he used to be, all eyes and playfulness.

Books start out with shiny covers and crisp pages and if, like the velveteen rabbit, they are loved, those same pages turn limp, often stippled with drops of coffee or tea, or whatever else I was eating while reading. I keep the books I have read and enjoyed so I can return to them whenever I need to. Why? because that is a book thing, to be read over and over again.

I wonder what a writer thing is? Could it be the expectation placed by readers that each new book be the same, just better than the previous one? Could it be producing a book a year? Or could it be, like James Joyce, writing a book to confound critics? Or perhaps be like Shakespeare, an enigma for the ages? Who was Shakespeare, really?

I know who Kitty O, is and I know the books that have shaped me, and now I must return to writing my Commissioner Oscar D'Costa series. Perhaps one day I will truly discover what a writer's thing is...until then, I'll keep on typing.