BEGINNINGS
I’ve been trying to decide what would be an appropriate blogpost for the first day of the first month of the new year. As you can see, it took me a while to come up with a plan, and now it’s already a week into the month, but since I am not a fan of deadlines (or New Year’s resolutions, for that matter) her we go.
In 2024, I published three books, a cozy mystery in each of my two series and a nonfiction about senior cat care. I expect to publish at least one cozy in 2025, and hopefully two, but I have other projects in various stages of development, so the new plan is to finish some of those as well.
Just for fun, and to organize my own mind, I’m giving you the first paragraphs of these coming works.
Camelia and her ghost cat Soji are drawn into a web of secrets when a girl is murdered in the old, abandoned house on the hill.
Chapter 1: The Ghost of Ida Jacks
The ghost cat twirled in the middle of the carpet. Around and around she went, not so much a cat chasing her tail but a small, white tornado. Every so often she would slow to utter a single cryptic sentence: She is not what she seems. After that, the whirling would begin again.
Camelia Collins watched the antics from her couch. At first, she’d been concerned. She’d asked the little ghost cat what was wrong, what was bothering her, but she’d got no response and gave up. Soji was an enigma, an entity unto herself, and if she didn’t want to communicate in any other way than her macabre dance, there was nothing Camelia could do about it.
Still, the septuagenarian couldn’t quite manage to go about her usual business—not with a ghost cat whirling in her living room.
What would the world be like if there were no more cats? Rinn, proprietor of a small cat shelter, never thought she would have to find out. But this spring the kennels are silent; the kittens linger in a coma-like state. No one knows the cause or cure.
Chapter 1. The End
“They’re dying.”
The tall woman continued to pack her instruments into her case. “I don’t know why. Could be anything—a virus, bacteria, even a toxin in the water. I’ll get some lab work done and maybe we’ll know more. I’ve given them fluids to avoid dehydration, but I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time.”
The doctor touched Rinn’s arm. “I know it’s sad but face it—it’s kitten season. Soon enough you’ll be overrun with little critters. One fertile female and her offspring can produce four-hundred-thousand cats in seven years, you know.”
Rinn sighed. “I know. But that’s just it. This isn’t just happening at my shelter. It’s everywhere. I’ve talked to the humane society, the Feral Cat Coalition, Ally Cat Allies—you name it. Everyone’s saying the same thing. The new kittens are fine through their first month, then they begin to fail. They get sickly and drop into this coma-thing.” Rinn gestured helplessly toward the ominously silent kennels where the small figures lay still as death. “So far none have been revived.”
“Yes, but so far,” the vet countered, slinging the wide strap of her medical bag over her shoulder and heading for the door, “none have actually died, either.”
“But what if they do?” Rinn blurted. “What if they all do? What if it’s a plague, and the cat population is wiped out?”
The doctor gave a nervous snicker. “It’s not. They won’t.”
Rinn felt the sting of tears. “I can’t imagine a world without cats.”
Lorett Glass inherits fifty-million dollars and is diagnosed with fatal brain cancer on the same day. Taking her life in a new direction, she becomes the person she’s always wanted to be—Cat Storm.
Chapter One: The Beginning
The day I learned I was the sole beneficiary of the vast estate of a wild-ass uncle I’d never met was the same day I was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. The inheritance came first, then the diagnosis. Strangely, my thought upon hearing my life was soon to be over was, I’m rich now. I can buy them off. But who was them? God? The fates? The tiny little wayward cells that decided to take a wrong turn in my head? None of those things could be bought, and I knew it. Not fair! sprang to mind with a plethora of expletives.
I was dead. That was all there was to it.
I walked out of the doctor’s office feeling like a zombie. Had to make a plan. Had to get things in order. I had to find someone to care for my cats!
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
There are more in the TBD file, but if I finish these three, it will be an accomplishment.
Have a great year, friends, and “don’t take yourself too darned seriously.”
