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That's Harlequin Historicals author Lyn Randal on
the
right and me on the left, at a Southern Magic meeting
in 2004. Heard recently that Lyn may have a new
book coming out from HH later this year. Yay!
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Harlequin author Bonnie Gardner on
the left,
presenting me with a First Sale plaque from
Heart of Dixie Romance Writers.
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This is the cake Heart of Dixie
had made to celebrate
my first sale. You'd be surprised how giddy a
little something like a cake and a plaque can make
a new writer feel.
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Feral kittens born in the basement
of my day job
office. There were three; I took two and an office
mate took the third one, Boo, a little black
long-haired male. All three kittens were males. |
Cody, the red tabby. Notice
the "thumb." Cody is a
polydactyl—he has 6 toes on each of his front
paws. He's what's commonly called a Hemingway
cat, because Ernest Hemingway was famously a
fan of polydactyl cats.
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Mac is a brown tabby. He has the
classic tabby
pattern, with large black stripes. In this photo,
his
eyes look blue, but they're turning a golden green
color as he grows. |
Cody, sitting in the windowsill,
pretending he's the
thoughtful sort. As if.
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Cody, sitting on top of my
wireless router and next
to part of my collection of books on serial killers and
violent crime. Hmm, that's one of Gayle Wilson's
books on top. It sort of fits the theme. Cody is
squinting at the bright sun outside. Or maybe he's
contemplating bird-i-cide. Whichever. |
Mac is just a pretty, pretty cat,
isn't he? He's not
even six months old yet in this picture and he's
already up to 8 pounds. |
Lest you think that the kittens are all the cats I have,
au contraire. This is Sabrina, aka Tatertot, aka
TayTay. She's technically my sister's cat, but we
all feed her, so I consider her part of my cat family.
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Doesn't this look like a painting?
That's my sister's
other calico, Tabitha, aka Big Fluff. She's lying on
a comforter on my niece's bedroom floor. My
niece is a slob.
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Here's another little calico,
Gingersnap. When my mom got up after midnight to let one
of the dogs out to go to the bathroom, she heard a pitiful
mewling sound and spotted a tiny kitten. She tried to
catch her, but she went down into a storm drain. The
next morning, my niece went searching for her and was able to
catch her. She's a pretty little Torbie (tortoiseshell
with tabby markings). |
We decided Ginger needed a buddy,
so we went to the vet. Came back with not just one but
two new kittens. This is Bella, a silver tabby.
It's hard to tell in this photo, but despite the fact that
she's tiny, she has huge feet and tufts on the tips of her
ears that make us wonder if she has a little Maine Coon in
her. |
This is Tempe. Or, as I call
her, Blackjack. She's the biggest of the kittens.
We were going to just get one companion kitten for Ginger, but
my mom made the mistake of taking both my sister and my nieces
with her to the vet. They couldn't choose between
Blackjack and Bella, so they adopted both. |
After about a week, it was clear
that Bella was so much smaller than Ginger and Blackjack, she
was getting ganged up on during play time. So we decided
to go to the vet to adopt one more kitten to be a pal for
Bella. As it turned out, I lucked out and got the little
Siamese mix I've been wanting ever since my cat Simi, another
Siamese mix, passed away at the age of 15 a few years
ago. This is Mina, and she's a tiny little bundle of
feistiness. In case you're wondering, yes, they'll all
be spayed, just as we neutered the two boys. Spay and
neuter, people! There are too many kittens out there
needing homes already to add to the mix. |
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