Book 21 update

I've been making progress on the writing of Book 21, although it's been less than I would like.

It's currently at 28K words, which is at least 2/3 done. It's been a difficult one to write, but part of that is the nature of the book, as I've mentioned before. However, once I figured out a couple of key concepts, the story flowed much better.

I have a LOT of notes for this one, and that may be part of the problem. It helps and hinders. It helps by being a resource but hinders by cementing ideas too much. Sometimes it's best to only have the basic idea synopsized and maybe a concept of the story style (flashbacks, linear AtoZ storytelling, etc.) and then figure out the specific scenes. However, having too many notes also helps in that I have a concept of the plot points to hit. In this, I also realized as I wrote that I didn't have everything I needed to keep it from ending up with major plot holes or continuity issues with the established canon.

I had one scene in particular that blocked me for probably two weeks. Fortunately, once I had an epiphany about an important idea in the story, the writing moved forward again.

In the process of figuring out these key points in writing Book 21, I was also trying to figure out the final four books timeline of events. Then, I had another epiphany that wrote itself into the narrative in Book 21, a summary of off-camera activities that would otherwise be boring conversations. That was the catalyst I needed! It gave me an exact timeline for the final events that have been building up through the series, in the way that I wanted. It gave me the logical reason I needed to make the final two books make sense for how things will happen. I love it!

I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. I wouldn't write it if I didn't like it.

My goal is to finish the first draft of Book 21 by the end of January and publish Book 19 by early March 2025.

Thanks for reading!

Bilbo is a total lap hog

I said it to my family before Bilbo was ever brought in the house--he is a lap hog. He's also becoming a bit of an attention-whore.

It took some encouragement for him to get comfortable sitting in our laps when we're comfortably on furniture, but he's more frequently climbing into laps. He's never had a problem when we were on the floor, but he wasn't sure about getting up on furniture.

As I type this, he's lounged in a circle of my legs and hanging over my thigh while I balance my laptop on the arm of the loveseat where I'm sitting. He invited himself up. We no longer have to invite him up by lifting him. He's helping himself to the luxury of a warm lap.

And one more event happened that shows just how well he's fitting in. Today, Jack pounced on Bilbo and wrestled him. No hissing or growling, but Bilbo was left dumbfounded after Jack zipped away from his exuberance. All the other cats growl or hiss at Bilbo when he wants to play with them, but then Jack decided to go ahead and play. It ended as quickly as it began, but that's a start. Jack was wary a short time later when he came back and Bilbo was watching him.

Four weeks in the house. Only four weeks. Everyone is adjusting far faster than I expected, considering the older cats range from 9-14 years and those three came to us as kittens, so they've all had many years in our house.

And I took this yesterday:

All three boys were in our bedroom snoozing in close vicinity like it was something they'd been doing all along. They all settled this way while I was praying the Divine Mercy chaplet, and Bilbo once again laid close to where I was kneeling.

He's better about entertaining himself with toys and is pretty funny when he does, but he does have to learn that body parts are not toys. Our older kitties all learned while fairly young not to attack our hands or feet or arms. He's having to learn as an adult, but he's a smart boy, very smart.

He's also starting to clean himself more often and better. I hope that continues. I'd prefer not to have to bathe him.

Bilbo's such a sweetheart that I just can't believe no one was looking for him. However, I looked at the local online marketplace again, and there are people reporting found cats as I did with him and no one claiming them. There are also a lot of listings of cats for sale or giveaway.

We received an early Christmas present when he came to us. He's turned into the gift that we didn't know we needed.

To all of you and your families (including the four-leggeds), have a warm, joyous Christmas! 🎄

The real Saint Nicholas

Santa derives from the Latin "Sanctus", which means "Saint" in English. Claus is thought to be Nordic, derived from Nicholas. Only the Catholic church (and Orthodox) recognizes saints.

However, the story of a man delivering toys on Christmas Eve in a red suit and a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer is a completely modern commercialized version of this great saint of the Holy Catholic Church. The greatest gift any priest (bishops are higher level priests) is Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

On the Catholic calendar, December 6 is the feast day of Saint Nicholas, not Christmas Eve or Christmas. However, all saints would honor the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saint Nicholas of Myra, pray for us!

Bilbo... week 4

Bilbo continues to adjust well. 

A day after my last post, Bilbo got the zoomies for the first time and was playing with toys himself and running through the house. He wanted to play with the others, but they still weren't having any of it. It was funny to hear his trill and see him zipping after an imaginary prey like the old cats do (less often than they used to).

Later the same day, he got into the treat game. We throw treats and they run to get them before the other kitties get them, although we generally try to throw them towards one cat or another and it usually works out well, unless they're not paying attention and one of the others is. Bilbo went from not knowing what to do to running after treats.

A few days later, he didn't want anything to do with those treats. 🤷‍♀️

He's rarely under anything anymore. In fact, he seems to like sleeping on the dining room chairs (cushioned) or out in the middle of the floor. He likes to stretch out that big body of his and seems to get too warm too easily, unlike the others who curl up like pill bugs. He doesn't even mind the sound of the air-popper and popcorn popping. Things like that don't even make him blink anymore, although the vacuum is as scary to him as it is to any cat and he doesn't like the rustling of our winter coats.

He's starting to jump more when he plays too. I think he's getting a feel for the laminate flooring throughout the house; laminate legs, you might call it. He doesn't jump like the middle two kitties yet, but he's getting more air time, so maybe he doesn't have an injury. Rather, maybe he just doesn't like the lack of traction.

He's picky, though, about his food. He has been since the beginning. I even tried Tiki cat treats and he turned his nose away while the others wanted the pasty goo.

The other cats are getting more trusting of him. The oldest is getting closer without hissing or growling. There have been a few swipes from the old guy, but Bilbo mostly lets it go like water off a duck's back. He's just too lazy and laid-back to care much, although he does give the others wider berths at times because of their signs of not liking him.

I wish he would be less lazy, at least enough to clean himself better. His coat is getting oily and flattened. We may have to give him a bath. He does clean himself a little, just not enough and not everywhere.

He also has moments when he doesn't want any attention and times when he's clingy for attention. Friday evening (two days ago), I was sitting at the kitchen counter and he jumped up on the stool next to me to climb into my lap. He laid his head on my arm or pressed his forehead into my arm and purred the loudest I've ever heard him. (This morning, he did the same thing and got to a point of attacking my arm--this time, he wanted to get me to play.)

And later, oldest seemed to want to play with Bilbo. It was brief but the spark was there, then Bilbo didn't know how to react and walked away. Things could be happening that we didn't expect for a long time. 😻

This will probably be my last regular update on him unless something new happens. Overall, he's coming out of his shell and is more comfortable in our house, and our other cats are less worried in his presence, even relaxing. 

I wish I could have gotten the picture yesterday (Saturday), but Bilbo saw me and ruined it by moving. The oldest was sleeping on the cat toy cabinet (actually for litter, but that's too messy, so it became their boy box in which they go in and pull out toys to play with) by the bay window and Bilbo was sitting a foot away looking out. Neither seemed to care about the other being so close.

Oldest is usually where Bilbo is--near me--but his second
favorite location is the corner of the bed, as in this picture.

As proof, I was able to get a picture last night. While I was praying my rosary, the two were peaceful and close. Both have a tendency to want to be with me when I'm praying. There's a peace of spirit in prayer that I think they feel and enjoy. Oldest kitty has been my prayer pal since I started on a regular routine. I suspect this is the start of Bilbo joining us.

It helps that, although Bilbo is reasonably young, his energy level is similar to our older kitties. We also have played with them all in the same room and make sure our old kitties get lots of reassurance that we're still here for them. We let them see that, although we accept the new boy, we also still give them our attention.

Great progress in the last week. I expect by spring that we'll be seeing Bilbo snuggling with one or more of the others.

Meow! ("God bless!" in catspeak)

"A Very Pagan Christmas" (SHAMELESS REBUTTAL)

writing and publishing updates

Just a couple of quick updates for readers...

Rereading the series

It's almost not worth mentioning. I didn't find much to fix in Book 3, but it was fun to read it again. I made more notes for adding details to my wiki document for the series than any fixes. I really enjoyed the flow of the book and the events of it and the refresh with what has happened. I found some tiny issues but nothing major. There were two seeming contradictions that needed clarification but that was done with just a few words. Otherwise, it was a few scattered, almost nothing changes--more stylistic preferences than anything.

Art is never finished, just abandoned.

I can read my books innumerable times and always find something that I'll want to "fix". I'm never fully happy with it. But when you go back after a few years, you've grown and had other life experiences that change your perspective. In a series like this, you also know more about the characters, but you can't let that influence how you saw them when the earlier books were written.

It's still fun to read them, though, and they keep me occupied while I'm on the treadmill. I've started rereading book 4 now of the series and will continue through all of them until I'm caught up, which will be just in time going into the final books.

Writing Book 21

I keep discovering that maybe I know what I'm doing with this book. Don't take that the wrong way--it's the little details that really bring it all together that I worry about getting wrong. I get inspirations--while driving usually--that are exactly what I need. That happened again on the way to church Saturday morning. I discovered another piece that I hadn't considered but which was right in front of me. (My flip phone was going bad on me (after almost four years) so I decided to upgrade to an iPhone. I love Siri--I can tell her to make a note or a reminder while I'm driving and not take my attention off the road. And I never forget what I was thinking of by the time I reach my destination. That's always a danger--forgetting that incredible spark of idea by the time I can write it down. I don't how many times that has happened. Incredible inspirations gone forever... 😔)

At the present, Book 21 has about 20K words written, and I tweaked a few scenes based on the idea I had on my drive to church. It was brilliant and demonstrates L'Ni's intelligence so well. I couldn't have come up with it, however, if I hadn't finished the most recent scene, which was a catalyst to making me see this. It was always there in the back of my mind but not fully formed until the right moment. Now, I have one more piece to demonstrate how brilliant of a tactician and strategist that L'Ni is.

I'm making progress on this book. I can't believe that after this, I'll only have four more to go in the series. I'm sure I'll miss it when it's done, but at the same time, I will be ready for it to be done. In other words, it'll be the perfect timing. I just need to perfect the final climax of all this buildup throughout the series.

I'm excited to see what happens. I hope you are too.

Thanks for reading!

Bilbo update

Adapting to our house is progressing quickly with Bilbo. You wouldn't really know he had been a stray. He wasn't that far in socialization from being a regular housecat to start, but now he's even more like the others. It's been almost three weeks of having him in the house.

• He's climbing into hubby's lap on his own. (He's always loved laps but was reluctant to get up onto the furniture unless we lifted him up.)
• He's exuberant for toys. (And a bit too much wanting the other cats to play with him--they still don't want that.)
• He's learned the feeding routine and knows the sound of the treat bag. (That never takes long. 😉)
• He knows what the water bottle means. (We've used it a few times when he starts hunting the older kitties. It's the only thing that gets his mind off that behavior.)🙀
• He comes to the door when people are coming or going, instead of running away to hide.
• He doesn't hide much anymore or run from normal household sounds or activity. (Once in a while, he does get startled, but it's much less than it used to be and he doesn't flee to hide from us but goes a little distance and stops to look back.)
• He's staying out in the open more near us.

The only issue I see is indications that he may have had a lower back or leg injury. He doesn't like to jump off the ground when playing and remains low, but he does go up and down the stairs and will jump onto the dining chairs (carpeting helps). We even have pet stairs for the old kitties getting up and down from our bed and he uses those instead of jumping up and down. When he does jump, his hid legs don't seem to hold steady but give out a little beneath him.

He returns to the vet the day after Christmas for his second DRC/Leukemia vaccine. Then he'll be done for the year. At that time, I'll have the vet see what they can determine of his back end. He seems to be improving slowly (jumping for the feather toys once in a while), but I'd feel better with them examining him a bit at that time.

Overall, we were very blessed that such a cat found us (as was he to find a good cat-loving home). We weren't looking for another cat, but when the cat distribution system delivers such a wonderful feline, you can't refuse.

Meow!

ps--Adding this pic after my initial posting. They've been eating like this for the last week already. No fights or growls or stealing each other's food, except the usual food steals by middle two from the oldest kitty.

Oldest two eat closest together while third oldest eats by the shredder (pushes his bowl around, so the little corner stops that, and he tends to go after the food of everyone else, although he's learned to wait until we're not looking) and new boy, Bilbo, eats near the dining table on the carpet. Bilbo tends to push himself back while eating, so his back legs always slide back and he has to pull them up close repeatedly while eating. We feed him on the carpet for this reason and to make the oldest kitties more comfortable with eating in his vicinity. Our oldest (Siamese) is the one shorted--he sits back and gives us a forlorn look if anyone starts eating his food. He doesn't do anything to stop them. We usually sit at the counter and watch, since the others do try to steal his food at times. He's a big baby.

Why did Aztecs Stop Human Sacrifice & Secrets from Our Lady of Guadalupe

Happy Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

The miracle of the tilma image is proof of God's great love that graces us through the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Here are a few interesting facts about the Our Lady of Guadalupe image:

• The image is proven to not be painted by human hands.
• The image and fabric have miraculously lasted in the original condition for nearly 500 years.
• The weak cactus fiber, of which the tilma was made, should have decomposed within 15-20 years of being woven.
• No natural or animal mineral colorings, or paint, are found on the image.
• The image itself is iridescent, and cannot be produced by hand.
• Mary stands on a crescent moon, the same crescent moon that was in the sky on the day of her apparition.
• Mary's mantle is a constellation map, the same constellations that were in the sky as on the day of her apparition.
• The constellations tell the story of the Gospel with the arrangement of "Leo" in the womb of "Virgo".
• Our Lady's garment is a topographic map of the geographic location of her apparition.
• On Mary's neck is a small black cross, identifying her with the Catholic missionary priests.
• Over her womb on her dress is a four-petal flower—the Aztec symbol of life and divinity.
• In the image Mary is "clothed with the sun" with "the moon at her feet" as described in Revelation 12:1.
• A doctor once heard a heartbeat coming from the image when he placed a stethoscope over the womb.
• The eyes on the image have the refractory characteristics of human eyes.
• Mary's eyes, when examined through a microscope, reflect the images of the witnesses present at the tilma's unveiling, including Juan Diego and the bishop.

(from https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/the-miraculous-image-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe/)

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, pray for us!

Catholic priest explains: Majority in Hell now are there because they didn't believe there's Hell

Bilbo's progress

I've read there's a general 3-3-3 rule of cat adoption--3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months--each with its general expectations of settling in. I never really paid much attention to time frames with our other cats. Bilbo is ahead of the stages.

He's speeding along in his acclimatization to our household. Only a week after his vet visit, he started playing with toys and scratching on the cat scratchers. It's now been ten days and he's already much less skittish about new sounds and activities and has chosen my husband as his person above all others. Part of that could be due to my encouraging my husband to take Bilbo into his home office at times to avoid potential trouble from our oldest kitty, who still doesn't like him.

Oldest two kitties from months ago, before Bilbo was
ever a visitor, much less a part of the household. I hope
one day Bilbo gets to sleep this close to them.

What's not to like? Alas, I can't make my old momma's boy see reason. He's threatened by a new cat in the house. We do our best to not allow unsupervised freedom. The old cat growls and hisses when Bilbo looks at him but gets up to sniff when Bilbo is looking away.

Bilbo isn't quite familiar with the house rules yet, but he is learning. Today, he jumped into a chair next to hubby, who was eating at the table, and tried to get onto the table. He got scolded and pushed off the table back to the chair, then sat patiently and watched. Then he was rewarded with a little petting for staying down.

Later, he tried scratching on the dining chair's fabric seat. I scolded him and he stopped and didn't return to it. Then I rewarded him with a pet and a "good boy".

Cats can be trained. We've done it at least three times successfully. Bilbo will learn, but since he's still a bit timid in the new environment, we have to be a little milder in our correction than we were with the others. As long as he stops the undesirable activity, the least amount of correction necessary will be used (a harsh "No!" or "Stop!" is generally enough to startle him into stopping the undesired behavior, like clawing furniture, or a "Get down!" like we do with our tortie when she gets on the countertops). Just like with horses, start with light pressure and increase until you get the response you desire; eventually, they learn to respond to the lightest pressure, because they anticipate it getting worse. If a light scold is all it takes to make him quit, that's doing well. Then reward the right behavior.

He's also already eating close enough to the others to learn not to attempt to eat their food. He's tried it, but we push him away and he goes and sits and watches. Our resident cat that was a barn cat wasn't nearly as polite as Bilbo when he first started eating with the others.

It really is that simple. Bilbo is a smart boy. After taking right to the litterbox we provided in his initial confinement, when he was let out into the rest of the house, he found and used the other litterboxes we have. I don't doubt he'll quickly learn the rules.

Since the neuter is healing (no problems there and swelling gone), his eyes are brighter and he's begun cleaning himself like a normal cat again. He's having to decompress from the newness and fear of strange sounds and activities less. He even ventured out to explore the catio with the youngest of our other cats today since the weather was nice enough for them to go out.

In fact, the only thing that's not yet progressing is the relationship between him and our oldest cat.

That will take more time, but with his easy-going personality, I'm sure they'll get along some day.

That'll be an update I'll be excited to share. I wish I knew Bilbo's background, but at least his future looks good.

God bless!

------------

Update 12/8/24: Bilbo doesn't even freak out from hubby's snoring. 😴 

He knows he's home. 🥰

writing progress

My dry spell is over. I just found the key to Book 21 that had been missing! It was quite a lightbulb moment in writing tonight. The events of this epiphany won't happen until near the end. A lot of other stuff has to come in between, but it will be worthwhile for readers to see exactly how the pieces of the plan come together in the ultimate trick.

A lot of that other stuff I have felt, or did feel, inadequate to write, which gave me some hangups. This book, ARMOR, is a complexity of L'Ni's intelligence and planning. It's not like SOUL SHADOW, which was Nya searching for the key to his entrapment by the creature in his mind. I didn't have that completely planned out but pantsed a lot of it, unlike I thought I had with this. Trying to write a story to reveal the extraordinary psychological understanding of a character of L'Ni's caliber is like playing chess against a master when you can't win as an amateur. It's intimidating.

No, I'm not that bad. Okay, yes, I am bad at chess. I'm actually very sensitive to reading people's body language, tone of voice, and specific word usage, picking up on subtle cues that most people miss, much like L'Ni, which is how I developed that aspect of his character. However, he's incredibly intelligent and I've been able to get by without having to go too far out of my comfort zone without breaking that.

The big thing about planning a story like this is that it requires careful plotting to make sure nothing is overlooked. I wouldn't be able to write myself out of a corner in a story like this. I can't pants anything like I've done with so many of the other stories. I have to think ten steps or more in advance like L'Ni would do in this very serious plotting he's devised in Book 21, or it would all fall apart. To use an appropriate metaphor, he's playing the series game Trellix but on a life or death level. What he's doing is not a game, but the metaphor fits. He's moved all the pieces into place for a far greater trick or manipulation than even Zaer could devise.

I never imagined how that fictional game was going to relate to so many aspects of this series.

Anyway, that's all I can reveal without giving anything away. Book 21 is the result of something discovered by a character in Book 20. Like all the books in the series, this builds on what's come before and is something hinted that must now be resolved. That stress of trying to keep a growing history of events in mind contributes to some of the issues I might have in writing, but I love the epiphanies that make this so much fun!

Thanks for reading!

New cat... and other updates

The new cat, Bilbo, has been taking up some of my attention, but he's settling in nicely now that he's feeling a bit better and getting used to our household. Tomorrow marks one week since his vet visit and having his tomhood taken away. He has never growled, hissed, bitten, or scratched at us or the resident cats. He uses the litterboxes and has never sprayed, despite being neutered as an adult. He's only ever clawed on the cat towers with sisal rope. It's like he's been an indoor much-loved cat most of his life, except for one barncat behavior I recognized--he rubbed on the youngest cat, who has been the most accepting of him (no hissing or growling), probably because he was a barncat in a barn full of other cats when we adopted him as a kitten.

We have worked out a way to adapt him to the household. Only one cat, the oldest, is strongly objecting (growling and hissing) to Bilbo's presence yet after we had him out for a couple of days. Since putting Bilbo in the bedroom of our oldest kid, she let Jack (youngest of our three resident cats) in with him, since Jack usually likes her room. I think the fact that Jack is so laid back with other cats has helped Bilbo, although the normal house noises still spook him at times.

We're allowing supervised daytime house outings only and keeping Bilbo in daughter's room at night yet to avoid any unsupervised trouble. It could get really dicey since he prefers to be in our bed, where the oldest two kitties who least accept him usually sleep. How long this process takes until Bilbo fully acclimates to the household and is accepted by all the resident cats is anyone's guess, but I'd bet by Christmas that he'll have the run of the house 24/7; I'm not going to push him, however. He's pretty laid back and adapting well but does get overwhelmed by all the commotion and newness of it, then he retreats to our bathroom/walk-in closet or under our bed to decompress. I don't want him in our room so much until the other cats all accept him.

Bilbo is also starting to play with toys. He was shy about that just a couple of days ago. He's a lazy boy, though, like Jack. I'm sure he could hunt in the wild, or maybe that's the problem--toys move and make sounds but aren't as satisfying as catching a meal. But he gets fed regularly and good food that's really shining up his coat and helping him fill out and gain some weight. He wasn't underweight, but I like a little bit more bulge when looking down my cats than his flat-sidedness.

As for myself, I hadn't been able to write for the last week. I got stuck worse and worse and had anxiety attacks complicated by bringing in a stray cat. I put the symptoms pieces together, however, especially since they eased up as I tapered off the Synthroid... and was right. I went into the walk-in clinic to check into what was going on--my thyroid had become normal or even hyper. (update: I heard back from my regular clinic on this and was told that illness can cause the thyroid to do some things like this. I also just learned that I had been possibly exposed to salmonella from cucumbers at the grocery store; the fever and gut symptoms I'd been having matched that. I suppose that would explain the thyroid issue and the anxiety caused from it. A Hashimoto's flare indeed.)

My creativity and focus have come back now that I've figured things out and am getting over the illness. That was quite a rough ordeal, though. As we say in this part of the country... uff da! I can sympathize with what people with Graves disease must suffer. After a whole day without thyroid meds, I was having major hypo symptoms, however. It's good to not be hyper, but being constantly cold and tired isn't fun either. One more lesson learned.

Now to get past that scene that was blocking me in Book 21. It's finally getting somewhere again. 🥳

Back to writing.

Thanks for reading!