Movie Monday - Louis Wain's Cats

Saw The Electrical Life of Louis Wain the other night. It was pretty good. On Amazon Prime, I think. (As you can already tell, this is less a review and more of an impression, lol. I forget where I watch movies and only post about them a few days later, simply sharing some random thoughts.)

Movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy. Cumberbatch was excellent and Foy was wonderful as well. (Foy played the younger Queen Elizabeth in The Crown - and the narrator in Wain, Olivia Coleman, played the older Elizabeth in Crown. Wild.)

I didn't know much about Wain until this movie and my subsequent search engine results. (Here's a good summary of his life and work at Artsy.net.) But I do remember seeing some of his cat pictures growing up. Wonderful drawings that went through several stages of development as he got older and matured as an artist.

The movie (along with his life story and artwork) is quite trippy. I think they captured his "electrical" essence quite well. Evidently, he believed that we are moved by electricity, a life force of some kind. Well, he's probably not wrong.

At any rate, if you stream movies, go ahead and catch this one online. Nothing objectionable, per se, but it is filled with tragedy. Whimsy has its moments, but ultimately life is tragic. That's the theme I caught from watching this film. I disagree with that conclusion, but it does make for some interesting discussion if you are into talking about those kinds of things. 

Did you see it yet? What were your thoughts? Happy to discuss even if we disagree. (One of his cat illos below. So fun!)

~*~

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Taking Care of Business - Winter Cat Edition

It's been cold in Kansas. Super cold. Got down to single digits and with windchill even colder. Don't like it, but we can handle it. (Unlike Texas who's power grid is, um, yeah.) 

The challenge is we feed four stray cats every morning and evening that live in the field behind our house. They sometimes come inside but go crazy if we keep them inside. You've been there.

Bibbs, Mama, and Noname.

Welp. We finally got three of them inside for the past 3 nights and they eventually settled down. 

Here's a picture of Bibbs (get it? he's got a white bib for a fur coat), plus Mama (the mom of the other 2) and Noname (no name but pronounce noNAme ;) at the window wanting to go out.

Our gray outdoor cat named Bull (no relation to Mama's clan) won't come inside so we open the garage door a smidge so he can come in and find an electric warming pad in a sheltered cat bed. He's been enjoying that for the past few nights.

Even though these cats are a bit wild, they do like to hang out with us once they settle down. 

That was a surprise at 3 in the morning when one of them plopped onto our bed and started purring. I sat up to see which one, but in the dark couldn't tell. And the dang cat didn't stick around to tell me. Their tolerance of us only goes so far. They'd prefer it if we simply fed them and then went to sleep. Sorta like their own pattern.

Do you have any stray cats? Either way, here's a fun video for all cat lovers. ;-)

Stay warm!

~*~

"Tip a buck, get a book."

(via PayPal.Me - an e-book from Tule Fog Press.) 

This blog is reader supported. Thank you for your support!

Where I'm At - Writing Update

Where ya at?

I used to be in sales and our supervisor would ask us every day, "Whereyat?" One word, really. It was a demand as well as a question.

If you wanted to stay on his good side, you didn't answer: "Standing right in front of you!" No siree.

He wasn't talking location, he was talking sales situation. Where are you in relationship to your sales numbers and sales goals? What do you have in the pipeline? What deals are closing? Who's on your prospect list and how many calls have you made today?

It's easier to ask whereyat!

I didn't last long in that career.

Now I'm a writer. And I'm still haunted by that question.

Where am I at regarding my writing and publishing schedule? What have I got in the pipeline? What's coming out next? How many words have I written today? What are your writing goals?

Buddy, where are you at! Boy howdy.

Welp. I'm not where I want to be but I'm a bit farther along than I was a few years ago. Here's a short progress update. Baby steps, I know. I'll have to ramp it up if I want to write full time in retirement. 

Anyway, since January, 2020, I've finished and/or published the following projects. (Links are to Amazon and contain my affiliate code so I get credit if you buy them from me, fyi.)

• Jan 2020 - Thee Will I Cherish (an Amish romance, under a pen name)
• Feb 2020 - Confessions (a Jack Daniels story, part 3 with JA Konrath, not yet online)
• Mar 2020 - published Pale Reflections by Gustavo Bondoni
• Apr 2020 - Tule Fog Tales #2 (collection of my dark fantasy stories)
• Oct 2020 - The Sword of Otrim (fantasy adventure, very pleased with this one)
• Feb 2021 - Runaway! (a Max McCannor story, part 2 with TM Hunter, not yet online)
• Oct 2021 - Cat Potion No. 9 (a Mister the Magical Cat novella, a fun adventure)

In the works...

• A Cauldron of Cats (Mister #2, pictured above)
• Max McCannor #3 (to finish the story arc)
• Ma Tutt #2 (sequel to Ma Tutt's Donut Hut)
• Matthew and Thomas (my Faith Journeys story)
• And a bunch more! (stay tuned for more updates)

Like I said, baby steps. But let me ask you a question now... if you're a writer or creator or in sales or whaetever your career...whereyat? Comment below!

~*~

"Tip a buck, get a book."

(via PayPal.Me - an e-book from Tule Fog Press.) 

This blog is reader supported. Thank you for your support!

My Cat is Getting Old

Our 18 year old Charlie.

Charlie, my orange and white tabby, is 18 and he's winding down. 

Over the weekend he stopped eating for a bit, turned up his nose at every offering. I'd opened four different cans of catfood and he liked nary a one. Even snubbed tuna.

The outdoor strays that hang out in our backyard had a feast. We feed them dry food mostly, but with plates of rejected mushy piling up, they had a Thanksgiving to remember!

This not eating thing has happened before and we took him to the vet that time (just a few months ago). Did bloodwork and his thyroid numbers were high again. 

We've had him on thyroid pills for a while now, but he isn't crazy about them. And trying to stuff a pill down a cat's gullet isn't one of my (or Maria's) favorite things. (Like "whiskers on kittens.")

Last time this happened, the vet gave us some appetite stimulator. An ointment that you rub on the inside of a cat's ear. So I've been doing that.

We also ordered the thyroid medicine in ointment form. Expensive as heck, but beats the pill. I just have to put it on the opposite ear as the stimulator. Poor Charlie. 

Actually, he does pretty well with the morning/evening routine. He flicks his ears a few times, but otherwise he puts up with this nonsense with surprising equanimity. 

He's on the mend, by the way. Eating a bit more this week, but still not back to his normal two cans a day. At 60 cents a can! But heh, he's worth it. He may live a few more years, yet.

Though at his age, I'm not buying him any green bananas.

~*~

"Tip a buck, get a book."

(via PayPal.Me - an e-book from Tule Fog Press.) 

This blog is reader supported. Thank you for your support!

Cat Potion No. 9

Had a little fun with this one.

A few years ago, I wrote a story about a magical cat. No, not Mack from Ma Tutt's Donut Hut, but another magical cat named Mr. Chilly. Okay, so call me unoriginal. lol. 

Anyway, I published the story "Tucker and Mr. Chilly" in my e-magazine, Tule Fog Tales, Issue One. (Only 99 cents!) 

This next story, Cat Potion No. 9, is actually an origin story of how Mister (that's his original name) became magic. It's free upon request - only 3 1/2 pages. :-) Just email me at lyngperry at yahoo dot com.

BTW, the cover art is by Bessi from Pixabay and is used by permission. Hope you enjoy this fun and playful flash fiction.

La Mort de un Chat

compared to La Mort de Marat...

Tanger! Fetch!

Our cat, Tanger (short for Tangerine) loves to play fetch. Here he is putting the wadded letter back in the envelope! Also on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpICXh95EZQ