Ambrose Gets His Gig

The reading at St. Johns Booksellers on July 30 went very well. Everyone was delighted that Ambrose was not drowned by the Abbot, but got his gig in the monastery library instead.
My next reading will be on Barbara La Morticella's Talking Earth, on KBOO (Portland), 10:00-11:00 pm, Monday, September 19th, 2011. There'll be 3 of us: Barbara La Morticella, Christine Homitsu White, and me. I'll read a few very short poems. Hope you will join us, then, or by podcast.

Writing the Cats

I was in Australia when I began writing these stories to amuse the children a friend of mine was tutoring. Her cats were Signy and Ambrose. A journalist friend had Jemima and JCP. Isshe Tisshe was my cat. Lucinda lived in a block of flats I lived in once. I never knew her name. Fleur (de Mal) belonged to another friend, a playwright.

Quinnia, or the little silver Himalayan-Siamese, belonged to yet another friend who was unemployed. As I heard it later, he had needed the money and began to breed her; she died of an infection he couldn't afford to treat. She was very small, delicate, and sweet. So I gave her a name and a life, and a spectacular rise from poverty.

The cats come with their suburban backgrounds, pretty much, except for Quinnia, whose story was the obverse of her life, and Ambrose, whose deep grey fur suggested a mediaeval thunderstorm. The stories were a joy to write, and, I hope, will be a joy to read.

Cover Illustration for Cataclysms

Cataclysms

This is to introduce GobQ's new e-books, which are being published for Amazon Kindle first. Other editions will follow a little later. We expect to be publishing a new book every two months or so throughout the rest of 2011, and into 2012.

Cataclysms is the first: a book (for wise children of all ages, especially those 7 and up) of very short stories about cats.

We've always had cats and are very fond of them. The book's about what they get up to when we're not looking.

(Below): Satyagraha Shostakovna Stolichnaya, former Office Manager, stalking the rare wild rectangle-bag.