To quote Mick Fleetwood, "It's been a long time." I'm sorry to have been away for so long, but I've been doing some serious writing. You know, like books and stuff. What got me started on this blogging kick were two things: first, I'd seen the movie "Julie and Julia"; and second, gearing up to being published again. Yes, I've found a new publisher. It's been a hard five years since Peggy Kelly close down FireDrakes' Weyr.. But Kira came to the rescue again by turning me onto her publisher, Crimson Frost for publications, with its very personable CEO Patricia Bates. I sent her three manuscripts, out of which, she accepted one; namely Palulukon.  I'm very excited about this, and basically playing a waiting game until her editor sends me the edited manuscript, on which I have to do my own edits.. I'm confident that it'll be things like substituting a beat for "saids". David Bowie's song "Fame" keeps going on in my head.. But I need to do, my 15 month plan,  to devise new strategies to publicize it. Ms. Bates already knows that I will do whatever interviews she sets up for me, if she does such things.

In the time since I've been away we've lost three of our cats, and acquired another one. Two of the cats Pyewacket, and Charcoal, died. We suspect that they drank anti-freeze. To cats, anti-freeze tastes sweet, but as you might suspect it is a deadly poison, and should not be just unceremoniously dumped in the gutter where cats can get at it. Then Putty Bear ran away because his buddy, Pyewacket had died. One Saturday the three of us were out for a walk in the neighborhood. Len and I went back home, then went out again because Stefan had talk to these guys around the corner from us who had a cat they would give to us. She turned out to be a gray and white tabby whom they named Dolphin. She was very tame and docile. She came right to Len's arms, and he carried her home. We added in a to her name, so that she is now Dolphina.. A couple weeks later, we discovered that she was pregnant, and a few weeks after that she had her litter of three kittens. Two of them were stillborn, and the third lived for a few days, but was smothered when Dolphina lay on it.We began to cast about for a way in which we might get her spayed. Then our opportunity came to get her spayed for nothing. A flyer was taped to our fence, which offered free microchipping, vaccinations, and spaying or neutering of any cats or dogs we might have. So accordingly, Len and I took tell Fina in the carrier to this park where we had her microchipped, vaccinated, and arrangements were made to have her spayed. I had expected a long line, so I took my walker and my book. But I didn't get much reading done because there was only one cat owner ahead of us, and she was almost done. We filled out the paperwork, and she was taken into the SPCA Van where she was given her shots and microchipped. Then we arranged for her to be spayed. We found out that because of our ages, we were eligible for the senior pickup and delivery service. So accordingly the following Friday she was picked up, operated on and returned to what's. I had been through the spaying drill before, so I knew all the precautions and instructions and all that stuff. Dolphina also got an extremely stylish collar and tag. In fact, we're still talking about how stylish, snazzy, and chic, to make her feel good about herself.  I guess that Dolphina was pretty normal when she was living at the house with those men, but now she's extremely funny. She'll walk up to you when you're sitting on the couch, jump up on the couch, and flopped down with her belly showing, signaling that she wants to be scratched. She loves to be scratched on the belly, which is weird for a cat.  She also doesn't believe that the three of us are competent to use the bathroom without supervision. She follows us in there. She also likes to play with balls, or anything that dangles and moves. "If it moves, we must pounce." Cats really don't seem to mind when they are being laughed at. Even though that she can go outside, she doesn't go far. She seems to know which side her bread is buttered on. Today, at two, Len and I will meet one of the managers of the laundromat, who has two kittens to give away. We might be coming home with one. So now we'll have to figure out how to get her spayed as well.

While I'm waiting for Camp NaNoWriMo  to start, I'm working on a story that I tried to write several years ago but couldn't quite imagine how to do so.  It's a fantasy, of course, about the magician Merlin (but I use his original Brythonic name Myrrddin  in the story) how he wakes up after on nearly 1600-year-old nap and comes home to Berkeley with a group of young Pagans. At first, he is bewildered by all the high-tech devices around him, but he soon learns to use them with aplomb. He neutralizes their enemies, the jezoids, who have been hacking their computer systems, and the websites that they frequent for the past several years. One complication is that he starts to age  backwards.  This is because he was born at the wrong end of time, and it's also an homage to the story "The Strange Case of Benjamin Button."

I am selecting my cabin mates for Camp NaNoWriMo. If you are interested in being in my cabin, contact me at rita.trevalyan@gmail.com. I can have up to 11 in my virtual cabin. Don't worry, nobody has to travel anywhere. This is strictly an online cabin. Well, so long until next time. I'll try not to let so much time go by.