Hey, everyone. Once again, Friday is upon us. Am I the only one who always looks forward to weekends? Come to think of it, wouldn’t it be nice to have two-day workweeks and five-day weekends? Alas, that isn’t the case.
Okay, I promised myself this week’s photo would be a little more upbeat than the one I shared last Friday. What could be better than sharing one of my fur babies?
This is our cats, Little Bit and Tucker. Little Bit is a Black Manx who found us. At the time, we already had two cats and didn’t intend on getting another. But after he nearly lost one of his nine lives in the mouth of our dog, Maggie, and a $600.00 emergency vet bill, Little Bit became a permanent member of the Hall household.
Tucker is on the right. We’ve got him almost six years ago when our other Tuxedo, Cruz, ran away from home only to return five weeks later. They looked virtually identical, even down to the little black mark beneath their chins. Sadly, Cruz ran away again four years ago, and we haven’t seen him since.
Both Little Bit and Tucker have made their way into my stories. Tucker was the inspiration for Whiskers in Unseen Motives. I swear he has the longest whiskers of any cat I’ve known.
Little Bit inspired me to write about a cat named Tinkerbell. You’ll find him in The Keeper’s House, a story about a haunted lighthouse. It is included in the anthology, Macabre Sanctuary.
By the way, the fact that today is Friday the thirteenth had no bearing on my choice to include a photo of a black cat.
Do you include animals in your stories? I think having a pet speaks a lot about a character’s disposition.
And now, it’s time for this week’s writing links.
On This Site or About My Books
- Mystery Monday: Amelia Earhart
- Tuesday Book Share: Unclear Purposes Review
- Share a Review: Unclear Purposes
- WIP Wednesday: Woman in Black
- Thursday Thoughts: Harvest Moon
From Story Empire:
- Expansion Pack: Changing Times – C S Boyack
- Time Marches On – Mae Clair
- Book Bub Reviews – Me
From Other Writing Sites:
- Scrivener’s Forgotten View: The Outline – Writers in The Storm
- Common Misconceptions About Writing Contests Debunked – Fiction University
- How to Keep Your Sanity as an Indie Author – Kobo Writing Life
- Book Marketing: Attracting Your Readers – Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore
- Add More Emotions to Your Scenes – Fiction University
- Learning From Other People’s Writing – A Writer’s Path
- Ten More “F” Words for Writers and Their Characters – Writers in The Storm
- Avoiding Change: What’s Stopping our Characters – Writers Helping Writers
- Writing in a New Genre: Should You Do It? – Fiction University
- Meeting Your Writing Goals – A Writer’s Path
- The Fine Art of Giving Out Criticism – The Kill Zone
- Are You Ready to Go Indie? – Fiction University
- Taking a Character From Good to Great – Writers Helping Writers
That wraps up this week’s links. Enjoy the weekend!
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25 Responses
GREAT BLOG, LOVE THE CATS, CHINA
Thanks, China! I do love my fur babies.
Lovely black cats Joan a lucky household.. thank you for the mention, much appreciated.. Sally
You are welcome, Sally. My grandfather always maintained that if a black cat came to your house, it brought good luck. We’ve had three or four show up here over the years.
We did too the week we moved into the house and I opened the front door, it walked in and inspected the entire downstairs and then left again.. I have a statue of a black cat facing out through the side window by the door and I managed to catch the same black cat sitting outside trying to entice it out to play..x
That’s a neat story. We once had a black cat show up on Christmas Eve. We named her Eve. She was a good cat.
Thanks for the links. I think “Learning From Other People’s Writing” is a good one.
Thanks, Priscilla. That was a good article.
Love your weekly roundup, Joan, and will share it later today on The Write Stuff. And your Tucker looks a lot like my Harry. I love a black cat with a pink nose & white whiskers! Very cool.
Yes, I almost always give my characters pets, from Irish wolfhounds, to various cats, to a man who collects albino and leucistic reptiles. I believe, as you do, that you can tell a lot about a person by the animals they love, and it’s fun to write about them. It also gives you a chance to insert some private person-to-pet dialogue now and then, too, which can be pretty revealing at times. (We tell our pets things we’d never say to anyone else.)
Have a great weekend! (Sorry it can be reversed to the 2/5 thing you’d prefer, but I suspect that’s not likely to happen to many of us.) All the more reason to enjoy the one we do get, though! 🙂 <3
Tucker is spoiled rotten. He does not like to be away from us at all. He’s got a reputation as being “assertive” when we board him at the kennel for vacations.
I love writing about pets in my stories.
Little Bit and Tucker look very comfy and right at home. They are gorgeous!
I’ve included pets in a few of my book—a German Shepherd in Eclipse Lake, and a husky in my Hode’s Hill trilogy. I even wrote a novella Food for Poe where the black cat in the story saved the day. Pets add a cool dimension to books and bring out traits in our characters that might not otherwise be apparent, Plus they’re fun to write 🙂
Really fun post to wrap the week, Joan!
They are a pair, Mae. Very devoted for cats and so spoiled. I’ve also included dogs in my stories. I agree they are fun to write. I loved Food For Poe!
I write a lot of animal characters into my stories. I’m a big believer. Only one actually spoke, so far. Now I’m writing a robot cat who speaks. Guess I’m a sucker for animal characters. If the robot cat counts, I have cat, yak, horse, anvil bird, rabbit, cockatrice, fox, dog, and am outlining an ox character.
I’ve only had cats and dogs. I mentioned a coyote or mountain lion in my last book but that’s it.
Beautiful kitties, Joan. They do seem to find us even when we aren’t looking. Yes, pets do tend to make it into my stories because it’s so natural for them to be there. Happy Friday the 13th.
I love writing about pets. Happy Friday the 13th to you!
I enjoyed reading about your pets, Joan. Thanks for the links. I always enjoy them.
You’re welcome, Robbie. I’m glad to share them (as well as the photo of my kitties).
For sure, great pictures.
Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:
Joan Hall’s Week in Review post is a great one today, filled with super links, and oh, yeah, some cool cats, too. Check it out, and then pass it along, if you would. Thanks, and thanks to Joan for passing these links along to us! 🙂
Thanks for reblogging this, Marcia!
I have a black cat, too. She’s called Bandit. Another cat – black and white with a little black bit under its (we haven’t determiend gender yet) chin – visits every day and demands food. Bandit tolerates it but isn’t terribly keen on sharing her home.
I like the name, Bandit. How cool about the black and white cat. Our Tucker has a black mark beneath his chin.
Lovely picture – though Little Bit has that ‘don’t mess with me’ expression!
I have two dogs in my book – they started out as golden retrievers on paper but morphed into our rough collies in my head. We called our first dog Tamlyn after the knight. Six weeks later we found a friend for him; he was a bit damp and smelly but he quickly grew on us and so we called this one Fungus. Should have thought that one through for summoning purposes…
Little Bit is very sweet, but he definitely gets his way! Rough Collies are beautiful animals. I like the name, Fungus. Very original! 🙂