Animals are so intuitive and savvy to a routine that I don’t need to grab a bar of soap for my cat, Hana, to race into the bathroom, anticipating my next move. I lather my hands multiple times a day, but there’s only one time when I let my cat lick the soap—yes, I said lick—and that’s when I wash my face in the morning, around 10 o’clock.
My cat loves
the taste of soap.
My cat is
weird.
She waits while
I brush my teeth, staring googly-eyed, whiskers twitching in anticipation. As
soon as my toothbrush rattles in its receptacle, she’s jostling for gourmet
soapsuds. I’m not kidding.
Now, if I tried to wash her pink-paddle tongue with soap, I’m sure I’d find
her glued to the ceiling until next year.
So, what
does this have to do with writing? I love being clean, but sometimes being too
clean is a bad thing for blogs and websites. Cleantalk, the spam filter I
installed on my new website, is like the prep before a colonoscopy, scouring
away beloved blog comments like they are comprised of stinky poo. I'd love to rid myself of Cleantalk, but will I
be inundated with dirty spam?
Outcome
unknown. I know my cover reveal is upcoming and scarier still; preorders will
be available soon! I'm also wrangling my all-important jacket copy blurb into something short and memorable.
Last month
Pat won the Conspiracy Theory contest. She received both the full-sized board
game and the travel edition. Thanks, Kate and Neddy Games! Everyone guessed
that Dob-Dec’s favorite food was popcorn-like Kapa seeds. My alien
protagonist’s favorite food is the roots of Planet Pleione’s exotic green orchid.
😊
Now for this month’s question, pulled randomly from a deck of Conspiracy Theory playing cards:
In 1997, what radio
program aired a frantic call from an Area 51 employee detailing the world
domination plans of “extra-dimensional” beings?
The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Sean Hannity Show
The Savage Nation
Coast to Coast AM
You need to subscribe to win. Please help me spread the word about the contest! Look to your inbox for my next newsletter on Monday, February 21. Be sure to mark it as not spam if it falls into your computer’s black hole.
“When the Day of
Judgment dawns and people, great and small, come marching in to receive their
heavenly rewards, the Almighty will gaze upon the mere bookworms and say to
Peter, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have
loved reading.” Virginia Woolf
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