Tag Archives: crazy cats

May Artrageous Fair Fun

Summer time in Eureka Springs brings a great chance for independent artists and authors like me to share our wares with the tourists who come through town. Basin Park, in the heart of downtown, is always an interesting place to wander through on a weekend. You never know what you will find. But this is especially true during May’s Art Festival events. I had a great weekend being part of the Artrageous Festival on Saturday, May 25th, and loved meeting other artists in town, as well as both kids and adults who shared stories about their favorite crazy cats. Copies of “Why Kimba Saved The World” went home with excited children and adults, and many names were added to my mailing list. The weather was perfect. Street musicians entertained us all. Our resident 11 year-old performing sensation juggled knives just inches from our tent. All-in-all, it was a great Saturday in the park. Knowing that my book earned some new fans is the icing on the cake.

Scott used some chalk from the Kid Space booth next door to create some inviting “Kimba” footprints.

This is actually Friday night in the park, but it looked the same for Saturday.

Overhead view of a quieter moment near the end of the day at Basin Park in Downtown Eureka Springs.

The view coming up the main staircase, past The Sphere, and toward my booth in Basin Park.

Three of the artists with booths nearby turned out to be cat lovers who just had to take a copy of “Kimba” home with them.

Writing (or Procrastinating?) the Sequel

For the month of April, all other writing work is being set aside so I can give my full attention to Book 2 in the Cats in the Mirror series, “Vacation Hiro.” This time Hiro takes the lead and gets mixed up with the alien cats in the mirror. Those rascals have found just the right way to play on her emotions and sway her to their side of things — at least for a while.

I must admit, for me personally as a writer, the first draft is the most painful and wrenching process. I have read over and over that many authors feel this way. Once I get that first draft done and start elaborating and adding on and editing, I am in heaven, but putting it all down for the first time is laborious. It doesn’t matter how detailed my notes are. I can know exactly where I want the next chapter to go, but I still have to set a timer when I sit down at the computer to make sure I stay on task for a set amount of time and get it done. An expert at this type of stalling might even say that taking the time to write this blog post is a perfect example of doing something else very important-seeming instead of writing another chapter. I am generally not a procrastinator, except about the laundry, but I can get very busy doing all kinds of work other than the next chapter with very little problem at all.

But I promise to be diligent. My husband, Scott, will keep me on track. This is his baby’s book, after all. And I have a stack of notes for Book 3 that can only be tackled once I know exactly where Book 2 will end up. So I push onward. My hope is that next spring when I hit the festivals and art fairs in town I will have both Kimba and Hiro’s books to sell. That is the joy of self-publishing. Once you have the text ready to go, the rest of the process can be completed in a couple of months. No one can put that text together but me, so I’ll get back to it. You’ll never guess who is waiting in the mirror for Hiro in the next chapter. So excited!!

But wait. Is that the dryer I hear buzzing…?

Hiro is dreaming of a book about her on the computer.

Book Trailer!

Click on the photo to watch the book trailer on YouTube.

It used to be enough to just write a great book and sell it and hope folks liked it. Times have changed! As a self-published author, not only is it up to me to make sure the book itself looks great and is well edited (and I’m grateful for the great team who helped me do that), but I’m also responsible for what seems like hundreds of social media decisions and constant updates. Twitter, Facebook, an Amazon author page, Goodreads, Google, a YouTube channel…the list could go on and on, but so far I have stopped with those. My latest adventure has been creating a “book trailer,“ which is the new must-do thing. I’m not sure if it actually helps to sell books, but especially when dealing with Kit Lit you never want to overlook a way to connect visually.

I’m very grateful that I already have a basic knowledge of how to use Windows Movie Maker and have been through many sessions of vocal and voice training (not to mention drama classes). As a family, we are quite addicted to taking pictures of our beloved Kimba, so I had many to select from. The photo I used for “Regalus” is one I found on the internet when I was writing the book. “There he is,” I thought, so it seemed right to share what he looks like in my mind’s-eye. If you imagine him even scarier, go for it. He’s not an earth cat, so he would be much more impressive than anything we have here.

Comparing what I came up with to many others out there, I think I pulled it off. Clearly, I did not pay $10,000 for a professionally created video. How many books would I have to sell to cover that cost?! But I do think it gets the message across: here’s a cute book about a cat who finds out she is more than just a house cat and has to decide what to do and how to act on this new life-changing information.

I hope you enjoy the video book trailer and will share it widely with everyone on your various social media lists. You never know who might end up watching. “Why Kimba Saved The World” is just Book 1. There is MUCH more to come.

When Frustrated, Just Watch A Cat On A Ladder

Kimba Chases Her Tail On A Ladder

I’m not sure why a cat on a ladder makes me smile and forget whatever drama of the day I am caught up in. If I wanted to see it live, all I would need to do is pull out a real ladder, and Kimba would be at the top lickety-split. Today has left me feeling torn between the YA novel I am doing final edits on and preparing for a target audience read and the fact that I really want to keep moving on “Vacation Hiro” and get that published. A really inspiring workshop with the Northwest Arkansas Writer’s Group this weekend and lots of new ideas from that is not helping matters. There’s never enough time in the day! So I’ve decided that I’ll send out the YA book at the end of March, whatever state it is in, and spend April on “Hiro”. Having goals helps. And then I put on a video of Kimba chasing her tail on a ladder to brighten my day. Click on the photo and let it brighten yours too.

Kimba and My Disney Toys

Kimba and her Disney friends

I freely admit to loving stuffed animals. If you’ve read “Why Kimba Saved The World,” you know that I have quite a collection of Disney mini-plush toys, and Kimba loves them as much as I do. Back in our Houston house, she had a bed up on the shelf with them, and it was her favorite spot to sleep. She also has a little game she plays with them. Every night, when all the humans and the other three cats go to sleep (yes, Hiro, Samantha, & Tabitha have adjusted to a human sleep schedule), Kimba runs the house and plays with the stuffed animals. She jumps up on the bookshelves where they are displayed, picks her favorites for the night, and carries them around the house, singing. It actually sounds more like she is saying “Hello?”. She loves to bring them upstairs and leave them outside my bedroom door, but most recently she has been bringing them to my daughter. This is a new development. And I caught it on video. In my next book, I think I’m going to have to include this. Click on the photo, and it will take you to YouTube so you can watch her nighttime antics. Crazy cat.