January is nearly over…

I got my galley for I Bid One American back this evening and I've been working on that, trying to spot any errors. I'm sure some will slip through—my mind is excellent at supplying what should be there and ignoring what is there. But, I have found two more errors and I've got to get back to it, so this blog will be short.

For those of you following the adventures of the poor, abandoned cat I found in a derelict barn near us…well…I've been feeding it and playing with it and letting it sit in my lap. You can see from the picture that this barn is not the best environment for it, so I'm considering how to introduce it to a new home. Actually, I guess I'm getting ready to adopt it, even though we really don't need another cat. And I'm not sure how our current cat, Psycho, is going to feel about this. Or our dog, Honey. She loathes cats and will barely tolerate Psycho. Our lab, Rowdy, on the other hand is fine with everything. The more, the merrier. I also haven't broken the news, yet, to my husband, although I suspect that he suspects, since he knows I've been feeding and playing with the darn thing.

Don't know what I'm going to name it. I'm lousy with names. I've always been very fond of names like: dog 1, dog 2, cat 1 and cat 2. Or big dog, little dog. Orange cat, Tortie cat (the barn cat is a tortoise-shell cat with white paws and a white chest). My husband named Psycho. I named Honey because she's honey colored. We named our lab Rowdy because we expected him to be rowdy, considering our experiences with other labs, but he never really lived up to that, being more of a I'm-going-to-sleep-now kind of dog. I guess being 120+ pounds took the spunk right out of him. He's really laid back.

Anyway, so I'm trying to think of a name. I thought of Annie (as in "little orphan") but when I called the cat that, it didn't much care for the name. It likes words that start with "c". It loves the word "come" so other than just plain "Cat"… Sigh. I know. And the cat isn't nutty enough to be called Crazy (which would go so nicely with Psycho).

If anyone has any good cat names for a sweet (slightly nervous) cat, I'm all ears.

And finally, I've been considering an article on how to make people love you. It's really for writers and character development, but it sort of works with living, breathing humans, too, if you don't mind being a complete sociopath who manipulates the heck out of everyone. I've been sort of putting off writing the article because I'm actually a little paranoid that it might actually be used for evil instead of just good writing. J But what the hey. It's not like the sociopaths out there haven't already probably figured this out. That's why they are so effective at manipulating others and making them fall in love with them, and us nearly-normal folks aren't.

But it has to do with triggers—not the kind found on guns.

And here's a hint: if you actually listen to your significant other, s/he will eventually reveal one or more triggers. And all you have to do is pull that trigger and s/he will be yours. Unfortunately, you do have to listen to her (or him). Sorry.

Strangely enough, the act of listening itself can also be a huge trigger.

Anyway, I may eventually write the silly article as part of my other articles on developing characters and characterization. Or not if I get too engrossed in writing my next book. :0-)

Have a great evening and huge success in the coming months!