Accomplishment

Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Did What?

Well, the day has finally arrived. August 19 marked the publication of the new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Did What? Normally, that would not particularly pique my interest, but this ain't normal. This new book includes my story, "The Marks of a Lasting Love" (pg. 172), and it represents my first paid writing effort. Hopefully the first of many to come. The check should arrive sometime in the next month or so; $200 big ones. I could get used to this whole writing thing.

The story tells the tale of the one and only time we tried to give our first cat, WT, a bath, and how that led to me winding up in the emergency room at the local hospital. A good story, if I may say so myself, and it is a sincere tribute to my dearly departed kitty and the legacy that she left in my life.

I had to wait a whole year from submission to today, when the book finally hit the stores. I did get 10 author's copies (all gone now, save one I kept for myself) for free, so that's another good thing about it. I haven't read any of the stories other than my own (so far I've been too busy) but I'm guessing that they're probably all quite entertaining and worth a read.

Better yet, this won't be the only thing I get published this year. Another story, "Giving Thanks for the Big Birds," is scheduled to appear in the November issue of the magazine Watching Backyard Birds. I get a year's subscription to that periodical, no money for publication, but it is another credit, and hopefully will help grease the skids towards more writings of mine gaining acceptance with paying publications. (I currently have drafts of two pieces written right now, with the concepts for two others worked out in my head and partially written up in notes.)

So things be movin'. Let's hope I can sustain the momentum for a while longer. Like, say, the rest of my life. Excelsior.

For The Record, Scale Check

This photo is already a week old. This new low was achieved in the aftermath of my camping trip to Juniper Lake up at Lassen Volcanic National Park. I didn't get a lot of exercise those five days, but apparently I got enough to drop down to a new low mark on the scale. My weight as of this picture was as low as it has been since at least 2003, and almost certainly since 2002. I'm anticipating a bounce back the next time I get a chance to step on the scale, but with a whole month of housecatsitting (2 concurrent gigs) coming up in September, I think I have a chance to power through and really push down to another new low before the fall and winter and the inevitable slippage at the end of the year shows up. Maybe I'll even get down past 270, start seeing some two sixty something numbers at last. We'll see.