Got You!

The major news in my life is that after months of attempting to trap this little scamp, I finally succeeded!

Probably already pregnant again...

I'm glad I got her when I did because it's no fun sitting around for hours in this heat. (It was over 100 F today.)

She has a spay appointment on Wednesday. Until then, she is staying in a huge dog crate in my bedroom.

I've kept other feral cats using this arrangement. Normally, I can clean the litter box and swap in fresh food and water while the cat stays as far away from me as possible. This girl ran toward me and almost made it out the cage door this evening. I might have to work on adding a mid-cage barrier so I can safely block her in the back while I clean.

Six more days. I can handle six more days.

Other Foster Stuff

Rooster, the black kitten I trapped in the alley a couple weeks ago (and the feral girl's son), has gone back to the shelter to get neutered and adopted. He's a good boy.

Rooster, the alarm clock with no snooze button

Eight of the remaining 13 kittens should be going back next week. Theoretically, that should mean the bathroom will be free, but the shelter is overflowing with kittens who need fostered at the moment, so I'll probably end up coming home with a new bunch. The other five kittens have a date two weeks after that. But plans often shift

Nimbus is technically done with his FIP treatment, but he's going to be a difficult adoption and — as mentioned previously — there's no space at the shelter. So he'll stay here and babysit kittens for a while.

Francis Noodle has figured out how to get into the recording booth, which I'm not super happy about since he poops involuntarily and that closet has a yoga mat to keep the floor from echoing. But if I lock him in the big dog crate when he's not being watched, he has a tantrum and spills his food and water. It's a good thing he's so cute. (As I write this, he's trying to catch a fly in the office and I'm probably going to hell for laughing at the cat who can't walk very well throwing himself around the room.)

Writing Stuff

I have finished the initial draft of the starfish-shifter murder mystery short story ("Sleeping with the Fishes") that will be going out to my Patreon supporters in the next day or two. I have written the plan for revisions for the next Penelope Standing book, and I'll set up the pre-order this week so I can put a link in the next newsletter. And then I'll get back to writing the next Floodmouth book.

BUT ALSO! The 2026 Mysterious Murders Contest is open for submissions! This year, they are looking for locked room murder mysteries. Stories need to be in English, under 3k words, and not produced by AI. There's no entry fee and the prize amounts are huge. Seriously. I won first prize last year. It's an amazing event.

Writing to Market... or Not

Okay, so one of my critique partners is writing a wolf-shifter romance series (under a pen name) and all that marketing advice just... works... when you're writing in a popular genre. I am happy for her and I can't wait for her income to skyrocket.

I'll probably never see that kind of monetary success. I like the books I write and there are more than a few people who buy every book the second I release it, but I'm unlikely to ever make it onto the bestseller lists. That's because the Venn diagram of books the majority of people want to read and books that I want to write are two separate circles. Even when I try, things go completely off the rails.

For example: Instead of a wolf-shifter romance, I'm writing a murder mystery involving a starfish-shifter. Because the idea of chopping up a starfish shifter and throwing the pieces overboard only to have multiple clones of the shifter come out of the ocean later is hilarious! But it's not really what the wolf-shifter romance crowd is looking for.

It's okay. I may have to find a day job at some point, but at least I keep myself amused.

In other writing/marketing news, Jeanne over on the Necromancy Never Pays blog (great name!) wrote a lovely review of The Portal Storms series.

Foster Updates

I finally trapped the black kitten in the alley over the weekend. Yay! His mom remains at large, but I have plans... Anyhow, I have named the little boy Rooster because he is an alarm clock with no snooze button. He starts crying about being alone the minute the sky lightens. He has another week of quarantine, so apparently I'm getting up at 5:30 AM every day now.

The eight elemental kittens moved into the room with Nimbus (who loves the kittens), and they are all on the kitten cam. So now I have a new office cat, Francis Noodle. He, like Nimbus and Lulu, has presumptive FIP and has difficulty walking. Hopefully he will improve during his stay here.

Isn't he a gorgeous boy?