The Literary Feline

Most of my author friends own cats (or are owned by them). I wonder why this is, as I too live with a wonderful kitty named Bucky. She loves to sit on my desk while I work, and when I step away, Bucky likes to walk on my keyboard - bless her! But what is the special affinity between writer and feline?

I recently learned, for instance, that the great French novelist Alexandre Dumas was a rescuer of stray cats. Not only was his home filled with them, but he formed a group in the 1880's called the Feline Defense League (sort of an early SPCA), and other famous writers - Baudelaire and Guy de Maupassant to name just two - were also founding members. Another famous French writer, Colette, was fond of cats and was known to have said, "There are no ordinary cats."

A Tree Grows In Kenya

When I was conducting research for my novel, Green City In the Sun, my husband and I hired a car and a driver and spent six weeks exploring Nairobi and the Kenya Highlands, including coffee plantations in Karen, and nearby game reserves. We interviewed many people, from college professors, to British "old hand" settlers, to Kikuyu tribesmen who couldn't speak English (our driver, a native Kenyan, served as translator).

My German Website

I am thrilled to announce that my website is now available in German. Go to the homepage and click on the little German flag at the top. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I certainly was when the final version went online. I feel so posh and international.

The Best Protest March Ever

I miss the days of protest marches.  The thrill!  The high!  Joining with fellow believers to carry signs and march and stand together for A Cause.  Anti-war, civil rights, impeach Nixon, I marched in them all. 

Famous Last Words

Most novelists find that starting a book is easy. It's finishing it that can be a challenge. When Ernest Hemmingway was asked why he wrote the ending to For Whom the Bell Tolls thirty-nine times, he replied, "Couldn't get the words right."

Some writers enjoy playing with their endings. Richard Brautigan, whose comic genius and countercultural vision of American life made him a literary idol of the 1960s and early 1970s, once told a friend he had always wanted to end a book with the word "mayonnaise." And he did! The now-classic, international best-seller, Trout Fishing In America (1967)