"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast."

There is only so much drama one can get into a 1,000 word picture book story.  I wrote about a small boy who falls madly in love with a battered stray who wanders into his garden, then goes missing.  He, the cat, is found again, but my agent thinks the story needs more tension - but love must be established before anxiety at its loss can be described - but that's publisher; ; they want it all & at the least cost to them.  Ah, well, it's a business like any other.

Little Tiger sent me a questionaire that runs to 3 pages; I shall answer none of them except  my name and telephone number.  I will send a photo - also reguested.  I think it damned impertinent of them to want to know so much.  But perhaps it's just frustration that I can't say 'Yes' to the ocassional book signing.  At the moment the nearest town seems like a 'planet far,far away. . .'

• Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will urinate on your computer.
  I don't know who said that but it's true. Mine throws fur-balls in strange, undetectable places; the best, to date, was a bowl of pot pourri.  I use the word Best as from her point of view. 
• But enough of my cat.  My friends are not acting in the way that imagined they would. The sufferers are recovered, thankfully, but the one who recieved death threats has gone home to mother after reporting the threats to the police.  As the threats were not made, as I originally thought, by the ex-husband, but by a drunken friend, while the ex and his new girl friend giggled and tried to disuade the caller in the background, I thought the whole course of action was a bit extreme. What was even more over the top was the fact that she sent a text  telling all the facts to her fourteen year old daughter, who, the day before, began a  three week European tour with the Youth Philharmonic.  That must have reassured the daughter a lot.
• The friend who suffered an unexpected split in his marriage emailed me to say that he had joined an online dating agency and had already met two people.  'It's like getting back on a horse after a fall' he wrote -but as an ex-rider, and one who never fell off, I not so sure it's the same.  A bit like people who have never written a book but who say that writing a novel's like giving birth.  As one who has experienced both novel writing & childbirth, I feel I can say that it is not.
• But what do I know

All my friends - well, four of them anyway - seem to be having rough times.  I sit here, feeling sorry for myself & thinking what a great time everyone else is having & then discover that they are in the midst of all kinds of trouble.  One had an operation for gall stones & did well until she took the perscribed codeine; I  won't repeat the details, listening once was enough.  Another received death threats from her divorced husband when she applied to the court of payment of back child-support; one ate ice cream in Spain and was extremely ill for a week,and one was presented by an irreparable split in what he imagined to be a happy marriage.  I feel chastened.
One the other hand, an old boy friend, now on the other side of the world, rang me up for a chat.  He quite often does this.  It's cheering and flattering.
My other cat is a Jaguar.