Bad to the Bone

Sometimes you see a perfect gift when you're not even looking for one.

And you have to get it because it's sooo absolutely right, because the recipient will know it's right exactly just as you did when you saw it. And even though it's not his birthday or Christmas or any other holiday that might occasion it, you have to get it.

So you do. And you send it to England.

You send it Air Mail to England because the USPS does not believe in sea mail anymore. And sending it air mail means that it costs 6 times as much to send it as the gift itself.

But it's perfect. So that makes it all right.

It just so happens that the gift is for a cat.

Not just any cat, though. Sid.

Sir Sidney, ACOSB -- A Cat Of Superior Breeding -- who lives with Kate Walker and keeps things running on the far side of the pond.

Sid and I go back a long way. He was scarcely more than a teenager when I first met him -- not quite a full-fledged feline romantic hero. But he definitely had Potential.

He grew into his potential -- and then some. He became a charmer. An alpha cat. With just a hint of bad boy in him. So that when I saw the dish with its motto -- Bad to the Bone -- I knew it had to be Sid's.

Not just because of the motto, but because Sid believes in food. He relishes it. Adores it. Delights in it. Consumes it. A cat who feels that strongly about his nutrition should have a bowl that speaks both to his passion and his nature.

Hence, the perfect gift.

He has written me two thank you notes so far. He's had his picture taken with it eight times. He has chased Flora the Floozie away from it -- allowing her a few Greenies (sent along to Sid and his housemates Flora and Dyl the Vil because all cats love Greenies.) but not allowing her the use of his bowl.

So, Sid, I'm delighted you are enjoying your new china -- and the Greenies that came with it. I hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

ps: this is the sort of thing writers do when plots are eluding them.

Ally's Winner

Carolin, who posted eloquently in the comments section of the Pink Heart blog about a number of things in her 'well' that have inspired her creativity, is the winner of Antonides' Forbidden Wife.

Mitch and Micah thought that she could have included Golden Retrievers among her inspiration, but they loved the idea of her twenty-year engagement (go read the post!), so they forgave her the lack of Goldens.

I found all the comments really interesting -- and a little scary, as in Michelle Styles's recollection of the drunken Icelander who tried to abscond with her son. Yes, that would make a book opening, Michelle. But I wouldn't want to relive it all the time! At least confining it between the covers makes it manageable.

Ditto Kate Hardy's tale about her baby daughter's illness. It's interesting that we use romance fictioin to 'escape' the difficulties of life quite often. But at the same time we also use it to exorcise the grittier moments of our own lives.

I'm glad to know that Sid and Kate found Melody's quilts inspiring. And I will see about making Sid my version of his very own personal quilt (a dead tree in winter quilt, eh, Sid?) for his sleeping comfort.

I would love to hear more about the bits and pieces of your lives that have inspired you to do something creative. So don't stop here. Keep sharing, please.

Maybe next time we can talk about 'inciting incidents." Or is that a double positive? Things that inspire that initial, "I think I'd like to write a book about that" (or poem or short story or knot garden or quilt) moment.

Who wants to go first? Well, Michelle already did with her drunken Icelander. But who else has a good inciting incident?

Micah and Mitch are tussling over the treats. They want another contest. Hmmm.

From Sid the Cat

Salutations and Felicitations on your birthday, dear Kate!

The Lady Across the Pond (TLATP to those who know her well -- aka Ms McAllister) has invited me to be a regular, albeit sporadic, contributor to her blog.

She has even, you will note, given me sidebar billing.

This is so I can send personal good wishes and head butts and purrs to my dear Lady of the House, Kate Walker, on her birthday!

If you have not gone to my dear Lady's blog and wished her the best of the day, please do so. Or, if you are lazy, Anne says you can leave them here in the comments and I am to see that Kate reads them. But I feel sure you will make the extra effort to click on her name and allow her to simply read them on her own space whilst eating bonbons and sipping tea or that light-coloured stuff she thinks of as tea, which is what you get when you wave a tea bag in the direction of the cup.

But I digress.

I could extol her virtues endlessly, but it would be teatime before I got finished and I really can't miss meals. And if I kept on, that cat Dylan would show up withh a 'pome' he had writ, and he'd want to recite it, and we can't be having that.

Suffice to say, dear Lady of the House, that I wish you the very best today and all the coming year (as does TLATP), and I hope that you have a salmon, er, present filled day and that you will share it all with those of us who are on your side of the pond and wish you well (even that floozie, Flora, if she behaves herself).

Your official blog contributor and handsome esteemed noble self-effacing feline of distinction,

SIR SIDNEY ST JOHN WILLOUGHBY PORTLY-LUMMOX, DLitt Oxon, Earl of Blubberhouses, Thane of Spital-in-the-Street, etc etc etc, ACOSB (a cat of superior breeding).

Holding out for a hero

I wrote about researching heroes on my guest blog at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs today. Naturally I flashed a pic of Hugh-in-a-towel. There would have been screams (notably from Kate) if I hadn't.

And I also put up a pic of the man who is becoming Sebastian. Or who Sebastian is becoming.

As I said there, he's no longer the guy I thought he was. He's more buttoned-down, more serious, more intense. He's one of those guys who thinks he has all the answers. More this guy.

Ooops.

Well anyway, I needed a pic that expressed the harder-edged, buttoned-down-ness of him, the unsmiling intensity of him. And because Kate was wrestling with Santos (not a bad pastime if you ask me) I said, "Who is he? Let me see him."

So she showed me a pic.

Not this pic, mind you -- but this man. And we decided he needed further research. And the more research I did, the more I found pix of a man who was everything that my Sebastian was becoming -- Intense. Unsmiling. Hard-edged.

A real Presents hero? Good grief. My editor might die of the shock.

I said, "I think I need him."

So Kate, dear friend that she is, is sharing.

Her Santos has his own incarnation in this guy. He will be no more like my Seb than any of our other heroes are alike. We just found visual inspiration in the same place -- and she was nice enough to share.

This means of course that I will have Mr Smiling Shaggy Hair standing on my doorstep looking for his own book now. But that's not precisely a hardship. We'll see what we can find for him.

And speaking of heroes -- here's one of my very favorites (Favourites? he would say. And then he would say, Favourite, dear lady. Singular.) Well, he would. He's that sort of cat. He has a starring role (by his definition) in One-Night Love Child.

He hopes you'll read it and send him fan mail. You will, won't you?

Oh, and happy St Piran's Day to all my fellow Cornish all over the world.