rolanni | Answers with coffee

Last evening’s post generated some questions, which I’ll try to deal with here, all in one lump, with the morning’s second cup of coffee.

Of particular concern was that I reported “scrubbling” the cats. Some folks misread “scrubbled” as “scrubbed” and I want to assure you right now that the Cat Farm cats are, in the immortal words of my mother-in-law, “clean cats.”

“Scrubbling” in the vernacular of the Cat Farm is a two-handed, full body rough rub. Mozart likes his back scrubbled. He will lie belly flat on the floor, I’ll kneel next to him and rub both hands up and down, like I’m shampooing him. He grabs on the rug with his front claws and squeaks. Yes, he squeaks. What can I say? He’s a goof, but I love him.

Hexapuma likes to have his belly scrubbled. The technique is roughly the same as above, except for watching out for the Sudden Grab(tm) when he’s had enough, and that Hex likes to enjoy himself in silence.

Scrabble prefers to let the whole scrubble thing pass her by, thanks.

* * *

Mozart and Hexapuma are Maine Coon Cats.

Mozart’s home cattery is the Kennebec Cattery in Pittsburgh, so his Full Formal Name is Kennebec Mozart; he is Officially a Blue Silver Tabby, and has just celebrated his twelfth birthday.

Hexapuma’s Official Moniker is Blue Blaze Sphinxian Hexapuma, from the Blue Blaze Cattery, now of Delaware. He is a Black and Silver Classic Tabby and will this month celebrate his fourth birthday. He is not, as many people assume, a polydactyl, though many Maine Coon cats are (it’s a feature, not a bug). He was named, so I’m told, for a critter that appears in a series of novels by David Weber, the Sphinxian Hexapuma, which is, as I also understand it, far fiercer and more ambitious than Hex will ever be.

The Cat Farm’s cat-0f-all-work is Scrabble, a calico adopted from the local shelter. Steve met her while she was interning at the local pet food store, realized her potential as an office manager and brought her home. Scrabble will soon, so we believe, be eight years old. We celebrate her birthday on September 1.

* * *

Reading order for the Liaden Universe® novels. . .

There’s a sort-of reading order over here, but honestly, there are apparently as many True Reading Orders as there are readers, so I’ve given up weighing in on the topic. Read them how you like them; it’ll all make sense in the end.

* * *

There was a request for a description of the process of writing, but. . .I think I’d rather not talk about process while I’m actually writing, so maybe we’ll get to that one later. I once heard an artist say that she could either draw or talk about drawing, but she couldn’t draw and talk about what she was doing at the same time. If you start thinking too much about what you’re doing, the centipede gets all tangled up in her feet, poor thing, and goes crashing onto her nose.

* * *

Book length, and can’t Ghost Ship please be longer than 100,000 words.

I use 100,000 words as a target count for word meters and progress reports because (1) it’s handy, (2) we have a contract for a science novel in the Liaden Universe® of not less than 100,000 words, and (3) I don’t actually know how long the book is going to be until it’s done. We write story, not words, but it’s hard to assure interested folk of the progress of the story in a nice little graphic. Some days, there are no words; it’s all about staring at nothing.

But! To give those who are interested a range, here’s the word count on a couple of random submission manuscripts:

Agent of Change: 98,000

Duainfey: 101,000

Longeye: 101,000

Fledgling: 117,000

Saltation: 104,000

Mouse and Dragon: 115,000

Carousel Tides: 101,945

. . .so you’ll see we pretty often do go over, and hardly anything comes in right at 100,000 words.

And now my coffee’s done and it’s time to get on the road and run me some errands.

Everybody have a good Monday.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And there I thought "Answers With Coffee" was your real name *g*...

No, I fear my real name is likely, "Wise Guy with Coffee."

Thanks for all the info, the word counts especially were interesting to me, and also everything about the dear kitties. Hexapuma's name origin story caught my eye, because I have been wondering about the toe situation, although regardless of toes, I have to tell you that each time I read his name, I get a sound bite of Lionel Ritchie crooning "once, twice, six times a puma..."

(For context, I am newish to reading your blog, this is a first comment from me. We have met, I am a long time bookseller at Uncle Hugo's, can't wait to place Ghost Ship in my hands and the hands of so many eager customers!)

Welcome!

Lionel Ritchie crooning "once, twice, six times a puma..."

Ah, yes. One of the classic ballads. . .

I wish MY coffee came with answers............Dang!

Gotta buy the Maxwell House in the big blue can -- I keep telling you! :)

Cat names are a funny thing. When I got my cat Arioch, he was dubbed Arioch due to a roommate and I getting into Michael Moorcock's Elric series. My roommmate's name was Ed, and I kiddingly dubbed him "Edric the Somewhat Downtrodden".

So with Elric more or less taken, the cat obviously had to be Arioch (Blood and Souls for my Lord Arioch) and then, when a stray showed up within days who was almost exactly the same age, she was promptly dubbed Zarozinia (Elric's wife in the books).

The fierce demon cat, however, turned out to be a big marshmallow whose favorite thing on earth is to sit in your lap and drool, and it's only become more pronounced as he get older.

Yes indeed: on some cats, the purr motor is directly coupled to the drool pump. We've had a couple cats put toghter in thatway over the last 25+ years.

About that squeaking that Mozart does... our Maine Coon doesn't exactly squeak but she sure doesn't sound like any other cat we have had in the past, distant or otherwise. Also her fur doesn't mat at all and she is a very luxuriously furred person indeed. Query- is this a tendency of Maine Coons? She is 11 and I have never had to deal with a mat. Of course, she is different in many other ways. Her mother kitted the litter in my lap during a pre-season Bronco game so maybe it is genetic? Jenny from CO

Mozart's fur mats like a sonofagun. He also hatesHatesHATES to be brushed or combed. So, every so often, he gets shaved.

Hex's fur, now, is a completely different texture from Mozart's, and doesn't mat easily. It probably helps that he adores being groomed.

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but hey, again you guys are mentioned as SF romance, this time at SF Signal!

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/06/mind-meld-sfr/

Yeah, it's spreading... The Liaden Universe (r) that is. I think there's romance in there, don't you?

Hey, great!

Thanks for letting me know!

Glad Scrabble now your office manager. Shows a shelter cat can be a hard working kitty with a real job. My only purebred is Gus photo shown here. He never got his papers because his previous owners filled out a form but never sent in for them. Would hardly do for a show pug. His head is too big and his eyes are too small. But is well known for his excellent disposition. I can't say that for my two female chihuahua mixes who are known for biting everyone who comes in the house who they don't know if they sense that those people are afraid of them. So they often have to wear their tiny muzzles when the TV lady comes to fix my system. She is absolutely terrified of these tiny dogs. Dog lovers like me find this absolutely hilarious. But I'm afraid the handiman, computer tech help guy, and so on are not lauging at all. I'm afraid that I am chuckling now. Naughty me. Then there's Shannie who is a mystery indeed. He's mostly poodle but his back is way too long and his legs too short. Some think there's some dachshund in there somewhere but I can't quite work out how that could have happened.

As for the word count I'm afraid that by the time I found your novels they were being put out in omnibus volumes like "Partners in Necessity". So I got very spoiled reading one novel after another. Then "Pilot's Choice" and so on. So I am a bit whiny waiting for Carosel Tales and Ghost Ship to come out.

Forgot to say. Shannie poodle is from a pound run by animal control in Los Angeles. He also is extremely hard working. Dashes around, guards the house, is my morning wake up call, makes sure that nothing edible which falls on the floor stays there and so on. It is well known that dogs need jobs.

In my experience of reading order, a very satisfying part is going through them again, when a bunch of the interconnections start popping out. Going with only one pass through misses some of the richness.

Our current cat, Calico-Hold-and-Purr-Smuttynose, aka "Cali," HATES to be brushed too, or did, until I tried her with a soft plastic nail brush from leevalley.com THAT she will tolerate!

Maybe this will help?

Judith

Answers with coffee

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Maine Coon Cats

Re: Maine Coon Cats

no subject

no subject

no subject

Mixed

Shannie Origins

Reading order

Brushing Cats...