Holiday Hugs to Anna, Australian Romance Author

Holiday Big Kitties (in smaller domestic form), are you tangled in strings of sparkling lights? Your personal let's-be-merry imitation of a fun ball of yarn? Is that bright red ornament out of your clawing reach, or has it crashed to the floor, your prey now a triumph of tiny metallic pieces. Have you managed to victoriously topple that out-of-place tree while righteously launching yourself toward all the winged creatures, especially the one top. After all, aren't all angels supposed to be Cats? And those silly stars, glittering like the eyes of a yummy warm-blooded meal, well, who can resist that planning crouch, the fierce leap and final paw grab? And aren't all stars just heaven's beloved Cats shining their light benevolently upon the tiny Earth?
Yes, it's a Merry Catmas, a time for lavish use of claws and fangs, yes, a time to rip and shred the package wrappings into environmentally friendly scraps. Mother Earth must be served, after all, you smiling, tail swishing say, while sitting contentedly before the christmas red, but not merry face of your human.

Hey, Big Beautiful Cats, stroll on over to Title Magic for a wonderful and inspiring blog by Anna Campbell, a romance author from down under, Australia, where *loudly purring moi* would luv to prowling visit one day, when accidentally ending up on a terrorist list is a thing of the past. One of the most exciting meows about Anna's blog is the inside, behind-the-scenes look at what writers endure, how we, and she, persevere for our sacred calling.
Below is *smiling purr* moi's comment:

Hi Anna, your contest experiences and life experiences toward becoming published, are truly inspiring. Contests as I look back are like the first line of my wip -- curses or in this case, contests were strange beasts of irony, at least, as I've experienced them. I spent one year, 1999, doing nothing but entering every romantic chapter contest I could. The result, other than the absolutely fascinating and useful critiques, was a first place, a second place and a third place, all different stories. One thing I definitely gained was a new level of discipline, and a much better understanding of what was commercial and what was not in the world of romance writing. One judge so luved my entry she wrote me several personal gushing pages. I cried and cried. That same entry got one 'ten' in the Golden Heart that year, the highest at the time. Although, I absolutely love this novel, it may never see the published light of day because it is written in a style most readers won't enjoy. So it goes. But it kept me writing. Another great keep-me-on-track through Hades and back was a judge who wrote my opening prose of a dream the hero was having 'was pure genius and not to touch it'. So I never have changed it, another novella I luv, but may not get published. All this rambling, the point being, as you've expressed, there is tremendous value in the contest experience. Certainly, that is true for the American Title IV, which has opened several doors even though I was out the first round. I will say my experience of contests in 1999 and the ones I entered a couple of years ago, is different in that the critiques were much harsher and very limited in their writer vision. Why? I don't know. But I figured, I might as well get rejected by real publishers, rather than worry about chapter contests anymore. Which has proven to be a valuable strategy for me. Anna, thanks so much, you have given us the gift of your presence, the gift of your experience and the most important gift, your writing. Luv your website! Holiday Hugs!

Holiday Hugs from the Kougar...

Sleepy Smooches

This is the Kougaress with her little eyelids propped up by toothpicks. The stress of life is her dire nemesis and a sleep killer today. Instead of walking her bizarre boldly ridiculous dreamland she is awake trying to get her old white van to live again. Probably a lost cause. Unless she could procure the machine and summon the lightening used on Frankenstein. He's alive! He's alive! It's alive! One can only hope.
However, dear Big Kittie Lovers, the sun is blaringly white overhead and the warmth blesses us all on the sweet brown prairie. No frozen paw-tips, no frozen back tosies. Yay! And the Kougar did enjoy the escaping flight of a blue jay. Mother Earth is a glorious place, a glorious being. Just the feel of her beneath moi's striding paws feels glorious, precious.
Hang onto your tail, Big Cats, 2008 may be roller coaster bumpy. Find your lair, stock to spare according to Barbara Hand Clow, expert on the Mayan calendar and also on those visiting us from elsewhere, like the galactic and Pleidian elsewhere. Having never been abducted by the notorious nasty Gray creatures, bow to Bast, the Kougar has no physical experience, so far, with those from another realm world. Not that she wouldn't want to meet the right Kougar virile man with access to all good methods of rejuvenation. Me-ooow, intergalactic dating!

A chat about our domestic cat cousins? Helen's blog on Title Magic today feature's her pet kitty and her English perspective which the Kougaress adores.
Below is sleepy-moi's comment:
Helen, an age ago I used to show our beloved breed of dog. I had no idea neutered was acceptable, fascinating. Anyway, I think the angel-faced attila-hearted cat should be one of your characters, her nemesis, the rodent family dynasty. Yep, I was giggling. And Mr. Sleek Sports Car guy, well, he might have inspired me. Certainly the sexy car would have inspired me, maybe more. Speed! yes, yes, yes.

Sleepy smooches from the Kougar...

Smooch for the Brown-Red Bunny

Hey Big Kittie Lovers, the word for today is hay. Yes, the Kougar has the elephant bales of hay harvested from her prairie, now desired by her sibling for her horses in some manner of dysfunctional dynamic the Kougar attempts to prowl around. Please send all good prayers this way. Thank you. Thank you very much.
There are only patches of snow left on the small sweep of prairie, the last few days being mild and lovely. The sunrise and the sunset were incomparably beautiful, the stuff of photos and paintings and postcards. Before the Kougar laid down for her slumber, she spied a bunny munching among her dried, blown-down horseweed. Young, three-fourths grown and absolutely cute, was this bunny. Does Rabbit Spirit have a message for meow-moi? The brown-red bunny sat up on its hind legs and gave the Kougar quite a long look.
Fertility...wouldn't it be lovely if the Kougaress had a sudden fertility of monies. Or such paths to abundance. Certainly she is grateful for the constant fertility of her imagination, which is used extensively in her writing, her stories. And the Kougaress was born under the Chinese sign of the Rabbit...perhaps a major re-birth in her life's journey. Welcomed, if it's good and fun and of benefit to everyone beloved by the Kougaress. Certainly the year, 2008, which breaks down to a 1 in numerology should be of some advantage, since the Kougar's life path is also a 1. One can only hope and purr in this mad, mad world rushing toward 2012.

Big Cat Lovers! Pad on over to Title Magic, enjoy Mel's blog on creating happiness and magic.
Below is purring-moi's comment:
Hey Mel, I haven't thought about 'that guy' in ages. I used to catch him now and then because it was magic to watch him paint. To me writing and painting can be and are magical expressions. Also, it's an opportunity to create 'happy' when the world is crashing unhappily around us. And thanks I always need reminders about mistakes being happy little accidents.

Purr-purr smooch from the Kougar for the brown-red bunny and to all her beloveds...

Kiss for Route 66

A Kougar kiss for Route 66, the memories. Route 66 where are you? Lost in the mists of time and myth and legend like the immortal icon, James Dean. In her youth, when road trips were still a true adventure, the Kougar got a taste of driving along Route 66. What a sweet wild rush, the freedom to just drive, to speed around curves and through the night between small towns with outrageously wonderful and outrageously cheesy neon signs. The cowboy and cowgirl ones were the Kougar's favorite.
Driving now, driving then, no comparison. The fun has definitely left the roads. Now it's all seat belts and gps and cops who believe in martial law more and more each day. It's cell towers tracking your every move and soon, if some have their evil way, toll roads. Toll roads to make you pay for what you've already paid for via gasoline taxes. Toll roads for the sake of power, the power to control us all, to control one of our basic freedoms in our beloved nation -- the freedom to travel unhindered among the states.
James Dean and those like him during the repressive fifties era fought for and tried to live their vision of freedom. They lost. I like Ike warned us all in the best way, to paraphrase, beware of the military industrial complex. We didn't 'beware'. And we have all lost. We live in a world which sells us on safety, but becomes less and less safe every moment of every day. We live with a government that tells us it's all for our safety, but it's really about THEM controlling us.
Freedom...speed, that which lives in the Kougaress's soul as most treasured. And that which is being lost like a thousand bloody cuts everyday. Which is why the Kougaress's orange sunset prairie is even more precious to her -- every single day.

Hey! Big Kittie Lovers, speed on over to Title Magic for Mai's illuminating words on speed, the other side, when speeding past your life no longers works for your soul or your life's journey.
Below is purr-moi's comment:
Mai, well said about 'speeding' too fast through life, or on your journey through life. Love for others and demonstrating that love is far more important, and how I've tried to live since that lightbulb realization. However, I'm a gal who loves speed, whether in a car, or on horseback -- hey, I'd go for a rocket ride if I could, which is one of the joys of writing, getting to write what you love, but isn't allowed, and the freedom of speed in our culture has been mostly eliminated unless you're a Nascar criver. Route 66 where are you?

Route 66 kisses from the Kougar...

Adventure's Kiss

Hello Big Kittie Lovers, today it's all about the Kougar and the American Title IV contest. Lope on over to romantictimes.com -- vote for your fave! after reading the story summary entries, excitingly entertaining indeed! Purr, happy purr! The Kougar is always intrigued, belly-tickled and yes, amused by the judges remarks. She is also baffled sometimes, by the judges most carefully pondered responses. No, not to her paw-precious entry -- at least, she is so spared this go around, but to her fellow finalists.
While the Kougar's ability, gained through many years upon the Mother, to understand a particular judge's point-of-view, is in great working order, she remains a bit baffled by the lack of adventurous forays into new writing territory. To meow-moi's view there is a vast savanna between poor and horrible writing and a story that may be on the cutting edge of culture's need to stride forward toward a superior future. Or just a good story who's time has come to be told for the enjoyment of many, beyond the good ole' tried and true. Tried and true aside, and certainly regarded as generally good by the Kougar -- still the new-grown savanna, the new hunt for a meal not yet tasted, and merely the unexplored savanna of life -- isn't that of social value, of true happiness value? Gee? and purring-rumble, wasn't that the vital essence of Star Trek?
Or -- Reading (romances preferred), the final frontier...Where no Kougar has loped before...
Where is Captain's Kirk's Over-Voice when moi needs it?
Yowling for William Shatner...yowling for William Shatner...no, the Kougaress is not stalking the slick strange hilarious streets of Boston Legal in search of the illustrious Enterprise Captain, now indulging in a holo deck fantasy as a mad cow flamingo lawyer who knows how to win legal cases by being simply, Denny Crane...no, it is just too much for the Universe to ask.
For all those Big Cats who adore the magical and the paranormal in their reading repertoire check out our launch of Title Magic, the ATIV blog.

Below the Kougar humbly offers what would have been her entry, if she hadn't been eliminated.

Story Summary for Murder by Hair Spray in Gardenia, New Atlantis:

In 2051, murder is rare in New Atlantis. The risen land of the antediluvian empire, Atlantis, is now a sovereign land colonized by freedom fighters from the former USA, survivors of the Conflicts fought against the New World Order’s attempt to openly rule the world. A Jackie O look-alike is murdered inside her Gardenia, New Atlantis motel room. To Sheriff Kalypso Sun Wing it looks like the horrific work of a serial killer from the Federal Union, the Hair Spray Killer, his unlucky thirteenth victim. In a gesture of cooperation she invites the Federal Union Agent in charge of the case, Zryphus Dolen Vasquoz, to assist her in the investigation. Arrogantly, Agent Vasquoz assumes he will be taking over, a notion smashed by the Sheriff. After all, she’s in charge and women run New Atlantis. The battle of the sexes sizzles between them immediately. Zryphus has found the woman he wants to marry. Kalypso has sworn off men forever. Since the protection of citizens is her highest priority, she needs his help to swiftly capture the notorious Hair Spray Killer, a chihuahua shifter – and help her figure out who wants the diary Jackie O may have been murdered over – a newly found diary written by Jacqueline Kennedy during her White House years. When the Hair Spray Killer comes after Kalypso, Zryphus won’t let her out of his sight or their bed. However, the hidden group pulling the Killer Chihuahua’s strings, wants New Atlantis under their thumb – using every necessary evil.

Adventure's kiss from the Kougar...

Kiss of Freedom

Small peeks of the luscious neon pink between the sunset-struck clouds, that is the Kougar's world on the prairie, on the freedom of the prairie. Ever since she was the tiniest of cubs, the Kougar has adored freedom, the freedom to run, then the freedom to read.
As a wide-eyed cub, the Kougar learned about the freedom of our beloved nation, about the liberty of 1776, and she reveled in such a bold and wonderful way to create the world. Freedom in whatever form, has always felt sacred to the Kougar -- sacred, as if held against her precious beating heart to be loved forever.
The freedom to dance her paws joins her with the Sublime Goddess. The freedom to yowl her beliefs, so precious to her soul. The freedom to simply live in the pursuit of happiness. The dreams and the dream-come-true is what the Kougar has lived for, for herself and for everyone. Currently, those freedoms are all but gone for most of us. Our freedom, fought for with the blood of true patriots is gone. Sold to a world mafia. Allowed to become a kindergarten state.
Yes, now it's gone. The Kougar never thought to live in a world where freedom is disappearing faster than the Amazon forest, where freedom is no longer cherished by so many, but destroyed daily through ignorance, pettiness of spirit, ego greed, cruel tyranny and acts of incredible evil.
Freedom, destroyed by those who believe they are doing good. Or good intentions pave the way to hell. Yep, it's true. The Kougar lives it everyday, to her scrunched-up face horror. Her tail twitches desperately in the nightmare.

Yes, the Kougar has tasted the meat of real freedom. She knows what it is to run free. Do you?

Kiss of freedom from the Kougar...

Wintry Kisses

Snow blankets the tame prairie in preparation for winter, or the Winter Solstice when daylight yields to darkness, then slowly blooms the Light toward spring's awakening. Small flurries of snowflakes whirl toward the white blanket amid the teensy dust-like flakes falling steadily. A blanket of moisture for the land, a blanket spread over the smallest creatures. The Kougar has left lots of seed plants standing for the birdies. Unfortunately for the squirrels the black walnuts were hardly in existence this year due to a late freeze in Spring.
Truth spoken with a soft paw, the Kougar is in a black mood. Perhaps she misses the sun's brilliant white-yellow face. Or maybe it is her window-view on our current world troubles. Yes, those immortal words of wisdom ring through her little sinus-swollen head. Don't watch tv news if it depresses you. Don't look at the internet news stories if you don't want all the chicken littles telling you the sky is falling upon your furry tawny head -- never mind if it actually is falling. Yes, go play ostrich, stick your head in the fake beach sand of a virtual game. Never mind if moi is silently prowling for a meal and finds you helplessly stuck in the sand, or lost in the happy over-thrill world of a virtual game. You can't see her. Since the Kougar is not in the virtual game. Yes, she pounces, and it's all over -- you head off to the light of the Other Side.
However, Big Kittie Lovers, most claw-likely, it is that warning sense just before the tsunami arrives, the sense used by the elephants and other animals, who ran to safety ahead of the giant devastating tide.
However, where is safety? These days? Who is safe these days? The Kougar does not feel safe, despite her sharp claws and fangs. Except in the embrace of the Divine. In the ever-embrace of the Mother Earth, and the Mother Bast.
Meanwhile, black mood aside, she will enjoy her blowing-snow wintry world -- and be glad she doesn't have to stalk through the cold night for her dinner.

Wintry kisses from the Kougar....