by Angela Smith | Sep 10, 2016 | Books
I generally always have pets of some kind in my novels. Usually cats, because I’m a cat person. I’ve rescued cats and do feral feedings on top of having a few of my own. I love writing about them, and they are easy for me to write.
This is Mr. Meowgi, my inspiration for Beacon in One Wrong Move. Notice the clipped ear? It means he was a trap, neuter, and release! Although he is now part of my household, cats with ear-tips are harmless and should be left to live peacefully in the wild.
In celebration of #Caturday and the fact One Wrong Move is still at $0.99, I’m sharing a never before seen excerpt of One Wrong Move!
In this excerpt, Camden has already taken Rayma to a safe house (practically kidnapped, but that’s another except for another day). She is furious with him that she had to leave her cat, Beacon, who received his name when she discovered him beaten on her back porch after she’d moved to the Texas Gulf Coast. She considered him her beacon that she was in the right place.
So in this excerpt, Camden has gone to her house to rescue the cat and bring him to the safe-house where Rayma is staying.
***
“Beacon?” He explored the apartment, trying not to notice the femininity surrounding him. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” he called as he took shorts and shirts from the closet. He found her socks and panties, and stuffed them in a bag. The sooner he got them out of his hands, the better. He found shoes, sandals and her purse and by the time he filled the bag, it wouldn’t close.
He didn’t care. He needed to get out of here, away from the scents, away from her lacy thongs, and away from the tiny dresses hanging in her closet.
When he walked into the kitchen pantry in search of cat food, the cat waltzed up to him and circled his feet. Camden knelt to pet him. Beacon arched his back, purring.
“You hungry? Sorry about that, kiddo. Let’s get you back to your mom.” He found a few cans of food, dropped them into the bag wrapped around his shoulder and grabbed the cat, prepared to leave, when a shadow in the doorway stopped him.
Beacon scrambled from his arms and shot down the hall. Camden dropped the bag. Cans of food banged to the floor. The guy stopped one with his foot as it rolled toward him.
“Who the hell are you?” Camden hooked his thumbs in the loops of his pants, presenting a casual attitude but preparing to pounce if necessary. The guy filled the doorway, and there was nowhere for Camden to go but forward.
“Rayma’s boyfriend.” The guy remained still as a stone in a rippling pond. “Who the hell are you?”
“How did you get in here?” Camden asked. He recognized Dare’s accountant but had to play it cool.
“A key.” The guy held it up for Camden’s inspection, as if that would make the fact more powerful. “How did you?”
“What’s your name?” Camden asked.
“Excuse me. I am the one with the key to Rayma’s house, not you. Why don’t you tell me?”
“She told me she broke up with you weeks ago,” Camden lied.
by Angela Smith | Jan 31, 2016 | Introspective
We’re a month into the New Year! So much accomplished already and feeling grateful! Yet why do I feel I should be doing more?
I’ve always been a really self-disciplined person and very goal-oriented, so taking time off to relax has never been easy for me. But something has happened to me over the past while where I feel I’ve lost my mojo. Is it age? Not that I’m old by any means, but is it just the realization that hard work doesn’t always really matter in the grand scheme of things?
My year started off just terrible. I lost a cat to diabetes and another one got really sick and was diagnosed with Intestinal Bowel Disease (IBD). Who knew something like that existed? Not me, until it happened, and I’ve always tried to feed my cat the best of the best (or so I thought).
My husband and I never had kids, so my cats are my children. Not only have I taken on a few more than the two I originally had, but I have taken to feeding feral cats, even managing to tame many. Just call me the crazy cat lady! Riley was my first, and she’s 10 and a half years old. I’ve had her since she was weaned from her mother at about six weeks or so! I hate seeing her sick like this. Managing her IBD is a continuing struggle, and I’m constantly having to try new things just to get her to eat when before she always wanted to eat.
As the month closes and another one opens, I can’t help but wish I could have done more. I’ve been practicing daily gratitude, and I know it’s very important to continue this practice, but as I reflect back on everything I’ve accomplished this month, I can’t help but think it’s not enough.
I decided to reflect and share my accomplishments. Maybe sharing will help me gain some perspective. So here goes:
- Numerous vet visits; learned a lot about Riley’s IBD and making positive changes to help her (ups and downs with her eating and worried sick).
- Continuing remodeling project while living in the house
- Finished Liberation with publication date of February 14, 2016
- Sent YA (young adult novel) off for edits and beta read
- Got 2nd round of edits for romantic suspense story; working on those now to submit to publisher later
- Submitted YA (rejected, but alas, that was before the beta read, and I’ll try again!)
- Completed a cleanse diet (lots of fruits and veggies, with taking a break from caffeine, processed foods, and alcohol) (A writer taking a break from coffee! Unheard of! And the occasional red wine is a must!))
- Started new story
- Managed to get up earlier a few times a week so that I could write, but not near enough (those warm blankets feel too good in the morning)!
- No matter what day, even when I stayed up until 2AM working on house, I was still up by 7 AM to feed feral cats
- Watched Centennial. This was a big deal to me since I’ve always wanted to re-watch it; something I did as a young child with my family that I wanted to celebrate for my 40th birthday
- Celebrated my 40th birthday without losing my mind (even while most of my family forgot)
- Helped prepare for a murder trial at work (and continuing work related issues not mentioned)
- Other work related and personal issues best not mentioned
And yet in those 30 days of accomplishments, I still don’t feel I’m doing enough and still don’t feel accomplished. What is it that causes that feeling? Do you ever feel this way?
A couple of things I can pinpoint are that I haven’t exercised as extensively as I used to. The cleanse diet and the remodeling (half the time I feel I’ve done a thousand deadlifts without actually doing them) has stopped me from this goal. Also, the remodeling project is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated, but it’s really hard to be completely constructive when you have a full time job and other responsibilities. I’m convinced it wouldn’t take as long if we weren’t actually living in the house while remodeling! Not exercising is the worse form of feeling unsatisfied and unaccomplished, IMO.
My husband does collision repair for a living. His job is physically hard, and yet he comes home to do remodeling. His job also entails sanding Bondo and things of that nature. And yet, after 15 minutes of sanding our walls after mudding, I’m ready to cry!
I guess we are living in a world of want more, do more, be more. I’m happy with my life and the way things are, and yet I wish my deck project could be built in one weekend. After all, isn’t that what all the HGTV shows tell us can happen? And my drywall projects (for every single room), shouldn’t they be done within a day or two?
Alas, no. Everything worth doing is worth doing well, and that generally means slowly unless you are really really good at your job and that’s all you do without working full time and being a writer, too I suppose. Or just rushing through. So I’ll take one day at a time, and remember to be grateful for each and every moment I have!
by Angela Smith | Nov 11, 2015 | Introspective
I’ve been reading Jackson Galaxy and Kate Benjamin’s Catification book and just love the ideas it’s given me for my multi-cat household to have some play areas without looking like a cat lady. Today I decided to try something using some of the ideas I found. I didn’t really have a plan, just wanted a small project using a concrete foam board wrapped in sisal. I knew I’d need to line it with something, so decided to use an old pair of jeans that I had set aside for sewing projects. The cats love our jeans, so I thought it’d work perfectly.
This was a simple, short craft project. I love crafts! In one short afternoon, here’s what I came up with:
Tools: scissors, concrete foam board, sisal rope, and hot glue gun.
Note: this was the only glue gun I had, but I’d recommend using a larger one! My hands were cramping after this project, and this mini glue gun was a slow and agonizing process.
The sisal rope wasn’t long enough, but I had more. I decided I didn’t want the whole project in sisal, so I decided to use old jeans.
I lined the inside with the jeans, cutting out and pasting one of the pockets inside for a little extra hidey holes for cat play. We’ll see how that works out.
One end was lined with denim, but the other end needed something. I used feather fabric, which was an idea from the Catification book.
The final project!
It’s easy to do your own catification diy! Since I’m still in the process of remodeling my house, I hope this simple project will find a place in my new, planned cat area.
by Angela Smith | Feb 8, 2014 | Introspective
I first started researching how to make homemade cat food when my cat, Calypso, was diagnosed with diabetes. I managed to change his diet from the kibble to canned easily enough, but his sugars still weren’t going down. Checking his blood sugar and giving him insulin weren’t near as hard as I feared, but even that wasn’t giving him the quality of life he deserved.
Years ago, I made homemade ferret food, so I wasn’t too concerned about making my own cat food. I was mostly concerned my cats wouldn’t eat it, especially finicky Riley.
I used the site by Lisa A. Pierson, D.V.M. www.catinfo.org, gathered my ingredients, and changed it up a bit.
For instance, I don’t like the idea of feeding raw food, especially chicken, to my animals, but I didn’t want to boil or bake. I doubled the recipe, since I have 3 cats and didn’t want to spend every few days in the kitchen. I used 6 lbs. of chicken thighs and doubled the recipe for hearts and liver. I added them all to a crockpot to cook overnight. For one, I like how a crockpot tenderizes the meat and bone and yet still keeps the fat that she suggests you keep and for two, it’s simple and I love my crockpot!
Doesn’t look too appetizing, huh?
The next morning, it was ready to grind. I don’t have a meat grinder and didn’t go out and buy one, but I felt my Ninja blender would do the trick. And it did.
TT was my taste tester. She got to lick the blender bowl (once the blades were removed) and gave her approval.
Because I used thighs with the bones and the first batch didn’t blend too well, I added the bone to the leftover broth and boiled it in an attempt to soften them. It boiled for at least 30 minutes while I prepared everything else.
Afterward, the bone did blend pretty well. If you decide to make your own cat food, don’t be afraid to use your hands! I blended the bones separately and dug through each batch after the blender, and dug through the entire mess again to make sure there were no bones that hadn’t blended. I removed anything suspicious.
All the bones but this blended well, and some that I threw away. I used a meat cleaver to break these up, since they crumbled pretty well, and I removed anything else that seemed too rough.
I added the ingredients the vet suggests, i.e. Taurine, Vitamin E, B Complex, and fish oil and used my hands to mix it all in a big bowl (unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it all). Again, see www.catinfo.org for the ingredient list.
She says to cook the egg white lightly and use raw yolk, but I cooked the white, then added the yolk afterward to cook it a bit, too. Again, I don’t like feeding raw food to my animals.
And wallah! After two hours of blending, adding, mixing, etc, I had my first batch of homemade cat food! I separated them into four large containers to freeze some. I’m not exactly sure yet how long each will last.
TT definitely approved! And again, she got to lick the bowl. But she didn’t stop there, she licked my hands and cannot wait for tonight’s dinner! Calypso had a sample, too, and gave his approval. We’ll see how he does when he realizes it isn’t a snack but his actual dinner.
Because Riley is the finicky one, I decided to chop up her kibble in the blender to sprinkle on top. Not sure how that’s going to play out just yet. Stay tuned for the results.
by Angela Smith | Aug 18, 2013 | Writing
Riley was determined to keep me from writing today.
First she wanted to take a nap on my work-in-progress.
Then she decided to help me turn the pages of my work-in-progress, and maybe I did need to go back a few pages and check a few things.
She didn’t like what I had written, so she decided to help me by grabbing a pen.
“See, I can do this better,” she says as she sticks her tongue out at me.
Well, I guess it tired her out, because she soon fell asleep, leaving me more confused with my work-in-progress than ever.
