Sick Kitty Update

I had this crazy thought that once I lost Magic and Mystic, I wouldn't have insane vet bills anymore. New young healthy kittens, I thought. One check-up, and we won't have to go to the vet until they're due for their rabies shots. I even considered not doing the Patreon anymore, since the vet bills for Magic and Mystic were what motivated me to start it in the first place.

Yes, that IS the universe you hear laughing.

 

To begin with, their initial wellness check turned up roundworms (meds x 3) and an ear infection in Koshka (eardrops). Ka-ching! He had to go back the next week to check on the ears, and the drops hadn't worked, so then he had an antibiotic shot, and an appointment set for 3 weeks away. THEN poor Harry Dresden developed horrible liquid diarrhea (yeah, that was about as much fun to deal with as it sounds like), followed by Ember having the same thing plus throwing up and refusing to eat. So they both went off to the emergency vet last Saturday morning. (antibiotics and probiotics x 2, plus fluids, x-rays, and an anti-nausea shot for Ember). KA-CHING! 

The good news is that they're both feeling better. The bad news is that this Wednesday morning, Koshka had liquid diarrhea (don't you love coming to my page to read this stuff?) and wouldn't eat. So he had to go to the vet too. He is obviously dealing with the same thing, whatever it is, and also had to have fluids and an anti-nausea shot, plus his own antibiotics (metronidazole, which is specifically used for bowel issues). My vet says it could be a result of the roundworms (they can cause this kind of issue, but so can the die-off after the dewormer, so who knows), or it could be a virus, or some other thing that one or the other of them brought into the house from their previous situations. Basically, all we can do is treat the symptoms and hope that poor Angus doesn't come down with whatever it is! (Hopefully not--he's older and his system hasn't been under the kind of stress that theirs has.)

That's right, the new "healthy" kittens have now been to the vet 4 times in 2 1/2 weeks, with another trip scheduled for Koshka's ears next week. At least they all seem to be feeling better.

Thank goodness for my patreon peeps, because they're saving my butt. And a bunch of furry butts too.

Live Witchcraft Class and Full Moon Ritual

As some of you might already know, I started a Patreon page a couple of months ago, and one of the rewards (at the $25/month level) is a live class on various witchcraft topics. (This is a pretty good deal, when you consider that back in the days when I gave online classes--which weren't done by video-chat, so they were way less personal or interactive--they often cost at least that much. And you didn't even get to watch a cat wander in and out of the screen...)

I'm going to be doing a special edition this month, on Wednesday January 31st at 7:30 PM est, in case you were curious about it or thinking of joining in. Wednesday is a big day: it's a super moon, a blue moon, and a total lunar eclipse, all at the same time. To give you some idea of how rare this is, the last time there was a total eclipse during a blue moon (the 2nd full moon to fall in a month) was 1866! So not only is there going to be a class segment, I will also be doing an actual live ritual (albeit a simple one, since I will be sitting in front of a computer). The ritual will focus on coming out of the darkness and into the light. Since this theme works for Imbolc as well, if you can't tune in during the class, you can use the ritual for Imbolc instead. (For those who are at this level, the video is always available later in case they aren't around during the time the class is live. Considering we have people in multiple countries and time zones, this is always going to be an issue, alas.)

To follow me on Patreon, you can go here and check it out. There are a variety of support levels, including $1 and $3 levels for folks who just want to be supportive but don't have much of a budget, as well as levels that get you rewards like a spell a month, or snippets of my works in progress, and much more. (There is even a level that can get you a live tarot reading every month or help with your own writing!) Plus exclusive cat pictures, of course. Mostly, Patreon is a way to support the artists/authors/creative folks you like, so they can keep on doing what they're doing. And believe me, we appreciate it.

Check out my Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/deborahblake

I hope some of you will join me at this once-in-a-lifetime class!

IN OTHER NEWS:
I've been working hard on the third Rider book, DANGEROUSLY FIERCE. Expect some big announcements soon!

What I'm Writing Now

Sorry I've been a little quiet here, but on top of trying to get the garden in, dealing with a sick cat, and another major project around the house (report coming soon), I have had a LOT of writing tasks on my plate.

To be honest, I do a lot better when I can focus on just one project--put my head down and write, write, write. But once you are published, especially if you are juggling more than one publisher, as I do with Berkley (the fiction) and Llewellyn (the nonfiction), it rarely works that way. I often have to jump from one project to another, which hopefully I'm getting better at, although it will never be my best thing.

So here's what I've been working on and what's on my plate for the next few months:

• I just finished the first draft for VEILED MAGIC #3 and sent it off to my Berkley editor.
• Started work on THE BOOK OF CAT MAGIC for Llewellyn, due Sept. 1st
• Got revision notes from the independent editor I am using for the SEKRIT PROJECT (which doesn't have a deadline, since I am doing it myself, but I'd like to get it out soon)
• Got the revision notes from my Berkley editor for the next Baba Yaga novella, WICKEDLY SPIRITED, which features Jazz (the teen from WICKEDLY POWERFUL). Those are due on the 6th--Tuesday--so I spent most of Saturday finishing them and sent them off.
• Got the proof edits for A YEAR AND A DAY OF EVERYDAY WITCHCRAFT from my Llewellyn production editor, the lovely Rebecca Zins. They're not due until the end of the month, but I need to get them off my plate and out of the way, so I spent all weekend working on them and finished them Sunday  night.

  

  Proof revisions for A YEAR AND A DAY

• I also need to write up a synopsis and the first three or four chapters of a new fiction project to show my agent, so we can be sure we're both on the same page with it. Pretty much yesterday.
• Plus I need to come up with a few ideas to submit to the Llewellyn annuals editor for the Magical Almanac. Also yesterday.

Not on this list, but arriving at some point will be the revisions for the second Rider novel, copy edits for it and the novella, and proofs, ditto.

Plus writing cover copy for the Sekrit Project and organizing the cover, etc.

And somewhere in there, I should be making some more jewelry!!!! *falls over with a thud*

Mystic the Cat Update

Some of you have been asking on Facebook how my cat Mystic is doing, so here is a quick update. The short answer is: Not great, but as well as can be expected. The long answer is as follows...

Basically, he's dying. Thankfully, he is--for the moment at least--doing it slowly and without a great deal of discomfort. In fact, he mostly seems pretty content.

Not feeling well is exhausting.

 He has lost a LOT of weight, though, which is never a good sign with a cat. He used to weigh over 18 lbs, back in the day, and for many years was stable at about 16.8 (after changing his food). At his checkup a couple of weeks ago, he weighed 12.7 lbs. That means he's lost about a quarter of his body weight. Not good. So a big part of the struggle these days is getting him to eat. While he still nibbles on his prescription dry food, mostly he is eating Friskies and Meow Mix wet food, which he thinks is grand. Although the cats as a whole get fed twice a day, he now gets lots of small meals in between.

If he is interested in eating, he gets food.

 He's on a number of meds, including prednisone, Miralax and a stool softener to deal with his chronic constipation, and an antacid (a liquid he hates) that he gets right before bed because his tummy gets upset when it gets too empty. The last couple of nights I've actually gotten up and fed him in the middle of the night, but I'm not sure how often that's going to happen. Yawn.

To be fair, ONE of these is Magic's Cosequin for her arthritis.

When we went to the vet in January, his blood tests showed the beginnings (just stage one, not even worth doing anything about) of kidney failure. The tests last time showed it was much more advanced, so he is now getting subq fluids at home every other day, or whenever I can get someone to come over and hold him. He may be down to 12.7 lbs, but all of it is stubborn muscle :-)

Essentially, what it comes down to is that his system is slowing down/breaking down. Some of this is the end stage of years of irritable bowel syndrome, and some of it, perhaps, is due to something we haven't found--my vet thinks it is possible that there is some sort of underlying cancer, like leukemia. To be honest, the cause doesn't matter, since all we can do is treat the symptoms and keep him as comfortable as possible.

It is, needless to say, heartbreaking to watch him go downhill. When we lost his mom last year, it was pretty drastic over the course of a couple of months. This is more of a downward slide, and as always, unless something truly drastic happens, the hard part will be figuring out when it is no longer fair to him to keep fighting. Until then, however, he is worth all the time and effort, and we will keep fighting the good fight until it isn't good anymore.

He may be 15 years old, but he is still my kitten.

Believe it or not, he wasn't more than a few months old in this picture. Look at the size of his paws!

Tarot Deck Update and 2-Prize Giveaway!

If you've been around here for a while, you know that I and fabulous illustrator Elisabeth Alba have a uber-cool tarot deck coming out from Llewellyn on January 8th. (See the Everyday Witch Tarot Deck on Amazon.)

We're planning to do an update every month until the deck comes out, along with some cool giveaways, including signed prints of Elisabeth's wonderful art for the cards. Elisabeth is doing this month's update, along with some input from me. Enjoy!

FROM ELISABETH:

In four more months, the Everyday Witch Tarot will be published by Llewellyn! Deborah and I are super excited. So excited, in fact, that we're revealing the process behind another card, AND having a giveaway (see bottom of post for details)!

We'd like to share the Judgment card, which is also used on the cover of the kit box. Everyone has seen the image by now, but here's a bit of the work that went into making it.

 

Here is the original Rider-Waite version of the card that ours is based on:

Deborah: "I tend to look at the Judgment card in a more positive way than some. Not so much as a judgment ON you, but more how you judge your own life. Do you like what you see? This witch is clearly following her own path with joy, which is what I was trying to represent with this card."

Elisabeth: The image description Deborah gave me was, "A witch in a black hat dances merrily down a path playing a flute [think Pied Piper] with her black gown hiked up to show her striped stockings, a black kitten bouncing in her wake, chasing a butterfly which flits in amongst the musical notes from the flute. A shining light beckons from the direction they are heading in. The mood is of anticipation."

I began with rough 'thumbnail' pencil sketches, and once a composition was approved I moved on to the drawing and digital color rough to figure out how I wanted to paint it.

Before doing the drawing, I took photo reference of myself pretending to be the witch in the image. I wanted all the figures in the deck to have accurate anatomy and feel more lifelike and dynamic, so I took a lot of photo reference!

I also looked at photos of canyons, shrubs, and playful cats.

Here is the image after inking on watercolor paper. Unfortunately I don't have any process photos mid-paint, but this is what I painted on top of!

Here is the final painting, and below is the text from the guide book that comes with the deck.

“Here we go again.”
Where has your path led you and where will it lead you now?

A witch in a black hat dances merrily down a path playing a flute with her black gown hiked up to show her striped stockings, a black kitten bouncing in her wake, chasing a butterfly which flits in amongst the musical notes from the flute. A shining light beckons from the direction they are heading in. The mood is of anticipation.

The Judgment card is often perceived as something ominous due to the traditional picture that features naked dead people being summoned by the Angel Gabriel’s trumpet. What isn’t clear is that this call is less about “being judged” by someone else and more about taking a look at your own life and finding it unsatisfactory. Our witch on the card is following some music that only she can hear, playing along as she moves happily down the path towards rebirth, renewal, and letting go. She is light of heart and feet because she has put down old grudges and hurts that were dragging her down. There is joy in finally heeding the call to the life you are meant to be living.

Things to consider: Are you following your own music, or dancing to someone else’s tune? The Judgment card reminds us to listen to our own inner wisdom. It can also be a suggestion that we are judging ourselves too harshly, or taking others judgment of us to heart. If this card shows up in your reading, it may be an indication that it is time to let go of the old and embrace the new. Rebirth and renewal await, if you are willing to go down the path that will take you to them.

And the Judgment card on the cover of the kit... The team at Llewellyn did a fabulous job with the design. We couldn't be happier!

Elisabeth and I are having a double giveaway!!!! Two winners will be picked! Use the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of the blog. We are offering a copy of Llewellyn's Witch's Coloring Book (which has some images from the deck that you can color in yourself!) and a signed print of the Judgment card! The print is on archival matte 11x14 paper, signed by Elisabeth!

The Everyday Witch tarot deck can be pre-ordered now direct from Llewellyn at https://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean=9780738746340 or on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Witch-Tarot-Deborah-Blake/dp/0738746347.

And if you can't wait four months for a new deck, you might want to check out The Modern Spellcaster's Tarot by Melanie Marquis with illustrations by one Scott Murphy (aka, Mr. Elisabeth Alba). It looks so cool, I can't wait to get a copy for myself!

*No purchase necessary

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Luna Update: Twins from Different Mothers

Don't let that innocent face fool you. I guarantee she is plotting something...

I figured it was time for an update on Luna, the kitty I adopted back in March. The short version is this: she’s happy, healthy…and driving me crazy. The long version is a bit more complicated, but mostly she is doing well. Mystic the gigantic gray boy is still going after her, alas, but she is figuring out some high spots where he can’t reach her, and has made friends with yellow boy Angus, who at eight years old is the next youngest and still very much a kitten at heart.

Angus and Luna playing.

I've had to buy a lot of new cat toys.

The vet finally decided, back in March, that she was about six months old, which would mean she is about seven months and a half months old now. Still very kittenish and full of beans. Just like my author friend’s cat Miss Paddington, also known as Paddy.

In fact, the two kitties look so much alike, they might be twins. (And yes, they’re BOTH still wide-eyed and full of mischief.)

That's Paddy on the left and Luna on the right. See what I mean!

Karen Rose Smith and I actually “met” through our mutual love of cats. I commented on a blog post she wrote about one of her rescue cats, and talked about how all mine were rescues too. She invited me to write a guest post about my cats, and so a beautiful friendship was born. We live in different states, so we haven’t met in person, but we’ve been there for each other when dealing with cat issues—she called me when she was worried about Halo, Paddy’s mom (Karen had never been present at a kitty delivery before, and I’d been a cat midwife a number of times), and I called her when I was bereft at the loss of Samhain right after Christmas (since she’d been through the same thing not that long before with one of her favorites).

Karen Rose Smith and Paddy

So it is kind of ironic that Paddy, the child of the cat she rescued last summer, and Luna, who I rescued this winter after she was found in a snow bank and put up for adoption by the vet who saved her life, look like mirror images of each other.

In fact, we’ve had so much fun with all our cat chat on Facebook, we ended up starting a Cat-Crazy Book-Lovers page HERE with two other cat-loving authors. The page is dedicated to people who love both cats and books, and apparently there are a lot of us out there! Every week one of the authors takes a turn doing a kitty (and sometimes book) related giveaway, and we are having a blast. If you're on Facebook, drop by and see us.

In the meanwhile, Luna is growing fast. She was tiny when I got her, only four and a half pounds. I haven’t taken her back to get weighed, but I’m pretty sure she’s gained weight. She has a long body and long legs, and even so is still much smaller than the other cats. It’s hard to say how big she is going to be when she finally stops growing, but I can say for certain that she gets prettier every day. Just like her twin, Miss Paddy.

Karen was talking about us on her blog today too. Go check it out if you have a minute. Karen's blog

So, anyone else have a cat who has a twin?

The Tarot Deck: More from Illustrator Elisabeth Alba

As promised, there will be regular updates about the tarot deck project. Here is a link to illustrator Elisabeth Alba's own first blog post about the project Elisabeth's Blog

And here is a fabulous video featuring Elisabeth and her brand-new husband, talking about how they help each other with art and inspiration. If you watch carefully, you can get sneak peek's at some of the other cards, and see her working on the ones I showed you here!

A New Car Update: Meet Luna Caerulea

As many of you know, I got a new car a couple of weeks ago. A NEW new car, as opposed to a used new-to-me car, for the first time ever.

I asked my blog readers to help me name her, and got a lot of great suggestions. After taking some time to get to know the car, I have decided to go with Danyelle's idea: LUNA CAERULEA
Luna Caerulea is Latin for "blue moon" and not only is the car blue, but if you look closely at the license plate above, you will see that she already has her name on her. [The blumoonc on the plate is actually in honor of Blue Moon Circle, my coven, but it still works]. Also, I love Latin, and I think the name sounds very cool. Caerulea is pronounced SER-ool-YA, in case you were wondering.

So thank you Danyelle, and be sure to email me at magicmysticminerva at yahoo to let me know which book you'd like signed and where you want me to send it.

So far, I am really liking the car. All the folks who told me they had one and loved it were right on (THANKS, REBECCA!). It drives like a dream, shifting smoothly and handling well. The hatchback, higher roof, and fold-down rear seats make for a lot of storage room. We took our first trip to the dump already and it was great. (Well, as great as a trip to the dump can be.) There are a couple of minor design flaws--there is a blind spot on the driver's side when you are trying to merge onto the highway...obviously, that's Not Good. Someone suggested adding a small "fish-eye" mirror to the bottom of the side mirror, and I'm going to look for one of those and try it. There's also a large raised knob on the dashboard (for temp control) that is placed where you are likely to periodically whack it with your hand when you shift. *eyeroll* Clearly, the engineers who designed it never sat in the damned car. And there are a few annoying pre-programmed automatic door locking issues. These can be fixed by reprogramming the car, but the instructions take three pages in the manual (not kidding) and when my pal Robin and I spent 20 minutes trying to get it to reset, it wouldn't stay that way. So I'm going to have to take it back to the dealer and make them do it. Still, all in all, I really love the car, and feel like I made the right choice. Whew. [It's a damned good thing, because I am likely to have the car for at least the next 15 years!]

There was a minor upset yesterday. Believe it or not, I got rear-ended while I was sitting at a yield sign. Yes, that's right--two weeks and one day after I got the car. Fortunately, the (coff) impatient (coff--using that instead of a rude word) woman behind me only hit me going about 5 miles per hour, and the car didn't get so much as a scratch. My neck was a little sore afterward, and my nerves a bit jangled, but both Luna Caerulea and I are fine. (Thanks to a friend who made an emergency visit in the evening to do Reiki on me, the neck is much better this morning.)

THIS is why I much prefer to get used cars...ones that have been pre-dinged by their former owners, so I don't have to worry about that first dent or scratch! Which reminds me, I really need to do some protection magic today....

Which reminds me--anyone interested in a post about protection magic?

Oh, and just as a tease, I should let you know I have interesting news to announce soon. THREE pieces of interesting news (all separate), in fact. But I can't say anything quite yet...stay tuned.

Feline Friday: The General Update Version

Is it just me, or is spring/early summer a crazy time? I feel like I'm racing around like a crazy person (no comments from the peanut gallery) trying to get everything done. Of course, dealing with the Year of the Rat in the middle of everything else didn't help...

So--here's a general update on what I've been up to:

Rats! -- I think I've gotten all the little devils. Fourteen in total. (Even the pest guy said, "Wow, that's a lot of rats." Seriously...you don't want to impress the pest guy.) It has been over a week since I caught the last one, and I'm not hearing anything in the walls anymore. Whew. As a bonus, two not-very-bright mice came out of the walls a couple of days ago and were summarily dispatched by the cats. (Who were clearly trying to prove that it wasn't their fault that the rats had only come out into places that the cats aren't allowed to go.)

Today, the appliance repair guy comes to replace the chewed-through hoses on the washer and the dishwasher (ka-ching!), so I will be back in business there. Sometime next week, the pest guy will come back to clean the disgusting mess the rats made of the basement (those suckers poop everywhere). More ka-ching, but he can do it safely and I can't, so there you go.

Once THAT'S done, one of my handyman pals will come over and patch all the holes in the walls of the basement (some of which are so large, you can see daylight through them...thanks again, RATS) and generally try to spiff the place up a bit. (Ka--oh, nevermind. You see where I'm going with this. The damn rats are costing me a lot of money.) After that, or maybe during, I'm going to have my electrician put much better lighting down there, so the next time there is a problem, I will hopefully spot it earlier. Also, it will be a little less spooky....

Jewelry -- It's spring, so I am in the midst of a spurt of jewelry making, trying to round out my existing stock at The Artisans' Guild with brighter seasonal colors (like rose quartz and aventurine) and fill in the gaps in everything else (how did I end up only having ONE pair of lapis earrings?). In theory, I'd planned to finish this before I started work on the next book. In reality, life interfered (see rats, above) and so I will probably finish up this weekend. What, you thought I was going to be relaxing?

I've pretty much given up on the Etsy site, mostly because I just don't have time to keep updating it, but if you ever want a piece of jewelry [I'm looking at you, Lisa Shearin], just let me know and I'll see what I've got.

Writing -- I'm waiting for my lovely new editor at Berkley, Leis Pedersen, to get back to me with edits for The Baba Yaga (gulp). I just went through and reread it prior to starting on the 2nd book in the series, and the good news is that it was even better than I remembered. The bad news is...it was even better than I remembered. (GULP) Now I have to equal or exceed that quality in the next one. Oy. If you look at the word count meter at the top of the blog, you can see that I have started working on The Baba Yaga's Sister. It's going slower than I'd like (see rats and jewelry, above), but the beginning of new books almost always is slow going for me.

I'm also getting ready to teach another couple of classes, and madly trying to get the garden in the ground in between torrential rainstorms.

What are you all up to these days?

And as promised, here are this week's cute cat pics. You're welcome :-)

Oh, and a belated happy birthday to my pal Sierra Meinster, who as usual, is giving me an invaluable assist with research for the new book. She rocks.

Samhain and Mystic on the couch. You can really see the difference between their sizes here (and why it is so rude that he is usually trying to beat the crap out of her for no particular reason). Every once in a while I will find them sitting on the couch next to each other. Samhain is seemingly relaxed, but she always has one eye open. On the other hand, she is stubborn, so she also doesn't budge...

This is Angus, shot over my shoulder the other day while I sat in the Red Chair of Writing. Clearly, he was taking his job of supervising my work very seriously. (Cats are the only creatures on earth who can supervise with their eyes closed, you know.)

I hope you all have great plans for the Memorial Day weekend (if you live in the US), and that you aren't feeling too crazy trying to keep up with life.

Roof & Garden Update #1

Yes, yes, I know...you were hoping for something a little more glamorous...sorry, this is about as glamorous as it gets, at the moment. Well, all right, ever.

In writing news, the novel I was working on, SEEDS OF CHANGE, is officially out on submission. (That means my agent has sent it to a number of lucky editors, all of whom will love it. Right? Right?)

Needless to say, this can be a little nerve-wracking, so I have done what all good authors do under these circumstances: lit a candle, said a prayer, and then started the next book. Not only does this mean you have the next book ready, whether or not your first (or second, or third) one sells, but it also gives you something to think about besides "OMG--do they like it????"

In the meanwhile, back in the back yard, work proceeds apace on the new barn roof. For those of you who didn't guess correctly (which would be all of you--lol) the metal roof of the barn is....RED. (Really, have you not been paying attention? Red chair. Red pillows. It is the year of red, people. Man, it's a good thing this blog is graded on a curve. I'm just sayin'.)

My "rent-a-husband" George is doing an amazing job. He's half done already.

 Doesn't it look great?

And I've finally gotten the garden in (the last of the tomatoes and herbs went in today), as well as about 85% of the weeding. You never get 100% of the weeding done because, y'know, they keep coming back. *sticks out tongue at weeds*

But it is looking pretty good, I think.

That amazing tall stuff in the back left corner is garlic, in case you were wondering :-)

Do you garden, or have an indoor green thumb? If so, what is your favorite thing to grow?