Hello Grab-baggers,
the last Friday of Mai is coming to a diary near you, soon.
After a fairly quiet time last month, I’ve decided to open the discussion thread a few days early.
And to invite your questions, comments and ideas about cats. Particularly about cats and writing. Do the two go together? Is it kitsch to write about your cat? If you have a cat, does it try to stop you writing?
Quite likely, Mouse will make an appearance.
Just as usual, I will be online from 4pm, UK time, on the 27th Mai.
But if you’d like to ask me a question, or fire off a comment, you can do so by commenting on this message, on Substack.
This month, I learned that a comic I worked on, Dead Boy Detectives, will be made into an HBO Max TV series.
All best,
Toby
p.s.
Previous Grab-bags can be read here (for Januar) and here (for Februar) and here (for Marz).
Grab-bag
Sorry, always late.
Never had pets until they were gifted. Said I couldn’t look after myself let alone a zoo of two cats. But I love them. A friend told me that people come into our lives at the right time. Do you think the same might be said about cats? Or pets in general? In an isolated workplace, does the breathing of the writer’s cat settle the time and place that you step back into when the page throws you out for the night? A living threat to pull you back. Was Mouse a talker or observer? Our boys kept their opinions to themselves unless it concerned a late supper.
Yesterday you spread red across the page and homed in on the shades and shapes of words, reminding readers to create combos of sounds, textures and tastes so I felt home again. I also read and reread your views on suicide, death and legacy. I think. Maybe I see what I want to see when reading rather than what’s there but I think a lot about expiry dates and once it’s online, my version of your words is powerful. This has been a good month for visualisation and the posts are worth more than you might imagine so thank you, Toby.
I do hope that when the tv series happens, you’re in there somewhere, in any guise, a background guest appearance. In a stripy scarf. With the cats. And a hare.
Chris
Hi Toby, I don't like cats - all moods and claws - though they seem to tolerate me on the occasions that our paths/paws cross. I once played my guitar to a rescue cat who then came and sat on me :-) Congrats on Dead Boy Detectives - does it change your outlook on the writer's life?