Looking for advise from the writer’s community. I’ve been working on a children’s book for almost a year. My brief stint as a freelance newspaper writer did not prepare me for the massive learning curve I’ve encountered in attempting to write a book.

I think I’ve got great characters and an intriguing plot (but then what writer doesn’t think that, right?). The story is allegorical in nature with cats as the main characters and gangster raccoons as the antagonizers.

I’m working on the climax scene. I could use some advise on the elements needed for a great climax scene. I realize that it doesn’t have the oomph it needs and would like to hear from other writers.

This is a children’s book, ages 12 and up, but I would imagine that the essential elements of a great climax scene would be the same no matter what genre.

Every language has a word for peace as every heart has a longing for peace.  

 Salaamu alaikum (Peace be upon you) Shalom…Paz…لح (solh)….Jam….Paix….Síocháin….શાંતિ śānti).. ..Kedamaian… .Pace….ಶಾಂತಿ (shaamti)….Pax….शान्ति (shanti)   

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“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”  Jesus

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“Do you know what is better than charity and fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind.” The Prophet Mohammed

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“There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.”  Mahatma Gandhi

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“Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky, Imagine all the people, living for today. Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too, Imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” John Lennon

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…..from the speech that Robert F. Kennedy gave on the night of Martin Luther King’s assassination, April 4th, 1968.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I’m only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some very sad news for all of you — Could you lower those signs, please? — I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black — considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible — you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization — black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poem, my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:

“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.”

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King — yeah, it’s true — but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love — a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it’s not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

Thank you very much.” Robert F. Kennedy, asassinated 63 days later on June 6, 1968 

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“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”  Martin Luther King

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“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” Gandhi

 My BlogBlast tags go to:

The Pear Tree Blog

The Cat Persons Dog Blog

KittySitter’s Weblog

To all of my 2 fans out there, apologies for no recent posts.

I have my new blog “Here Kitty”  and its companion website, Global Cats up and running now, so that’s where I’ve been.

I discovered since I started blogging (one whole month into it) that I wanted to focus more on a specific topic and found that since I had a gadzillion links to cat sites and cat news that the topic seemed to pick me. I have been writing a book for the last year with cats as the main characters. Thus, all my ’cat’ tags and cat folders and all the del.icio.us links and the news stories and bizarre tales that I have saved over the last year just begged for public attention.  

I find myself reading ‘cat news’ stories daily and I am most intrigued by the devoted efforts of so many people who work to save them, very often in horrible conditions. I found that I love these stories because they give me hope in human nature and for the human race. In spite of all the horrific events going on in the world, there are people who really care and actually do something to follow up on their passion.

I hope you take a look at my new sites and give me some feedback. I am developing a custom Google Global Cat map which placemarks many of these interesting news stories on the map. Since the emphasis at Global Cat is on rescue cats, the Global map will feature rescue cat stories sent in by readers. So if you have a rescued cat and want to feature your feline, check it out. Links are on both the blog and webiste, but here’s the direct link to the map.

There is a Catholic church in Biloxi, MS which sits directly across the street from the floating casinos which abound there. It struck me the first time I saw it (before Katrina) because of the angel. He carried a sword and looked out over the floating casinos. He seemed to carry the qualities of both compassion and serious intensity of an divine being with a mission.

The church survived Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Katrina.

Recently, we traveled to this area and I was very curious to see what had happened to the angel. It had a such a strong presence and its placement is so incongruous to its surroundings that I can’t help but think that he is trying to tell us something.

Here’s what we found. The angel stands on the ground now, sword broken. The church is barely functioning, if at all. However, the casinos are back in full force. Most of the casinos had been completely destroyed by Katrina but now they are more plentiful than ever. Since the relaxing of the laws that prevented casinos to be built on land (pre-Katrina) the

I thought it was an interesting, and sad, reflection of how the priorities of humankind manifest themselves.

There was a study done by some UC Davis scientists wanting to learn more about the origin of cats. So they swabbed about 11,00 cats, I think it was, for their DNA.

I had a funny image of hundreds of scientists in lab coats with Q-tips and zip lock bags traveling to remote locations all over the globe, taking a quick swab of random cats’ cheek cells and getting on the plane to take their samples back to the lab. But hey, I’m not a scientist and of course it was all done through the mail. 

But the DNA results were interesting because they discovered that the cradle of human civilization,  appropriately named ‘The Fertile Crescent’, is also the origin of the domesticated cat.

Cats became domesticated about the same time that people did apparently. When we went from being nomadic beings and settled down, raising and storing crops and grains, cats quickly discovered that those storage units harbored their favorite cuisine. Humans realized what a great service cats provided and a mutual bond was struck.

Today most cat owners don’t rely on their cats to keep the mice out of their grain cellars (although we do depend on Marco and Polo to keep the rodents at bay here at our country ‘estate’).

So there’s some magnetic bond between humans and cats, sort of a mutual respect it seems, that obviously doesn’t depend on a work ratio factor. All they have to do is look cute, which is most of the time, and we feel better. Pet a cat and your blood pressure goes down. If he purrs, then you’ve soaked up a little of his nirvana.  Instant stress relief.

Maybe we love cats because they never worry about anything. They are truly an inspiration in the art of relaxation.

 Here’s a link to something more scientific. Cats’ Family Tree Rooted in Fertile Crescent

The ‘Mewses’ and I are in snooze mode. Be back soon!

I have 2 orange tabby cats, named Marco and Polo. They deserved their own page which they got today. To see them click on the page tab at the top: ‘The Mewses.

Feel free to submit captions for their photos.

I love trees. I love them for the shade, for their beauty, for their ambiance, for the fruit, for cooling my house in the summer. Here is a beautiful tree the way God intended.

 My mail box I’m not so crazy about. It’s probably just like yours. Full of junk mail every day. When I got a 5 lb. Staples Office catalog today, I’d had it. I called to get myself removed from their mailing list. They said it would take 4 weeks and I still might get another one.

Every time I get the mail (i.e. 95% junk) I think “these used to be trees!”

This is a junk mail tree. Some artist’s attempt to be creative with all that garbage.

I like the first tree better.

I am trying to figure out how to recycle my paper. It’s not easy. We’re not in the city limits so they don’t pick it up. There’s only one place in town that takes paper and they have ‘conditions’. Not sure what they are yet, because I’m still carrying it around in my car in a plastic bag. The recycle place is on the other side of town and with gas at 3.89 where I live I’m not sure how the carbon footprint measure out.

After a bit of research I found a group that reduces the junk mail for you. Actually there’s a number of them, but this one has a really cool wiget. It’s called GreenDimes.com 

Has anyone used this service? There are 3 levels of ‘care’. One is free, so I’m thinking to give it a try. It’s been written up in the NY Times and Business Week, and featured on Ellen and Good Morning America. Here’s the basic idea. 

This whirling dancer will spin both clockwise OR counter-clockwise depending on which side of your brain is most active. She will whirl for you if you double-click her.

This is an amazing visible detector of the right vs. left activity. It is so incredibly accurate. I can watch it spin one way, then when it seizes up, it might be going the other way. My brain flips back and forth with amazing speed these days. I guess this is good, since I need both sides in a big way. Just taking care of the nitty gritty elements of getting through a day of life require large chunks of my left brain.

LEFT BRAIN

Logical
Sequential
Rational
Analytical
Objective
Looks at parts

However, the writing process requires my right brain and I catch myself letting the “switch” flip when I have a moment to spare. I have to force my Left side to stay in gear, rather like a parent telling a child ‘finish your vegetables first, then you can have dessert.’

RIGHT BRAIN

Random
Intuitive
Holistic
Synthesizing
Subjective
Looks at wholes  

Why is being in my right brain is so relaxing? Why can I spend hours here, playing around, writing mostly and not get tired. I could never stay up ’til 2:00 a.m. entering receipt amounts in Quicken, or preparing a profit and loss statement for our accountant. I know there’s a good reason for this, but I’m wondering if naturally left-brained people feel that way about being in their element. I mean how does an accountant relax? What does an actuary do for fun?

Gosh, do they even blog? I’m starting to feel like meeting a truly Left-Brainer would be like a cross-cultural exchange.