While I’ve loved working on the Unbreakable Bonds series with Rinda, she isn’t technically my first writing partner. In fact, I’ve had a writing partner since I wrote completed Dayhunter, the second book of the Dark Days series. This writing partner isn’t as helpful when it comes to figuring out a particular twist in the plot or a change a character’s development. But she is really good at reminding me that there are times when I just need to walk away from the page.
Though we might not always agree on the timing of that break.
Let me introduce you to Demona, my lovely cat and co-partner when it comes to writing any project. She is eight years old and she joined my tiny family with the help of my brother, who thought I absolutely had to have this cat. (He was right but I really hate telling him those words.)
She isn’t a very large cat, but she is incredibly soft and fluffy when the humidity is high (and now that we’re in South Florida, that’s all the time). When we lived in Kentucky, she loved to hunt crickets that got into our basement and in Florida, she loves to catch the tiny lizards that sneak on the patio.
When she wants something she can be incredibly persistent. As in, you will pay attention to her NOW. She can be very vocal when it’s time for food, attention, or if it just happens to be one of those moments when you simply need to follow her around the house.
In the past few years, she has started giving what my husband and I call “love pats.” She will curl up on your chest and if you don’t give her proper affection she will start patting you chin, cheek, nose, or eye to get your attention. If that doesn’t work, she moves to head butting you. For some reason, she’s recently started skipping the “love pats” with my husband and going straight to head butting him like a little ram.
Like every other cat that I’ve owned, Demona loves paper. As a writer who frequently who switches between computers and paper, this doesn’t always work for me. Whenever Demona catches me working on paper, she takes this as a sign
that she needs to lay across the paper and rub her face on the end of the pen. While I will admit that is it incredibly adorable, it does make getting any work done extremely difficult. She also has no problem sitting on the paper and giving me the evil eye, as you can see in the picture to the left.
But regardless of the hours I keep or the crazy stories that I write, Demona is always there, ready to steal my pen and convince me that maybe it’s time to take a kitty break to cuddle.
And I find myself hoping that we’ve still got many more books to write together. Because it’s hard to imagine ever putting words on the page without her close by ready to chew on my pen or just lay across the laptop.