Sanctuary, Part Three

Author: J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Urban Fantasy; Roxburg Stories
Warnings: None
Characters: Dan Shapiro, Jase, Misha, Raz Talhami
Summary: A pair of remarkably intelligent cats need to find a safe home.
LINK TO PART ONE


Sanctuary by J.Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

~oOo~

Dan smiled as he put his beer on the coffee table and sank into his couch. Both cats were enjoying their new toys. Jase was carrying the little stuffed bunny around with him--and while attachment to a stuffed animal would be too undignified for his brother, at least Misha had forgotten himself long enough to chase a string and a small mouse toy.

But playtime was over as far as Dan was concerned. There was an afternoon ballgame coming on soon. He picked up his remote and found the Yankees channel. Then he picked up his beer and leaned back with his feet up on the table.

Sanctuary, Part Two

Author: J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Urban Fantasy; Roxbury Stories
Warnings: None
Characters: Dan Shapiro, Jase, Misha, Raz Talhami
Summary: A pair of remarkably intelligent cats need to find a safe home.
LINK TO PART ONE


Sanctuary by J.Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

~oOo~

Dan woke up to the feel of a rough cat tongue tickling his ear, and then his morning stubble. That was followed by an insistent nudge to his chin.

He smiled--this had to be the friendly one. "Yeah, good morning," he said through a yawn. Then he opened his eyes and reached out to scratch the cat's head. "You're a little attention whore, huh? I didn't know Siamese were so sociable."

The cat kept nuzzling and licking in response, mewling now and then for emphasis as he cleaned Dan's face.

As far as Dan knew, the little guy had spent the night curled up against his shoulder. His brother, meanwhile, had started on the bedroom floor, but at some point he must have found the top of Dan's dresser more to his liking. Right now he looked like a king surveying his domain.

"Ok, ok," Dan said, pushing the friendly cat away from his face. "I'm awake. Let me get up and dressed and then we’ll find out who's responsible for you two."

Sanctuary, Part One

Author: J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Urban Fantasy; Roxburg Stories
Warnings: None
Characters: Dan Shapiro, Jase, Misha, Raz Talhami
Summary: A pair of remarkably intelligent cats need to find a safe home.


Sanctuary by J.Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

~oOo~

Raz pulled his car into an empty parking spot and squinted at the house across the street. There was just enough lamplight to make out the number through the rain.

"That's 783 Chestnut," he announced. "Ok, you two. That's the one you want. Just wait on the porch."

The two Siamese cats stared at him as they huddled together in the passenger seat. One made a frightened, questioning noise in its throat that sounded damn close to the gurgling of a human baby.

Raz narrowed his eyes, unimpressed. "We've been through this. I can‘t look after you.”

The other cat made a sort of hopeful half-purring noise that begged to differ.

Fresh Carrots

Since the plot bunnies for my new urban fantasy stories aren't cooperating, I've decided to check up on some old bunnies. I've been ignoring them for a while, so they're probably starving for attention. I suspect they'll respond well to fresh carrots.

Huh. No wonder all those books on writing advise you to keep every story idea you've had and every scrap of a story you've written on hand! Never can tell when you'll need to fall back on them . . .

Love yWriter! Now about my story . . .

I adore yWriter! I love having all my chapers, scenes, notes, character backgrounds and character pictures on one easy program. (Well, relatively easy. I had to play around a little before I figured out what I was doing.)

Since I've installed it, I've been writing up a storm for my new urban fantasy blog--a blog that will feature a series of interconnected short stories, flash fiction, and drabbles. But I have one problem: my first story for said blog may contain an excess of cuteness. (Yes, I've been known to do cute. But this one may be over the top.)

It's a story about a pair of Siamese cats who are too intelligent for their own good. It's hard to write about two smart felines without straying into a cute territory! And a little cuteness is ok--I'd just like to make sure that my readers' blood sugar won't skyrocket.

Sigh. Back to editing . . .

Edit: The blog and the story are up! The story is called Sanctuary; you can find it on my Smokeless Fire blog.

Goodbye Index Cards, Hello yWriter!

While there's something to be said for neatly organized index cards detailing characters, scenes and chapters, there's even more to be said for having all that information stored on your laptop in one handy program. To that end, I finally installed yWriter, a free word processing program desinged for writers.

So far, I'm impressed! I'm using it for a brand-new series of stories--my urban fantasy sans vampire series, in fact. So at the moment I'm playing around with pictures for the characters and places to put stats. I'll start working on scenes next. If all continues to go well, I'll be saying thank you and goodbye to my index cards.

Begone, vamps!

Angel and Spike

I'm putting together a character list for an urban fantasy story. I've decided that no vampires need apply.

Yes, I read and enjoy vampire stories. And I'm a hardcore Buffy fan. But I've never had a real feel for these walking cadavers. Besides, I have issues with the whole blood diet. How un-kosher is that?

I also have a problem with most vampire-human love stories. There's usually quite an age-difference involved. Why would someone who is hundreds of years old want to date someone in their twenties, let alone a teenager? (Sorry, Buffy, but as much as I like you with both Angel and Spike, I can't help but dwell on this question . . .)

Vampire-vampire romances have more potential. (Ahem. Yes, I've been known to read a bit of Angel-Spike fan fiction.) And exploring the motivations behind those who willingly become vampires--that sounds intriguing. But I don't think I could do the characters justice. At heart, I don't want to get inside a vampire's head. In fact, I tried one roleplay as a vampire recently and it was a disaster. When it comes to playing a vamp--please forgive the pun--I suck.

So I'll have to turn away any and all vampire characters who try to force their way into my brain. That shouldn't be hard. After all, I'll be busy negotiating with psychics and shifters and ritualistic magicians . . .