Hi all!
This week I'm going to talk about my cats, and how each of them has influenced my writing. While pets can be cuddly and fun to play with, they can inspire us in so many ways!
Normie.
Me and Normie, one of the few pictures of us together
Unfortunately I don't remember Normie that much because he ran away when I was little. Luckily my Mum managed to take a few pictures of us together when I was a baby. Although I don't remember him that much, I still wanted to honour him in Blood and Water. He is Hazel and Wes' pet, a tiny Siamese kitten who can communicate with the dragons. Because I don't remember him that well I've made him a new personality, in Blood and Water he is confident and loves attention. Despite not being with me for very long, I still love him dearly.
Rocky.
A rare picture of Rocky awake
After years of begging to get a cat my Mum finally relented when I was eleven. Rocky was only twelve weeks old at the time, and was a bit of a scaredy cat for the first few days. However he soon came out of his shell and we bonded quite quickly. For many years he was my main source of inspiration, every story had him as the main character. In one he was a cat spy, in another he could suddenly speak and he even lived in a forest in one story.
Despite all the adventures I wrote about him partaking in, he's the opposite in real life. He's lazy, loves nothing more than to sleep and eat tuna. But, he's also very protective. Whenever I went outside he would follow me around the street, and wouldn't stop until I went back inside. For Blood and Water I took his protective aspect and made him Hazel's overprotective brother. He's a main character in the Elemental Dragons series, and I'm glad that I've finally found a story that he shines in.
Mishka.
Mishka, playing in her favourite cat tree
If you follow me on Twitter I quite often post pictures of the youngest member of my cat family. She's lved with us for just over a year, after we got her at eight weeks old. Unlike Rocky, she's loud, playful and doesn't think things through. She can be a pain sometimes, but I do love her dearly. My boyfriend and I did a cat IQ test for her, and she scored twenty points below the average for her age. So we quite often joke that her head is just like a wind tunnel.
I haven't quite managed to fit her into a story yet, I'm still trying to find the right one for her. However, she is the main influence for how the dragons behave in Blood and Water. To how they eat, play and interact with each other. Her silliness helps me figure out how dragons would behave if they were paired with humans.
Next week I'm going to make a blog post about an anthology I'm in, out on the 16th March, so keep your eyes peeled!