Collaboration with a Cat & Other Stories

Photo by Oriol 'Oli' Benet

I’m back!

And I've got a good feeling about 2012.

My year began with the news that my short story ‘Five Pounds Short’ is to be published in the Earlyworks Press anthology. It’s about the domino effect that occurs when a woman loses a fiver.

Ironically, I shaved a thousand words off it so I wouldn't have to pay an extra fiver for submitting such a long piece.

I’ve also just spent two weeks in Barcelona working on my novel.

It’s had a few false starts and I’ve thrown away at least two novels worth of words but finally my first draft is done.

I stayed in my brother’s flat while I was away since he was on holiday and looked after his little cat.

It was the first time I’d ever looked after a cat. In my mind I fully expected it to be as easy as looking after a house plant.

The cat, called Kitty, (pronounced Kiddy due to my brother’s fiancée being American), insisted on collaborating with my novel. As soon as I began to write she’d walk nonchalantly over my keyboard.

You'll be able to differentiate our writing styles quite easily.

Her sentences read something like this: jrierhvkw;lmnvfjfjdfdm

Occasionally mine aren’t much better.

Apart from her eagerness to play at 4am, our time together was enjoyable and productive.

I wrote more in two weeks than I would normally write in two months.

Now I’m faced with the fresh challenge of editing the whole book and I expect it will take a few months

But I've lots of short stories up my sleeves and on my hard drive. I’m thinking it’s time they got together in a short and sweet compilation, a perfect little read before bedtime.

Be it the end of the world or not, I'm going to make 2012 a year of action.