Short Book Reviews: The Life-Changing Power of Kittens

The Lost Cats & Lonely Hearts Club, by Nic Tatano is a sweet little story that definitely appealed to

the cat lover in me. The premise – how a litter of orphaned kittens transforms the life of a hardened news reporter – is right up my alley. By “little” I mean that the scope of the story is contained and domestic, rather than universe-shattering. The focus is on the heroine, her closest friends, her parade of potential, boyfriends, and of course the kittens. There’s a nice balance between romance, personal growth, and the notoriety that comes from blogging the lives of the kittens and becoming a spokesperson for adopting not only kittens but human children.

The one bobble for me almost knocked me out of the story at the outset, which was designating a tortoiseshell kitten as male. Although male tortoiseshell cats occur, they are extremely rare, as the coat color pattern requires two X chromosomes (females are XX, males are XY, so male tortoiseshells must be sterile XXY – if you want to read more about how that works, check here). I love this sort of genetics (not to mention tortoiseshell cats) and spotted the error right away, but determined to plow on with the story, albeit wincing (and casting aspersions at both the author who did not do the homework and the copy editor who did not catch it) every time that kitten was called “he.” Aside from that, it was a lovely, heartwarming story with a predictably uplifting, happy ending.

Baycon 2017 Schedule

I'll be appearing at BayCon in San Mateo this year. I hope you'll drop by to say hello (and enjoy a panel or two...or get an autograph). This year Book View Cafe will have a table in "Author's Alley" and I'll be there, at least part of the time. I'll have books to sell and gift bookplates to autograph.

Here's my schedule (I'll be moderating all of them)"

Sat. May 27, 11:30 am. Science Fiction (and/or Fantasy) as a Tool for Social Change. With A. E. Marling, Dirk Libbey, Carrie Sassarego, and Wanda Kurtcu.

Sat. May 27, 1:00 pm. Stand-Alone or Series? Pros and Cons. With Chaz Brenchley and R. L. King.

Sat. May 27, 4:00. Writing in Someone Else's World. With  Kathleen Bartholomew, A. E. Marling and R. L. King.

Sun. May 28. The Care and Feeding of Your Creative Muse. With Skye Allen, Jennifer Nestojko, Mark Gelineau, and R. L. King.

"Nevertheless, She Persisted" Anthology Table of Contents

Book View Cafe's Mindy Klasky has edited an anthology, Nevertheless, She Persisted. Here's the Table of Contents (with my historical fantasy story about Dona Gracia Nasi). Release date is August 8, 2017.

What an amazing lineup!

“Daughter of Necessity” by Marie Brennan
“Sisters” by Leah Cutter
“Unmasking the Ancient Light” by Deborah J. Ross
“Alea Iacta Est” by Marissa Doyle
“How Best to Serve” from A Call to Arms by P.G. Nagle
“After Eden” by Gillian Polack
“Reset” by Sara Stamey
“A Very, Wary Christmas” by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
“Making Love” by Brenda Clough
“Den of Iniquity” by Irene Radford
“Digger Lady” by Amy Sterling Casil
“Tumbling Blocks” by Mindy Klasky
“The Purge” by Jennifer Stevenson
“If It Ain’t Broke” by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
“Chataqua” by Nancy Jane Moore
“Bearing Shadows” by Dave Smeds
“In Search of Laria” by Doranna Durgin
“Tax Season” by Judith Tarr
“Little Faces” by Vonda N. McIntyre

Glory in the Skies

Today's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" is so beautiful, so uplifting to my spirits, I cannot resist posting it here. For all the troubles on our small globe, the universe is an awesome place. Often I need reminding of the scale of things, "this too shall pass," and that there is always beauty and wonder to be found if we but lift our eyes.

About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. ... Its core is dominated by light from cool yellowish stars. Along its grand spiral arms are the blue colors of hotter, young stars mixed with obscuring dust lanes and pinkish star forming regions.

Short Book Reviews: Urban Fantasy Circa 1991

Street Magic, by Michael Reaves, Tor 1991. This isn’t a new book, as you can see by the date. In fact,

I believe it’s the first urban fantasy I read, along the lines of “elves in Manhattan.” In this case, the city is San Francisco, but it could be any big, grimy, noisy city that draws runaways, abandoned kids, and the disillusioned. It’s a fairly short book, and by today’s standards quite simple, but in its time, the tropes were sufficiently new to stand on their own without an overly elaborate plot. I tried to step aside from the urban fantasy of the last 15 years and re-read it with fresh eyes. The characters and elements that appealed to me then still do. The ones that didn’t (like the street kid to whom magical creatures are drawn) still don’t; however, what was once annoying I now see as a not-so-successful exploration of a literary shorthand we now take for granted and that has not weathered the years well.

My favorite characters included an elderly woman bookstore owner (of course!) and the photographer who once glimpsed a door into Faerie (at Muir Woods, of all places – where I visited many times as a teen and college age student, hiking in the “back way” from my parents’ house – well, redwood grove and magic do go together, or so I have always thought), botched his chance to step through that door, and now has descended into a haze of alcohol and regret. He’s not a major character and doesn’t drive the plot, but the way he grapples with his yearning to find Faerie again (and this time, seize the chance he missed before) in conflict with living an ordinary, mortal life in an ordinary, mortal world touched me deeply. Isn’t that what we all do – try to balance and integrate the unrealistic, idealistic dreaming and the humdrum, hoping to forge lives that in some way connect and nurture the miraculous?

The verdict: If you haven’t read it, do take a look. It’s a short book and moves right along, and even after all these years has something to offer, especially in the secondary characters. If you missed it and you love urban fantasy, I commend this historical perspective on the genre.