Life is always interesting when you’re living in the “Bast”
lane. “Living in the Bast Lane ” is actually words on a button
a friend bought and gave to me at a science fiction convention a year ago. And
my black tabby cat is definitely a delight to have in our home—since September
2009.
Now I have been asked if my male black werepanther, Montsho,
in Dark Leopard Magic , my
sequel to Beast Magic, is
based off Bast. He’s not, and it’s not because she’s female either. No, that
might be more the black shorthair, Samhain; I had once, until he died at age
13. Though Montsho, is a composite of many things in my imagination. And no,
she wasn’t the inspiration of the black cat form my demon Familiar hero, Charun
took, when he came to Tina Epson, for the first time in my new print release, The Witch And The Familiar.
We saw her for the first time in a box with her four
sisters. My husband and I had just walked out of Petsmart, having looked at
stuff for dogs. Our Siberian husky, Indy, had died at age 16 ½ the past April and
we still couldn’t help looking at dog toys a few months later.
Actually at that time, all we had left was our blue-gray
female cat, Ripley, more Bill’s than mine. A woman standing by the box told us
she was trying to find homes for the kittens. Her friend had found them on the
streets and gotten them their first shots and a vet checkup. I peered in and
saw four black kitties—well, they were all black like Samhain had been, but each
one also had spots of white. The fifth was a gray tabby. Bast was the blackest,
with one white spot right on her belly. She was also a tabby herself, having stripes
darker black than the black fur they lay over.
Bill told me to take one and I picked her. All the way home,
she remained quiet and still, a sweet girly baby girl. That became her
nickname; Baby Girl. Once home, she
stayed quiet. After a life with a hyper Siberia
husky, I felt this kitten would be more like Ripley in temperament. Though she
did play a bit that first day, something Ripley never did as Ripley was more a
prissy princess type.
Boy was I wrong! The next day, Bast showed her true colors,
and that’s not black. Hyper as Indy had
been . . . no, the little cat proved to be a smidgen more hyper. Three years
and five months later, she’s still hyper, tearing around in the mornings. Other
times though, she is more sedate and queenly, fitting her Egyptian goddess name
well. Her favorite thing to lie on is paper. Leave a newspaper or printed up
pages of your manuscript, and the next minute you may find her asleep on top of
them. Her favorite items to play with are balls (she even found a couple of big
balls that had been Indy’s) and a stick with a fuzzy item attached. She doesn’t
eat anything else, but dry cat food. Not even meat. I can leave my dinner on a
plate by her and she won’t touch it, unlike Ripley, whom would try and take a
potato chip out of your hand.
I’m glad that Bast came into our lives. After all, there’s
nothing like living in the Bast lane.
Blurb for Beast Magic:
They come from two different worlds. Ramses is a werelion.
Shana Tory a human. The Dreaming foretells them as soul mates, so Ramses tracks
her down in America .
But others from his pride, led by one evil lioness, do not want them together.
Besides their lives, will their love survive the coming war?
Blurb for new print release, The Witch And The Familiar:
Mortal woman Tina discovers she is part of a prophesy that says she and
Charun, her demon Familiar, must make love so she can become the witch she is
fated to be. If she doesn't do it and stop the demon army bringing Armageddon
to the Mortal Realm on Halloween, she won't stand a chance in Hell.
A year later, just when Tina and Charun thought it was all over and that
their life would be normal—another prophesy pops up. If Lucifer snatches Tina
and mates with her before the last chime before midnight of the new year and
gets her pregnant with his son, that the real Armageddon would begin, spelling
the end of life as they knew it. This time they get help from an archangel,
Jacokb, but with demons, Lucifer, and a cute demon bunny with fangs out of a
Monty Python nightmare, out to stop them and Heaven not lending a hand, will
Tina this time lose the battle and become the mother of the Antichrist and the
start of a new Hell on Earth?
About Sapphire:
Sapphire
Phelan has published erotic and sweet paranormal/fantasy/science fiction
romance along with a couple of erotic horror stories. Her erotic urban fantasy,
Being Familiar With a Witch is a Prism 2010 Awards winner and a Epic Awards
2010 finalist. The sequel to it is A Familiar Tangle With Hell, released June
2011 from Phaze Books, Both eBooks were combined into one print book, The
Witch and the Familiar, and released April 24, 2012.
She admits
she can always be found at her desk and on her computer, writing. And yes, the
house, husband, and even the cats sometimes suffer for it!
Find out
more about Sapphire Phelan at http://www.SapphirePhelan.com.
Leave a comment about what kind of pet you have and what
makes them an individual, to be entered to win a download of my first
shapeshifter e-novella from Phaze Books, Beast Magic, which the hero is a cat, a werelion!
Paws With A Cause® enhances the independence and quality of
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PAWS® increases awareness of the rights and roles of
Assistance Dog teams through education and advocacy. Founded in 1979, Paws With A Cause is
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as Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Seizure Disorders, and Hearing Disorders
to name just some. Each of our dogs are
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and closing doors, picking up objects, pulling a wheelchair, turning lights on
and off, and alerting a person to particular sounds like a telephone, doorbell,
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for a person with a disability and your donations will go to making that
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We will have 4 winners for the main giveaway.
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Also we have two huge boxes of books and swag from Romance Book
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Good luck to all and thank you for helping make this
fundraiser a success.
Sapphire, I loved reading about your cat Bast. I have a pure black cat named Killer. She's fat, although she says she's merely large-boned. She has a shortened tail. My son bought Killer for my husband and me after our 16 year old tabby died. Son named her Killer because she's so sweet and afraid of everything. Like your Bast, Killer for awhile only ate dry food, and recently she's begun eating some gourmet cat food. We can also leave a dish of our food in front of her and she won't touch it. Unlike our tabby, Happy, from whom we had to guard our food. Killer is an indoor cat. She likes to walk around our property with us following her. She's never let outside alone. She also walks on a leash. If we're walking around the house with her and she takes off after a squirrel, we just yell for her to come back, and like a dog, she stops and trots back to us.
ReplyDeleteCute story. I have a great dane, Anna, and three cats, Raphaella, Max and Sebastian.
ReplyDeleteLove the name, Killer, for your cat, Cara. Bast never goes outside, except when we take her to the vet. She did go with me as a kitten to Petsmart dressed as a demon for a pet Halloween costume contest. Was the only feline among so many dogs! People said she was one brave kitten that day.
ReplyDeleteThanks you, ellaquinnauthor. We have another cat, a much older blue/gray female named Ripley. She thinks the husband is hers and suffers me as the other woman. LOL
ReplyDeleteI have two cats (Pumpkin and Gracie) They are litter mates and quite different. Gracie is the smaller of the two and the Queen bee of the house. She even keeps my one year old 70 lb lab in line by chasing Sadie around the house until the dog either hides or rolls over on her back. Gracie is there with me no matter where I am in the house. She is my shadow. My constant companion. My other kitty, Pumpkin, is a lover of everyone and will seek out attention from my children and husband, but Gracie is all mine. She was my inspiration for my feline familiar in my ebook, "The Guardian of Bastet." I am her humble servant.
ReplyDeleteIt's good you have Gracie for inspiration and comfort.
ReplyDeleteSapphire, I love the story of Bast dressed as a demon at PetSmart. Every time I go into our local PetSmart, I have to look at the cats. I love the picture of your kitty in the sink. I forgot to mention that we got Killer from the Humane Society. She'd been in the shelter for the first year of her life. She was 14 months old when we adopted her. Black cats are the last to be adopted.At the shelter they told us that Killer had been turned in by a man who said she'd been dumped off in his yard.There's a whole colony of feral cats with shortened tales like Killer's, in the area where Killer was dumped. Her shelter name was Ebony, but my son thought that was too "common." Everyone is surprised that Killer is a she, and a sweet one at that.For the drawing, my email is carolyn4books@aol.com. I love your books.
ReplyDeleteI am owned by a sixteen and a half year old beagle, named Skye. I've owned her since she was three months old and when I had to leave my marriage in a hurry I took her. She's been my companion for many years. When I developed diverticulitis three years ago as I laid on the bathroom floor screaming and puking until the ambulance arrived, she was by my side. When I returned from the hospital after surgery she laid beside the bed. The nurses had to work over her, she wouldn't budge. She didn't bite them she did the Gandhi no budge and if they did move her, as soon as they moved, she returned to her spot. She has bladder cancer and wears diapers 24/7 for a time I thought we were going to lose her, but I changed her diet and she seems better. Spoiled she is a part of my family.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteCara, I agree with your son, about common names for pets. I try to never give my pets common names if possible. Though Ripley was naed by our son--he was into the Aliens films.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, black cats are hardest to get homes. Sad as they are just as sweet as others.
Good luck on the contest.
Yasmine, Skye sounds like a darling. Pets always know when we don't feel good. They give us unconditional love and support.
ReplyDeleteI have a cat that is more like a dog. He is fat and sassy. Even declawed he can kill snakes!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Melissa
daringzoey@yahoo.com
Melissa, I haven't declawed my cats for along while, but one I had declawed in the early 80s, Ra, got outdoors at one point and I chased him, worried. A cat attacked him, but he fought her, using his back claws like a cougar does! So they can take care of themselves.
ReplyDeleteWe've had two black on black tabbies; Moonshadoe and Ninja. We enjoyed having both cats in our lives and miss them both.
ReplyDeleteI love it that you feature cats in your books.
Janice~
I'm getting ready to publish a nonfiction book about a sheltie's struggle to live after being hit by a car. Luke is a courageous dog, and never gave up. Although disabled, he's as lively as he can be, and loves other dogs and people. He's my "nephew dog"!
ReplyDeletemarianne@mariannestephens.net
Thank you, Janice. I love felines of all kinds, so not hard to put them in books of mine if can.
ReplyDeleteMarianne, that's sounds like that will be a great book to read. :-)
ReplyDeleteNice story
ReplyDeletebn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
Thanks, bn100.
ReplyDeleteI have 2 cats and a son...lol My first cat has a half tale that is a curly cue, so I named him Twister. Well he is definitely grown into his name because he barrels through the house like a Twister destroying anything in his path...lol but I love him and wouldn't give him up. My second cat is Hally because we found her or rather she found us on Halloween. She should have been named the Queen of Sheba because she thinks she is above everyone. They have been together since they were kittens.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the giveaway opportunity :)
Cassandra
closkot at hotmail.com
You're welcome, Cassandra. :-) Love the name Twister.
ReplyDeleteI am a cat lover from way back with a big soft spot for black kitties. I'm also bordering on "crazy cat lady" status - all of the strays in our neighborhood know where to come for a home or a hand out. One of the coolest cats that I have ever met was only in my life for 4 months. My son rescued a long-haired white cat from where he was living in a drainage ditch a few blocks from our house. His fur was so matted that we had to shave him - accidentally nicking his skin in a couple of places. The hair cut revealed a couple of cysts on his back - he also had a crumpled ear, was missing most of his teeth and was deaf. We named him, appropriately enough, "Zombie". The vet estimated that he was at least 10 years old; I think he was closer to 15. He was in the early stages of kidney failure. He had the entire family wrapped around his paw within a matter of days. In 4 months his condition deteriorated to the point where we had to have him put to sleep. I still miss him greatly, but he lives on in my writing - he was the inspiration for one of my works in progress.
ReplyDeleteI have a kitten that my niece gave to me. She's cream and marked similar to a Siamese but not solid. Her nose has calico markings with the brownish black and gold. Her ears are mixed and her tail dark like a Siamese. Her name is Precious because at 8 weeks she was precious. She loves to cuddle and to be held like a baby.
ReplyDeleteLinda, so sorry for you loss of Zombie. Glad he inspiring for one of your wips.
ReplyDeletePrecious souns like a love bug, CK.
ReplyDeleteDrum roll. .....winner of my giveaway is Casie! Congratulations, Casie. I'll be contacting you about your prize.
ReplyDelete