A fantasy dinner

We must celebrate the Fourth, our Independence Day,
so that our children and grands may grow up free in a democracy
in control of their bodies, their votes, their natural resources.
God love them all.

For some time now I’ve moved this recipe to the front of my “try this week” selections—and then moved it back again. It just didn’t see like the right time, or it sounded like too many strong flavors for my mood, or maybe I was just lazy. But tonight good friends came for happy hour. The original plan was that I would go to supper with them, but I wasn’t sure how reliable my stomach was, and I forgot to ask Christian to clear the driveway, so there were two cars, impassable on my walker, between me and an outing. It was all for the best, and I was okay with it. But I had no dinner plans.

I saw them all off to a restaurant that makes extraordinary fried chicken and asked that they bring me back two pieces, which they did—they will be tomorrow night’s dinner, with potato salad, for Jean and me. But what to eat tonight? I had a sudden idea—that sardine recipe I’d been moving about. Of course, when I wanted it, I couldn’t find it and had to print another copy out.

It may have sounded good to me because my long-ago husband used to make a sardine spread I really liked. He claimed it was an old Jewish recipe, and maybe it was—or not. I’ll never know. But he mashed sardines with lemon, onion, salt and pepper and spread the mix on rye toast. It was really good.

But the recipe I found tonight was for toasts—you toast artisan bread (I used five baguette slices) and the minute it’s hot from the oven, spread the bread with a cut garlic clove and then a thin layer of butter. Follow that with thinly sliced tomato, lightly salted, and then sardines (mine came out of the can in bits and pieces but that was because I had trouble opening the can—I cannot do those ring lids! Not enough strength in my hands). Then thin slices of onion—I used the sweet onions I’m so enamored of this season. Salt and pepper it all again, sprinkle with lemon juice and drizzle with olive oil. Who needs basil on top of all those strong flavors—I ignored that part?

First of all, it was hard to eat—drippy. Second, that garlic was really really strong. Omigoodness, I’m still reeling. And when Carol came to bring me the chicken, I warned her to keep her distance. In this day when we’re all so fearful of Covid, she stepped instinctively back, as though she thought in the hour and a half since I’d last seen her, I’d developed Covid. I said instead that I’d eaten a lot of garlic, and she said “Yes, I smell it.”

I’m not sure it’s a dinner I’d repeat often, but it was really good. Another time I’d go lighter on the garlic. And the sardines in the fridge? Maybe I’ll make Joel’s spread out of them and raise a toast to his memory.

Meantime, tonight, fireworks are bursting all around us. I think it’s too early to be those from the concerts in the garden, so I gather individuals are gaily breaking the law. Sophie is not at all bothered—though thunder bothers her a great deal. Interesting to me that she can distinguish between the two. I don’t remember her ever being nervous on the Fourth but there’s been so much publicity about taking care of our animals, I thought I should watch carefully.

Over my long life I have been to more different fireworks celebrations than I can even remember beginning with my teen years when church friends and I went to Soldiers’ Field in Chicago for stock car races and the fireworks. Can you believe me folks let me do that? These days I never again want to go, never want to hear them bursting right over me—it makes me feel like my heart is stopping. But for some odd reason I find a certain satisfaction in sitting in my cottage and hearing them—even though I know many are illegal. Hope not many people lose eyes, fingers, noses, etc. tonight.

It's a funny year to celebrate Independence Day. There’s a wide belief abroad that we have no independence—mostly due to recent decisions from the rogue Supreme Court—and that we have nothing to celebrate. I believe we have to celebrate the country we were meant to be, that country idealized in our constitution, the land where each voice matters. Granted today, that seems a futile dream, but I am optimistic. We can’t turn tail and run. We have to stay here, celebrate democracy and fight for it. Okay, I’ll get political: Vote Blue! It’s the way to defeat those we would tear down our democracy.

Solving the Mystery of Cat Training – Agility and More!

Please welcome my Wednesday guest, Sheila Webster Boneham, author of the Animals in Focus mystery series. Drop Dead on Recall, the first book in the series, won the 2013 Maxwell Award for Fiction from the Dog Writers Association of America and was an NBC Petside Best Ten Dog Book of 2012. Sheila is also the author of 17 nonfiction books, six of which have won major awards from the Dog Writers Association of America and the Cat Writers Association. For the past two decades Boneham has been showing her Australian Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers in various canine sports. She has bred top-winning Aussies and founded rescue groups for Aussies and Labs. Boneham holds a doctorate in folklore from Indiana University, an MFA Stonecoast/University of Southern Maine, and resides in Wilmington, N.C. Sheila writes literary nonfiction and poetry as well, and teaches writing. You can keep up with Sheila’s latest news at  www.sheilaboneham.com and www.facebook.com/sheilawrites, learn more about animal-oriented writing—with some of your favorite authors!—at her Writers & Other Animals blog at www.writersandotheranimals.blogspot.com .

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When I mention that Leo, the lead cat in my Animals in Focus mystery series, competes in feline agility in my new book, Catwalk, people respond in any of several predictable ways. Disbelief or astonishment are common. Laughter is not unheard of. A handful show some interest in learning more. And the vast majority respond with some variant of “My cat wouldn’t do that. S/he’s too independent/indifferent/self-serving.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about that last response and I have a theory. I think that many people prefer to think of cats as lovely companions who really care only about themselves. In a society in which many people are distanced from nature except through media and pets, the idea of living with a minimally civilized animal holds some appeal as a final link to wilder nature.

That’s lovely, but in my experience, well-socialized, healthy cats do enjoy learning new things and interacting with people and other animals. I’ve had lots of cats, and every one of them cared about the people and other animals in their family. Our Kitty (seriously, I didn’t name her!) used to lie on my chest and gently pat my cheeks whenever I had a migraine, and Leo loved to cuddle and play with tiny baby puppies when we were breeding Australian Shepherds. And so it goes.

Leo, the protagcat in my Animals in Focus Mystery Series from Midnight Ink, is one of those well-socialized catboys, and he loves Janet MacPhail and her Aussie, Jay, among others. He showed his devotion with a heroic act in Drop Dead on Recall (2012), and he remained an essential character in The Money Bird (2013). In Catwalk—just out—he and his ilk are in the spotlight at cat shows and in the world of feral cats.

Most people know about canine agility by now, since it’s become popular enough over the past twenty years to be televised regularly. Dogs of all sizes, breeds, and mixtures compete successfully. Check out these videos:

·         Yes, that’s a Chihuahua! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WJxCD5KcFo

·         All kinds of dogs, and people, too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggsIU8rXubk

Well, cats also compete in agility! In the feline version, the handler directs or—more often--lures the cat through tunnels, up and down ramps, over jumps, and through weave poles and other obstacles. Although it's a fairly new sport, it's growing in popularity in the U.S. and Europe. Here’s a dose of cuteness—a kitten beginning to learn about agility on a kitten-sized course--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nka1BTUikcw .

Obviously, cats can be trained. They’re smart, athletic, and fun-loving animals, so the trick is to figure out what motivates the individual cat. Clicker training (operant conditioning) is a very effective way to teach new behaviors in a positive, reward-based way. Here are some more happily trained cats:

·         Spectacular clicker-trained agility cats - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3dXT301i8k

Like all good training, feline agility provides a wonderful way to strengthen the bond between cats and their owners. It also gives participating cats a fun way to keep their bodies and minds in shape.

To be successful in agility, your cat must

·         have an outgoing, confident personality;

·         be in excellent health and physical condition;

·         love to play.

The sport is open to all kinds of cats, so it might be just the thing for you and your feline athlete. Even if you aren't ready to participate, why not visit a trial when the leaping, tunneling cats come to town and see what it’s all about. You can learn more at http://agility.cfa.org/index.shtml

Want to give it a try? Check out this video on getting started - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhichQHqYZM

In the meantime, why not join Janet and Leo at their first trial? And while you’re in town, come see Jay and the other dogs compete as well—it’s likely to be murder for someone. Catwalk is available wherever books are sold, and autographed copies of all my books can be purchased using this form à http://www.sheilaboneham.blogspot.com/p/autographed-books.html

BLURB:

Catwalk

Animals in Focus Mystery #3

Midnight Ink, 2014

Animal photographer Janet MacPhail is training for her cat Leo’s first feline agility trial when she gets a frantic call about a “cat-napping.” When Janet and her Australian Shepherd Jay set out to track down the missing kitty, they quickly find themselves drawn into the volatile politics of feral cat colonies, endangered wetlands, and a belligerent big-shot land developer. Janet is crazy busy trying to keep up with her mom’s nursing-home romance, her own relationship with Tom and his Labrador Retriever Drake, and upcoming agility trials with Jay and Leo. But when a body is discovered on the canine competition course, it stops the participants dead in their tracks—and sets Janet on the trail of a killer.

"Animal photographer Janet MacPhail's latest adventure will delight dog lovers, cat lovers, and mystery lovers. Janet is excellent company, and although Leo the cat plays a starring role, I'm happy to report that Leo does not eclipse Jay the Aussie, who has become one of my favorite fictional dogs. Indeed, if Jay ever needs to move out of the pages of Sheila Boneham's mysteries and into a nonfiction house, he'll be more than welcome in mine. Five stars for CATWALK!" ~ Susan Conant, author of Brute Strength and other novels in the Holly Winter series of Dog Lover's Mysteries

 

 

 

USE OF ANIMALS TO PROMOTE PLOT AND THEME

            Please welcome my Wednesday guest, D. J. Adamson, an award-winning author with a mystery-Midwest Noir novel Admit to Mayhem, the first in the Lillian Dove series. Her family roots grow deep in the Midwest and it is here where she sets much of her work. She juggles her time between her own desk and teaching others writing at two Los Angeles Colleges. Along with her husband and two Welsh Terriers, she makes her home in southern California.

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I remember Stephen King once saying that if you were writing horror, you need to put a dog or child into the plot because the vulnerability of someone innocent creates horror without a need for a lot of words or description. In his novella Secret Window, the protagonist finds his dog on his doorstep, killed. Horrible! Immediately the reader feels the protagonist is threatened by someone evil. And the reader is waiting for the next horrible act. Blake Synder’s book Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need picks up on another animal use. Synder states that if the character does something nice, like saving a cat, then the character is immediately endeared to the reader. By the way, I think the Cohen Brother’s offered a giggle to Synder’s book by having their character in Inside Llewyn Davis literally save a cat and carry it around most of the movie. A joke the audience may not have gotten, but those of us who write immediately understood.

I use a cat in my novel Admit to Mayhem, a Lillian Dove Mystery series to do both what King

and Synder suggest. I want the use of Bacardi to say something about my protagonist: Bacardi’s my cat, named for his brown and yellow coloring and my first drinking preference of rum and Coke.  At the age of twelve, if you add enough cola, you forget all about the sweet tang of rum. Plus, Bacardi’s hair frizzed out from his body as if he’d stuck his claw in a light socket. When my hair was shorter, I’d woken up many a morning with that same look. 

My protagonist Lillian Dove is a recovered alcoholic with a five-year sobriety; however, sobriety is not a dominate theme in the book. This is not another novel about a protagonist that cannot keep sober (be it alcohol or drugs). Instead, Lillian’s objective in the novel and series is to take on life anew, with all its emotional, behavioral, and mystery challenges. With the description and affinity to her pet, I wanted the reader to get a feel for Lillian’s troubling past without doing a lot of backstory.

          The overall plot of the novel begins when Lillian discovers a house fire and becomes the only eyewitness to criminal arson. She is in jeopardy by someone who wants to stop her from identifying them. The plot is paced with events to create Lillian’s angst, but again, I wanted to offer my reader the vicarious ability to feel her anxiety and fear. So, I put Bacardi in jeopardy:  It came to me then what was missing. “Where’s Bacardi? Bacardi’s missing.”

        “Who?”

        “My cat.” I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the couch. Dust bunnies but no Bacardi. “Bacardi, where are you?” …I got in my car and drove one block after another, up one street and then the next, calling his name out into the night… “Bacardi?” I followed behind them, “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.” 

        When I did get back to the condo, I couldn’t stay still. I searched each and every cranny I could think where he might possibly have crawled. Then I went back outside. 

        I went without the Mustang this time.  I walked and walked and walked the night away, calling.

        Several cats answered my calls.  They patted quietly up to me purring as they rubbed against my legs. Others merely meowed back a hello. None were Bacardi.  I know Bacardi’s yowl. It wasn’t until I came dragging back to the condo, exhausted, with a voice hoarse and feelings of failure that I allowed myself to truly take in the idea, “What if he never comes back? What if something bad happened to him?” 

 

        Pike?

        Pike is the major antagonist, and while Lillian may be threatened by Pike, and her mother may be threatened, having him possibly taken Bacardi is almost more than she can emotionally handle.

        My novel is an amateur-sleuth novel which I classify as a soft-edged Midwest Noir. But no matter whether a writer is developing a conventional mystery, cozy, thriller or horror novel, the use of animals can help offer themes and provide movement of plot.

 "In a nutshell, Admit to Mayhem is a well-rounded, engrossing read that creates a memorable, believable protagonist and uses her to immerse readers in a series of challenging probes that end not in court, but in the very human realm of motivation and twisted purposes.”—Midwest Reviews