Sundance and Cassidy's Excellent Adventure

This afternoon was sunny and warm. After I got home from the library, Tom decided to go for a walk. A little later I took a chair out onto the balcony and sat out there, leaving the door open into the apartment so the cats could come and go.

Eventually I came back inside and closed the door and a few open windows.  I was sitting down to read and noticed Sundance walking from Tom's room toward my bathroom. I assumed she was going to use the litter box and started reading. Some time later I realized I had not seen her come back, and I went to check on her. I couldn't find her anywhere and thought she must be under one of the beds.

I had just gone back to pick up my book when someone knocked on the door.

It was Peter, who lives a couple of apartments down from us.

"Are you missing a cat?" he asked.

I went out into the hall and he pointed to  Sundance sitting in the stairwell.

I picked her up, thanked Peter and took her back to the apartment.

At which point I realized I had not seen Cassidy when I was looking for Sundance. She had been lounging out on the balcony with me for a while but had disappeared

I went down the stairs and found her on the floor below us.

It seems that when Tom went out for his walk, the door had not fastened behind him. When I opened windows and the door onto the balcony, the wind blew the door ajar. The door has an automatic return, and so it looked like it was closed. But the cats have been trying to get out into the hall ever since we got here, and they sniffed out the opportunity and took it.

Fortunately none of the many large dogs who live here were wandering the halls, and also fortunately, Peter realized that they must be our cats.

Totally not excellent, dudes!

Friday by the books

Today has been a book day. Yesterday afternoon I received a half dozen copies of the new book. They look pretty good except that I clicked the wrong box somewhere along the line and they came in a slightly larger format than my other books. That is okay, but it means the margins are wider than I would like. Oh well ...

Since I drafted much of the book at the Kilbourn Public Library as part of my work with the National Novel Writing Month group, I dedicated it to the staff and patrons of that library. When I was in the Dells earlier this week, I ran by the library to tell the director that I would bring her a copy. She said they might want to read it for the book club, which would be nice. Of all my books, I think this would be the one most likely to appeal to a library book club readership.

I continued to tweak a flyer that I designed to use at the library bookstore here in Sun Prairie, Read Before Book Store. They have a "local authors" shelf and I told them I would donate a few copies to the cause. I think the woman in charge thought at first that I was trying to use them to market the books, but I assured her that the books would be a donation and that I expect no return on them. I gather this is not always the case for all the local authors who works are on sale. I am fortunate not to be dependent on book profits (ha!) for a living.

Then I went to the library to do some work on Wacky in WhoVille before taking my shift at the book store from noon to two. The book store is in a room off the entrance to the library that was originally designed to be a little cafe, but that proved to be too much trouble for the library staff to maintain. The Friends of the Library took charge of it and sell used books as well as coffee and snacks. On my watch, I would say I sell more food and beverages than books. Actually, I think half the books that I have sold are books that I purchased myself. But it works well because those of us involved are volunteers and all profits go to support library projects. The thing I like most about it is that I get to interact with people, something that most library volunteer jobs don't entail.