Tag Archives: cats

From All Quarters… and Alice!

May 26, 2016 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Life does indeed go on, even though it doesn’t look like it from the truly sporadic nature of my blog posts. (I like this definition of sporadic: “Appearing in scattered or isolated instances, as a disease.”)

Anyway, I hope my blog doesn’t strike you as a disease… ha ha

In an unfortunate segue, Fluffy is still hanging in there (see post below). She is actually doing better (which is a surprisingly subjective term when used to describe advanced cancer). She is thin as a rail and sleeps most of the time, but while awake, she is in happy spirits and even still a little feisty when encountering any of the other cats. I don’t think they have any conception that she’s dying. and in true “wild life” fashion, if they do know, I don’t think they care. That said, though, we are still a happy household, and I am always incredibly grateful each morning when I awaken and find her still alive beside me in the bed. Right off the bat, that makes it a good day. (Also a surprisingly subjective term. My use of the term “a good day” has truly narrow requirements these days.)

My stepmom, whom I adore, is also dying. It is getting near the end. She has struggled with MS for many years; the last 6 of which she’s been in a nursing home. She has always been an incredible optimist, always had the most inspiring outlook on life, always so uplifting to be around, even all these years that she’s been confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home. But now her pain levels are off the charts and she’s on morphine, which signals the beginning of the end, however, “the end” is a surprisingly subjective term when it is forecasting what morphine will trigger in terminal illness…

I will miss her so much. Not only is she a wonderful, charming, warm, and generous Italian woman, but she has also made my Dad really happy while they’ve been together. And for whatever reasons, the words “happy” and my “Dad” were not usually words that appeared close together in a sentence for most of the decades I’ve known him.

On the writing front… I got word from the producer in LA last night, that he is sending the final edits (for The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder at Parsons Ridge) to me in the mail TODAY. I should have them early next week. Today, I’m working on the outline for the first book in the series (the book has the same name). I decided last night that if I can write at least 3 pages a day, I could complete the book by the end of the summer. (Not always an easy task, since I write, re-write, revise, and edit pretty much every sentence as it comes out of my brain — which is why voice-activated software is useless for me, but also why I usually only need a first draft of any manuscript I write.)

Even though Valerie and I are still working on The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined Passport, we are both dealing right now with cats who have terminal cancer. It has stymied the flow of inspiration for the time being. So we’ll get back to it probably later this summer. Meanwhile, I need something to keep my spirits up, so I decided to work on the first book of The Tea Cozy Murder Club series.

Re: the car accident (see some sort of post below, where a cable TV repair guy totaled my beloved, albeit exceedingly OLD Camry)…his insurance company is being what my lawyer describes as “stingy.” So I am biding my time, it’s been 2 months already. As I wait for an acceptable settlement, I am driving a really lovely, albeit exceedingly OLD, Mercury Sable Premium LS. Wow, do I love it. However, it needs a lot of work. It looks great on the outside, but under the hood, it simply is nowhere near as awesome as my Camry was. But I have to say, every morning when I open my garage and see that sparkling silver luxury sedan from days of yore, I get super excited and say, “I love you!!” And I totally mean it.

So. A holiday weekend is practically upon us. I am busy through the weekend, but on Monday, my cousin and I are going to see Alice Through the Looking Glass !! I cannot wait. We loved the first one so much.

You know…I was saddened to read that Johnny Depp’s mother had died recently. It always seemed like they were very close. But regarding Amber Heard filing for divorce from Johnny Depp (I guess, now that his mom’s dead)… Well, long-time readers of this lofty blog have probably noticed that I stopped writing about Johnny Depp after his engagement to AH. I did that because my grandmother always told me that if I can’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything at all. Well, now I feel like I can say something sort of positive about AH. And that is, the fact that she’s seeking spousal support after 15 months of “marriage” doesn’t surprise me at all. (MEOOOWWWW!! ha ha ha)

Anyway, I sure hope this means that one day in the foreseeable future, Johnny Depp can go back to being “sort of” happy (and go back to being the incredible actor he was before the nuptials set in). We shall see, gang!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend, if you live state-side. If you don’t, just have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting. See ya.

Opens Tomorrow! Go see it, gosh darn ya!

Getting ready to say goodbye to Fluffy

May 4, 2016 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

My precious rag doll cat, Fluffy, who was 10 years old in March, has cancer and does not have too much longer to live.

I am spending every available moment with her. I am going to miss her so much.

Here are some views of her over the last couple years. Two different illustrations by my friend, Val, in Brooklyn (the woman who’s working on the mystery book series The Miracle Cats with me). And three photos. Gosh, do I love this cat.

Fluffy by Val -- from our book, The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined Passport — Fluffy by Val — from our book, The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined Passport

Apparently, Fluffy has spent a good deal of her life on my bed... — Apparently, Fluffy has spent a good deal of her life on my bed…

The cutie-pie with her tongue hanging out! — How I will remember her best!

Okay! Progress getting made

March 31, 2016 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Since tomorrow is April 1st, it looks like it’s only been about 2 MONTHS since I last posted anything here (but what a fine and lively post it was! I hope you all listened to that wonderfully fun song! I am still listening to it in my car.) (Not exclusively — I listen to quite a panoply of Frank Sinatra tunes from the 40s & 50s while driving in my 19 (!!!) year-old car…)

Okay. Many updates occurred while I was absent from the blog. Some of them traumatizing — for instance, any and all developers and private real estate investors suddenly and without warning dropped all interest in commercializing my specific block on my street here in Gahanna.

This means that after keeping me in limbo for 3 and 1/2 years, telling me they were tearing my house down and re-zoning my block for commercial use, and hence my reasonably-foreseeable-future plans of moving back to New York — all of it came to a grinding halt.

It has something to do with City Hall, taxes, other residents, unhappy voters. So now I am basically working around the clock to afford all the many, many repairs this poor house needs to make it livable again.

I know that the absolute minute I get it back to being the sweet little dream house it once was, they will knock on my door yet again and tell me they are tearing it down. But you know what? We’ll just have to see what we see. I can’t live in limbo anymore with a house falling down around my ears.

So.

The one-woman musical I’m working on with the actress in New York is basically done. Yay!! I think the premiere will be in Toronto, though, not New York City. I will keep you posted about that. It has something to do with funding from the Canadian Arts Council. But I can tell you, with complete certainty, that it is a GREAT show!! I am so thrilled to be a part of it.

Now she and I have 3 more plays/musicals to write together. I’m guessing that will keep me busy for a huge number of years. (The actress has been working on the above-mentioned one-woman show for maybe 7 years already. Writing, re-writing, workshopping it, performing it — it won an award in Canada already. Then I came on board to help significantly re-write it about 2-3 years ago. These things really do take forever.)

I have also finished writing my TV movie script for The Tea Cozy Murder Club!! It goes off to the producer in L.A. on Friday. He is excited to read it and I am super-duper excited to send it to him! This is an idea I have been developing for about 4 or 5 years. Now, I need to start writing the novels that go along with the TV movies (there is, at the very least, a series of 4.)

The mystery book series I’m writing with my illustrator friend in Brooklyn is still moving forward (The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined Passport). We had to put it on hold, though, momentarily, until I completed the script for my other project because the producer’s assistant emailed me and asked if I was planning to wait on sending it until after the producer retired….

Anyway, so I finally had to stop juggling everything at once, and write one thing at a time. But now we are back to The Miracle Cats. Here’s the latest illustration. It is “Sister Thomasina”:

"Sister THomasina" aka known as Tommy Cakes! — “Sister Thomasina” aka known as Tommy Cakes!

I am also researching and putting notes together for a one-man play I want to write. I will go over more of those details as it goes along. But I’m very excited about it. It is somewhat connected to my ministry, but I won’t say more than that, lest I send you off on a complete tangent that would be wholly inaccurate.

Now that I’m done with school and staring down several years’ worth of paying off student loans… I am now learning Ancient Greek, and re-learning Biblical Hebrew (which I studied as a child, so a lot of that comes back to me). Anyway, learning them both at once is not really so daunting as it might seem because they have similarities. Sort of. Plus, I am strictly doing it on my own time and at my own pace, so it is really invigorating and fun.

I doubt I will ever learn enough Ancient Greek or live long enough to translate the Septuagint on my own, but we can dream, can’t we??? I’m already planning to write my own version of The Jefferson Bible (my minster at church refers to my plans as The Lewis Bible and it may well be that!). And I fully, fully intend to do this and maybe even publish it online! We shall see…

So, that’s it. That’s it. That’s where I’ve been. It is completely, 100% thoroughly safe to say that I am exhausted. But that’s how it goes sometimes.

Right now, it’s a wonderfully rainy spring morning. The birds are singing outside my window and the many, many cats who live here are planted at the screen door, looking out at the beautiful, wet, singing world. I hope it’s just as peaceful and promising where you’re at today, gang. Thanks for visiting! See ya down the road.

Back to normal around here

January 23, 2016 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

That drawing above was done by my girlfriend in Brooklyn — the one who is collaborating with me on the cozy murder mystery that features my cats. (Bunny, above, is one of the cats in the book, although she is also an actual cat — see posts below.)

My girlfriend drew the picture last night in solidarity with me over Bunny’s recovery. So beautiful.

On that front, it is safe to say that Bunny has, indeed, recovered! Last night, she was ornery, stubborn, and opinionated. In other words, back to her old self! She refused to come up to bed with me and listen to her 528 Hz. tones, and was insistent on sleeping in the living room, down under the coffee table, thank you very much. I was very pleased with the development…

Now all I need is for MYSELF to get back to normal — no, not ornery, stubborn, and opinionated; it would take an Act of God to stop me from being ornery, stubborn, and opinionated! What I need to do is get my energy back and my clarity back and my overall vitality back after Bunny’s brush with death, so that I can get back to my writing projects/deadlines and produce more than, say, one paragraph a day… Plus, the actress in New York City (you remember her, gang, right? We are still working on her one-woman show) — she popped in yesterday via text and asked if I was “ready for more pages”???

I’m always ready for more pages… I wouldn’t be back to normal if I didn’t have 2, 3, or 4 projects needing 100% of my attention at once.

I’m still waiting to hear back from the new developers about buying my property — which would then lead to my finally moving back to New York (and getting a ticket to see Hamilton post haste!! It kills me that I am not there, seeing shows, gosh dang it!) Writing is the only way to take my mind off of not being there. Although, keeping my thoughts centered on being there, I believe helps pull the experience to me.

Ah well, so back at it around here, gang. Thanks for visiting. Have a terrific, action-packed, super colossal (and perhaps snowy) Saturday, wherever you are!! See ya.

All right, gang, you decide!

January 22, 2016 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Well, gang, for 10 straight days, this was basically my precious Bunny after her stroke. She would barely eat anything and would rarely move from the living room couch unless I helped her.

After 3 1/2 days of playing her the 528 Hz tone (see post below) for a total of 2 hours a day, she seemed to be noticeably responding, and then bright and early this morning, she was up and about and hanging out in the kitchen with all the other cool cats, wanting some breakfast! And she has been alert and hanging out under the coffee table all day. She has not once gotten back up on the couch to sleep.

Remarkable, no? I am so happy. She has lost a lot of weight, but she is alert and talkative and her appetite has completely returned. Yay!

All right, on that happy note…to all my East Coast friends, enjoy that massive snow day!! Stay cozy! See ya!

Solfeggio Frequencies to the rescue!

January 20, 2016 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

I was really starting to lose hope regarding Bunny’s ever being back to normal again (see post below about Bunny’s stroke). For a week, she was lingering in this sort of not-good/not-bad state of mostly sleeping and barely eating and beginning to fade away.

I, myself, have been listening to the Solfeggio frequencies every day, for 15 minutes a day, for the last 4 months, and now I swear by them. They helped raise my mental vibration in order to eliminate depression, sustain creativity, improve health, awareness, happiness. So this past Monday, out of despair over Bunny’s condition, I was suddenly inspired to try them on Bunny, as well.

I played the 528 Hz. tones for her for 15 minutes, three times during the day on Monday, then for an hour Monday night. Then Tuesday morning, there was a hint of improvement in Bunny. Not much. I was likely the only one who could see it, so I was willing to accept I might be delusional. But I kept playing the tones for her yesterday, for a total of 2 hours and then, during the night last night, a REMARKABLE and unmistakable improvement in her.

She jumped down from the bed by herself. Went up and down the stairs by herself. Got up onto the couch by herself. Her appetite has significantly improved. She’s drinking more water. She is very alert and, even though she is still sleeping a lot, her “Bunny” personality has returned. When I look into her eyes now, “she” is in there!

So I will continue with the tones and continue to feel completely blessed.

And just FYI, the healthy cats — of which there are many around here — get unbelievably playful and frisky when the tones are playing down in the living room. They dash all over the place, playing with each other. It’s undeniable, really. When the tones stop, everyone goes back to normal.

I really recommend it. Especially if you battle depression, or need creative clarity.

Okay, now to try my hand at some writing! Lord knows, I have plenty of deadlines to attend to around here on this snowy day. Thanks for visiting, gang! See ya.

Vigil for Bunny

January 17, 2016 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Oddly, the day after David Bowie died (see post below in the event you’ve been living in a media-free cave all week), my beloved cat, Bunny, had a stroke.

She is not getting any better or worse, which isn’t saying much of anything, unfortunately. But she can hear, see, eat, drink, use her litter box. She just walks really, really slowly and sleeps 99.9% of the time. She can get up and down from the couch okay, but not my bed. I have to help her up and down from that. So sad, this process of letting go. She has been with me 14 years now.

I am still not completely over losing her brother, Buster, to pancreatic cancer two years ago. I am just not ready to lose Bunny now, too. But, obviously, if she is contemplating departing this realm, we have to allow whatever is best for her. Maybe being with Buster again holds more of an appeal to her these days. Who really knows?

I am still under 2 writing deadlines, so it’s been a rough week.

Here is Bunny a few weeks ago, just after the Christmas tree went up.

All right, gang. Have a good Sunday, wherever you are.

I must regale you!

December 2, 2015 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

I’m still not clear about how to keep you updated on one of my really fun new ebook projects, since I will be writing it under a pen name that I haven’t chosen yet, but the illustrator will be using her real name… I must ponder that; how to keep you informed without giving everything away. (Methinks it might be too late.)

But in the meantime, I wanted to regale you with some of her sample drawings for the ebook series. (These will be a series of mysteries, where my cats solve the mysteries unbeknownst to the humans around them. The humans think these solved mysteries are ‘miracles’. The first book in the series is titled The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined Passport.) (But you didn’t hear about it here, because someone under a pen name is writing it…)

Okay, here is Beck, also known as the Right Reverend Daddy O. Cakes:

And here is one of the tabby twins, Sister Frannie McPhee:

(I forgot to mention that all these cats are also secretly in the clergy and live in a mostly abandoned church in an old church graveyard…)

Don’t you think she’s doing an awesome job? These illustrations actually look just like my cats.

Well, I for one, cannot WAIT to see how this book turns out!! On that note, I must get crackin’ around here and do some more writing. (I’m also halfway through a teleplay/screenplay project for The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder at Parson’s Ridge. I have to keep switching between them. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the two stories straight since they are both mysteries with old ladies and cats in them.) (Luckily, the musical I am working on with Sandra Caldwell in NYC has no murders, no mysteries, no old ladies, and no cats in it. It’s a lot easier to keep that one straight.)

Okay!! So have a great day out there, gang, wherever you are and whatever you’re getting yourselves up to. Thanks for visiting. See ya!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2015 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Should I even try to catch you up with what’s happened since I last posted here (2 months ago!!) or simply carry on from today?

I’ll just give you the condensed version:

I finally quit school and that opened up an unbelievabnle amount of time for me to concentrate on my own writing projects. (This includes learning how to spell ‘unbelievable’.) By my most rudimentary calculations, I’ve written about 210 academic papers on Christianity in the last 3 1/2 years. When I finally quit school and all that academic writing came to a screeching halt, I could not believe how much free time I suddenly had!

I am still working with the actress in NYC on various script projects, although I am still living in Ohio, for now. (A new development company is negotiating to buy my house and tear it down, but the city has to approve their plans first. So this could take either another really long time, or happen overnight. I have given up trying to figure it all out.)

I am working on a series of scripts for women’s TV, based on my cozy mystery story The Tea Cozy Murder Club. I am also still going to be writing the series as stand alone novels. In fact, I am kind of doing it all at the same time. (It wouldn’t be my life if I wasn’t in overdrive.) (I did have one publisher extremely interested in publishing the novels and it was an awesome feeling to see how much they really wanted the series, but I decided to hold out for something different.)

I am also working on a really great series of cozy mystery eBooks that revolve around my many cats, which is being illustrated by my friend in Brooklyn, who also has a ton of rescued cats. She has a daily comic strip about her own little critters, but I’m not sure I can link to it here because I am writing that series under a pen name. Well, once I figure out how to deal with that, I will post a link to her comic strip here.

Since my house is still standing, I decided to break down and buy a new Christmas tree. I had been putting off replacing the old one because I didn’t want to have to pack it up and move it to New York. But since I have no clue now when the move will happen, I bought a new tree and put it up yesterday, so now I have Christmas all over the house again and I couldn’t be happier. It’s been 3 years since I celebrated Christmas in my own home. Yay!!

I don’t know if you were as huge a fan as I was of the PBS Masterpiece series from earlier this year, Grantchester. I watched each episode about 3 times, and now I am devouring the novels by James Runcie that the series is based on. They are so good. And I have to say, in hindsight, that the script adaptations were really brilliant; they are very much like the novels and yet entirely different. If you only saw the series (which continues on PBS early in 2016), then you should read the books. They are so enjoyable. I am up to the final book in the series:

Sydney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins

Each of the books is actually dedicated to me, Marilyn. And the fact that his wife is also named Marilyn is only a bizarre coincidence.

Okay, one final declaration of joy before I take the day off and enjoy my Thanksgiving Day with friends downtown…

For literally years I have been searching for a poetry book from my childhood, The Big Golden Book of Poetry: 85 Childhood Favorites. It was one of my favorite books of all time (aside from my copy of Betty Crocker’s Boys & Girls Cookbook from 1965, which I still have). My mother was not a big saver of books, so my poetry book eventually disappeared. I eventually tracked it down online but the asking prices were more than I could afford. The prices vary from the 1947, 1949, and 1964 editions — the link is to a great price for the 1947 edition. 1964 editions are the hardest to find at a low price. The prices came down a bit, went up a bit, and a few days ago, I actually found a copy on Etsy that was really affordable so I finally bought it. It arrived yesterday and I simply cannot believe what great shape the book is in. It almost seems like no one ever really owned this copy or ever read it; it seems that ‘untouched.’ (If you read the customer reviews at that link above, you will see that this poetry book had a profound effect on children 50 or more years ago, and now adults everywhere are trying to replace it! Strange, isn’t it?)

Anyway, it is mine once again and it remains a truly wonderful book!

The illustrations in this book are just great (the cover illustration is from “The Owl and the Pussycat.”). They really fueled my imagination before I had even learned to read. Here are a couple. One from the poem “Moonsong,” and one from “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.”

Okay, gang, on that lofty note, have a terrific Thanksgiving if you live stateside, and if not, have a wonderful day! See ya!

Home again, happy, busier than ever!

July 27, 2015 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy, gang! YES, I am back home and YES, it was a most auspicious trip to New York, and THANK YOU to all of you who sent me birthday greetings last week! Oh, and YES (!!) I had CAKE!

First, I want to regale you with the riot of flowers that are blooming all over my yard this year. These are Roses of Sharon — taking over, as they are wont to do — because I have lived the entire summer not knowing when (or if) I was going to be packing up and moving away… Alas, I am still here, and the yard has become a veritable jungle of blooming madness (and also weeds).

Multiply all these blossoms on the right by the entire yard — back, front, sides– and you get a tiny idea of how crazy it is around here this summer. I went out to water my little herb garden on the kitchen stoop yesterday and discovered hundreds more blossoms blooming where they had never been before. The other garden gate is so overrun that I have to keep the gate open all the time, or the honeysuckle vines will wind all over it and keep it permanently shut.

Well, it could be worse. I do love flowers.

So! The trip to Rhinebeck was a complete success. We hammered out the version of the script that we will use for the staged reading of Tell My Bones: The Helen LaFrance Story. We also made great progress on notes and a synopsis for the one-woman show I am writing for the same actress “about” Pearl Bailey. (I put it in quotes now because it has become apparent that the Pearl Bailey family won’t release any rights whatsoever for outsiders to use her likeness, so we have to tell her story in a different way now, but it will be even better. Yay.)

My most amazing news is that the actress is forming a production company and asked me to be the writer for it, since we already have 4 theater projects we are working on together, and I COULD NOT be more excited! (Even though Tell My Bones is a screenplay, we are also working on a version of it for the stage.)

The downside is that there was a heat wave in Rhinebeck the entire time I was there and the AC wasn’t working right and there were no fans. Not only did I think I was going to perish in the relentless heat and humidity, I was the only person who was being eaten alive by mosquitoes everywhere we went!!

It’s a good thing so much good stuff was happening. It made it easier to just “deal and get over it.”

Now that I’m back home again, the cats couldn’t be happier. They had to have a cat sitter the whole time I was away and since they are all the proverbial “scaredy cats,” it was not a fun time for them. Hopefully, the next trip I make back to Rhinebeck, they will all be coming with me and we will be moving into our new home…I hope. We shall see.

Okay, on this wonderful Monday morning, I leave you with something wildly upbeat. I dare any of you to have a bad day after listening to this oldies gem!!! Thanks for visiting, gang. See ya!