Something I wrote...

[Wickedly Yours E]

Tentatively titled "The Cats of Park Place." It's based on a joke made in the car one day about our cat Hailey.


   There I was, seven pounds of muscle and grace packed underneath my sleek black coat of fur speckled with orange, facing off against what could only be described as the scruffiest excuses of canine I’d ever seen. I believe The Humans called them ‘coyotes’, weird name for ugly dogs. The mutts back in The House were better looking than these things (and sure smelled better too. The rotten food pile ten yards behind me had a better aroma than these coyotes.) but I wasn’t much concerned with their looks at the moment. They were three times as tall as my feline body, and easily ten times my weight, their sharp teeth gnashing around me as they had formed a circle around me and one particular coyote.
The good news was that the alpha male of this group, going by the name of Al, had some history with me and wanted to settle it mano-a-mano, or in this case cat-to-mongrel, so he’d had his minions back off. The bad news was that he was the biggest of the pack with the sharpest teeth. His filthy tan fur stood up on end as his teeth barred at me, towering over my tiny frame as he dug his long nails into the dirt, coiling his muscles to pounce at me.
   “No truck to save you now, cat!” Al growled under his breath. Instead of responding, I dug my hind claws into the dirt and barred my own pearly whites, which were in fact white instead of Al’s sickening shade of yellow.
As he pounced towards me, his mouth open wide to no doubt engulf my head, I launched myself straight up and twisted, timing it perfectly so as his jaws snapped shut where I had been, I landed directly on his head like I was riding him like a horse, my hind claws digging into his back. Before he could shake his head to fling me off, I unsheathed my extraordinarily long front claws and raked them over both of Al’s eyes, pretty much blinding him not only for the rest of what was going to be a very short fight, but for the rest of his also short life. I quickly leapt forward onto the ground and turned to face the howling beast, blood running down his jowls as a paw came over his nose. Grinning oh-so-sadistically, I surged forward to his now unprotected throat and sank my fangs into the filthy flesh and fur. He yelped even louder and thrashed his head around trying to stop my assault, but I sank my front claws around either side of his neck and hung on for dear life as I chomped away at his jugular, blood flowing freely.
   After a minute of his wild writhing, he did finally manage to unhinge me at the cost of a chunk of his throat coming with me. I landed on my feet, naturally, and swallowed what was in my mouth, despite the nasty taste of dirt and grime, and leapt forward again with my claws slashing and my bloody teeth gnashing, repeating my attack on the side of his head. As he started to shake his head once more, I swung onto his back and sank my teeth into one of his ears.
   Needless to say, now that Al was blinded I tore into him, literally. By the time it was over, I was practically covered in his blood, and standing on top of his dead form, looking at all the bewildered and scared coyotes. I’m sure the surprise they felt was immense; that their mighty leader was taken down by this supposed house cat?
I spat out some of the fur and blood from my mouth and smiled at all the others.
“Anyone else want to keep hunting in my territory?” I asked politely. I didn’t even have time to blink before the entire pack was scurrying off towards the road, and the field beyond that. Good riddance to bad mutts, I say.
   I waited till they were a safe distance away before I started throwing up. The mixture of blood and foul coyote meat was something I did not want digesting in my stomach. Who knows what kind of disgusting things Al had rolled in before this?
As I continued to empty my stomach of Al meat, a fellow female feline came sauntering from behind the rotten food pile, a little larger and more rotund than myself with white fur that was darkened with smattering of black here and there. The feline came up to me and stared, her blue eyes small in comparison to the size of her head.
   “So, did that go well?” The feline asked, her tail twitching from side to side. After I finished puking, I hopped down from Al’s corpse.
   “I’m still alive, Emma. It went well enough.” I replied, narrowing my yellow eyes at my step-sister.
   “Just making sure. That’s a lot of blood, Hailey.” Emma looked me over, her tail starting to move in a concerned fashion.
   “It’s not mine.” I assured her, licking my teeth clean of the aforementioned substance.
   “That’s good.” She said, and then started giving me a rather funny look, like there was a question waiting on the tip of her tongue.
   “What?”
   “It was totally awesome watching you kick the litter out of that coyote, but what was the point? Won’t all those other one’s come back?” I sighed, and began to explain once again my genius to Emma whilst cleaning my paws off.
   “This is the last time I’m going to explain it, Emma. By knocking off the leader of their pack, I’ve done two things; one, I created a powet vacuum that—“
   “What’s a vacuum?” Sometimes I question her intelligence, and by sometimes I mean most of the time.
   “…One, by killing their leader, now all of them are going to fight each other so one of them can become leader. They’ll either kill themselves off or just beat each other to the point of exhaustion. Understand?” I said it nice and slowly for her too, between licks of fur. She nodded sagely, then asked another question.
   “What’s the second thing?”
   “Now they’re scared of me. I just killed their leader, the biggest, ugliest mutt of them all. Most dogs are cowards to begin with, so now they’ll be too scared to come back, at least for a while.” Emma sashayed her tail in understanding, then started to help me clean the blood off my face.
   “You know, Rommy’s going want to, like, say something about this.”
   “Big Eye Rommy? Why?”
   “You just killed a coyote. Worf once told me that not even Digits, the godfather of all Park Place, killed one of those things. It’s…like…what do they call it?” She searched her enormous head for the right word, but I highly doubt she would’ve ever found it.
   “Unprecedented?” I suggested, closing my eyes so she could clean off my eyelids
   “Yeah, in-presdented! It’s like a huge thing.”
   “Maybe she’ll name one of the water buckets after me.” I joked.
“That’d be awesome!” Suddenly both of our heads snapped up as barking filled the air. The dogs from The House had been let out, and were barking loudly at us from afar, behind the fence that separated The Field from The House. I sighed, and started to walk towards the pond, Emma right next to me.
   “Charlie and Zhanna. The Men must’ve let them out. Now all of Park Place will know.” I muttered.
   “But they would’ve anyway.” Emma pointed out.
   “Yeah, but I was hoping to at least put it off till morning. First thing now when I go inside The House tonight, Zhanna’s going to be right on my tail begging me to tell her the story, and I won’t get any sleep till I’ve told her at least ten times. I hate that little mutt.”
   “Could be worse.” Emma said. I gave her a sidelong glance curiously.
   “How so?”
   “You could’ve been eaten by Al.”
   “Good point.” Emma does have her moments of intelligence, as few as they are.
Welcome to my home. I’m Hailey, one of the Cats of Park Place, and this is just one of my stories.

 

[Max Con]

tl;dr

[The D]

Furry... vore... fanfic.

[Derrick]

Im not reading.

[MegatronYES]

That was a good story.

[Wickedly Yours E]

Furry... vore... fanfic.

You go to fucking hell, you peddy bastard. How DARE you.

[Bernie AKA]

So Ms. Meridado got herself reincarnated as a cat after confronting Victoria?    

[Wickedly Yours E]

Actually, the character name of Hailey Meridado was based on the cat Hailey. XD. Hailey the cat's name was based on Halo.

[B E C K]

"Vore".  I had to look that up.  Learn something new everyday I guess.

I liked the story, too.  W/o tabs though, I think it would be helpful to have a space between each paragragh:

“Unprecedented?” I suggested, closing my eyes so she could clean off my eyelids.

“Yeah, in-presdented! It’s like a huge thing.”

“Maybe she’ll name one of the water buckets after me.” I joked.

[MegatronYES]

One of your better obligatory nonsensical critiques.

[Wickedly Yours E]

"Vore".  I had to look that up.  Learn something new everyday I guess.

I liked the story, too.  W/o tabs though, I think it would be helpful to have a space between each paragragh:

“Unprecedented?” I suggested, closing my eyes so she could clean off my eyelids.

“Yeah, in-presdented! It’s like a huge thing.”

“Maybe she’ll name one of the water buckets after me.” I joked.

Yah. Everytime I copy it into a post, it loses all form of paragraphing and order, for wahtever reason.

[Rama]

If you want to write it like a Short Story or a novel your breaks should look like this:

     “Yeah, but I was hoping to at least put it off till morning. First thing now when I go inside The House tonight, Zhanna’s going to be right on my tail begging me to tell her the story, and I won’t get any sleep till I’ve told her at least ten times. I hate that little mutt.”
     “Could be worse.” Emma said.
      I gave her a sidelong glance curiously. “How so?”
     “You could’ve been eaten by Al.”
     “Good point.” Emma does have her moments of intelligence, as few as they are.
Welcome to my home. I’m Hailey, one of the Cats of Park Place, and this is just one of my stories.

Breaks usually come after a change of scenary contained within a chapter or a story without any other types of breaks. Like this:

     Enersto wiped the blood from his eyes and tried to clear his vision. He was meet by a scene of grim horror, and he soon regretted his actions. He tried to justify it in his mind, but no matter how logical it seemed the sick feeling still rose up from the pit of his stomach and caught in his throat so hard that he felt like it was going to choke the life from his body. He wanted to shut his eyes, pretend he hadn't seen it, but it was impossiable. Like any image of true horror his eyes where transfixed and unable to look away.

     It had been several hours since he had finally been able to pulls himself away from the horror he had witnessed...

And so on and so forth. If you are still in the same location and no length of time has passed you use "Tab" to denote breaks.

[Wickedly Yours E]

Thanks for the constructive advice. ::Glares evilly in D's direction.:: Dangerous DICK.

[Rama]

Well I was told there was no wrong way to write, but I do know this is how it's set up in novels. If you got this published they'd either ask you to use that format or have someone change it over. It's just easier to learn to write that way. It really sucks when you put a line between everything and then have to take them out. I lost ten whole pages that way.  

[Wickedly Yours E]

Maximum suckage! Ah well, I'll see what I can do.

[B E C K]

I think for online formats or drafts, multiple breaks are fine.  Or anyway you choose to write it.  My suggestion is just how I do it and it makes it clearer for online reading (for me, ha ha).  Personally, I wouldn't worry about formatting (book, magazine, for anything) until you actually have the material down.  Kinda like don't put the cart before the horse.  Then once you have everything down and you go through to format it, it gives you time to proof-read again as you arrange it.  It can be tedious, but I always find mistakes hidden in my stuff this way.

[Rama]

Maximum suckage! Ah well, I'll see what I can do.

Yeah it did. But it doesn't give you any illusions that you have wrote more then you actually have. Like I said, no wrong way. But if you do write with the breaks in it just divide the number of pages you have by two to get the actual number of "print" pages.

Oh and your margins are proably too large as well if you are using the standard Microsoft Word or Word Perfect. I forget what they should be set out off the top of my head, but that'll also cut down on your over all page count. It's important to know if you want to make a work fit in certain number of pages then it's helpful to keep this stuff in mind. Like I wanted my book to be around 130-200 pages long. With all that set up correctly the first draft ended up being 127 pages. A little shorter then I wanted, but it just a first draft.

Always read your own work too, that's very important. And I've found that actually printing it off and reading it that way is better then reading it on the computer screen. I can spot things that I would just looking at the screen. So I double space the whole thing, and then print if off. I three hole punch it and  then get a red pen and sit down and read it. I make the changes I want, then use the marked up copy as working copy for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th....or whatever draft I'm on. Now this works for me, that doesn't mean it'll work for you. The best thing you can do it try a lot of different ways and see what works.

I got tons of other tips....but I don't want to fill up this whole thread with it.  

[The D]

Thanks for the constructive advice. ::Glares evilly in D's direction.:: Dangerous DICK.

How else do you expect me to qualify it? I can't call it a children's story because there's gratuatious violence. It's closer to furry fanfiction than anything else, except there's no sex.


Rama, it also depends on what size paper it's printed on and what size font is used. A paperback will have more pages than a larger hardcover.

[Rama]

Rama, it also depends on what size paper it's printed on and what size font is used. A paperback will have more pages than a larger hardcover.

Sometimes it works out that way, but paperbacks usually use a smaller text to match the smaller size, which sometimes makes them shorter.

I know my hardcover copy of Casino Royale is 187 pages, where as the my paperback copy is 144. Making the paper back shorter by almost 40 pages.

[B E C K]

I never go by page count.  Once it feels a certain length,  I wrap it up and move on to the next.  (I write serials.)  I got forced into this habit because at the time all I had was a Brother Word Processor, and files could only be so big before you had to start a new one.  So each part of my current stuff ends up around 80 kb before I move on to the next one.

I also can't go by page count now because I like to write in 14-18 font depending on the type of font I decide to play with.  When I print it out, I switch to a more conventional font and size.  So it's usually right before I print that I find out the actual page count.  I'm so concerned about actually getting down material that I don't concern myself with the length.  

Also, I don't use Word Perfect or MS Word or anything like that because I found it was a bitch to type something on a different computer, only to not be able to read it because the other machine had a completely different word processing program.  And attempting to convert something never worked.  So I use Word Pad.  If you use different computers, E, you might want to beware the incompatibility monster.


And I would think anything written with animals would be furry fanfiction to you, D.  I guess if it quacks like a duck...  (no pun intended).

[Rama]

Serials as in a a series of short stories that end up making one large story or as in many long stories that have a contionus common focus?

Cause when I think of serials the thing that pops into my head is those old movie serials. You know; " Will Batman survie? Will the boy wonder ever get to wear pants? Be sure to see Chapter 9 of Batman at this theater next week."

But books like the Harry Potter books could also be serials.

The book I just finished is actually number 1 of 20. (that is if I get the first one published.) each one is a self contained story, but there are hints and clues throughout that lead to a much larger arc that spans the entire 20 books. There are als Trilogy story arcs too, where the books are grouped into three....which I know won't work out with 20, but at least the first 9 are grouped as such.

The main reason I wanted my book to fall within a certain number of pages is because of the readership I hope to attract. (Which is mainly men, between the ages of 15-30) The common man usually doesn't want to read a 700 page monster book, at least not at first. Just asked around and see how many people you know that have actaully read War and Peace or North and South. Not many. I could smash the first three together and make one huge book, but I think that would hurt sales. The 130-200 page mark is a good mark for the type of story I am writing/wrote as it's not something that you'd have to spend a lot of time on. 2-3 days at most. I know I can finish a book that size in a single sitting. And I just want to capture that guy that's at an airport and he needs something to read on the plane, or that college kid that has to sit through another long lecture in trig class and they need something to pass the time.

     Also another reason is that I hope, and this is a best case, that one day these will get optioned as movies and scripts on average are around 120 pages. Now when a book becomes a script it's stream lined and a lot of "dropped"  So keeping the books to an average lenghth insures that is long enough to make a good movie, but not so long that half of it ends up on the editing room floor.

[Wickedly Yours E]

Thanks for the constructive advice. ::Glares evilly in D's direction.:: Dangerous DICK.

How else do you expect me to qualify it? I can't call it a children's story because there's gratuatious violence. It's closer to furry fanfiction than anything else, except there's no sex.
 

You are the biggest IDIOT on this board that I have ever seen, not counting two particular former posters that will not be named. You're only saving grace is that once in ablue moon you spout something funny. Now let me address your inane comments on my story.

First Off: Fan-Fiction.
Fiction: An imaginative creation or a pretense that does not represent actuality but has been invented.
The act of inventing such a creation or pretense.
A literary work whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact.

Fan: an enthusiastic devotee of sports [syn: sports fan] 3: an ardent follower and admirer

Fanfiction: Also "Fanfic," "Fic, "FF." The name given to stories peopled with characters, places, and situations of a show/movie/book/comic written by a fan of the show/movie/book/comic for no monetary gain.
Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other media work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters

So calling my writing FICTION is correct, because it's a creation based on my imagination.
Calling it fanfiction is idiotic and an INSULT because 1: There is no pretense for it, I made up the characters/setting myself, it is not based on any previous work done by other, it's not based on any movie/novel/cartoon/etc., so by definition it cannot be "fanfiction". Schmuck.

Now, FURRY.

Furry: An anthropomorphic animal, such as Mickey Mouse.
Furry is a colloquial term used to indicate a particular category of fictional anthropomorphic animals. Put simply, a furry is a funny animal taken "seriously" for the benefit of an adult audience. Usage of the term furry is limited almost exclusively to members of furry fandom or other cultural groups aware of furry fandom; it is not widely used in mainstream circles. The term furry is also very often used to refer to a furry fan.

And just so I don't end up going way over your head, I'll now define Anthropomorphic in the way you've "categorized" it, AKA with Sex, which is no friggin' surprise.

Anthropomorphic: .Having the shape of a human.
This is your definition, now, there is the other definition of Anthropomorphic that does define what I'm doing.
Anthropomorphic: regarding animals as possessing human qualities

This is true, but you refer to the "Furry" thing as bipedal animalesque creations that are more often than not utilized in portraying sexual activities, YOU SAID "It's closer to Furry fanfiction than anything else, except there's no sex." So you can't possibly say you meant "Furry" as in the second definition of "Anthropomorphic", so don't even try that scapegoat.

Dumbass.
 

[B E C K]

Huge books are just bad.  I know that sounds dumb or retarded or whatever, but I hate holding onto some huge cumbersome thing.  I say catch my attention and let me decide if I want to go out and read the rest.  One huge collection is great for a fan.  But yeah, for the casual reader, I think it's better to hook the fish with the a bite and not a feast.  Not to mention it may be a lot to take in.

Serials as in a a series of short stories that end up making one large story or as in many long stories that have a contionus common focus?

As in the first one.

Furry: An anthropomorphic animal, such as Mickey Mouse.
Furry is a colloquial term used to indicate a particular category of fictional anthropomorphic animals. Put simply, a furry is a funny animal taken "seriously" for the benefit of an adult audience. Usage of the term furry is limited almost exclusively to members of furry fandom or other cultural groups aware of furry fandom; it is not widely used in mainstream circles. The term furry is also very often used to refer to a furry fan.

I like the term "funny animal" myself, primarily because of the last couple of sentences in that definition.  It brings up weird terms like "yiffing" and images of people in fursuits.  "Furry" kinda sounds defiled.  "Funny animal" just brings up images of comic book animals or anthopomorphic characters in general.

Anyway, E, did you write any more?

[Wickedly Yours E]

I got a little more I need to copy down, wrote it on the way to Grandma's. I'll put it up probably tomorrow.

[The D]

First off, you're almost right about your arguement about the word "fanfiction" but you failed to read my entire sentence. I said it's closer to furry fanfiction, not that it IS fanfiction. Sure it's regular fiction, but it's similar to what furries write but non-sexual.

This is true, but you refer to the "Furry" thing as bipedal animalesque creations that are more often than not utilized in portraying sexual activities

Yes, but it seems the sexual side of Furries is in the spotlight more than the non-sexual side. The instant someone says "Furry" everyone thinks "Oh, drawings of anthromorphs having sex? Having sexual feelings for Bugs Bunny? Yiffing in fursuits?"

So, when I say "It's closer to furry fanfiction than anything else, except there's no sex." I'm right. Why? Because it's similar to what furries write, because it has anthromorphs (animals with human features, and talking animals are considered furry by furry fans). But it's not like what furries write becuase the animals are not sexualized like they are in about 90% of furry fiction.

Also, E, you're way too easy to piss off. You need some prozack or anti-depressants or sedatives. </troll>

[The D]

Also, has anyone actually bothered to publish any of this stuff they have written? I hear all you guys talking about writing books but have you bothered to put them on paper? It's harder to be a popular author than you think. I've considered writing sci-fi, then I realized no one would read my shit so I shrugged it off.

[Rama]

Also, has anyone actually bothered to publish any of this stuff they have written? I hear all you guys talking about writing books but have you bothered to put them on paper? It's harder to be a popular author than you think. I've considered writing sci-fi, then I realized no one would read my shit so I shrugged it off.

As of yet I havn't had anything published, but I hope to fix that soon.

The main thing standing in the way is that most companies won't even look at your work without an agent, and as of right now I am agent less. Course I only have the first draft one book done. I  kinda want and agent that is close by, and that's not easiest thing. It's one advantage someone living in major city would have over someone that live in a more rural area like I do.

And you don't really need a good book to get published. You need a good pitch. Publishers won't read an entire book if you send it to them, so you can't even waste your time on that. I am choosing to write the whole book up front and then do the pitch from there. It takes the  preasure off, so that if you are lucky enough to get something bought it's ready to go and you don't have somebody saying "Look I gave you an adance based on your pitch, now where is my book?" If they like the pitch and they want to use it, I can send out the entire book like the next day. I Just think it'd be easier that way.

I checked out a book from my local library that is just basicly a big list of publishers, but I found the stressing out over that was killing my creativity and decided to put it off till after I was finished with the book. I also plan to try to get a short story published in a magazine using the some of the same characters that are in my book. This is useful in a couple of ways. 1. The fact that I have been published in some manner will make it easier for someone to take a chance on the book. 2. It gets these characters into the public eye and paves the way for future installments. and 3. It's generally easier to published in a Mag then it is to get a book out there cause it's less investment on the pritners part. Course I'm having to write my short story by hand cause I'm not suppose to type for hours on end due to my arm, so it's taking a little longer to write then I'd like.

Then there is always the publish it yourself route, but that takes a pretty good chunk of money and I only plan to use that as a last resort.

[Wickedly Yours E]

First off, you're almost right about your arguement about the word "fanfiction" but you failed to read my entire sentence. I said it's closer to furry fanfiction, not that it IS fanfiction. Sure it's regular fiction, but it's similar to what furries write but non-sexual.

This is true, but you refer to the "Furry" thing as bipedal animalesque creations that are more often than not utilized in portraying sexual activities

Yes, but it seems the sexual side of Furries is in the spotlight more than the non-sexual side. The instant someone says "Furry" everyone thinks "Oh, drawings of anthromorphs having sex? Having sexual feelings for Bugs Bunny? Yiffing in fursuits?"

So, when I say "It's closer to furry fanfiction than anything else, except there's no sex." I'm right. Why? Because it's similar to what furries write, because it has anthromorphs (animals with human features, and talking animals are considered furry by furry fans). But it's not like what furries write becuase the animals are not sexualized like they are in about 90% of furry fiction.

Also, E, you're way too easy to piss off. You need some prozack or anti-depressants or sedatives. </troll>

Alright, I got more seething than I wanted. D's still a dumbass.

[Wickedly Yours E]

Alright, I wrote down a bit more.



      1:

   When I was a mere furball kitten, I was taken in by a group of Humans of whom I’ve come to refer to as The Parks, though I know each separately by different names. As they raised me, they introduced me to something called ‘video games’, of which the younger ones played often. I’d often watch them, transfixed as caricatures on something called a television acted out forms of violence, forms that seemed to fuel my innate hunting instincts. I took what I saw and tried my best to figure ways to apply them to the hunt, practicing when they’d entertain me with animal dolls or bits of string. Though I could not wield weapons or perform debilitating submission maneuvers due to nature’s mistake of not granting the feline species a thumb, then truly we’d have been the dominant life form of Earth, I took the principles of combat. Debilitating maneuvers, distractions, stealth, and such things as to set up for the killing strike. I studied them facetiously, and would complain loudly during the night when they’d all go to sleep and nobody was there to help me perfect my techniques, such as they were.
Then came Emma, my fellow feline and step-sibling, as it were. With her arrival I found someone to test my methods on, though I was somewhat limited by the condition she was in. Emma came to Park place a mere skeleton, her illness rendering her lethargic and hardly in any condition to provide proper defense against me. Indeed, she was so bad off I contemplated putting Emma out of her misery, but I was still too much of an amateur to try anything. Over time, however, she recuperated and became a fine sparring partner, though these days Emma prefers to lounge around more than help me perfect techniques, and her dull wit is hardly any challenge against my mental prowess. Still, my step-sister Emma is a fine companion and has some uses that benefit me.
Such as the morning after my run-in with the now expired Al. We were both resting inside The House, curled up in something The Park’s called a cat house. Odd name really, the thing doesn’t resemble a house, it’s more like a tower composed of three horizontal tubes and covered in carpet. It’s nice enough to sleep on, and it keeps me out of reach of the two house mutts. Anyway, we were relaxing in the tubes of the cathouse when Emma started to talk.
   “I heard The Park’s talking while they were eating.”
   “About?”
   “The entire coyote thing.”
   “And?”
   “Most of them think it was just two coyotes going at it.” Emma sighed shifting onto her back.
   “Most of them?” I asked curiously.
   “Well, Russ thinks it was you, but I think he meant it as a joke.” She stated thoughtfully.
   “Which one is Russ again?”
   “The loud one? You know, the one that plays the videogames the most. You should really learn their names.” Emma chastised. I just rolled my eyes.
   “Whatever.” I could hear her tail twitch in annoyance.
   “You know, maybe you should have a little more respect for The Park’s.” What an absurd idea.
   “Why?”
   “You do have them to thank for your large hunting grounds.” Emma pointed out.
   “Hey, it’s business. I keep vermin away, I do my part. There’s no gratitude from them.”
   “That’s not true. They feed you.”
   “While you may consider that bowlful of dried chunks food, I consider it as after-dinner mints.” I explained. Emma blinked curiously up at me.
   “What’s a mint?”
   “The stuff kills bad breath. I’m sparing them the smell of rotting meat on my breath, so if anything they should show me more respect.” Think about it. Just last night I’d driven off a pack of coyotes. What kind of damage would they have done if I hadn’t intervened? The Park’s should be showering me with praise, or tuna. Preferably tuna, or some other sort of cooked meat. Even us felines get tired of the raw stuff once and a while.
 

[B E C K]

Also, has anyone actually bothered to publish any of this stuff they have written? I hear all you guys talking about writing books but have you bothered to put them on paper? It's harder to be a popular author than you think. I've considered writing sci-fi, then I realized no one would read my shit so I shrugged it off.

Nope.  I've written stuff but that was when I was a kid and looking back on it, a lot of it is very juvenille.  Up until about a year ago, I had serious writer's block and wrote virtually nothing for years.  Anyway, I never tried to get any of it published then and that was probably a good thing.  What I'm doing now I'll publish in one way or another, even if it's just on the Internet or something.  But I'm not even close to done with it yet anyway, so I'll deal with that when I have some finished material.

Another problem is that I'm not sure (and I never have been) what audience I would find in any print form that isn't a comic book or something.  If you think E writes stuff that's like furry fanfiction....