A Cat Named Bob, an Interview, a Goal, and a Friday Celebration

I've been in a blog slump and unable to think of anything to write about since Christmas, so it's kind of funny that today I have enough to write about to fill several posts. 

First up, Natasha Hanova was kind enough to interview me on her blog today and I'm very happy to be featured there. Thanks to Natasha for the feature! Please visit us here. 

And speaking of interviews, Clancy is still psyched about the fact that he was featured on Two Fur-Peeps and a Writer yesterday. If you missed it, come see us there and see what he got up to with Sir Poops and Hair Ball and their mom Shelly Arkon.

Next is the monthly meeting of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, hosted by The Armchair Squid. The Coffeehouse is a fun and simple group where we share our favorite book we've read in the past month. Visit Armchair's site here to view participants or to sign up to join us. 

Source: Amazon purchase page

My favorite book that I read this month was A Street Cat Named Bob And How He Saved My Life by James Bowen. 

Bowen was a heroin addict living in government-supported housing in London when he found an injured street cat outside his door. He used the small amount of money he made busking to help the cat and ended up finding a life-long friend and the catalyst for turning his life around in return. 

It's no secret that I love animals and this book showcases the bond that can develop between a human and an animal in a touching and heartwarming way. While it's a very sweet and "feel good" story, it's not sappy or trite. I'd recommend the book to any animal lover, and especially cat lovers, and I think anyone who reads it will fall in love with the handsome and charming orange cat named Bob. 

Thanks as always to Armchair for hosting this group!

This is the first month I am participating in Misha Gericke's Goal Bloghop at The Five Year Project. The purpose of the hop is to share a goal that may be considered crazy by some and then keep everyone up to date on your progress towards reaching it, while also encouraging other goal seekers. Visit Misha here if you'd like to sign up and get involved. 

I decided to join this hop in the hopes that setting a deadline for myself and making my goal public would help motivate me. I'm very fortunate to have a full-time job while I pursue my writing goals but ultimately I would like to be able to work full-time as a writer. In order to do that I want to focus on finding freelance assignments in addition to working on my novels. 

While I had big plans to kick off 2014 by working diligently on this goal, it hasn't worked out that way. So I really don't have any progress to report this month. But knowing I will be reporting in again at the end of February does help motivate me and I am going to make it a point to have something more substantial to share then. I gave myself a deadline of June, 2015 to realize this goal. Stay tuned to see if I get there!

Last but never least, it's time to Celebrate the Small Things with Vikki at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author. This week I'm celebrating the end of January! This has been a month I'm glad to see end. I normally don't hate winter, but the weather we've had this year is not at all what we are used to and I've had more than enough of it. 

I will be very glad to turn the calendar over to February tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed that we have already seen the worst that winter has to offer this year. 

Happy weekend, all!