I just picked up a book I’ve had on my shelf for a long time but neglected to read. The Writer’s Journey, Mythic Structure for Storytellers & Screenwriters, by Christopher Vogler, provides a guide for writers to universal mythic structure, drawing on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Vogler examines how this pattern of the hero’s journey has been used in motion pictures, including his work on Disney productions.

My copy is the first edition, dated 1992. It’s been updated since, with a 2nd edition from Michael Wiese Productions in October 1998, ISBN: 0941188701. You can find more information at Vogler’s website, The Writer’s Journey.

Checking in, with apologies for not posting more this past week. After my motherboard went out on my laptop, and I lost a few days of work I hadn’t yet backed up, I acquired a refurbished laptop and spent some time setting it up. The refurbished one works better than the old one did when it was brand new, which is a nice surprise.

I don’t use my laptop to post here, but keep it disconnected from the Internet, to encourage focus on my fiction writing. So I haven’t been online much while getting the new computer set up and catching up on some of the lost work. (more…)

I’ve always had a cat. I’ve loved these creatures since early childhood. I love their mystique, their grace and delicate beauty, as well as their tenacious strength. I love the way a cat will get this “I meant to do that” look when he’s occasionally caught in an awkward stumble, or slides across a slick kitchen floor right into the refrigerator. I love purrs, meows, eyes that see in the dark, soft fur, and a tail like a flag in the air to tell you when she’s happy.

I don’t want 20 cats. I only want one, perhaps two, special cat friends living with me at any given time. They’re subtle creatures with complex personalities, who deserve individual attention. Right now I have one, named Emily. She’s a fluffy gray who showed up to steal puppy food from our patio, days after we brought our dog home.

Emily 9-5-2004

My husband looked outside one day and saw a grayish cat stretched out on the patio, looking like a queen, licking her chops. She’d eaten the puppy food he’d left outside. As soon as he opened the sliding door she slunk away. I was out of town at the time, and he decided to start keeping the puppy food inside. (more…)

Yesterday afternoon my husband was out front talking to the neighbor, when a small brown pickup truck turned abruptly into the neighbor’s driveway, two men jumped out, ran between our houses, and continued down the hill in back. (more…)