Friday Q&A!
We've been discussing dogs and cats this week. So I'm wondering how many of us writers have written experiences with pets into a novel or short story. I personally have used a few in the Mossy Creek series. Biscuit, the fat cat who doesn't like to be picked up in Tale of Two Kitties, is loosely based on my cat Pumpkin. Wh
en my daughter picked up Pumpkin (always against her will), the cat would wait to be let go, then nip Cynthia's heels or bide her time and pounce my daughter when she was least expecting it. I also used my beagle Chloe (pet from teenagerhood) as a model for the dog in my young adult novel Haint Misbehavin'. The qualities I poached from memories of this pet were an ability to scarf down any food left unmonitored in record time, a propensity for gas, and a love of pork chop squeaky toys.What pet qualities have you used or would you like to use in a story?
Labels: writing about pets
posted by Mo H @ 8:14 AM
8 Comments:
In my current WIP, I've put in my fat white cat, Pippin. He has bi-colored eyes, and is always hungry. Plus his hair gets over everything!
Deb,
Interesting that he has bi-colored eyes. I bet you have a lint-roller for Pippin's hair!
It's so fun to read books that include beloved pets. I've read a few. I've also found myself including at least one animal in my WIPs, and they all usually based on animals I have known. I know that some people don't like animals in the story, but I'm definitely not one of them. They add a completely different dimension to the story and the characters.
Hi, Mo :-)! Our naughty black Lab, Palmer, appeared in a couple of my books. He belonged to the heroine, a woman who worked hard to be in control of everything in her life...except for her dog, who was a spoiled disaster. The hero had more success with making the dog behave ;-).
I also relied on my experiences with our horses for some of the details in my series set on a Montana ranch.
I'm going to try to add more pets in future books. Judy's right--they add another dimension to the story :-)!
Two kittens were an important part of my Diane Perkins' book, The Marriage Bargain.
So far there have been pets in all three of my books. In the first the hero had two huge mastiff dogs with whom he had several serious heart to hearts about the heroine and what she did to his whole world.
In my second book the animals play a huge role and one of them is a hedgehog based on a pet hedgehog I owned for years named Dash. He had a tendency to get lost in the darnedest places in the house and the only way you could find him was to accidentally sit on him or listen for the hiss.
My current WIP the hero has a huge, very old, very smelly dog named Bounder. My hero is very down on his luck so his dog, his valet and his coachman are really all he has.
I have yet to use any of my personal stories, but I always put pets in my manuscripts.
Loovely blog you have
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