Housekeeping Day

You do what you have to do.

Panzer here. No trip into the Catosphere today. Mom wants me to tell you about a little housecleaning stuff around here we need to make you aware of.

Over the last few weeks you might have noticed Spam being posted to the Comments section here. Mom was spending time deleting the junk. So she decided to make the section Moderated (at least for awhile). That means all posts to the section must be okayed by her before they get posted. You'll also need to answer a question now to prove you're not a bot.

And, finally, once or twice a year we like to remind you the Cats and Crime blog is a copyrighted periodical publication. That number you see across my nose on the masthead above is the Cats and Crime periodical number registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. That means all material that appears here is copyrighted.

That's it for now. See you Monday for A New Panzerism.

Business Musings: Gamblers and Artists

There was no post yesterday due to the wind storm that took out our power for a few hours, but it's back on now.

Today, after Panzer got the Panzermobile fueled up and the battery charged, he headed out into the Catosphere. Our big bad kitty stopped in at Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog. It didn't take any digging at all to find an interesting post about writing.

Ms. Rusch's post is in response to some comments left on her blog (and other places) in regards to other posts she's written recently. In her post she addresses whether writing equates to gambling. Is writing a game of chance? Is it a crap shoot? Or a poker game?  A game where the winner takes all the chips with their mega-bucks bestseller and the rest of us lose? According to Ms. Rusch, the answer is "No." She provides examples from her own writing past to show it's not a matter of luck. She gives quotes from Stephen King to show it's a matter of studying to perfect your writing craft.  And it's a matter of work.

Gamble? No pockets for my winnings.

Panzer says, "I knew writing wasn't gambling. Cats don't gamble. Silly waste of time and money. Mom sits in her chair at the laptop and I dictate my adventures to her every day. That's it."

Note: This is a very l-o-n-g post with examples and quotes, but well worth your time. Bring a h-u-g-e glass of milk and about a dozen cookies.

To read the post, tootle over to gamblers and artists