Hello,

Above you see Nim, my 19 year old cat. Those of you who have followed me for years know him pretty well. His caterwaul occasionally interrupted early podcasts when I was working on The Prophet of Panamindorah. He had outtakes in The Guild of the Cowry Catchers (hilarious out-takes you can still download here). He makes a regular (vocal) appearance on my Patreon update podcast. He has outlived all his companions of similar age, but I got the bobtails during the pandemic, and they love him to pieces. Mochi, particularly, will groom his head and try to wrestle with him. I got Nim when I was 26 and I'm now 45, so I've had him for nearly 80% of my adult life.

A week ago, Nim had a major seizure in the middle of the night. He became extremely confused and uncoordinated. He growled at me and the boys. He didn't seem to know who anyone was. For the first time in his entire life, he did not purr when I petted him or seem to derive any comfort from my presence. This was very hard. I had him at the vet as soon as they opened, but there wasn't a lot they could do. For two days, he was a shell of himself, devoid of personality, a robot cat who remembered how to eat and drink and use the litter box (thank goodness), but nothing else.

Then...slowly...he came back. He remembered who I was. He remembered who Mochi and Taro are. He started purring again, interacting, and showing his personality. He is 95 in human years, and I don't know how many more lives he's got, but he's not done yet. I spoke about this at some length while it was happening on the podcast. I've made those posts public for now, so you can listen if you like. There are 3 of them, and I tagged them.

What else is happening?

• Arcove's Bright Side audio is running in my Patreon feed at the $3 level. You can listen to the narrator and I talk about it in a public post here. We tried to avoid spoilers in that interview. We'll do another one with spoilers for after people have listened. You can also enjoy the first 3 chapters of the story over there in public posts.

• The complete 17 hour audiobook of Arcove's Bright Side is here, and the ebook is here. To begin at the beginning of the Hunters Universe, go here.

• I recently previewed hardcovers of the Hunters books. They are even prettier than I expected.

Yours, an author who still has a 19 year old cat,
Abbie

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