The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine®™ A helpful literary publication where we take care to bring you short stories, poems, haikus, and essays for your reading pleasure! Plus helpful and informative articles of all kinds, and a section that’ll show you where you can purchase authors’ books or subscribe to literary magazines and journals! ™ FOUNDER & PUBLISHER: Rosanne Catalano (RC Kayla)
10/1/14
© OCT-DECEMBER 2014 ISSUE # 74, VOL. 14
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER: Welcome to the October issue; the last one for 2014! As this year draws to a close, I would like to thank y’all for your continued support in both my professional and personal life. Prayers sent up to heaven helped get my husband out of the hospital back in May and helped me better cope with him almost dying. He is doing so well now it’s unbelievable how ill he was then! You can bet that he and I will be celebrating over the upcoming holidays. When you have your health, we have everything to be thankful for. And don’t let anybody else tell you differently! When I shared our Sasha’s photo with you in the JulySeptember issue, I promised a more current picture of her but I haven’t gotten them developed yet b/c I still have more film in my disposable camera. I know, I must get myself a smart phone or, at the very least, a digital camera I can just upload photos directly to my computer. I do have a cell phone that can text, but no camera imbedded inside. Hint, hint to my family…. A smart phone or a new digital camera would make a wonderful Christmas present! Now, in this month’s magazine you will find delightfully inspiring fiction and nonfiction short stories, extremely informative and helpful articles, plus pleasingly gratifying and deeply emotional poetry by my contributors, and lots of new book authors and literary journals in the ‘Off The Press! Corner’:
Coffee House 4 Readers Corner Contributors: 2 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
1) TIM HANSON: The First Time I Knew Death, I Was Seven 2) LYNDA L. CRANE: Busted John 3) JOSEPH J. MAZZELLA: Bittersweet and When You Know You Are Loved 4) ROGER SMITH: GROWING UP
Helpful Nonfiction Articles for You! Contributors:
5) SAM VAKNIN: “Democracy,” Egyptian Style 6) RANDY GONZALEZ: Anarchy – When Things Go Dark
Coffee House 4 the Poetry Lover! Contributors:
7) L. DOUGLAS ST OURS: For Every Bright Star…I Sense a Black Hole 8) LAWRENCE E. MITCHELL: Sympathy for a Suicide 9) ANCA BRUMA: I Dance Your Silence, Composers of the Wind, She Is Everywhere…, and What Rose Wanted 10) JOSEF KREBS: Not Everything, Ghosts Last Night, Unlikely Today, Representing, and Apart From Concrete Existence. 11) NICHOLAS MC CARTHY: I The Icarus Nailed
Off The Press! Corner Contributors: 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23)
Poet & Writer DARREN B. RANKINS (POET RANKINS) Author & Poet MELISSA LORRAINE GULICK (MJ RAIN) Author & Poet THOMAS BRYANT Author & Poet NANETTE M. BUCHANAN Author & Artist ROSE ANNA SCHOENE Author & Poet SANDRA L HOYNACKI Author ROSALEE WILSON Author, Publisher & Columnist CAROL ROACH Author, Poet & Talk Show Host TRISHA MARTIN Author, Editor & Writing Instructor BARBARA DEMING Author FRANCES ACESTA-SCANDARITO Author & Publisher ROSANNE CATALANO (RC KAYLA).
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Call(s) for Submissions: Submit your BEST writing to Mr. Joseph Ross of Rosstrum Publishing (an Independent Micro-Publisher), who is looking for authors that would also want quality editing. If interested, contact Mr. Joseph Ross at: 1) rosstrumblog@wordpress.com; 2) Rosstrumpublishing@gmail.com. Before you contact Mr. Ross, however, check out their website to familiarize yourself with what type of material Rosstrum Publishing publishes: http://www.rosstrumpublishing.com/index.html
***** If you are a writer, submit your BEST work to the publisher of Storytime Tapestry Ezine via email at: winterose@videotron.ca Storytime Tapestry was launched on September 1, 2003 by Author, Columnist & Writer CAROL ROACH. It is a daily ezine which is delivered directly into your email. It features short stories and poems about the human condition. These stories will inspire you, teach you a new skill, challenge your senses, provide a positive attitude on life, make you laugh, make you cry, and first and foremost provide a cultural link with all the peoples of the world creating a tapestry of love for all of humanity.
Don’t forget to join Storytime Tapestry!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Storytime_Tapestry/ ================================================== Now I am giving the floor over to my other Contributors, who have more news to share with you before you actually start reading the short stories, articles, poetry, authors’ books and literary publications. Not to worry – it’s only good news! 4 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
***** “Hi Rosanne, please tell your readers about my newest announcement regarding my book, ‘Elder Rage’: I recently recorded my book, ‘Elder Rage’, a Book-of-theMonth Club selection receiving 50 endorsements: http://www.ElderRage.com/Review.asp, 300+ Five-Star Amazon reviews, is required reading at numerous universities, and also being considered for a film. It is now available for audio download exclusively at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/74479pq and Audible Books: http://tinyurl.com/7seo4fm. Also available in Print and Kindle/Nook eBook formats. Perhaps you know people who could be helped by it. http://www.ElderRage.com Jacqueline Marcell Author, Radio Host & International Speaker 'Elder Rage,’ or ‘Take My Father ... Please!’ How to Survive Caring for Aging Parents' Book-of-the-Month Club Selection Coping with Caregiving Radio Show
Impressive Press 3141 Michelson Dr. #606 Irvine, CA 92612 (949) 975-1012 5 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
*******
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“Splash of Inspiration” Published by JANET PEREZ ECKLES Author & Inspirational Speaker
JANET’S DAILY NEWSLETTER BRINGS YOU FAITH & LOVE WITH A LATIN FLAIR! To subscribe to her newsletter just send a blank email to: jeckles@cfl.rr.com Write “Subscribe” in your subject line and mention that the publisher of The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine referred you. Janet will immediately send you her latest issue right in your inbox. Enjoy her inspiring newsletter!
****** More Good News from my Contributors… CAROL ROACH AUTHOR, PUBLISHER & COLUMNIST: “Rosanne, please tell your readers about my three wonderful columns at examiner.com. The articles are well researched and, as you know, my field is psychology – I have a Masters in counselling psychology. The articles are also great for Storytime Tapestry members who do not want to wait for when the story is finally published, sometimes several months later.”
First column
Women's Issues - covers all issues relating to women's lives, from the fight for women's rights which started over 100 years ago in Alberta, Canada, to all the great women's achievements in the USA, the feminist movement, women's legal, health, family issues and more, later on I will incorporate eastern women's issues as well. http://www.examiner.com/x-47386-Montreal7 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Womens-Issues-Examiner
Second column
Health - covers all aspects of health from disease and conditions to most recent medical studies, to warning against certain drugs and pharmaceutical drug recalls. http://www.examiner.com/x-38644-Montreal-Health-Examiner
Third column
Mental Health - covers everything pertaining to psychology, psychiatry, self-improvement, theories about behavior and why we do the things we do and a lot more. http://www.examiner.com/x-33888-Montreal-Mental-HealthExaminer
****** ARTHUR C. FORD, SR PUBLISHER, EDITOR & POET: Dear Literary Artist, ‘The Poet Band Company’ is asking for poetry, max. 40 lines and prose, max. 300 words (English language only. If sent in another language, also include English translation or transliteration) to be submitted for possible publication in “THE POETRY EXPLOSION NEWSLETTER” (“THE PEN”), issued quarterly (January, April, July, October). JULY'S ISSUES ARE DEDICATED TO ROMANTIC POETRY OCTOBER'S ISSUES SPOTLIGHTS HOLIDAY POETRY ALL OTHER ISSUES ARE “OPENED TO THE WRITER” We publish poems and prose pertaining to all subjects (love, holidays, current events, etc.) and in any form (sonnets, haiku, rhyme, free and blank verse, etc.). Simultaneous and prepublished submissions are accepted. Bio-sketches are optional. 8 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Presently, we are not paying monetarily, but if your works are selected we'll send you a free copy of the issue in which they (it) appear(s). Send us your best! All submissions must be typed and of “camera ready” quality. Submit a maximum of five works (an S.A.S.E. with correct postage if you want your works that are not accepted for publication to be returned). E-Mail submissions are accepted and must include Snail-Mail address. Note: If sending from another country, please send International Coupons (2 per dollar amount) or a Money Order or a Check written in U.S. Dollars from a United States bank. If you have never been published, this may be your chance! GUIDELINES (www.thepoetbandcompany.yolasite.com) Thanks for your love of the written word! Subscriptions: $25.00 yearly (4 issues) or $48.00 for 2 years. Send $4.00 for a sample issue. Outside the USA and Canada, $35.00 U.S Dollars for 4 issues (1 year) or $68.00 for 8 issues (2 years). Make Check or Money Order payable to: Arthur C. Ford, Sr. P.O. Box 4725 Pittsburgh, PA 15206-0725 (U.S.A.) Email: wewuvpoetry@hotmail.com Toll Free Phone: 1-866-234-0297 POEMS ARE CRITIQUED AT 15 CENTS PER WORD. ADVERTISING RATES: Size One issue Four issues 1/8 page $10.00 $35.00 ¼ page $20.00 $60.00 ½ page $40.00 $120.00 Full Page $80.00 $270.00 9 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Ads must be “camera ready” and printed in black and white. Logos are accepted. Yours in Words, Arthur C. Ford, Sr., Poet & Editor
******
KJ HANNAH GREENBERG AUTHOR & POET:
“Hi Rosanne, ‘Friendsake,’ a poem of mine you published in your September 2010 magazine, is one of fifty collected in ‘A Bank Robber's Bad Luck with His Ex-Girlfriend, Unbound CONTENT,’ December 2011.” Please let your readers know this book can be ordered from the publisher at: https://www.createspace.com/3729088 Or at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Bank-Robbers-Bad-Luck-ExGirlfriend/dp/193637322X/ref=sr_1_1? s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324641358&sr=1-1 Songbirds are entertaining. Roses smell nice. Most passion, however, resolves as cacophonous and stinky. In “A Bank Robber’s Bad Luck with His Ex-Girlfriend,” this mess we call ‘love,’ gets reduced, poked at, prodded, and eventually pushed over. Don't miss out on this tough, sassy, hopeful assemblage of verse! Press up against its soft concepts of intimate associations. Come along to slide among “A Bank Robber’s Bad Luck with His Ex-Girlfriend’s” articulated regrets, muted longings, and rudimentary joys, today! What’s more, “Unbound CONTENT” would like to offer your readership a 10% discount off of the cover price of “A Bank Robber’s Bad Luck with His Ex-Girlfriend.” Readers who use the 10 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
code "sentiment’s chowder" on their order form will be charged this lower fee. Deeper, group discounts can be arranged by contacting annmarie@unboundcontent.com Thanks!” --KJ Hannah Greenberg.
******
11 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
JOSEPH J. MAZZELLA AUTHOR & WRITER: Dear Friends, I have good news! After a lot of encouragement by wonderful people like you I have finally self-published a collection of my favorite articles as a book. The book is titled “WALKING THE PATH OF LOVE.” It is available at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/WALKING-PATH-LOVE-JosephMazzella/dp/1609573773/ref=sr_1_3? ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278516602&sr=1-3 I only wish the publisher had offered me a dedication page so I could have thanked all of you for your love and support over the years. This book was written for you. I also wish I was wealthy enough to send all of you a free copy, but sadly I can't. I was able to get it discounted at a decent price though. I also have good news for all of you technology lovers out there! My book: “WALKING THE PATH OF LOVE” is also available in e-book format. You can get it for Kindle on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/WALKING-THE-PATH-LOVEebook/dp/B00AMLPJ8A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digitaltext&ie=UTF8&qid=1355334413&sr=11&keywords=walking+the+path+of+love You can get it for Nook at Barnes & Noble at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/walking-the-path-of-lovejoseph-j-mazzella/1023319336?ean=2940015759143
****** ROGER DEAN KISER AUTHOR AND CHILD ADVOCATE: Author Roger Dean Kiser’s Child Advocate Office site is: 12 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
http://thewhitehouseboys.com/AmericanOrphan/americanorp han/index.html ================================================== If you are a freelance writer, also go to Filbert Publishing today to pick up your copy of Beth Ann Erickson’s helpful eBook, “101 No Cost or Low Cost Techniques to Turbo Charge Your Freelance Income!” She offers a ton of excellent advice on how to earn more than pennies for your freelance writing. Also check out the “Helpful Sites for You” page on my website for other interesting, fun sites, and literary journals and magazines! I would like you to welcome my other Contributors; some new, some established who have written short stories, poems, and helpful informative articles for you. If you like what they have written, please let them know by email or by visiting their websites [Authors’ email addresses or websites are listed in the “About the Author” bios.] My contributors love hearing from you. See y’all in the New Year! Until then, enjoy the upcoming Holidays! Copyright © October-December 2014 Rosanne Catalano.
Cat’s Rule, Dogs Drool and We Love Them Still ================================================== ===================
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COFFEE HOUSE 4 READERS CORNER
Bringing You Fiction & Nonfiction Short Stories, Essays and Flash Fiction for Your Reading Pleasure!
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The First Time I Knew Death, I Was Seven TIM HANSON WORDS FAIL ME WHEN I NEED THEM MOST.
**** For class, I wrote, “The first time I knew death, I was seven,” and hit return. Make the hook its own paragraph, I thought. Isolation will give it weight. But then I stared at the page, wondering where to begin— for all stories need a beginning, a runway from which to ascend. Two minutes spent on this enterprise, though, had me returning to the hook—hitting delete, hitting undo, adding words only to remove them later. It was here, while writing a narrative during my junior year of high school, that I realized the limitations of storytelling—or more precisely, the limitations of language— and ironically, it would take me years to express in words what I first understood that night. Four years later, while critiquing this narrative for one of my education courses, I wrote: “Between language and meaning, there exists a paradoxical relationship—a union through which syllables assembled correctly can render an otherwise private affair, but they also diminish that affair’s worth and meaning, ultimately devaluing, obscuring, and failing to capture the communicator’s message. Perhaps communication, therefore, is a futile endeavor, 15 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
as I realized while writing a story about my great grandfather’s death.” The professor took umbrage with my condemnation of language, suggesting it was more my inability to find and assemble the right words; however, she did agree with my later assessments, that my narrative jumped spastically from moment to moment and unfortunately glossed over the funeral, creating a rather disjointed and shallow story. I hated revisiting this narrative, as I did every piece my professor asked us to critique from our high school years (her attempt at reacquainting us with our adolescent mindsets). Here was a story I had written about a man who had meant so much to me, and ultimately I had failed to capture the intricacies of our relationship, the moment he died, and the weight of his absence. She gave me an A minus on my analysis, and I was about to file the paper away, ready to forget it once and for all, when she said, “The second part of your assignment is to rewrite your story.” This time, I didn’t wait until the night before it was due; I started immediately after class. I read that first line again: “The first time I knew death, I was seven.” Not a bad way to start—it certainly hooked me, as I thought it would back then—but it was what followed that caused the problems. Within three paragraphs, my great grandfather was dead, and the majority of the narrative focused only on my hearing the news. I had used words like “devastated,” “emotionally wrought,” and “depressed.” I had tried examining my 16 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
emotions through similes and metaphors, likening them to vast pits covering endless deserts and storm clouds raging above abandoned houses. Never had the magic of metaphor felt so wasted. But I was sixteen, I told myself. I was young. Now I’m twenty; I got this.
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I started from scratch, erasing everything save for the hook. But then I stared at the page, wondering where to begin. Language is a structured system that takes boxes, each holding its own meaning, and assembles them in a specific order to create a message. The problem with these boxes is everyone uses them, and each person interprets them differently. Furthermore, these boxes have been used for centuries, rendering them weathered, trite, and clichéd. As before, the words came, but they never felt like the right words. Maybe it’s because this is nonfiction, my mind offered. You like writing fiction. This just hits too close to home. However, I discarded this thought immediately after thinking it. If the words existed for one genre, they should exist for another. Besides, this moment had seeped into other stories I had written; why could I render it then and not now? Perhaps what was holding me back was not strictly a problem with language but the need to infuse each word with a meaning it already carried. And perhaps what I was really fighting was making words matter that had been spoken by almost everyone who had ever lived. Everyone has someone special, and almost everyone has seen a person like that die. Language wasn’t going to make my audience feel exactly 18 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
as I had—and if it came close, it was only because language had pushed my audience toward a similarly held memory or fear, relating their experience with mine. I knew this was a beautifully communal quality of words—yet, my need to shape them to my whim, making them exclusively mine so that readers would experience exactly what I had, was an act of futility. The power of language to bring my great grandfather to life was awesome (ironically, another word abused and ruined over the past few decades), and the ability to craft the moment he died was magical. However— Words would never quite capture the power of that moment, despite bringing it to life. Words failed me then, as they always would with this subject, yet they were the only tools I had to express what I felt. I couldn’t paint the moment, as my artistic ability had peeked at the age of eight. (Ditto music and dance.) I had language. I had metaphor. And each existed paradoxically with their purpose, bringing the moment to life while failing to bring it to life. Still, I pressed forward, as I do to this day, crafting my narrative and rewriting it for hours afterward. And like an asymptote, the words came close to the meaning I tried so desperately to capture, but never quite touched it, no matter how close they go. Copyright © July 7, 2014 Tim Hanson. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: TIM HANSON says that ever since reading Mark Twain’s ‘The 19 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’ he has been obsessed with the written word. For the last seven years, he has taught high school English, trying to instill that same obsession into his students—a passion rivaled only by his love for writing. His most recent works were published in ‘The Blue Moon Literary & Art Review’ and ‘Botticelli Literary & Art Magazine,’ and he has been working on his first novel for the last six months. When not teaching or writing, Tim enjoys traveling to new places with his wife, dining at new restaurants across the Midwest, and taking silly pictures of his dog and cat. He can be contacted at: HansonT@frontier.com __________________________________________________________________ ________________________
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Busted John LYNDA CRANE “OH, LOOK! I WISH WE HAD THAT HOUSE!” THOSE WERE the first (and as it turned out ironic) words from my children, when we pulled in the driveway of our new home. They were speaking of the house next door, and it seemed they were impressed with the stucco sunrays over the front door arch. Our door was topped with a rather plain, small, woodenpeaked porch roof. We were moving to this very modest, somewhat recently integrated,
working
class,
bordering
on
lower
class
neighborhood, from a large apartment (one of a three-unit “row” house), in a far worse area: one where we had known no one who worked steadily—though two women across the street had part-time jobs—where trash piled up and stayed for years in the alleys, where children grew up without knowing anything beyond the few blocks surrounding their homes, and where thievery on the part of the young was accepted practice. It had been a hard world for my children to live in— suddenly transported as they were by divorce, from the suburb in which they had lived since birth. Still, it was a hard world for any child to live in, and by far more tragic for those who would never get out. But all that is another story. This one is about Theresa and Anya—or mostly about them.
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It was my boy Doug, then 12, who met them first. He went immediately in search of friends, and found Theresa’s Keith about the second or third day. Keith was a real charmer: tall for a 12-year-old, with that to-die-for shade of walnut brown skin—all clear and satin smooth—deep brown doe-eyes, and lashes a half-inch long. But it was his smile that should have laid the world at his feet: innocent, sincere, sunshine. And it did get him forgiven (and back in the good graces) of neighbors and school officials and even other children, when for the same infraction, another child would have been in exile for weeks. “That smile,” Theresa later told me, “is that boy’s downfall.” Of course, once Doug and Keith were friends, my meeting Theresa was a matter of consequence. At first our acquaintance amounted to a few words passed going in or out of the house, then gradually 5 minutes talk or 10. Theresa sometimes sat on her front stoop in the evening, fixing Anya’s hair in a French braid—or in a dozen, woven into an intricate crown. I took to sitting with her often, and there our friendship began. She had a job, and was going to school for some kind of nurse’s training, or medical assistance work, or some such thing. Her job was as a nurse’s aide. She had no car, and took buses wherever she went—a feat that was a true mystery to me. I could never figure out which bus went where or when, and it all seemed so risky. What if you were five minutes late (which I often was) or the bus was late 22 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
(which it often was). And there were so many places the bus didn’t go. I was going to school too—and working as a tutor, and raising three kids, and taking care of a house and meals and laundry. The idea of something happening to my car and me having to deal with the bus system gave me the real-true shakes. Theresa had a grown son (in the military) who helped her some. But a boy in high-school, and Keith, and kindergarten Anya all depended on her. The older kids father was one man, and Anya’s another, but they were both long gone, and she was glad. I never heard her talk about a man or saw her with one. Anya was a tiny five-year-old doll when we first met, all wide-eyed trust and softness. I could be mad as anything and having the worst day ever, open the door to find her standing there and start to smile. She was a dear little thing, and it would have been easy to be affectionate with her, but she was shy, and I never noticed that she paid any particular attention to me. I’ll never forget the first time I went in Theresa’s house. It was so bare. It seemed like there was just almost nothing in it. We sat in her kitchen that first visit—Theresa and her friend and I— and they talked of the huge hole in the ceiling, where the plaster had fallen, and of Theresa’s landlord, who would not fix anything. The toilet, she told me, had not been functional for a week (or maybe more) and besides was not 23 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
firmly affixed to the floor. I encouraged her to withhold her rent; in fact, gave her a sort of mini lecture on her “rights”— working a summer job for a lawyer, as I was. Theresa had a kind of sincere innocence that always surprised me, given how difficult her life had obviously been, and all that she had been through (and was going through) of others’ insincerity and dishonesty. For example, she fullscale bought the idea of personal responsibility. Oh, she didn’t think it was her fault her landlord was a jerk, or anything stupid like that. But, she blamed her poverty on her own mistakes, and she believed if she could “work hard and get herself straightened out,” she could conquer it. It didn’t occur to her that she was already working harder than the vast majority of middle-class persons (certainly harder than any I knew), and under far more difficult circumstances. I, myself, have never in my life been without a working toilet, and I know, for a fact, I would find the lack depressing. Theresa found it depressing too, but she kept right on. She always kept right on. Once in a while on a Saturday morning in that summer of ’79, we would sit on her front porch, while the air was yet cool, and before the sun began to scorch (as soon it would) and share a doobie. We both thought mornings were the very best time to get a little high, and on Saturdays we sometimes cleaned house in that dreamy glow, and it was nice. There was one morning I especially remember, when the neighborhood was so quiet, no one out but Theresa and me, and there was that sweet scent of morning that foretold 24 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
blistering heat. We spoke very little, basking as we were in mutual feeling of perfect comfort, wanting nothing beyond that minute, just being, feeling, listening to bird song and leaf sound, glad for those moments to live. It was nothing really, yet when I think of my life and its pain and tragedy and triumph, it is that “really nothing” event (and a rare few others) that seem true and lasting and worthwhile. After that, it was as if there was a trust between us that had not been there before. As if we knew each other capable of an appreciation shared, and it had something to do with values and something to do with belief. We knew very little about each other really, yet we were friends in some lasting way. Theresa’s troubles didn’t get any better, quite the contrary. The jerk fixed the toilet, but it didn’t stay fixed long. I was told that toilet was there when the house was built in 1922, and he wasn’t the type to fix things right. Keith gave her more and more trouble. He went from mild attention-seeking and low-level manipulation to out-and-out trouble making, especially at school: cheating, fighting, and breaking things. I trusted him once, and he did me wrong. One day Theresa came over in tears, and sobbing told me he had stolen her food stamps. Anya remained sweet and wide-eyed, but it seemed to me she
got
even
quieter.
Theresa
was—at
my
advice—
withholding her rent for repairs, and thus received a notice of eviction. I took her to my lawyer boss, who agreed to 25 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
represent her in court and who filed papers blocking her removal.
There
were
hours
of
conversations
between
Theresa and me, about what should be done and how to manage, and of course, Anya was always with us, but she was so quiet, we never really remembered her. The court date came and Theresa prevailed, but life kept getting harder. She had missed some work and some school too, because of the legal stuff, and she was really under pressure not to miss anymore. It was the promise of getting through that school program that really kept her going. The job she thought bound to follow was the one thing she could see that would get her out of that deep hole she was in. And the court business wasn’t over. I always thought you went to court and things got settled, so it was a big hassle, but worth it. It turned out not so. There is always an appeal it seems, endless recourse. And so another court date was coming up, and she’d have to be there. She did mention it to me, but I guess I couldn’t take her, and anyway, if she missed another day of work right then, she was done for, so she missed the court date, and the eviction went forward. She knew then she would have to leave soon, and there was a friend’s house, where she could stay for a while. But, she didn’t (and I didn’t either) really understand what “they” would do, or how long it would take. I hadn’t seen Theresa or Anya for a while, when one day 26 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
about the time school let out, there was a knock at the door and it was Anya home from school, with the biggest tears rolling down her face, and not a sound of crying—asking had I seen her Mom. I saw then their little bit of furniture and all their clothes thrown out in the yard. And, yes, the house was locked, Anya told me when I asked. I tried to get her to come inside and wait until Theresa got home from work, but she wouldn’t. For the very first time, she looked at me with what seemed a hint of suspicion, and walked on back next door.
After a day or two, I got a call from Theresa, and she asked me to do something for her—I don’t remember what. Store something, I think. I don’t know. But, it kept us in touch, and on the day when she was supposed to come by and get whatever it was, I took Theresa and Anya to Wendy’s for a good-bye lunch. I ate fast-food way more than was good for me, and going to Wendy’s was sure no big deal. Anya had never been to a restaurant before. She was so quiet and kind of aloof, and I wondered if I had done the right thing to ask them. I thought she seemed a bit resentful, in her growing girl pride. A few weeks later, we moved away, out-of-state, and I didn’t see Theresa or Anya again for four years. When I did it was out at the mall, while I was back visiting a friend. I spotted Theresa across the way, and she saw me at about the same time. We were genuinely glad to see each other, and I asked about Anya right away. “She’s out here,” Theresa answered me. “She’ll be glad to see you.” 27 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
“I wonder if I’ll know her,” was my reply. “After all this time, she’ll be so big.” “She’ll know you,” Theresa told me with – I thought – some feeling in her voice. About then, I saw a half-grown girl coming toward me, and I wouldn’t have known her, I swear. She didn’t say one word, just threw her arms around me, buried her face against my shoulder and hung on. Copyright © August 27, 2014 Lynda L. Crane.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: LYNDA L. CRANE has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Maryland in the USA. She has published an internationally distributed textbook and has non-fiction articles published in psychology and oral history journals. Lynda now lives on a lake in Michigan and writes full-time. She can be contacted at cranel98@gmail.com __________________________________________________________________ ____________________________
Bittersweet JOSEPH J. MAZZELLA Author of “Walking the Path of Love” IF THERE IS ONE THING I HAVE LEARNED OVER THE 28 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
YEARS it is that life in this world is bittersweet. It always has been and it always will be. I realized this early on and every day I see further evidence of it. It is something that we all just have to accept. When I was a boy I cherished my books and toys, but then I lost them all when our house burned down in the middle of the night. Growing up I loved the isolated woodlands and meadows that were my playground, yet more often than not I found myself playing alone. In school I found learning fun and easy, but I never was as popular as I wanted to be. When I played on the sports teams I loved the fun and friendship we had, but I spent most of my time sitting on the bench. In college I enjoyed the excitement of being out on my own, yet my heart still ached for the love and comforts of home. As I grew into adulthood I fell in love and had my heart broken. I graduated college, but I never gained the success I thought I would get. I had three beautiful children that taught me so much about love, yet I watched my two sons struggle daily with Autism. I cherished the love that my Mom, Nana, and Dad gave me, then I watched them all die before I was 50. Yes, life is bittersweet. It is full of ups and downs, twists and turns, triumphs and tragedies. Whether life makes us bitter or sweet, however, is up to us. God loves us and He put us here to love each other. This is easy when life is sweet, but it can be a struggle when life is bitter. Still, it is during the tough times that we grow the 29 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
strongest. It is during the bitter times when our sweetness and love are most needed. It is during the dark days that we learn the most about our own goodness and light. Don’t let life make you bitter then. Stay strong. Love much. Live well. Share your goodness and light every day and make this world a sweeter place for us all. Copyright © September 15, 2014 Joseph J. Mazzella. ============================================
When You Know You Are Loved JOSEPH J. MAZZELLA Author of “Walking the Path of Love” WHAT DO WE ALL WANT IN LIFE? THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE. We want happiness. We may take many different paths to reach it, but happiness is the final destination we all are trying to reach. Many of us pursue it in things, work, and people. Others try to create it in what they think and do. Yet, happiness remains elusive. Like a butterfly, it flies away each time you try to catch it but can come and land on your shoulder when you least expect it. The times that I have found to be the happiest in my own life have been the times when I knew I was loved. I can remember as a boy sitting in a chair with my Mom by the warm stove while she read books to me. I can remember 30 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
coming in the door after playing outside to a warm hug from my Nana and a piece of freshly baked Italian bread. I can remember squeezing into a recliner with my Dad when he got home from work so we could watch my favorite TV show. I can remember playing touch football with my brothers. I can remember the first kiss I ever got from a girl. I can remember holding each of my newborn children in my arms for the first time. I can remember seeing them get off the school bus and running into my arms. I can remember all the hugs, laughs, smiles, and "I Love You’s" that they filled my life with. I can also remember the countless times that God showed me how much He loved me. These miracle moments came in glorious sunrises and beautiful sunsets. They came in cool morning breezes full of birdsong. They came in the changing leaves, the first snow of winter, and the hot summer afternoons. They came in flowers, fireflies, and butterflies. They came in words I read and songs I heard. They came in quiet moments of silence, peace, and prayer. They came every day whether I noticed them or not. I just hope to spend the rest of my life taking them in, passing them on, and thanking God for them with all my heart. Know that you are loved then. Know that you are loved eternally and unconditionally. Know that God loves you with a power beyond understanding. And know that you can love as well. If there is one thing greater than the joy of being loved, it is the joy of loving. Share your own love today. Love God. Love yourself. Love everyone else. Love life, this world, 31 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
and all of your days in it. Love and be happy today, tomorrow, and always. Copyright © September 8, 2014 Joseph J. Mazzella.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JOSEPH J. MAZZELLA is a published author and writer who was born, raised and still lives in the mountains of West Virginia in the USA. He grew up walking in the woodland trails around his home and draws much of the inspiration for his work from God's beautiful creation that is all around him. He graduated from Glenville State College with degrees in English and Education. He has worked over the years as a busboy, lumber mill worker, and teacher. Joseph is currently a mental health worker, and also cares for his two sons who have Autism. A father of three, he has been writing for over 20 years for local county newspapers. With the creation of the Internet, he is now read by people all over the world. In August of 2010 Joseph had his first book published, titled “Walking the Path of Love”, which can be purchased at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, or wherever books are sold. He can be contacted at: joemazzella@frontier.com
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Growing Up 32 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
ROGER SMITH Author of “Strands In The Web,” “Preserving Our Pale Blue Dot,” and “Darkness, my old friend” I ALWAYS SNEERED AT MY FATHER’S STORIES. ONE WAS about one of the Cree, an old man who cleaned the settlement's school, which my father described as a oneroom log and plywood shack with a splintered wooden floor and thin windows leaking the cold air. I pictured it as old and worn out, like the old man, a ramshackle structure built in a hurry years before. The kids brought in sticky mud and dirt in spring and snow in winter, but my father told how the old man always did his duty, however futile it was. I thought then I would certainly never have bothered. My father mentioned the old man again the day my best friend destroyed my trail bike. We'd been riding by the river, jumping muddy pools, skidding great clouds of dust behind us. Then my best friend took a hill blind and turned turtle in mid-air. The entangled mass of bike and boy slammed into a wall of rock, and the wheels crumpled, the frame twisted, and the handlebars folded into a concertina of chrome. My beloved bike! I was so shocked it was a long time before I thought to look at my friend. He lay like a crumpled grasshopper, blood smeared across his dirty face, a thin arm 33 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
distorted, and he was moaning with pain. I wanted to kill him. My friends somehow got him home, his nose and arm broken, leaving me to my friends somehow got him home, his nose and arm broken, leaving me to struggle home alone with the remnants of my beloved bike. At dinner that night, my father mentioned again the old man who'd cleaned the school. It took me a minute to realize he was really talking about my bike; I was tempted to tell him he should have been a preacher, he avoided coming to the point so much. He told me the old man would say "key-am,� or at least that's what it sounded like, which meant whenever something was broken or lost, "We can yell and scream and blame people, and when we're done, it will still be broken or lost, and people would be hurt, so why not miss out the yelling and screaming and blaming, and just move on?" I thought both my father and the old man were crazy. Exasperated, I left my plate of chicken and fries on the table and went up to my room. I'd already learnt by then that old people weren't worth my time. Forgiving was out of the question. I had a score to settle about my bike, and simply getting even wasn't going to be good enough. Eventually, of course, I got another bike, and I made other friends. The best friend who'd wrecked my bike was still around, 34 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
but I could never forgive him. I was angry and resentful, and he was embarrassed, and we drifted farther and farther apart until we didn’t see each other, even in our home. January 2002, when the Olympic torch came through town on its way to Salt Lake City, was brutally cold, and it was snowing again the night my father stopped for gas on his way home. When two men robbed the gas station, he happened to be standing next to the till, so they shot him dead, two days before his fiftieth birthday. The men jumped into a teenager's Mustang and slammed it into a transit bus just a few blocks away. They were the only ones not injured; the bus driver almost died. I hadn't been close to my father, but suddenly, inexplicably, I remembered the squirrel I’d killed, and the absurdity of my father’s death made it the first time I felt real hate. I went to the men’s trial and stared at them relentlessly, willing them to turn and see and know my determination to wreak vengeance on them whatever the socalled justice system might decide. But of course they wouldn't look at me, and I left the court each night shaking and furious and cursing everything and everyone I came across. Who cared about a 16 year-old kid? Several years after my father's death, I was in the bus depot in Spokane on my way home from university when I saw an old Native American watching me as if he thought he 35 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
knew me but couldn't remember why. His stare made me uncomfortable, and I grabbed my bag and hurried away. But his brown, sad eyes haunted me, and I remembered my father telling me about the old man cleaning the school day after day, a task worthy of Sisyphus, and realized, much too late, the old man had been dutifully fulfilling his obligation and doing what he could for the settlement's children. I realized he was, indeed, an honorable man. I remembered 'key-am' then, and my father's killers languishing in jail, and knew I'd kept myself in jail with them. I felt guilty for how I'd treated my father and I felt a raging anger at the men who had made our reconciliation impossible. But I soon realized, of course, it wasn't their fault; I had poisoned my own life. It was almost too late, but "Key-am" now made profound sense. I forgave my childhood best friend, and forgot my bike and remembered only how my friend and I had played ball and swam and climbed trees and even chased girls, and for the first time in years I missed him and the childhood I'd ruined for him and for myself. But by then he'd moved to New York, and then on to somewhere else, and I never saw him again. And I remembered my father, and all he'd tried to teach me, and I could only regret I'd never thanked him when he was still alive. Somehow he'd taught me life can only continue if we forgive and forget, and refuse to carry around the crippling 36 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
burden of the past. It took me far too long, but I've finally forgotten so much and even forgiven myself, and now I’m free.
Copyright © September 8, 2014 Roger Smith. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ROGER SMITH was born in England and educated in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. He taught English, Geography, and Environmental Studies in Canadian high schools, English, Philosophy, and Art History at the Mazatlán campus of the Monterey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico, and English at the Daqing Oilfield Oil Production Technology Institute in Daqing, China. He is the author of “Strands In The Web” and “Preserving Our Pale Blue Dot,” environmental teaching resources, and “Darkness, my old friend,” a novel with environmental themes.
His
stories
FirstWriter.magazine: Netsagas.com
and
have
Issue
22,
been
published
in
Winter
2012-2013,
by
Nazar-look.com,
and
on
“Learning
Without Limits” learning platform. Roger lives in Vancouver Island on Canada’s Pacific coast.
He
can
be
contacted
via
at:
writeroger_ca@yahoo.com ================================================== =========================
37 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
HELPFUL ARTICLES FOR YOU!
Where Nonfiction Articles with Helpful Information & Tips of All Kinds Can be found! Also general Informative Articles!
“Democracy,” Egyptian-style SAM VAKNIN Author of “Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited”
38 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
THE REVENANT (MANY WOULD SAY ERSATZ) EGYPTIAN, Mohamed ElBaradei, self-appointed and self-imputed leader of the "democracy" movement in his newly-discovered homeland, called yesterday on the army to commit a putsch against the government. The fawning, cliché-ridden, politically-correct, navel-gazing, and effete media in the West did not question this abrupt ideological shift: ElBaradei and the protesters in Tahrir Square have always claimed to be upholding Western values. Now, they are calling for yet another round of military dictatorship to replace Mubarak's. This is not reminiscent of other people's power revolutions, including the most recent one in Tunisia which is said to have inspired the Egyptian tumult. The sad truth is that Omar Suleiman, Egypt's much-reviled Vice-President, is right; Egyptians are not ready for a democracy because they have never had one and because they are politically immature. Recent trends such multiculturalism, political correctness, crowdsourcing (culling knowledge from the aggregated knowledge of computer users), and diversity are perceived as antidotes, counterweights, and forms of protest against the elitism and rationalism that led to the murderous authoritarian ideologies and regimes of the 20th centuries; to climate-changing pollution; and to the nuclear arsenal. The “people” now reassert themselves by seizing control of functions hitherto reserved to the few. This backlash and technology-driven revolution are widely equated with the restoration of “true democracy”. Yet, democracy is not the rule of the people. Democracy is 39 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
government by periodically vetted representatives of the people. Democracy is not tantamount to a continuous expression of the popular will as it pertains to a range of issues. Functioning and fair democracy is representative and not participatory. Participatory "people power" is mob rule (ochlocracy), not democracy. Granted, "people power" is often required in order to establish democracy where it is unprecedented. Revolutions - velvet, rose, orange, and jasmine - recently introduced democracy in Eastern Europe and Tunisia, for instance. People power - mass street demonstrations - toppled obnoxious dictatorships from Iran to the Philippines and from Peru to Indonesia. But once the institutions of democracy are in place and more or less functional, the people can and must rest. They should let their chosen delegates do the job they were elected to do. And they must hold their emissaries responsible and accountable in fair and free ballots once every two or four or five years. Democracy and the rule of law are bulwarks against "the tyranny of the mighty (the privileged elites)". But, they should not yield a "dictatorship of the weak". As heads of the state in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and East Europe can attest, these vital lessons are lost on the dozens of "new democracies" the world over. Many of these presidents and prime ministers, though democratically elected (multiply, in some cases), have fallen prey to enraged and vigorous "people power" movements in their 40 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
countries. And these breaches of the democratic tradition are not the only or most egregious ones. The West boasts of the three waves of democratization that swept across the world since 1975. Yet, in most developing countries and nations in transition, "democracy" is an empty word. Granted, the hallmarks of democracy are there: candidate lists, parties, election propaganda, a plurality of media, and voting. But its quiddity is absent. The democratic principles are institutions are being consistently hollowed out and rendered mock by election fraud, exclusionary policies, cronyism, corruption, intimidation, and collusion with Western interests, both commercial and political. The new "democracies" are thinly-disguised and criminalized plutocracies (recall the Russian oligarchs), authoritarian regimes (Central Asia and the Caucasus), or pupeteered hierarchies (Macedonia, Bosnia, and Iraq, to mention three recent examples). The new "democracies" suffer from many of the same ills that afflict their veteran role models: murky campaign finances; venal revolving doors between state administration and private enterprise; endemic corruption, nepotism, and cronyism; self-censoring media; socially, economically, and politically excluded minorities; and so on. But while this malaise does not threaten the foundations of the United States and France - it does imperil the stability and future of the likes of Ukraine, Serbia, and Moldova, Indonesia, Mexico, and Bolivia. Many nations have chosen prosperity over democracy. Yes, 41 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
the denizens of these realms can't speak their mind or protest or criticize or even joke lest they be arrested or worse - but, in exchange for giving up these trivial freedoms, they have food on the table, they are fully employed, they receive ample health care and proper education, they save and spend to their hearts' content. In return for all these worldly and intangible goods (popularity of the leadership which yields political stability; prosperity; security; prestige abroad; authority at home; a renewed sense of nationalism, collective and community), the citizens of these countries forgo the right to be able to criticize the regime or change it once every four years. Many insist that they have struck a good bargain - not a Faustian one. Worse still, the West has transformed the ideal of democracy into an ideology at the service of imposing a new colonial regime on its former colonies. Spearheaded by the United States, the white and Christian nations of the West embarked with missionary zeal on a transformation, willynilly, of their erstwhile charges into profitable paragons of "democracy" and "good governance". And not for the first time. Napoleon justified his gory campaigns by claiming that they served to spread French ideals throughout a barbarous world. Kipling bemoaned the "White Man's (civilizing) burden", referring specifically to Britain's role in India. Hitler believed himself to be the last remaining barrier between the hordes of Bolshevism and the West. The Vatican concurred with him.
42 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
This self-righteousness would have been more tolerable had the West actually meant and practiced what it preached, however self-delusionally. Yet, in dozens of cases in the last 60 years alone, Western countries intervened, often by force of arms, to reverse and nullify the outcomes of perfectly legal and legitimate popular and democratic elections. They did so because of economic and geopolitical interests and they usually installed rabid dictators in place of the deposed elected functionaries. This hypocrisy cost them dearly. Few in the poor and developing world believe that the United States or any of its allies are out to further the causes of democracy, human rights, and global peace. The nations of the West have sown cynicism and they are reaping strife and terrorism in return. Moreover, democracy is far from what it is made out to be. Confronted with history, the myth breaks down. For instance, it is maintained by their chief proponents that democracies are more peaceful than dictatorships. But the two most belligerent countries in the world are, by a wide margin, Israel and the United States (closely followed by the United Kingdom). As of late, China is one of the most tranquil polities. Democracies are said to be inherently stable (or to successfully incorporate the instability inherent in politics). This, too, is a confabulation. The Weimar Republic gave birth to Adolf Hitler and Italy had almost 50 governments in as many years. The bloodiest civil wars in history erupted in Republican Spain and, seven decades earlier, in the United 43 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
States. Czechoslovakia, the USSR, and Yugoslavia imploded upon becoming democratic, having survived intact for more than half a century as tyrannies. Democracies are said to be conducive to economic growth (indeed, to be a prerequisite to such). But the fastest economic growth rates in history go to imperial Rome, Nazi Germany, Stalin's USSR, Putin's Russia, and post-Mao China. Granted, democracy allows for the free exchange of information and, thus, renders markets more efficient and local-level bureaucracies less corrupt. This ought to be conducive to economic growth. But who says that the airing of municipal grievances and the exchange of non-political (business and economic) ideas cannot be achieved in a dictatorship? Even in North Korea, only the Dear Leader is above criticism and reproach - all others: politicians, civil servants, party hacks, and army generals can become and are often the targets of grassroots criticism and purges. The ruling parties in most tyrannies are umbrella organizations that represent the pluralistic interests of numerous social and economic segments and strata. For many people, this approximation of democracy - the party as a "Big Tent" - is a more than satisfactory solution to their need to be heard. Finally, how represented established democracies?
is
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vox
populi
even
in
In a democracy, people can freely protest and make their opinions known, no doubt. Sometimes, they can even change 44 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
their representatives (though the rate of turnover in the US Congress in the last two decades is lower than it was in the last 20 years of the Politburo). But is this a sufficient incentive (or deterrent)? The members of the various elites in Western democracies are mobile - they ceaselessly and facilely hop from one lucrative sinecure to another. Lost the elections as a Senator? How about a multi-million dollar book contract, a consultant position with a firm you formerly oversaw or regulated, your own talk show on television, a cushy job in the administration? The truth is that voters are powerless. The rich and mighty take care of their own. Malfeasance carries little risk and rarely any sanction. Western democracies are ossified bastions of self-perpetuating interest groups aided and abetted and legitimized by the ritualized spectacle that we call "elections". And don't you think the denizens of Africa and Asia and Eastern Europe and the Middle East are blissfully unaware of this charade. Moreover, as the United States is re-discovering in Iraq and Israel in Palestine, maintaining democratic institutions and empire-building are incompatible activities. History repeatedly shows that one cannot preserve a democratic core in conjunction with an oppressed periphery of colonial real estate. The role of imperial power entails the suppression, subversion, or manipulation of all forms of free speech, governance, and elections. It usually involves unsavory practices such as torture, illegal confinement, 45 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
assassinations, and collusion with organized crime. Empires typically degenerate into an abyss of corruption, megalomaniacal projects, deceit, paranoia, and self-directed aggression. The annals of both Rome and Britain teach us that, as democracy grows entrenched, empires disintegrate fitfully. Rome chose to keep its empire by sacrificing its republic. Britain chose to democratize by letting go of its unwieldy holdings overseas. Both polities failed to uphold their erstwhile social institutions while they grappled with their smothering possessions. And true democracy is on the retreat. From Venezuela to Thailand, democratic regimes are being toppled by authoritarian substitutes: the military, charismatic left-wingers, or mere populists. Even in the USA, the bastion of constitutional rule, civil and human rights are being alarmingly eroded (though not without precedent in wartime). The prominent ideologues of liberal democracy have committed a grave error by linking themselves inextricably with the doctrine of free-marketry and the emerging new order of globalization. As Thomas Friedman correctly observes in "The Lexus and the Olive Tree", both strains of thought are strongly identified with the United States of America (USA). Thus, liberal democracy came to be perceived by the multitudes as a ruse intended to safeguard the interests of an emerging, malignantly narcissistic empire (the USA) and 46 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
of rapacious multinationals. Liberal democracy came to be identified with numbing, low-brow cultural homogeneity, encroachment on privacy and the individual, and suppression of national and other idiosyncratic sentiments. Liberal democracy came to be confused and confuted with neo-colonial exploitation, social Darwinism, and the crumbling of social compacts and long-standing treaties, both explicit and implicit. It even came to be associated with materialism and a bewildering variety of social ills: rising crime rates, unemployment, poverty, drug addiction, prostitution, organ trafficking, monopolistic behavior, corporate malfeasance, and other antisocial forms of conduct. Moreover, rapacious Anglo-Saxon capitalism, ostensibly based on the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, and natural selection did not provide the panacea it promised to all ills, social and economic. Instead, prone to systemic crises, it repeatedly seemed to threaten the very architecture and fabric of the global order: market and regulatory failures forced the hand of even the most fervent laissez-faire regimes to nationalize, bailout, and implement Keynesian stimulatory measures. By comparison, the economic systems of etatist-authoritarian polities seemed to provide the private sector with a smoother trajectory of development. This is the paradox: unbridled capitalism always leads to state intervention and ownership (as the crisis of the financial system in the USA in 2008 has proven yet again) while state ownership and intervention seem to give rise to 47 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
flourishing forms of capitalism (for instance, in China and Russia). The backlash was, thus, inevitable. The traditional mercantilist roles of colonizer and colonies were inverted over the last few decades. For millennia, colonial empires consisted of a center which consumed raw materials and produced and sold finished goods to the periphery whose role was to extract minerals and cultivate commodities, edible and not. In the wake of the Second World War (a failed German colonial experiment in the heartland of Europe) and as a result of escalating scarcity, caused by a variety of economic and geopolitical factors, the center of geopolitical-military gravity shifted to the producers and owners of mineral and agricultural wealth. These countries have outsourced and offshored the manufacturing of semi-finished and finished products to the poorest corners of the Earth. Thus, in stark contrast to the past, nowadays, "colonies" spew out a stream of consumer goods and consume raw materials imported from their colonial masters. Colonial relationships are no longer based on bayonets and are mostly commercial in nature. Still, it is not difficult to discern 19th century patterns in these 21st century exchanges with one of the parties dominant and supreme and the other obsequious and subservient and with the economic benefits flowing and accruing inexorably in one 48 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
direction. The unraveling of the financial system of the United States in 2007-8 only served to speed up the process as American prime assets were snatched up at bargain basement prices by Asian and Middle-Eastern powerhouses and sovereign wealth funds.
Also Read: Europe's Four Speeds Switching Empires Transition in Context How the West Lost the East The Criminality of Transition Fascism - The Tensile Permanence Communism, Capitalism, Feudalism Left and Right in a Divided Europe Anarchism for a Post-modern Age Althusser and the competing interpellations The Beginning of History - Islam and Liberalism Forward to the Past - Capitalism in Post-Communist Europe Copyright © April 18, 2011 Sam Vaknin. ===================================
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: SAM VAKNIN ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of ‘Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited’ and ‘After the Rain - How the West Lost the East’ as well as many other 49 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
books and ebooks about topics in psychology, relationships, philosophy, economics, and international affairs. He served as a columnist for Central Europe Review, Global Politician, PopMatters, eBookWeb, and BellaOnline; and as a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent. He was the editor of Mental Health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101, and is currently the Associate Editor of GlobalPolitician.com. Visit Sam's Web site at: http://samvak.tripod.com ===============================================================
Anarchy – When Things Go Dark RANDY GONZALEZ BLISSFULLY ARROGANT, BLOATED WITH SEL-INDULGENCE, slothfully careless thinking processes, and overly selfindulgent, westerners ride comfortably to the next buffet line. Fat, foolish and frivolous, why worry about the future? Everything to amass, consume and exploit is right here and now, right? Yet, it is not just a west oriented acculturation to "middle class" and higher status consumption. People all over are selfish. Many other parts of the un-developing and un-evolving world find materially ascendant personages of excessive means. From the Asia-pacific region, to central Europe and the Middle East, wealth is up anywhere from 6% to 12% globally. Rising by some 15% so far in 2014 in trillions of dollars, with the U.S. the highest, planetary wealth continues to increase. 50 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Disparity in equity represents interesting actualities. By power, domination and control, pretentions to civility take a toll on the public's "mindset", which is regressing dangerously now eons old. Less than 100 people have more wealth than nearly 4 billion other people living on planet earth. Over half the world's resources and riches are owned and manipulated by 1% of the populace. But, what if the "golden calf" dies? Or, the "food sources" ran out? Suppose a worst-case scenario presents a salacious opportunity for an "apocalypse" of sorts? Without the warriors, the real serious 1%, those who protect the asses of the rest, law enforcement and the military, would you survive? Absent the largess of comfort and ease, for the convenience of everything, how would you react? By collapse and destruction of what you presently expect and feel entitled, how could you get by with all that gone? For the ones who dream the dream to touch gold, tow wear the fashion, to be seen with diamonds, to claim celebrity status, and all the wants of success, how do you feel when it crashes? As fame and fortune, attention, and immediate gratifications fade into the smoldering dust of calamity, then what? How could you survive in an apocalyptic world? Where would you go and how would you act? Who would you rely on? Consider that public services are gone. Medical facilities, health workers and rescue services became so overwhelmed, they completely shut down. Businesses closed, gas pumps ran dry, police and fire, and the National 51 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Guard were overrun by the chaos that ensued, and urban infrastructures collapsed. As our governments crumble, you are on your own. Any officialdom that might survive moves quickly to safeguard essential limited resources. Observe any major natural disaster and interpret for yourself what transpires. Unable to do that, tune into a recent documentary on such topics as pandemics, storms, floods, biologic and nuclear terrorism, and so on. What ideas do you get from such catastrophic events? Would you entertain getting off the "grid" in a hurry? Or, wait for something to happen? In reaction to civil disorder, the military and law enforcement fall back at set up defensive perimeters and safe zones. They cordon off secure locales for specific strategic necessities. Outside those protected areas, the dark side of human nature begins to emerge. Things go darker and deadly. Some have suggested that the human race, at any given moment and disaster, is three days, nine meals, from anarchy. When the power goes off, we're in trouble. The internet goes down and business transactions are stifled and thrown back to rudimentary levels. We should quickly think about how Spartan and basic we can get. Without the Wi-Fi or cable connections, telecommunications collapse systematically. Upwardly mobile social ladder climbers might ponder the viability of their various means of "communal connectivity". Cell phones and PC's do not work very well without power sources.
52 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Without electromagnetic contrivances, there's no television, no functional DVD's, and there's widespread blackouts. All our "robots" that serve us, suddenly they turn on us, and technology assumes new meanings. No water, no disposal of sewage and assurance of sanitation, no garbage pickup, and with the power grids down, there are no supplies, shipments or other services. When social structures breakdown, anarchistic tendencies begin coming around. When people and other creatures die, the bodies pile up. Scoff, as some will, disbelieve, as many want to do. Nonetheless, being prepared for social survival, for whatever might come, ought to be the thinking, before we're overrun. Proper planning prevents poor performance at any level of communal interactivity. When societal "conformity" of generally accepted restraint fails mutual consensus, then all kinds of imaginable aberrations are likely. Pseudoscience pontifications for "sociological perspectives" become nonsensical in the reality of human nature. Going low profile, getting "invisible" as fast as possible might be part of a series of defensive options. In chaos, primordial survival outweighs any pretext to the appearance of civility. In the pretext of social order, the fragile balance between the intentions of good and evil, resides the human ruse of getting one's gain against calculated risks. Under seemingly normal communal conditions, all manner of deceptions are carefully carried out every day. For most situations, there are skillful and capable guardians who provide varying levels of enforcement with regard to lawful constraints. A basic hierarchy of needy desires, in terms of physical necessities, security and safety, collective interactivity are 53 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
typically assured by various institutional options in a social context. Now, the what-ifs enter the picture. Institutional entities, long relied on by most people to ensure their somewhat pampered existence, one day disappear. As indicated earlier, all the fun and games can come to an abrupt halt without warning. In the aftermath, a dystrophic and disturbing world emerges. Already, in some places on the planet, such debasing experiences exist in the day-to-day struggle of human survival. But, for the rest of the world, the catastrophe could be lurking nearby. Suppose all we have come to expect crashes by some calamity, or maybe a series of horrific occurrences. Some could be human contrivances, while others might be natural disasters. Regardless, many researchers from a variety of fields predict that something is going to happen in the very near future. Could it be that the next extinction is humankind? Aside from that, when things get nasty, what do people do? Have you ever analyzed behavioral responses during and after a massive storm like a hurricane? As fear is allowed to run wild through imaginative processing, people will become very dangerous. When they descend to primitive responsive levels, anything is possible in terms of anarchistic behaviors. Lacking any sense of social structure, enforcement or sanctions, many will allow their fears to influence how they treat others. Predators of all depictions will take advantage in more extreme ways than previously considered. The dark "madness" of human nature inside each person will find a way to surface. 54 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Predictive patterns of simplistic believability, and invisible agents lending spiritual guidance for a better world, seem to mitigate a false sense of communal security. We want things simply explained that make us feel good. At the same moment, we like to think there is an all power rescuer to save us from "evil". In addition, many selfishly embrace dogmatic personal biases that perpetrate the myths of hopeful human outcomes, in spite of evidence to the contrary. Everyone is basically good, right? Don't bet your life, or anyone you care about on that assumption. No, the answers is no, and will always be no, and it's still no. Regardless of how many theories you create to explain human behavior, you will never adequately explain every aspect. People do what is in the best interest for them. It's the primal nexus of hedonistic premeditation, intentionally instigated from carnal proclivities. Attempts to identify a specificity of cause-effect factors have never been adequately identified. As to the motivations of human beings, no one has all the answers and concepts remained elusive. There are no methods to sufficiently analyze, diagnose or otherwise predict, determine or anticipate what people are going to do next. As a countermeasure, it behooves the more evolving person to remain vigilant, prepared and ready when things get dark. Good guesswork might be helpful, especially when calamity strikes. There's no silver bullet to answer for a set of responses to any given situation. Things happen and events unfold, sometimes there is no explanation to satisfy the 'why' question. 55 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
The sad part of communal interactivity relates to thinking processes even during "normal" every day conditions. You can never underestimate the extent of "stupid thinking" that occurs on a daily basis. But, let things get out of hand, especially during a "non-normal" set of circumstances, and the break down in interpersonal communications becomes deadly. People will regress to the lowest possible level. The darker nature of human character switches instantly and without warning. With all the ideological beliefs systems across the planet, religious and otherwise, you might be dulled and distracted into believing the myth of the "good nature" in all of us. Religious doctrines and the dogmas that enact them, suggest the "civility" and the "saving grace", the "salvation of love" and "family-hood" of the human race. As hope springs from some mystical fountain of child-like complacency, many think an invisible avenging force of cosmic intervention will intercede on their behalf. Good luck with that, as the chaos continues and people kill each other for satiation of their beliefs. Meanwhile, you might even enjoy the entertaining superficiality of the various news media that like to end a newscast with a "happy story". The smug fakeness, the shady hollowness and the arrogant hypocrisy rages around us by many disguises. The challenge is not to be fooled by the fakery, the ruse, or the con job perpetrated by such "gurus" of pretended knowledge. Emotion invites pity, pity pleads for victimization.
56 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Casualties in the aftermath of a collapse are prey for carnivorous hunters. People will be hunted. Those stronger and more prone to anarchistic opportunities, have no hesitance to hedonistically feed upon the weaker members of society. After all, in every lifestyle, by wealth or physicality, that already happens. Wounded, demoralized and stranded, many will be easy targets for dangerous predators. In a crisis, those less able to fend or defend for themselves are opportunistic targets for abuse. There will be many vicious people ready and willing to ensure their gain at the expense of others. Imagine a world radically altered from what you are accustomed. Everything you once counted on has vanished and survival becomes the issue of the day. Public safety personnel are all gone and there's no one to help you. All manner of emergency communications at the local level, as 9-1-1 centers, have shut down. You have no one to call, as telecommunications networks have collapsed. Consider a landscape devoid of comforts, commodities and conveniences that were once easily taken for granted. Now, replace that environment with enemies everywhere, with intentions that devolve to grisly conditions rapidly. Rioting, looting and mob behavior unfolds everywhere you look or try to go. Nowhere is safe and everyone is scrambling to survive—what do you do? As jails and prisons empty, additional malefactors are added to the atmosphere of criminal behavior. Illicit activities of every kind will increase quickly and publicly. Perpetrators will not miss 57 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
opportunities to exploit a crisis, instigate a riot and destroy any pretense to civilization. For that matter, if you think we are a "civilized" species, go home and do more research. Cults, collusions and conspiracies of every kind already exist. Like terrorism and organized crime, these abusive and debasing activities will flourish, as institutional countermeasures deteriorate. In terms of power, control and domination, as in gangs, terrorists groups and extremist ideologies, a macabre dystopia unfolds. The world will transform so fast, and will divide into two extremes. As typical of the hypocrisy and selfishness, there will be deadly complicities of those who have stuff and those who have little or nothing. Terror will animate the atmosphere. In the flash of a moment, many will wonder stupidly why we didn't do things differently. Chaotic conditions will spread across the entire spectrum of global populations. There will be a wide range of criminological perversities as societies crumble. If you think you're safe at any given moment, go home and do more research. What would it take to survive from one day to the next? In post-modern society, there's an illusion of being safe, for at any moment horrendous things can happen. And, the question might arise, are you mentally and physically prepared to respond accordingly. In fact, every day you should practice contingency planning. Consider various strategies and tactics you might find appropriate for you given the situation.
58 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Once a crisis ensues, the game plan changes. Rules are altered and laws might be unenforceable. Suppose transportation systems gridlock and you're stranded on an interstate system. As to physical nature, in terms of mobility, what are the options for survivability? What is any particular person's endurance level and fitness capacity for adverse conditions? Slow, lethargic, slothful, weak, flabby, obese and unhealthy bodies are not conducive to enhance the prospects of survivability. "Zombies" eat them first. Keep in mind it's not just other predators, or hostile strangers who are a threat, but also people we know. Or, in a particular frame of reference, we don't know what the next person is truly capable of until the worst-case scenario happens. Colleagues, neighbors, close associates or family members may take advantage of you during catastrophic conditions. From a local perspective, a not too distant rearview of history can account for a revolution, a civil war, economic depressions, and other social disruptions. Historical points of reference are replete with conditions that became forms of anarchy, at least in terms of particular locations. From one continent to the next, the human race has experienced mobocracy in one form or another. Factoring in the manmade as well as the natural disasters, chaotic conditions loom near in a variety of possibilities. Illogical reactivity, inspired by selfish emotionalism doesn't help deal with devolving circumstances. Human behavior becomes devious. According to some, conditions are conducive when emotionalism trumps rational responsiveness in favor of 59 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
immediate gratification. Combined with the erroneous perceptions of the particular situation, in anticipation of shortages, or depravation, and anarchy becomes the premeditated remedy. Deceptive, debt-riddled voracious economic systems, warfare and terrorism, ideological exclusivity, pervasive impoverished conditions, and exploited natural resources are cascading toward disaster. All such things are constructed upon the egotistical selfinterests of the human species. From mainstream to media-stream, a collusion of conformist collectivism devalues the wearisome efforts to transcend a wiser more advanced cultural heritage. Seemingly, a cult of stupidity has devolved within a species bent on selfdestruction. Whether of the "mindset" or the jet set, inner realms to wealth enclaves, selfness glorifies one who has the most glitz, glamor and penchant for gore. Chaos of thinking knows no limits to its impatience of simplistic satiations, no farther than the immediate need. For the sensual acceptance of foolish ideations, comfort and ease, the species teeters on the brink. Through a simplistic uninformed perception of threedimensional reality, whereby many clamor for the "magic bullet" of instant salvation, chaotic conditions potentially risk horrendous disasters. Terroristic acts of cultic perversions, steeped in dogmatic illusions of selfish arrogance, endanger an entire planet. While politicians cower in their pontifications, priestly plebes perpetuate extinct mythologies for the next generation of the dead. From a disaster of wasted consciousness, to the lack understanding for a dreamscape of inner interpretations, 60 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
evolved thinking gathers the dust of neglect. Techno diversions tempt our willful acquiesce to the lazy juncture of impersonal non-committed and nonfunctional human interactivity. Many will proselytize their pretext to a redress of grievances, for a variety of presumed injustices, but many will not want the laborious effort of open rebellious activism. Instead, from the slothful contented detachment of empty spaces behind their technologies, they will languish in the cowardice of their self-anarchy. Liberation is sacrificed to conventionality. Fearful, timid and foolish, the child-like temper tantrums of wannabe "gurus", subordinate the profound depths of insightful thought to emotional reactivity. Sizeable sectors of communal conformity regurgitate the unsubstantiated rhetoric of "mind-numbing" psychobabble. Recycling what others say, but not investigating the truth of what matters, nor analyzing the evidentiary necessities, the depth of character devolves to lower ebbs of superficiality. Adult children pretend to know what they don't know. Excuses, alibis and pleading pretenses, collude to admonish the stupidities of self-indulgence, as one gains an advantage over another. To safeguard the defensiveness of vicarious carnality, nearly everyone conspires to pity the one who was caught. The regressions of thought and inaction collaborate to rationalize everything as the cause of something else, but not the responsibility of the one who caused it. For the glories of the present and salacious superficiality for immediate gratification, anarchy of thought fears growth, 61 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
maturity and advancement of the human species. Where hope springs eternal in the weak and cowardly intentions of simplistic mediocrity, collectivist mobocracy in gluttonous selfishness overrides the urgency of widespread selfevolution. Unable to think with enlightened ascendency, for a totality of utopic ascension, humankind collude the plunder of the global order. All for the gain, for wealth accumulation of the few in greedy consumption and selfaggrandizement, the demise of eventual calamity grows near. In the end, it is too late to remember. To ponder the next mission of social achievement, to correct a variety of dystrophic inclinations, requires collaborative interactivity of an evolving intelligent species. Among which, stupidity is not tolerated, criminality is punished by certainty and maturity of thought is praised and rewarded. And, an openness of extraordinary honesty is elevated beyond conception for a continually advancing framework of social discourse. Precise levels of communication are demanded, no foolishness of subjective validation goes unchallenged, and all insist upon perfecting the clarity of intentions. Where the wise are promoted and the foolish demoted, the ascendency of the social, political and economic systems are purposely driven to higher spheres. Creative thinking, never altering the essentiality of transforming energies, is to be more valued than pursuit material greed. Human nature, both good and evil, will choose the wickedness of intentions where sanctions seldom apply the wisdom of corrective action. By gullible fixation for the "goodness" in all, pontificating theories that favor excuses over accountability, 62 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
foster the anarchic demise of humanity. Simple-minded yearnings for uncomplicated dependency on easy connections between cause and effect, reinforced by dependence on mechanical utility, signify the dumbfounded preferences of an unenlightened culture. By broad spectrum of diversity, in post-modern Western communal exhibition, a riot is preferred to the rationality of a righteous process for a redress of grievances. Purposeful stupidity degrades the necessity of the hard work required for the multidimensional applications of critical thinking. Where cerebral distance does not connect near proximity of productively transforming ideations, a clearer understanding of cause and effect reality invites the destruction of the human species. When the darkness falls, anarchy evolves. Copyright Š September 24, 2014 Randy Gonzalez.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: RANDY GONZALEZ has been an active member in the Criminal Justice field for the past 38 years. As a Police Officer, Deputy Sheriff and Law Enforcement Instructor, he has been involved in a number of criminal justice activities. He is the formerDirector of a Police Academy and a retired-Chief of Police. As a police academy director, he was responsible for basic recruit training, as well as advanced and career development courses for in-service law enforcement 63 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
personnel. His involvement in law enforcement education extends state-wide. He also serves as a professor of criminology on the faculty of a local university, and adjunct professor on the faculty of a community college and vocational-technical institute. He has served as an educational consultant to schools and colleges on matters of law enforcement training and is available as an expert witness on law enforcement training issues. Randy holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Criminology, and an M.P.A. degree in Public Administration, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Philosophy. As a certified law enforcement instructor, he holds certifications in a number of law enforcement training topics. As a martial arts practitioner, he has taught classes on self-defense and personal safety education. Randy has written and published articles, short stories and training manuals related to the field of criminal justice and law enforcement. His training materials have been used in college courses and police academy training programs. He remains an active member of several professional associations at the state, national and international levels. In addition, he participates in writer's groups and continues to write about both fiction and non-fiction subjects. His website is located at: drgonzo.org And his email address is: gonzoscti@hotail.com. Visit: amazon.com/shops/RandyGonzalez
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COFFEE HOUSE 4 POETRY LOVERS CORNER
Bringing You Poems (Classical and contemporary) And Haikus for the Poet in You!
65 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
For Every Bright Star… I Sense a Black Hole L. DOUGLAS ST OURS AS THE WAVE OF FATE FADES That ripple of Fame I am a dweller in the down, striving for the sky Somewhere between cynical and gullible You will find at peace my skeptical Killing common sense greed And mass conformity
For every bright star I sense a black hole As we stumble over stones Before rising to the rock 66 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
It makes me mad To sound so sad When communism was Always more boring than bad
Acting too smart to play dumb In the face of no place like home ...to hang up my hat ...to throw in the towel Or bleed my liberal heart
Though there must have been And might yet be again Some hope for...to wish upon Apple pies and mommies And blue skies with white cloudy 67 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
A greener grass on the other side Of thicket trees and meat packing plants Run by cows who mooed over the spilling of milk
For though I was weaned on that chap I refused to become full of his crap Sick of snow blowers and lawn mowers Pushed by booze bellies and burps
If he wants me to stay Then he can match their pay Before I walk away Weathered wings all weeping For Every Bright Star‌ Feathered flings once fleeting And follow the sights 68 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
To the angel delights Of a pretty girl in a cotton dress Spun from my Martian mind a Venus vine As this attraction trumps then dumps desire Touring the delicate delta of your vagina valley Where love lust lingers like ambivalent fingers Touching the awesome messiness of our splendor
Yes I made it with women but only With Asian, Aboriginal, Hispanic, Black and white women Who were in their right mind and fully informed as to what they were getting into And only then when they felt safe Though to be perfectly honest and strangely enough I have never made love with a virgin So when I caught her eye 69 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
I instinctively flexed my biceps To which she ridiculously replied "What’s that supposed to be...a muscle or a pimple?"
I had the deepest most difficult dream Digging up the ecstasy of that girl Giggling at the agony of the fish And how life is mostly about The wishes that never come true. By L DOUGLAS ST OURS Copyright ©August 2012
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: L. DOUGLAS ST OURS is a published poet who was born in Baltimore, Maryland in the USA the oldest of six children. He attended parochial elementary schools in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. In 1962 he and his family moved to rural Ohio in the USA. Then in 1963 the family moved again to Charlottesville, Virginia where he attended public high school; graduating in 1968. 70 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Doug attended Old Dominion University for one year; dropping out in 1969 to work for a year with the FBI. In 1971 he took courses at the University of Virginia then dropped out in 1972 to get married in California. He returned east with his wife to Fairfax, Virginia and enrolled at George Mason University where he graduated in 1975 with a Liberal Arts BA. From 1966 to 1976, Doug worked as a laborer and frame carpenter in the building construction industry. From 1976 to 1989 he was employed in the nonprofit healthcare sector. From 1990 to 1992 he worked at a Social Services nonprofit. From 1993 until his retirement in 2005, Doug was employed in the banking industry. Since he retired in 2005, Doug has devoted his time to volunteering as a Mentor at Big Brothers/Big Sisters and as a Therapeutic Mentor with Catholic Charities. He has traveled on the road to 48 states in the United States, 5 Canadian provinces, and 2 Mexican states. He is married with one grown child. Currently he resides outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Doug has been writing poetry and prose for over half a century because he has a passion for storytelling; his poetry is a means for him to tell stories. He can be contacted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/l.stours.3 __________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________
71 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Sympathy for a Suicide LAWRENCE E. MITCHELL THE SHATTERED HEART THAT DRAINS MY PEACE AWAY, And drives the life force deeper into black, Displace despair to lose my thoughts to play, The bargain of my life begs this attack Far from the depths in which I often lie, And sometimes wallow with a bit of glee, The slowly roiling muck lofts vision high, And lets us share our strange integrity We only know the things that we can see, Can understand what we identify, And that is how this sorrow makes us free, For it creates the course of empathy The gift we share is one that we can give, The need for love bestows it in return, While it sustains it gives us cause to live, When it abates, our sorrows inward turn So I embrace you even as for me, The stark aloneness of my mind despairs, Holy blessing, vulnerability, The beauty of this gift is what we share. And so, although, I know that you are gone, And understand the horror that you knew, 72 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
I celebrate the courage of your life, For only through that end could you be true By LAWRENCE E. MITCHELL Copyright © September 3, 2014.
About the Author:
LAWRENCE E. MITCHELL is a teacher, scholar, and a writer. He is the author of “The Speculation Economy: How Finance Triumphed Over Industry,” “Corporate Irresponsibility: America's Newest Export,” and “Stacked Deck: A Story of Selfishness in America.” Lawrence is also the author of numerous scholarly papers and anthologies in the fields of law and economics. A graduate of Williams College and Columbia Law School, Mitchell is an avid amateur classical pianist, runner, and yogi. He has been writing poetry for much of his adult life, although only recently has he begun to publish his work. He also maintains an active blog, “Hum(e)an Moments,” which is located at lawrencemitchell.net. After many years in exile, he has returned to his native New York City where he now lives. Lawrence can be contacted via any of these websites: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view? id=18197152&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile My papers are available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/results.cfm? RequestTimeout=50000000 My books are available at: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Lawrence+E.+Mitchell http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_studies/summary/v049/49.34.olegario.html http://www.c-span.org/video/?105495-1/book-discussion-stacked-deck http://www.heist-themovie.com/featuredExperts.html Follow my blog, Hum(e)an Moments, at lawrencemitchell.net 73 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
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I Dance Your Silence… ANCA BRUMA
I DANCE YOUR SILENCE, SO YOU CAN FEEL My inner context between our heartbeats... I dance within your Silence, to remove the crowd between me and you and find the Beauty behind my eyes...
I dance your Silence, so Life will not have the same stroke within this storm of Light...
I dance for your Silence, and my syllables build rotating words between your lines with sleepy sunrises... My mind... poems form to match your breath...
74 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
I dance your Silence, within your whispering wing, while second still snows inside my eyes, a fleeting reality... piece by piece...
I dance within your Silence, with thick lines of Reality... mornings are no more prohibited... by you!
I dance your Silence, with slices of our own chemistry... so... you can find the sum of my heart, when Time strikes with its inner rhythm...
I dance your Silence, with my unwritten poetry, whispering through three seasons, so the Sky may not forget its Existence... I dance your Silence, with musical steps between us, an overture of two worlds... 75 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
... a ballet of the Hearts...
I dance your Silence, with kissed hellos and embraced goodbyes... With deep thoughts juxtaposed between us... A requiem of dreams within white spaces... A soundtrack for a Life!
By ANCA BRUMA Copyright © July 2014 Anca Bruma.
*****
Composers of the Wind ANCA BRUMA I CHANGED FROM G TO E MINOR To remember the person I used to be... writing stories within valleys of my Heart... So... it may rhyme with your ballad...
76 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
I played the piano notes of my Life pianissimo to crescendo an allegro of two hearts a pitched melody of electric kisses...
I built secret bridges between our eye sights like a clandestine translation of our Kingdoms a cadence of our silences...
We are composers of the Wind playing ultra-violet sounds... still counting for a lost star singing the unspoken Time. By ANCA BRUMA Copyright Š July 2014 Anca Bruma.
*****
77 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
She Is Everywhere‌ ANCA BRUMA SHE IS EVERYWHERE... in a line of fiction reinvented in your mind, within a dream, you have not decided yet!
She is everywhere... like a prescription of your name changed the adverb which modifies your emptiness...
She is everywhere... a dance of your shared silences within a memory transfixed...
She is everywhere... your words described in squares 78 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
an antidote to the Mundane...
She is everywhere... a graffiti Reality behind a chosen horizon, a flavour of all possibilities...
She is everywhere... blooming irises tattooed on your Life Story, crossing rainbows over a monochrome Life...
She is everywhere... verbing your Noun... A poem flowing through your skin, an adagio of Life!
By ANCA BRUMA Copyright Š July 2014 Anca Bruma. 79 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
*****
What Rose Wanted ANCA BRUMA WHAT ROSE WANTED‌ to be caressed by many summers under its eyelids, where humans whispered so many breaths...
What rose wanted.... to connect the dots between thoughts and demystify all in between, read the abstractions of the Existence where time line does not expire!
What rose wanted... 80 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
to learn and live in an erotized dimension, in the shade of a sonata sung by a seraphic proclamation.
What rose wanted... to spread a symphony of Life's lyrical sentences, like a mute testimony of andante grazioso.
What rose wanted... to recite the scent of rose-colored illusions... a Debussy in the moonlight, raising its femininity, like a perfect symmetry, within the Eternity! By ANCA BRUMA Copyright Š July 2014 Anca Bruma.
******* 81 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Present Tense ANCA BRUMA MY PRESENT TENSE still lasts.... with no reversed phrases and no weight of your shadow!
I sing my words in fortissimo red, ... a combustion of memories, with growing violets, between perfect intervals, and symphonic dimensions of thoughts!
And..... your smile rhymes with the edge of my Soul!
By ANCA BRUMA Copyright © July 2014 Anca Bruma.
82 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ANCA MIHAELA BRUMA is Romanian living in Dubai/United Arab Emirate. Her love for poetry started when she was just 9 years old; when she registered with a creative poetry writing group. It was a turning point for her; as she started to discover the mysteries of the written word and its impact on readers. Since early age, she has always viewed writing poetry as the perfect medium which is able to depict profound unfathomable complexities of someone’s life or life itself, to render into words that which is unsayable, that ineffable, which can be truly deeper than the language itself. Through her writings, as well years of readings, she always looked to seek something beyond that which was apparent to others! She was fascinated to see how different aspects of truth were transfigured by different emotions, how experiences were poetized. So she pursued seeing beauty expressed in all forms of art, not just poetry; creating a “thirst” within her to explore more and more for the knowledge of the mystery beneath and beyond it, as a symbol of something greater and higher with its own power to immortalize the expressions over the years. Anca can be reached at: marmoset16@gmail.com __________________________________________________________________ __________________________
83 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Not Everything JOSEF KREBS NOT EVERYTHING IS About and what is About is unlikely to be About you. By JOSEF KREBS Copyright © 2014 Josef Krebs.
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******
Ghosts Last Night JOSEF KREBS
DREAMING OF THE TRINITY Father, son, and death Death is the go-between Passing from father to son From son back to memories of father Which father rejects like all life In his pursuit of death He escaped the camps But he never escaped life Which dragged him back behind the barbed wire By his actions and choices Until he became one with the chimney. By JOSEF KREBS Copyright © 2014 Josef Krebs.
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85 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Unlikely Today JOSEF KREBS TODAY IS NOT tomorrow and certainly not yesterday Today has no time for yesterday as tomorrow has no connection to today
86 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Tomorrow will find itself in the past Soon Enough after Today has given Wayto yesterday So for now enjoy the sun as it Sets slowly. By JOSEF KREBS Copyright © 2014 Josef Krebs.
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Representing JOSEF KREBS WRITING ON WATER I COLLAPSE AND CRUMBLE Meaning between thumb and forefinger While up above Gymnastics reign Supreme and sappy While thunderously below I dream by dreams and dreads 87 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Doing subconscious work In reverie Writing Welcoming all Denying none While tears trickle dry and storms rage calmly Luring on with lengths of line Pulled by threads Clap trapped in throat torn By silent prayer. By JOSEF KREBS Copyright Š 2014 Josef Krebs.
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Apart From Concrete Existence JOSEF KREBS TANDEMLY TRAIPSING I sing the person while she pedals the petals of her cheeks Drawn on canvas tablets beneath a spray of color Organized into perfect Balance of arrangement including seemingly random Thoughts illuminating the power of the controlled chaos of interacting lines 88 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Called lips. By JOSEF KREBS Copyright Š 2014 Josef Krebs. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JOSEF KREBS has written three novels and five screenplays. He has been working as a writer and editor for Sound Vision Magazine writing film reviews, feature articles, columns, and interviewing filmmakers and other industry figures. He can be contacted at: __________________________________________________________________ _____________________________
I The Icarus Nailed NICHOLAS MC CARTHY I AM TITANIC Proud and ancient man on the backs of giants, Heartless pelican Fallen From a breast, solely suckled on Stolen stars of Burning birch bark smoke and reeds and Written from a reach above Touch now Across from olive groves 89 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Or perhaps not far from a hemlock’s kiss, Where kings lie in the mystery Of some history amiss in annals tipped With lecherous inks: Long longing Long ago lost in guts and graves, I, a hamlet on the Niles’ lips. Raised then razed, the consuming consumed, A Venus in the morning, by night the catacomb exhumed of roots Rooted to listless nothingness, no further budded Branches, just the ancient I, man below the boots of heaven. By NICHOLAS MC CARTHY Copyright © April 8, 2014 Nicholas McCarthy. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: NICHOLAS MC CARTHY grew up in the quiet suburbs of Massachusetts, USA, in a town that does not lend itself well to the writer’s struggle. For eleven years, Nicholas has worked on honing his language skills, sharpening it against the whetstone of repetition and now, he is unleashing it on the world in this magazine. His writings combine the classical world with the modern, a clash of what was once and now is captured in the form of verse. He says he hopes to explore our ever evolving humanity as it contrasts with the tenacious universal human experience. Nicholas has been published before by the literary journal “Vine
Leaves.”
He
can
be
contacted
via
Nrmccartv@gmail.com 90 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
at:
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For more info about Award Winning Poet, Writer and Photographer DARREN B. RANKINS (POET RANKINS) and his “Pure Thoughts” Book Anthology, click on the graphics below and it should take you to his website. If the graphic doesn’t take you there or isn’t showing up for some reason, please click on either of these links below instead: www.ireport.cnn.com www.purethoughts.info Poet Rankins on Facebook Phone: 615-582-5128 Books Pure Thoughts Vol. 1-4 “DarrenBRankins” on Twitter; “Darrenpt” on Pinterest; “Darren2466” on Instagram; “Darren66” on Tumblr.com Email: mailto:rankins.darren@yahoo.com or mailto:purethoughts24@yahoo.com www.youtube.com/darrendbr www.purethoughts.info Facebook (Poet Rankins) Darren B. Rankins, P.O. Box 17763, Nashville, TN 37217.
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A Telltale Secret by MJ Rain (Melissa Lorraine Gulick)
Five Keys. Two Parallel Universes. One Destiny.
Willow Rain lives in a seemingly perfect world with her 96 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
sister and their nanny, on a planet where those who are deemed useless seem to vanish without a trace, along with those who speak of the forbidden keys.
When she gets her chance to be of use, she begins on the path to her destiny when the magical key from her dreams is set in her possession. With it, she embarks on a journey to another world in search of her parents and slowly she uncovers the mysteries that surround her family's past, present, and future.
When she uncovers the deepest secret of them all, the difficult path ahead of her reveals the true purpose of her life. Come with me and discover what became of the people of Atlantis!
About the Author:
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MJ Rain (Melissa Lorraine Gulick) is a woman, a wife, an activist, and a published author. She lives in Iowa in the USA with her husband, her mother, and her Siamese cat. MJ’s passion is to have a major impact on the world by causing a positive change through her writing. She has always made her presence known for causes she believes in, and plans to continue doing so as she expresses herself through words. Stay tuned for Book 2 of her ‘A Telltale Destiny’ book series; ‘A Telltale Secret’ is Book 1. MJ Rain’s Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mj-Rain/517670434943373 MJ Rain’s Novel Blog: http://mjrainwriter.wordpress.com/
Passionate Plea By Thomas Bryant
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Sammy Page is a wonderfully loving husband, dedicated father and a lifelong professional thief, who survives a nearfatal crash while trying to deliver a luxury liner to a wealthy client. He awakens in Buckskin Canyon nudist camp amnesiac and unaware that he’s being hunted for a double homicide; when law enforcement attempts to notify the owners of the Island Princess, rolled over on the side of the road and finds them, still in bed, brutally murdered…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: THOMAS BRYANT received his education at Cal Baptist University in Riverside, California. While studying political science, he began a love affair with books and discovered a passion for writing. Coming from humble beginnings with economic demands, he took an internship in the service industry as a heavy-duty diesel mechanic, which left him little time for books or writing. He sought challenges, including baseball, football and wrestling as a young man and loved speed on the water in a flat bottom race boat called BORN to be WILD. Two weeks before he entered Arizona Bail Enforcement Academy to become a licensed Bounty Hunter, he was involved in a near fatal crash. Disabled and facing his toughest challenge, he returned to his first love of poetry and found a whole new world as a novelist, authoring the Sammy Page thriller series; including the romantic thriller, ‘Passionate Plea,’ and soon-to-bereleased, ‘Mental Revenge.’ He currently resides in the Ozarks of Missouri in the USA. Author's website: www.sammypage.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorthomasbryant and Twitter: www.twitter.com/ThomasABryant __________________________________________________________________ ____________________
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Fictional Dramatic, Suspenseful Novels
By NANETTE M. BUCHANAN Skeletons beyond the Closed Door Gossip Line And Bonded Betrayal
About Bonded Betrayal:
There’s a cliché that states one should not date their best friend. Whatever the reasons, the fear of losing a friendship or not finding true love; most use this cliché as a golden rule. Six friends from McKinley High reunite for their ten year class reunion. The group was put on a pedestal, both Dante Jefferson and Kalliah Carter were voted ‘most likely to succeed’; Stephon Drake was voted ‘most athletic'; Miles Baker was the President of the Student Body; Cherese Taylor was the captain of the Cheerleading Squad; and Brianne Gibson was in the National Honor Society. The memories of their past include deep rooted issues they avoided during those years of mixed experiences. Their class reunion promises to fulfill Kalliah’s need for a vacation from her job and a shaky romance, while Dante needs to explore the remnants of their relationship before making a serious commitment to another. Stephon must take his life back from the street and crime he’s become addicted to. Miles is hoping to finally tell his friends how one of them has held his heart for more than ten years. Cherese needs the support of her friends as she struggles to find her way out of a destructive marriage. 101 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Brianne must disclose her horrible high school encounter that would change how they all feel about her and those they are now connected and committed to. The reunion rekindles their friendships, and proves their relationships with each weakness, has its own strengths. Get Your Autographed Copy of ‘Bonded Betrayal’ BY NANETTE M. BUCHANAN; www.ipendesigns.net for purchase.
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BONDED BETRAYAL BY NANETTE M. BUCHANAN On YouTube: http://youtube.com/adQMmt9t4Kw
Nanette M. Buchanan’s novel, Gossip Line, is also available Get Your Copy here Today!
About Gossip Line by Nanette M. Buchanan: A new beginning is what Melinda Wells was seeking when she left her home in Mobile, Alabama. As a journalist, her dream of 103 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
writing for a large newspaper would never become a reality having the experience the Mobile Register offered. Melinda embraced the thought of moving to New York, landing her job as a journalist in Manhattan, and her new love interest Jerome Belmont, despite her father and grandmother’s warnings. Melinda’s rise in journalism took a back seat to her growing interest in talk radio. When her southern charms secured an opportunity to host her own show in her boyfriend’s hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Melinda knew her dreams were becoming a reality. The new “Radio Diva’s” dream came with a price. Her new lifestyle became more than what Melinda expected. After climbing the ladder of what the industry labeled as well deserved success it all was falling apart. Gossip Line, the radio talk show that named her as the number one host on the Pennsylvania airwaves, was threatening to ruin her dreams. Her family background that she knew little about, and her fairy tale love life was being aired on the radio one piece at a time. Melinda needed to find the caller who knew more about her than she seemed to know about herself. However, revealing the caller’s identity could be fatal to more than the show. Let I Pen Designs know your opinion of the other novels by Author Nanette M. Buchanan….. ‘Family Secrets Lies & Alibis,’ the Sequel... ‘A Different Kind of Love,’ and ‘Bruised Love.’
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Skeletons Beyond the Closed Door… About Skeletons beyond the Closed Door by Nanette M. Buchanan: Brian and Sage Drakeford were living their life as a loving couple and devoted parents until Sage caught her husband cheating. Seven years after their divorce, Sage Monroe Drakeford finds it hard to love again. As skeletons from her husband’s past resurface, Brian desperately wants to remain a part of his family’s life. After meeting a client who expresses his feelings for her and his knowledge of her husband’s secrets, Sage fights to ignore her emotional attachment. It is apparent Brian has 105 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
moved on and jealousy becomes a reason for Sage to consider dating. Just as she decides Brian is not worth her putting her life on hold, his indiscretions become more than she is willing to accept. Sage is caught between ruining Brian’s relationships with family, business and friends, and moving on with a new love, and forgetting the past. Sage’s decision and Brian’s choices will change their lives forever. All Are Available to Order on Nanette’s Website “I Pen Designs.net” at: www.ipendesigns.net or www.myspace.com/ipendesigns Also stay in contact with the author by checking out her “WHAT'S HAPPENING” page at: http://www.ipendesigns.net/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: An Author with New Drama, Page after Page…
NANETTE M. BUCHANAN was born, raised, and educated in Newark, New Jersey, USA. After graduating from Arts High School in Newark, she attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was then that she first set her pen to pad; written expressions of her love for poetry. She is a proud mother, wife and grandmother, now residing in Somerset, New Jersey, and employed with the State of New Jersey as a Sergeant in the Department of Corrections. Her pad to pen accomplishments include three volumes of poetry; “Thoughts,” “Thoughts & Reflections,” and “Quiet Times;” five yet to be published children stories as well as several unpublished novels. Nanette’s first published work and debut novel was “Family Secrets….Lies & Alibis”.
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Since then the publication of the sequel, “A Different Kind of Love” and the release of her first volume of poetry, “Thoughts” an e-book hit the market. In October of 2009, Nanette’s murder mystery, “Bruised Love” followed by “Skeletons beyond the Closed Door” which was released in August of 2010. At the start of the summer in 2011, her latest novel “Gossip Line” made its debut. Her preferred genre’ is romantic fiction, but readers will attest to the fact that they all have suspense, mystery and a dramatic twist. It is her goal to become a successful author without limits; writing and producing plays that feature her poems as well as adaptations of her novels on the “big screen” are in her future. Nanette is deeply committed to promoting literacy. She is an intricate part of “The Author’s Den” a group of authors, poets and performing artists who are promoting their talents and raising funds to support Literary and the Performing Arts within communities. The author is available for personal appearances, chats and signings.
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Fiction Novels
By ROSE ANNA SCHOENE Absolutely the Last Resort Where Are You? And But! I’ve Always Loved You But! I’ve Always Loved You, Rose Anna Schoene’s third book, is about stunning Jessie who is raped at twelve and bears a son who is then taken from her. As she grows up she is repulsed by men until she meets devastatingly handsome André, who offers her a forbidden love amidst magical, romantic Rome. Jessie’s loyal friend Debbie is always there for steadfastly aiding her in her lifelong quest to find the she gave birth to at thirteen and her quest to find that true love. Will Jessie succumb to André’s charm? Will ever find her son?
her; son one she
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ROSE ANNA SCHOENE is a native New Yorker who made her writing debut with ‘Absolutely the Last Resort,’ a charming and nostalgic family-oriented book, which fictionalizes many of the author’s personal experiences owning a resort in the Catskill Mountains of New York for over 30 years. This book reflects just one aspect of the author’s life and creative talents, and introduces us to her artistic and comedic nature. She has a writing style that is both entertaining and uplifting 108 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
which reflects Rose Anna’s true writing persona; yet she proves the versatility of her literary scope with her second novel, ‘Where Are You?,’ which offers a serious, dramatic and paranormal-love storyline, and her third novel, ‘But! I’ve Always Loved You.’ Where Are You?, Rose Anna’s second book, is about Dr. Joy Evans and Dr. Dean Judson, who collide in the corridors of St. John’s Hospital—their introduction is the beginning of a torrid and tender love. Two weeks later, they are married and in six months they relocate to the state of Pennsylvania, where Dean takes over the practice of a retiring doctor and feels that his ambitions have been fulfilled. But when Joy does not return from a quick errand to the store and her car is later found, Dr. Dean Judson’s entire life takes a plunge into despair. Then strangely, Dean begins seeing Joy, or what he perceives to be Joy. In the early hours of the morning, he is awakened from his sleep and sees Joy at the foot of his bed. She seems to glide around and then vanishes. Is he dreaming? Is he hallucinating? Is she a spirit or is he going mad…? All three (3) of Rose Anna’s books are available to purchase on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Seaburn Media Group.com or on her author page: http://www.thecatsmeowforwritersreaders.com/to-fictionnovels-by-author-rose-anna-schoene.html Ordering Info for Rose Anna Schoene’s books: Absolutely the Last Resort by Rose Anna Schoene Publisher: Seaburn Media Group Publication Date: 2003 109 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
ISBN #: 1592320600; 144 pages Price: $14.95 Where Are You? By Rose Anna Schoene Publisher: Seaburn Media Group Publication Date: 2006 ISBN #: 1592320090; 124 pages Price: $14.95 But! I’ve Always Loved You by Rose Anna Schoene Publisher: Seaburn Media Group Publication Date: 2010 ISBN #: 1592322530; 169 pages Price: $14.95
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A Fiction Medical Thriller
By SANDRA L. HOYNACKI On Call The quaint town of Morganville seemed like the perfect setting for Jenny Warren to begin her career as a nurse. Complete with little mom-and-pop shops and a dog park. Morganville was the picture-perfect suburb. Jenny, however, would soon learn that looks can be deceiving! When she and fellow nurse, Kathy, suspect the increase in area accidents and sudden rise in organ donations couldn’t possibly be coincidental, they find themselves tangled up in a web of lies, deception, and murder. What the young women discover beyond the operating room doors is beyond anything that their minds could have ever imagined…a plot so sinister and so far-reaching that it spans the globe, and forces them to run for their lives. SANDRA HOYNACKI retired from her nursing job to care for her mother who had Alzheimer’s. She has since become an avid writer, and has already won several contests for her poems and was once invited to read at a Poet’s Convention in Washington, DC. Sandra is the author of two books of poetry: “Purple Latches” and “Whispers from the Ledge.” “On Call” is her first fiction novel and the sequel, “Encryption’s Wrath,” another medical technological thriller, will debut soon. 111 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Ordering Info for Sandra Hoynacki’s novel, On Call: On Call by Sandra Hoynacki Publisher: Createspace Publication Date: September 2009 ISBN #: 9781479155088 Price: [Print-edition] $20.98; [Ebook-edition] $6.00. 254 pages, and can be purchased through Sandra’s author website: www.SandraHoynacki.com, through Barnes & Noble.com or wherever books are sold.
************ ALSO BY SANDRA HOYNACKI! A Book of Poetry and A Book of Poetry and Short Stories Purple Latches And Whispers from the Ledge Review of Purple Latches: ****** “I'm familiar with the exemplary life author Sandra Hoynacki leads; her book Purple Latches includes some of the most beautiful poetry your eyes shall ever read and witness. The words of imagery and artwork shall instill within you an uplifted spirit like none I've ever read in my fifty-eight years on earth. Each poem opens ones physical senses and starts a movie in the minds eyes where you can leave at the end with the most dynamic thoughts ever perceived in ones 112 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
written words of truth and mystery. I strongly recommend this book to anyone in need of a life changing experience or for the benefit of a walk down memory lane. It is an honor and privilege to know the Author Sandra Hoynacki, and the sacrifices she makes toward humanity on a daily basis. Thanks for this opportunity to review her book.” Drawn from real-life experiences and creative visions, these collections of poems and short stories by Sandra Hoynacki will inspire, surprise and entertain the most discerning reader. Ordering Info for Sandra Hoynacki’s books “Purple Latches” and “Whispers from the Ledge”: Purple Latches by Sandra Hoynacki Publisher: Lulu Press Publication Date: June 2007 ISBN #: 9781430322931 Price: [Print-edition] $19.50; [EBook-downloadable edition] $12.00 158 pages, and can be purchased at: Sandra Hoynacki.com, Lulu Press, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, or wherever books are sold.
Whispers from the Ledge by Sandra Hoynacki Publisher: Lulu Press Publication Date: December 2008 ISBN #: 9780557029044 Price: [Print-edition]: $15.17; Not yet available in EBook 113 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
edition. 148 pages, and can be purchased at: Sandra Hoynacki.com, Lulu Press, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, or wherever books are sold.
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A Fiction Romance Novel
By ROSALEE WILSON One Priceless Treasure About One Priceless Treasure by Rosalee Wilson: Brad Thompson moves from his home in Florida to Boston Massachusetts with his family -- who are pursuing a new Business venture. Brad doesn’t know the extent to how His life is going to change until he meets Connie. She is every man’s dream girl and he feels special that he becomes her choice. But due to unforeseen circumstances, his dreams begin to crumble and he doesn't know if he can put them back together again. What drives him away is a misunderstanding but how will he get Connie back, and will he? After years of pain and agony, they reunite once again. If only he had taken the phone call that particular night, their lives could have been happy and years of loneliness could have been avoided. A sweet romance that everyone can relate too who has ever been in love; remembering that awesome feeling of that first crush! Laughter and tears, this book is a must read and will definitely touch your heart.
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Author Rosalee Wilson’s latest book is a must-read romance!
Hurry!
Get Your Copy of “One Priceless Treasure by Rosalee Wilson” Today! (Ordering info next page…) Ordering Info for “One Priceless Treasure”: One Priceless Treasure by Rosalee Wilson Publisher: Lulu Press Publication Date: 2011 ISBN #: 978-1-257-86522-2 Price: $5.99 EBook-downloadable [PDF]; $20.98 for Printedition [Hardcover]. ALSO BY ROSALEE WILSON! A Children’s Book
By ROSALEE WILSON A Mushy Mouse Tale
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This is your chance to meet Mushy, the most lovable mouse you will ever meet! Mushy Mouse is a mouse looking for love and a family to call his own. He struggles with self-confidence and the idea of someone loving a fat mouse like him. But Mushy and an Indian mouse named Feathertail form a bond that will last a lifetime. With excitement and adventure, “A Mushy Mouse Tale” by Rosalee Wilson will touch your heart forever. A must read! Mrs. Wilson is an avid writer with an imagination that ignites a spark in children everywhere. She is available for speaking engagements and interviews. Hurry! Go to www.lulu.com and order your copy of “A Mushy Mouse Tale by Rosalee Wilson” today! 117 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
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A Fiction Paranormal Romantic Novel A Nonfiction Book of Survival
By CAROL ROACH Storytime Tapestry Ezine’s Founder & Publisher (www.StorytimeTapestryEzine.com)
Angels Watching Over Me And
Picking Up the Pieces: One Woman’s Journey CAROL ROACH, a graduate of both Concordia University, with a bachelor’s in psychology, and a graduate of McGill University with a master’s degree in counselling psychology, knows people as much as she knows the struggles of the poor and disenchanted. She is truly the champion of the underdog. Carol’s signature writing is about poverty and the ability to rise above it. She strives to give women and men a voice through the written 119 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
word. Her writing is poignant and inspirational. Ms. Roach also publishes a daily online ezine, Storytime Tapestry, where she encourages everyone to “let their true heart sing” through the words they write. Her new book ‘Angels Watching Over Me’ is rich with character while it underlines the issues of survival in one of Montreal’s poorest districts, St. Henri. Carol herself grew up in this area of the city. What a Prominent Amazon Reviewer wrote about Carol Roach’s novel: ****** “In this wonderful work by gifted author and publisher Carol Roach we meet a very special girl named Carissa. Carissa’s life has been anything but easy. She had known the scorn of poverty; the battle of rejection, the sorrow of death. However, Carissa has a quality that hinges almost on the supernatural; her faith and assurance in a God who is more than enough. We are taken through the life of Carissa from her youth in a small rural community and her family to her final victory as a woman who never compromised despite the hardships such decisions would bring. Her life stood as a testimony. This is a deep heartfelt read; one that shows the strength and courage of the human spirit despite at times cruel circumstances and unfair situations. The author definitely draws you into the very heart of Carissa; merging you with the fight and strength that she possesses during her entire life. Her unselfish love is the main attribute that shone out to me and one that I think author Carol Roach did an exceptional job at portraying.
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If you want to read a story of the heart, this one is for you. A compelling story of a woman, a time and a future where one can actually say, ‘everything turned out all right.’ It might have happened much later than we as the reader may have wanted, but perhaps that is exactly how life for most of us plays out. Well done Ms. Roach!” --Shirley Johnson, Senior Reviewer for MidWest Book Review ************ Ordering Info to for “Angels Watching Over Me”: Angels Watching Over Me by Carol Roach Publisher: Janelle McCarthy (Lulu Press) Publication Date: March 2007 ISBN #: 978-1-4303-2003-6 244 pages, and can be purchased at Lulu Press, Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com. Or you can order it at your local bookstore. Price: [Paperback print] $16.10; [Download] $5.00 __________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________
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A Book of Emotive & Inspiring Poetry; a Book of Short Stories, and a Book Series of Inspirational Quotes By TRISHA MARTIN My Naked Mind: An Intimate Collection of Poetry Fed Up Woman Trisha’s Treasures: Gems of Inspiration And Spirit of the Hawk: Mental Flight (Book 1)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: TRISHA MARTIN is a published author, poet, entrepreneur, blogger, and talk radio show host. Her book publications include “My Naked Mind: An Intimate Collection of Poetry” [April 2005], “Fed Up Woman” [May 2011], “Trisha’s Treasures: Gems of Inspiration” [May 2011], and “Spirit of the Hawk: Mental Flight” [2012]. Having “Fed Up Woman” published was like closing the book on a chapter of her life that ended a long time ago, Trisha reflects. With two of her four children now grown, she plans on spending much more time giving her fans what they want more of. You can visit Trisha over at: Trisha's World Reviews for “My Naked Mind: An Intimate Collection of Poetry”: ***** “The words contained within the pages of author, poet and entrepreneur TRISHA MARTIN’S book are filled with 122 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
compelling, deep, emotional and inspirational poems that readers should be able to identify with. Each poem is written with clarity as the author pours her heart and soul into her writing. If you're a poetry lover who likes reading personal works of others, this book of poetry is a must-read!” **** “I have never read poetry so vividly written, taking me on a continuous journey from emotion to emotion!” Ordering Info for “My Naked Mind,” “Fed Up Woman,” “Trisha’s Treasures,” and “Spirit of The Hawk: Mental Flight:” My Naked Mind: An Intimate Collection of Poetry By Trisha Martin Publisher: Publish America Publication date: April 2005 ISBN #: 1413744540 84 pages; Price: $14.95 Fed Up Woman by Trisha Martin Publisher: Publish America Publication Date: May 2011 ISBN #: 978-1-4560-4946-1 64 pages; Price: $16.95 Trisha’s Treasures: Gems of Inspiration by Trisha Martin Publisher: Blurb.com Publication date: May 2011 Price: (Paperback-edition) $13.95; (Hardcover, dusk jacketedition) $29.95
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Spirit of the Hawk: Mental Flight by Trisha Martin Publisher: Blurb.com Publication Date: May 2012 89 pages; Price: (Paperback-edition) $22.30 __________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________
A Fiction Novel; a Book of Essays, and Books of Short Stories By BARBARA DEMING Aunt Lutie’s Blue Moon Café Pink Poodle Pie (Other Tales of How Women Get Even) Growing Up Barefoot in the South [Essays of a Southern Writer] And The Quilt Maker “Aunt Lutie's Blue Moon Café by Barbara Deming” was released in early 2013! And the Characters from the Blue Moon Café (as well as the author) are talking to folks at: http://auntlutie.blogspot.com Come join us! Check out the author at: www.barbaramimsdeming.com Author, Instructor, Speaker, and Owner of the Workshop "I Can Write. Can You?" which promotes writing for fun, mental health, and publication for both children and adults. 124 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
“Pink Poodle Pie (Other Tales of How Women Get Even)” By Barbara Deming has been released! All those stories are just "yapping" to be read by all of you. This is what my editor calls "mid-life chick-lit." I say it is a blueprint of how we gals can get even with those cheating males in our lives, or dream of what we wished had happened to such guys in our past. If you've ever been cheated on, dumped, or mentally/physically violated by a yahoo in any way, this is a must read for you. You will grin, gasp--maybe even give an "Atta girl!" yell at the antics of these strong women.
Yours Truly, Barbara Deming; offers nineteen women, many like us, who write their own ending to the stories of an important time in their lives.
You can find "Pink Poodle Pie" at iUniverse.com, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Books-in-a-Million.com, or receive an autographed copy of the soft-cover edition by sending your check for $16 (includes media postage-mailing) to: Barbara Deming, 1175 La Moree Rd. #68, San Marcos, CA 92078. She welcomes questions, discussions and comments at mailto:demingwrites@att.net Happy Reading! --Barb. --"Pink Poodle Pie (Other Tales of How Women Get Even)" has been released! Buy it at Amazon.com, iUniverse.com, autographed copy from the author 125 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
--"The Quilt Maker" and "Growing up Barefoot in the South" can be purchased at Amazon.com. Autographed copy from author.---Check out: http://barbswritetree.blogspot.com
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A Memoir Novel
By FRANCES ACESTA-SCANDARITO Brooklyn and Beyond
The Author Frances Acesta-Scandarito says about her book: “I was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1929. How I went from humble beginnings to a life of education, adventure and travel is what this book is all about.” After graduating high school, Frances worked in a Manhattan bank in their Foreign 126 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
Currency Department. When Frances and her family moved to Florida, she earned her Bachelor’s Degree at FAU and was a Nova University Master’s Degree recipient in the field of education. She has had the good fortune to work in both the banking and educational areas, and experienced the wonders of life through family gatherings and travel. Ordering Info for “Brooklyn and Beyond”: BROOKLYN AND BEYOND BY FRANCES ACESTASCANDARITO Publisher: Infinity Publishing Publication Date: March 1, 2013 ISBN-10: 0741481200 ISBN-13: 978-0741481207 108 pages, and can be purchased at: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Infinity Publishing, or wherever books are sold. Price: [Paperback print] $23.95; [Kindle edition] $9.95 __________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________
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A Book of Poetry and Short Stories
By ROSANNE CATALANO The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers’ Founder & Publisher (www.thecatsmeowforwritersreaders.com) Mirrored Images
Author, Founder and Publisher Rosanne Catalano (RC Kayla), is pleased to introduce her book Mirrored Images, which is a quick read at 165 pages! It is a book containing the author’s collection of short stories and poems (some fiction, some fact) written for your reading enjoyment and for those who love guessing games! “Mirrored Images” by Rosanne Catalano begins with a poem about, and dedication to, her late father and still-livingmother and goes into a short story about an experience with bullying in the eighth grade of school to being saved by a 128 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
guardian angel when the story character was in her mid30’s. An interesting read in which you, the reader, may want to guess which of her stories are fact or fiction… Reviews for ‘Mirrored Images’ by Rosanne Catalano:
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“I purchased a copy of Rosanne Catalano’s book, Mirrored Images, and this short collection of short stories (you will have to try real hard to decide which are fact or fiction), articles and poetry, both touched my heart and made me smile. Rosanne’s book Mirrored Images is truly a great read!” “It touched me because of the love shown for her parents, God, and her husband. It touched me because I was the kid with glasses who was bullied and picked on and I could feel Rosanne's pain when it happened to her. It touched me because I have lost my parents and her tribute to her father, and mother, brought back all of the good times and love I had with/for my own parents. It touched me because Rosanne, as I feel so many of us are but never put it into words so eloquently, is a survivor. I believe we all have guardian angels and Mirrored Images proves it to all who will listen. No one but angels could have saved her from bullies in junior high school, have looked over her until she found the perfect mate, and still guide her to this day in her writing craft.” “These are stories we should not only want to read, enjoy reading, but they are stories we all need to hear. I get a glimpse of the love and courage that Rosanne shows, and shares, in her magazine--and our most welcome online 129 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
correspondence.” “Rosanne is writing a continuation of Mirrored Images titled Escape and Redemption. I can't wait to read that! But first, my readers, you must read Mirrored Images.” --Barbara Deming; Author, Writing Instructor, Publisher, and Blogger.
***** “I read Rosanne Catalano’s book Mirrored Images and I love it!!! She had somewhat of a hard life in some areas and a good one in others. The author had a lot of heartache, with the loss of friends early in her life, and the ridicule and horrendous behaviors of other kids when she was in junior high school. “Though it sounds like she had a most wonderful Dad and Grandmother too; her grandmother reminded me so much of my own Grandmother who passed away last year! I enjoyed very much reading all of her different short stories and the poems she included. I really loved reading about her little cheese episode in ‘Christmas With Grandma,’ and her little sneaky trek to the store thinking she could hurriedly fix what she had EATEN…LOL!!!! I LOVED IT--------- And I can still see Rosanne so clearly eating all of the cheese!!!!” “CONGRATULATIONS TO ROSANNE CATALANO all the way around! I will get her next book soon...I like this book’s title by the way, and the picture of Rosanne on the back cover; she looks so relaxed.” --Sandra L Hoynacki; Author, Poet and Nurse.
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“Rosanne Catalano’s book, Mirrored Images, was a
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delightful read! I LOVED IT!!!! IF the abuse at school and all was about her, Rosanne has become a beautiful person and woman. I'm so glad she now has a wonderful spouse and her life is filled with love.” --Carol Dee Meeks; Writer and Poet.
Rosanne Catalano’s next book, Escape and Redemption, will be a continuation of Mirrored Images as her first crime fiction novel. Escape & Redemption by Rosanne Catalano Coming Soon!
Synopsis of “Escape & Redemption:”
Rachelle Norris is escaping a painful past. She lands in the State of Delaware and meets Marie Glück, a homeless woman whom Rachelle saves from dying of a heart attack, changing Marie Glück’s life forever. Both Rachelle Norris and Marie Glück are redeemed after opening up a small business and fighting for it against those who practice imminent domain takeovers and murder. Remember, Mirrored Images by Rosanne Catalano is available to purchase for $6.00 in Nook edition, $13.20 for the paperback edition, and $5.00 for the Kindle edition! Be sure to pick up your copy of “Mirrored Images” today at Lulu Press, BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com, or at Rosanne’s website: Author Rosanne Catalano / The Cat's Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine
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Ordering Info for “Mirrored Images”: Mirrored Images by Rosanne Catalano Publisher: Jane W. (Lulu Press) Publication Date: January 2007; Revised 2013 ISBN-10: 978-1-304-66346-7 ISBN-13: 978-1-257-40573-2
Price: [Print-edition] $13.20; [Nook-edition] $6.00; [Kindleedition] $5.00; 165 pages, and can be purchased at Lulu Press, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com or at Welcome to Author Rosanne Catalano's Official Site AND the 2nd Home of The Cat's Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine
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LETTERS TO THE PUBLISHER: If you have a question, would like to make a suggestion on something you would like to see in this magazine, or just want to tell us about an article, poem or story you have read here, send an email to The Publisher’s Box™ and let us know your thoughts, questions, news or anything else you want to talk with us about. The Publisher will be sure to respond in a timely manner. TO SUBMIT YOUR WRITING: Send your short stories, poetry, flash fiction, essays, haikus, story articles (nonfiction short stories) and/or helpful articles, but please do follow the Submission Guidelines set forth. To read the Submission Guidelines click on this link, then click back here and send your submission(s) to “Submissions”. Remember, submissions must be sent within the body of your Submit Form! Do not send submissions as an attachment. And please do provide a resource box and / or author bio along with your work. Every single submission is read and will be responded to within four months. Thank you and keep on writing! HOW SOME ARE SUPPORTING THE CAT’S MEOW FOR WRITERS & READERS MAGAZINE: In each magazine issue, and within author Rosanne Catalano-Umland’s website, there are links to various businesses and literary magazines such as Amazon.com, First Writer.com, Filbert Publishing, Angie’s DIARY (#1 Online Magazine for Professional and Aspiring Writers), How-To Corp, and many others that are also on the Helpful Sites For You page of the author’s literary magazine website. When purchasing products through these links, it 133 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
helps support The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers and keep your subscription free! Thank you for your support throughout the years.
The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine is dedicated to: Rachel Renée Carmine (“Carman”) Catalano Anna (“Ann”) Inzinna-Pollicino-Catalano Harold (“Clint”) Welch Pauline Mullé-Infranco Joseph Infranco Direct URL: http://www.thecatsmeowforwritersreaders.com Copyright © 2004-2014 Rosanne Catalano-Umland (RC Kayla): Founder, Publisher and Author. ISSN #: 2237-65. Queens, NY 11379. All rights reserved. All copyrights remain with the respective creators of material in this magazine and on the site (the publisher has no enduring rights over future printings and/or publications except her own work). No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this magazine. The Cat's Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine accepts no liability expressed or implied, for any advertisement, editorial or products contained within. The views expressed in the stories, poetry, essays, articles, and other writings included in this magazine are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this magazine or its publisher.
The Cat's Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine®™ Is an independently-owned and operated literary magazine supported by readers like you, and by grants and corporate sponsorships from various organizations and companies; some of which are listed on the 134 | The Cat’s Meow for Writers & Readers Magazine October-December 2014
"Helpful Sites for You" page of Rosanne Catalano’s website.
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