Return to K-Mac's home pageMy Creative Mews


Because there has to be a cat page, doesn't there?

When Where My Mews Major Works
1954-1972

Cushing Road,
Camden


2854 Cushing Road as it appeared in 1993.
That's structural brick, not a facade.
When we lived there, the yard was grass,
and there was a pair of two-story-tall
spruce trees flanking the walk at the stoop.
The bay window is another late addition. I
don't think any of the kids realized just how
small the house was, because most everyone
we knew lived the same way. Still, we shared
our parents' dream of someday moving to
something called a "subdivision," and the back
yard of Aunt Judy's house in Merchantville
(an older 4-on-4) seemed remarkably
vast. The dream was never realized,
but after I left for college, my parents moved
to the 4-on-4 next door to Judy.

Spook--my mother's cat.


Scamper--my older sister's cat. She stayed
behind when Sue moved to San Diego in 1975,
becoming the matriarch of my mother's house.

A letter to the editor, published in the Camden Courier-Post.

Short stories published in Impressions,
the student paper at St. Joe's High.

1972-1974

Armstrong Hall,
MSU


Third floor, fourth set of windows from the left.
I roomed with a high school classmate from
back in New Jersey--not a best friend, but we
got on well enough so that neither of us felt
completely alone that far from home.

Amelia--adopted from someone in the psych
department near the end of my freshman year.
My R.A. looked the other way until Amy was
spotted climbing the window screens of my
room. Amelia went home to New Jersey to
live, and adopted my younger sister and my
father as her buddies.
Stories for ENG 228A, the only
creative writing class I've ever taken.
1974-1976

Delta Arms Apts.,
East Lansing


Junior year, the lower balcony at center was
our room; senior year, the lower balcony at
far right. These two years represent the sum
total of my experience with living with best
friends, and Rick, Art, and Marc are the
only college friends I still see and hear from.
(Karla was an unofficial fifth roommate by
the end of our junior year; she moved in for
senior year, and our wedding pictures--both
of them--were taken with us on that balcony.)
No pets allowed. The Open Face of Heaven
(unpublished novel)
Summer of 1976

Northwind Apts.,
East Lansing


Karla and I lived here for just a couple of
months, during which time I worked as a
clerk in the photo and electronics departments
at Meijer and looked for a teaching job. I
eventually found one in Northern Indiana, a
week before the first day of school--we
packed and moved in record time.

Charlie--Karla and I adopted him as an adult
cat from the Ingham County Humane Society.
He was an adrenalin junkie and aerialist--he
loved to be tossed on a blanket, or dropped
off the Briarwood balcony onto the living room
couch.
Resumes and cover letters.
Fall of 1976

Susan Street,
Sturgis

An awful little house. We had hardly
any furniture, and the bedroom was always
cold. I was commuting to Middlebury
in the only car, and Karla was trapped
at home all day. We moved out just
before Christmas with the oil tank
bone dry--we couldn't afford to refill it.

Charlie Lesson plans for my science and math students at Heritage Middle School.
Winter of 1977

South Main Street,
Goshen

We rented a former dentists' office across
the street from Goshen College. There was
one-way glass in the bedroom windows, and
fluorescent lighting in the living room. But it
was a marked improvement all the same. We
would have stayed longer than two months,
but when the dentists' new office next door
burned down, they claimed it back. It's now
a student rental, at $665 a month.
Charlie More lesson plans.
1977-1978

Briarwood Apartments,
Goshen

After enduring four moves in ten months,
we never fully unpacked during our year in
this two-bedroom townhouse apartment.
Trivia: Paul Huffman's famous photos of the
1965 Palm Sunday twin-funnel F-4 killer
tornado ripping though Midway Trailer Park
were taken just a few hundred yards from our
front door.
Charlie slipped out of the house during a
snowstorm one day, and we never saw him
again. We told ourselves he'd gone over to
the farm next door, found a barn full of
girl-cats, and decided to stay.
Still more lesson plans.

"Memory" (Asimov's, 9/83)

"The Inevitable Conclusion" (Amazing Stories, 8/79 - first sale)

"Addressee Unknown" (Amazing Stories, 3/81)

1978-1986

Sunset Boulevard,
Goshen


Despite the glamorous address, this was a
modest 1-1/2 story dormered Cape Cod on a
one-block-long street off U.S. 33. At first, I
worked in the back third of the basement by
the stairs; later I got the small ground-floor
bedroom for my office--the only office I've
ever had with a proper window and a view.
I liked this house a lot. It satisfied a lot of that
childhood yearning for a house with no shared
walls and a yard that went all the way around.
But by the time we left Goshen, we were
struggling, and the wheels came off
completely shortly after we returned to the
Lansing area. And all of a sudden I was
starting over.
Amanda--the cat, not the daughter. We adopted
her as an older kitten from the Elkhart County
Humane Society. I remember that she loved to sit
in the pool of afternoon sunlight on my yellow
office carpet. Alas, she didn't take well to Lazi's
arrival in the household, and started peeing in the
sunny spot on my yellow office carpet by way of
protest. Nothing we did could persuade her to
adapt, and in the end we had to return her to the
shelter. I still feel bad about that.


Lazi - short for Lapis Lazuli, from Time Enough
for Love.
Lazi was the first dog I've ever lived with
at length. Officially registered as "Hound X," she had
the gentle Labrador personality with a touch of
poodle goofiness. Karla had grown up a
Minnesota farm girl, and always liked dogs (which
played with you) better than cats. Lazi passed on
in the spring of 1991, as part of Karla's household.

Matthew

Many short stories.

Novels Emprise, Enigma, Empery

Robot City: Odyssey

Photon: Thieves of Light

1986-1995

Briarcliffe Apartments,
Lansing


Over the nine years we lived there, this
two-story two-bedroom townhouse went
from being nearly empty to incredibly full.
The guys from Two Men And A Truck  estimated our box count at
1500, and told us we should have gone for
four men and two trucks.

Arro - Gwen's calico tripod, and the haughty
grande dame of her household for more than
27 years. They moved in with me in June,
1988, and we finally said good-bye to her in
May, 1994. We have many Arro stories,
because she was a cat of great character, with
both endearing and annoying quirks.

Shadow - Gwen adopted Shadow as a young
adult while she was living in Louisville, and he
came to Michigan with her in 1986. He was
leonine in face and bearing, and entered a
room as though he owned it.


Dr. Levi Gray - the runt of a litter born at
Gwen's sister's house in Georgia. Doc and
his Russian Blue genes were originally destined
for Gwen's parents' house, but Shadow had
begun bullying the aging Arro. So we worked
a trade in October 1988--Shadow got to be
King Cat at the Zaks', and gentle, plush Doc
came to live with us. He is and was ever a
lover, not a fighter.


Captain Black - came to us from the wild,
appearing on our doorstep one afternoon in
1990. We were heading out to Ann Arbor,
and he was fleeing several children who'd put
a plastic rope leash on him. We opened the
door, and he leaped from the top of the
charcoal grille into Gwen's arms. He was lean
and beautiful, but he remained a rover--always
had to have a door into summer.

Amanda

Alternities

The Quiet Pools

Exile

Vectors (begun 1992)

1995- present

Meridian Twp.



A comfortable but unprepossessing three-
bedroom 1960s ranch house in the slums of
suburban Meridian Township; another
basement office, this one with a fake fireplace
I use for my aerospace shrine.

Captain loved the new neighborhood, with
voles and the occasional rabbit in our fenced
and overgrown back yard. But a mysterious
neurological affliction took him from us in
July, 2001.


Dr. Gray - 2001


Phoenix - a shelter rescue, adopted as a four-
year-old in August, 2001. We suspect her
previous owner punished her for asking for
attention; it took a while before she started to
allow more than a tummy or cheek scritch
every so often. But she's now the most
aggressively social of our cats - the most likely
to talk to us, and to invite herself onto laps
and beds. Much of the transformation happened
when Matt came home from college for that
Yule--because for whatever reason, Phoenix just loved him.


Gryffin - a rescue, adopted in August, 2001.
Gwen had a dream about a yellow cat, and
the next day spotted Gryffin at a local pet shop.
But because of a major heart murmur, he was
likely to be discarded. We decided to roll the
dice on his health (and his aggressive biting),
and our faith was rewarded. Gavin is his primary human--he could pick him up and not pay in blood before anyone else--but the neighborhood is Gryffin's world. He has made friends next door, across the street, and down at the corner. We often don't see him for days at a time, even in winter.


Miss Bob - one of two guest cats who moved in along with a friend in the fall of 2003. Bob (yes, she's a girl, named after the planet) looks to Gryffin as her role model, but she can't quite get it right. She's much more of a homebody, much more nervous, and kind of a klutz. Like Gryffin, she loves the rooftop. As our huntress, she brings us presents--dead birds and field mice, live birds and field mice. She's bidding to become a permanent member of the household.

Gavin

Star Wars: Before the Storm

Star Wars: Shield of Lies

Star Wars: Tyrant's Test

The Trigger

Vectors (completed 2001)

Fragments (work in progress)


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Last Revised: March 04, 2014