Douglas Arvidson is a past winner of the WICE/Paris Transcontinental International Short Story competition. His short fiction has been published in Paris, Prague, and in literary magazines in the United States and he was recently invited to be a staff writer for the Prague Revue, a cutting-edge, online literary journal (http://bit.ly/1mMT6ZC). The novels in his fantasy series, The Eye of the Eye of Stallion, include The Face in Amber, The Mirrors of Castaway Time, and A Drop of Wizard's Blood. His new novel, Brothers of the Fire Star, was selected as a finalist in the ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year national awards and as a finalist in three categories in the 2013 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards: Action Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Young Adult Fiction. It has become part of the pantheon of Pacific literature and is now included in school literature programs. Brothers of the Fire Star is an adventure story set in the Pacific during World War II and concerns two boys of different races and cultures who escape the island of Guam in a small sailboat when the Japanese army invades. They must then struggle to survive as they master the secrets of the ancient Pacific navigators. Appropriate for young adults as well as adult readers, Brothers of the Fire Star is available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com (http://amzn.to/1j3axVk) and Crossquarter.com. Visit the author's website: douglasarvidson.com



Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Terry and Ms. Puss at Home


Here's a great shot of Terry and the fat, spoiled tiger cat, Ms. Puss. Ms. Puss is truly a boat cat, having lived aboard for the past 8 years. We found her at a restaurant here on Guam. She was about six weeks old, was pot bellied and nearly hairless and obviously starving to death. But she was a howler. She looked up at us sitting there eating and cried pitifully for food. When a morsel was dropped to her, another, bigger cat, would get it first. So, we took her home to the boat. Now she's pretty much in charge of day-to-day operations during the 5% of the day she's not napping.

Terry is a cat-crazy sailor, for sure. Can't imagine her being cat-less. She brought two cats from Germany, at great expense and hassel, nine years ago when we move from there to Guam. But, she's a fine and brave yachtie, and here she is on the foredeck of VATNA relaxing in the evening just before sunset. I was about to leave for a month to come back to Massachusetts to help take care of my mother and were sneaking in as much together time as we could. The foredeck of the boat, with a cat for company, is a great way to do that.