funny cats – Page 2 – PAMELA JANE

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Why Jane Austen and Cats?

cat chewing

I have no idea why or how I came up with idea of Pride and Prejudice and Kitties – a thoroughly ridiculous idea at best! But then, Jane herself has an appreciation of the ridiculous. And I like having fantasies about my cat’s pursuits and preoccupations. Isn’t that what cat-lovers do, have fantasies about their cats? Dog-lovers don’t have fantasies because dogs act out everything and leave no room for the imagined. When our book came out, my coauthor, Debbie and I, were roundly accused of copying Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.. But the (unhappy) truth was we’d had been working on our concept and honing our query for over six years. Not to mention that it took almost eighty agents before we found one who sold the book. Originally the publisher asked for 100,000 words to go with the photos – almost as many words as in Pride and Prejudice itself! We got them down to 30,000 but even now … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

Christmas at Pemberly

The Last Paragraph of Pride and Prejudice and Kitties It’s that time of year, so my coauthor, Debbie, and I would like to wish our readers a very happy holiday. And to help us remember the good times of the past, the warmth of fires, friends, and furry creatures, we’d like to quote from the final paragraph of Pride and Prejudice and Kitties: “At Christmastime, the Darcys and the Gardiners could be seen curled up by the fireside, talking of the past and of all that had happened – of purr and petulance, of pride and prejudice, and the perfect happiness and harmony at the family party now gathered together at Pemberley.” … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND KITTIES out in paper this Fall

We’re excited to announce that Pride and Prejudice and Kitties is now out in paper back! Here is a photo from Pride and Prejudice and Kitties. Can you guess who the character is? … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

The Query that got us Our Book Contract

For those of you interested in queries that succeeded in getting book contracts, here is Deborah and my original query for Pride and Prejudice and Kitties: Query PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND KITTIES humor, pop culture Finally, chick lit meets kit lit! Jane Austen is hot and cats are happening. Yet of the dozens of popular books on Jane Austen and scores of funny cat books, not one combines the enduring novelist with the endearing feline. The world is ready for “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” – a playful mash-up of the well-loved classic novel and the perverse perspective of the naughty, haughty kitty. Better than CliffsNotes: the adorable meets the absurd. In “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” wacky illustrations of cats in Regency settings are juxtaposed with the wicked humor of Jane. The book will follow the general outline of Pride and Prejudice. There are 61 chapters in Pride and Prejudice, and “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” will contain 2-1/2 pages for each chapter (a … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

A Writer’s Inner Cosmos or Don’t Underestimate Yourself!

Note: This post was originally published in a slightly altered form at womensmemoirs.com. My late kitty, Mittens, didn’t have much personality. As my friend and co-author, Debbie, once observed, “he’s one notch above a stuffed animal.” I argued for two notches, but she had a point. Poor guy. It wasn’t his fault that he was born with no street-smarts or even house-smarts, and slept 23-3/4 hours a day. He was also terribly timid and ran away meowing if he even saw an ant. The most dangerous thing he ever attacked was a Starbucks straw. So imagine my shock and amazement when Mittens caught and killed a mouse in our living room, just a few weeks before he died. It goes to show, you never know what someone is capable of. Furthermore, “what someone is capable of” is not fixed or finite; it changes and shifts as we evolve. I’ve seen this truth play out (to one mouse’s misfortune) in many … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

Wickham or the Nameless Narrator of The Aspern Papers?

I brought this hat back from Venice when we were living in Florence a few years ago. I know – it’s more of a Henry James than a Jane Austen thing. Mittens has that world-weary look of the perpetual traveler. Maybe it’s Mr. Wickham on one of his post-marital sojourns while Lydia visits Pemberley. Jane Austen mentions London and Bath but he could have taken a quick jaunt to Venice. He definitely looks like he may have had too much of a good thing. Poor Mittens; he was not a terribly excitable kitty. His main response to our taking him to live with us in Florence was to yawn. … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

Jane in the morning and Jane at Night!

I fell asleep listening to Emma the other night on my iPod, and woke up listening to Hitler. Struggled to wake myself up and out of the nightmare but didn’t quite succeed. I realized in the morning that Emma had morphed into Explaining Hitler* (the books are arranged alphabetically). Last month Middlemarch leapt into Moscow 1941. The history books are great for walking but not for sleeping. The trouble is, books can switch in the middle of the night. The way around this is to make a playlist of the book you want to listen to during the night, so it just keeps circling. What books you listen to at night are important. For me, only Jane Austen and George Eliot’s Middlemarch pass the test because I know and love Austen’s novels and Eliot’s masterpiece intimately and trust them completely. (Sometimes Sense and Sensibility is hard to take at night though, because Marianne’s grief and panic in London are so … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

Giving Thanks for Jane

Jane Austen is one of the ten reasons I’m glad I’m alive. Or maybe even one of five, right up there with love, the silliness of cats, and morning light in the trees. When I think about Jane Austen I feel gratitude for her wisdom, wit, and genius; her stories are about all of us, and her characters are all of us. (Have you ever caught yourself sounding horrifyingly like foolish, vulgar Mrs. Bennet or pedantic Mary? And haven’t we all been Emma Woodhouse at her very worst moment?) Jane, being Jane, understood the part gratitude plays in love: “But above all, above respect and esteem, there was a motive within her of goodwill which could not be overlooked. It was gratitude; gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.…Such a change … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

A PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (and Kitties!) CHRISTMAS

Here’s the question – do cats understand Christmas? Perhaps they’ve heard stories of Santa Claus, a jolly old elf who flies around making mischief delivering gifts. “But what does it do for me?” one might ask. Linus, for example, pictured above, does not get why this weird creature astride a goose is perched on his shoulder. “And what does it have to do with Pride and Prejudice?” We will explore this question in future blog posts, but it appears to us that Pride and Prejudice and Kitties and Christmas can all fit into one picture. … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

How our “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” Query Survived 75 Agents

Until now, we’ve generally referred to the query letter that sold our book, Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, as having been sent to “X” number of agents. But now, thanks to Galley Cat at Media Bistro, the word is out that our query letter was rejected by 75 agents well – 74 because we did finally sell the book. You can read our query here. Actually, during the submission process we did manage to capture the attention of several agents. The problem was that most were daunted by the logistics of taking 100 funny photographs of cats in Regency settings. Also, to be honest, it took Debbie and me several years to clarify and define our concept for the book. … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

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