Me Ebony and dat sisfurr cat Abby ub mine wishing all of use kitties and your human beans a happy Fanksgiving. We also hoping you gots lots of gobble gobble boidee. Day must be good eating, but dee catching and hunting seems it gotta bee funner. Dats what we meows to all uf our furrfriends. One more fing is we want all uf use to lookee at our online version ub dee journal causing it habing guest meows from Emily and Harry who own and operate dare human bean called Ariel!

Diss is Abby and why Ebony git to start diss journal? I better cat and human beans lubs me more cause day cut up fresh yummy meats furrr me. I kin seep on bean's desk knocking eberyfing offing on dee floor. I kin chase paper wads and be a catdawgie making all dee beans lafs and call me cutest kitty day ebeer sees. Sews I nose I dee bestest cat hare and eberrywhare. Ebony, your turn to meow!

Ub course, Abby it totteecat wrong. I Ebony nose diss cause I am lubs lots more dan dat Abby brat cat. I meows like a queen. I is polite, neat, and a hungry hunter cat. Bean picks me up all dee time and plays wif me. I is special cat too. Sew what Abby saying not true a wick at all.

Well, den, me Abby cat gits lots more cat mail and pawings from udder cats and lots ub dem human beanies. Causing I cutest fing on earth and I really meow not likes Ebony chirp, burp, or chortle. It like she afraid to meow a heep big cat MEOW. She mew sum but not like I mews.

Abby, you is about to be paw wapped, you furry ebile fing you! You not nose truth ifing it rose up wike a deranged dawgie and bit you with a howl and a wick. I is dee bestest cat dare ebeer was. Use was only gotten causing I Ebony missing Kitty GreyCat sews mush and dat vet bean sezs bean should git a kitten to help me wif my sorrow and grief. But I nose now dat dee only sorry and griefs I got now is habbing use as a sissfurrr cat. You big bodder. "Hissspitt... Paw wapping sounds..." =^..^=

Internet Stuff
Announcing our new, permanent domain of RunesofAo.com which we think is a good URL! You don't even need the www in front of it. All our fans and friends will be familiar with the Runes of Ao/Kale. Those twelve books will start showing on the fan website before the end of the year.

Introducing Northern Lights Page Design [NLPD] at www.nlpd.com. This is a great place that you must see to believe and enjoy. If you want professional work done to design, promote, and register your web page, you can find no better place than NLPD. We have used their services several times for all five of our websites and are extremely pleased with the work!

Larry is now the GeoCities Entertainment Sci-Fi & Fantasy Avenue TopicMaster. A topic master manages the best sites contained in that avenue by adjusting the ranking's list. Visitors can vote on the sites from the GeoGuides on the individual sites or from the ranking pages on the avenue itself. If you want more information and help, please visit the web page at [GeoCities canceled the program!]

Hockey Puck
The New York Rangers couldn't score too well the first part of the season. Then they had a game with ten goals. The Florida Panthers are playing in a new rink, but they are not playing very well. Hopefully, they will get better as the season progresses. The Tampa Bay Lightning are finally doing better with their new coach and owners. There is a lot of young talent on that team, and eventually it will show. All six divisions are still tight so far. There is no clear run-away team yet, but the season is still young. Yes, I did say six divisions. As new teams joined the league, each conference split into three divisions each. The playoff format is the same, but now you have the first three seeds being division winners. So the games in the season become even more important.

Minor league hockey is doing outstanding. The East Coast Hockey League [ECHL] is dominated with the Hampton Roads Admirals who will move up to the American Hockey League [AHL] next year. There are a lot of Florida minor league teams including the Orlando Solar Bears and teams in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Pensacola.

Finally, ESPN continues its super television coverage of the NHL. What Fox in its final year of the contract will do is anybody's guess. Disney who owns ABC and ESPN will have the next five-year television contract. They should do an outstanding job. More local television providers and advertisers are signing up as well. That is more hockey for everyone on all kinds of channels!

Things Break Too Often!
The Ford F350 truck hit a piece of old radial tire on the freeway and suffered broken running boards, odometer, pyrometer, various leaks, brake problems, and tire problems. Beach Ford in Virginia was glad to see me coming! They fixed everything except the insurance didn't cover any of it. So that bill was a big one. Then the batteries gave up the ghost, but Sears replaced them under warranty. I didn't get gouged as much in that deal. Also, the CB/Weather radio died a horrible death. I had to replace the antenna and the unit, but it works great now. I don't have any money left now, but that's normal. The truck needs serviced soon. It knows.

The fifth wheel travel trailer has joined this conspiracy as well. My two televisions have died terrible deaths. The saga of the JVC VCR continues into its second year! The electric does not work now. The furnace was stuck, no fan. The awning came undone, and there is a cracked vent cover too. That will surely cost more money and aggravation.

Even here in Virginia things go wrong. The townhouse has a moldering bathtub, but it was easily fixed. The old sliding glass door was replaced by my father, but it needs some finishing touches. And even the 96 Toyota Tacoma with an inoperative cruise control joined the money-grabbing act. The JVC ministereo volume control is possessed. I have to hire an exorcist to fix that. These things happen but usually not all at once!

Guest Meows!
Emily and Harry and their human bean Ariel create Cat Chat! 11-4-98: My cats, Harry and Emily, have decided they want to start writing the Cat Chat column, so I am turning this over to them, to give you their first-paw view of living with me.

Hi, my name is Geharis Harrison, but Mom, my human bean, just calls me Harry or Precious. I am seventeen years young and well into my second kitten-hood. I slept with Mom my whole life until she got me this wonderful chair. It is so soft, and it curves around so it is like my own cave. Mom thinks it is her chair, although I tell her all the time it is mine. I let her sit in it as long as she lets me sit in her lap or on my desk. I like to paw the computer keyboard, but Mom says I hit too many keys at once, so I am letting her write this for me. I especially like my chair when she leaves the computer on, because there are pictures of other cats on it. Mom says it's a "screensaver." I like watching it. At night Mom puts my afghan over me so I stay nice and cozy. I've got Mom trained pretty well. She understands most kinds of cat-speak--both vocal and silent. Sometimes when I am talking to her, though, I think she is ignoring me, because she won't get off my chair and come see to my needs-at least not right away. Eventually she gives in. She talks pretty good vocal cat-speak herself, although sometimes she does the play-meow when she really wants me to come and snuggle with her. Silly thing! Oh, well, she's only a human! I talk a lot of vocal cat-speak ever since my brother Peanut Butter passed to the other said. He told me then that I have to talk for both of us, cause Mom can't hear him (though I can), and he doesn't want her to miss him. So I talk a lot. Sometimes I still run around the house with Peanut, and Mom calls me silly, but she knows Peanut is still here, too. She has told me so. My companion is Emily. She is a lot of fun. We play together all the time, although sometimes I have to bite her to get her started-she is a bit lazy!! I turned all the hunting over to her two years ago, though, and she does quite well. You might be surprised that I talk human-speak so well. Well, after seventeen years of helping Mom read all the papers and magazines and books she reads, I have become quite an educated cat! Emily is biting me now: she wants her turn, so I will tell you more next week.

Well, it's about time!! Age before beauty indeed!! Humph! Me am Monster Emily Small, and me am Queen of the house. Mom doesn't call me Monster much anymore. She usually calls me Sweet Emily or Pussywillow, which me likes very much. Me Emily came into this house seven years ago, when me was just a little fuzz ball. Meow Harry greeted me warmly, and we have been great friends ever since. We play-fight all the time, but sometimes when sleeping me am, he must come and bite me so me will play the Chase game (sigh). He just won't grow up. My big job around here is screening the human beans that come here. Very few pass my criteria. Mom has one girl human bean friend who comes over, though, and she is my very Special Friend. Me always sleeps on her when she stays overnight. Harry says me don't talk proper human bean speech, but me is trying good. Me loves to sit on newspapers, and poke my head inside them and make little tents. Me loves crawling into anything and hiding. It is so fun! Me also loves to hunt, but don't tell Harry. He won't hunt anymore, so me have to do it all! Humph! He say he is retired. Me say he just lazy. Harry says me is supposed to bring Mom part of my prey as a present, but I never do. Me eat it all-yum!! Mom has never say anything about it. She always scratches me ears just right, and now cause Harry don't sleep with Mom, me sleeps with her so she won't get lonely. Hmmm...yawn....this is tiring. Me talk mostly in tail-speak, so this is very much talking for me! Me will say more next week. Mew-bye. Harry says Meow bye too.

Harry and Emily's Cat Chat 11-10-98:

Harry and Emily have to go in for their annual shots this week. Harry went today. He's been hoarse and sneezing, but the vet said he wasn't running a fever, and thinks it's just because of the change in weather, or perhaps an allergy to the falling leaves. Anyway, I'll let him tell you all about it. Oh, don't tell Em she is going for her shots Thursday! Lol. Ariel :)

Hi, it's Harry. Meow has laryngitis, so I'm only going to talk a little, then let Emily finish the column. Mom took me to the Vet Bean today. It was horrible, as always! I just don't know why she always has to take me to that awful place!! I was just minding my own business, sleeping in my chair, and she picked me up and put me in that little box, and hauled me away. Then the Vet Bean put a cold thing against my chest, and stuck something up my butt!! Can you imagine? And then, just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, she gave me two shots! Then, just to add insult to injury, Mom had the audacity to pet the Strange Cat that lives with the Vet Bean. Humph!! I haven't forgiven her, but she insists on sharing my chair, so I have no choice but to sit on her lap. Speaking of Strange Cats, that is my main job around here. That is, my job is to keep Strange Cats and Nasty Doggies out of the yard. I must be always on the alert. There is a stray tom who comes a lot, and I have to chase him off. Mom comes and helps sometimes. She shouts and claps her hands and has a Great Big Stick that she pounds on the porch and shakes at the intruders. This works pretty well on the cats, although I always have to finish chasing them off, but it works very very well on Nasty Doggies. Nasty Doggies only come into my yard now and then, but when Mom comes out with her stick they run and run. Heehee. Cowards dogs are!! Well, my meow-speak voice is getting rough, so I'm turning this over to Emily.

Meow hi! Me Emily has been having fun this week. Me has been pawing e-mail to Ebony BlackCat, my new friend on the puter thingy. Harry paws some, but mostly it is me. Ebony a nice friend is, and knows just what Human Beans are like! Harry and me hasn't been playing Meow and Chase for a few days, 'cause his meow-voice is funny. We still go out, but he doesn't much want to play. That's OK with me. Me is getting plenty of running chasing leaves. It is so fun, and everything smells sooo neat!! Mices and squirrels are furry busy. Today I helped Mom outside. She was putting what she calls "ducktape" on cracks in our house bottom, and putting a Big Black Rattley Sheet around the big box that makes the house cool in the summer. I was lots of help!! Harry had to go to the Vet Bean today!! Mom says he is OK, but he is furry mad. Meow, am glad it wasn't me Emily!! Mom got me a new bag to play with. It is just my size. Me can hide my head in it, and no one can see me. Ha ha!! Me must work on it a little, so me can get all of me into it. It won't take me long. Oh! Me think me hear Mom in the kitchen. Meow must go remind her to give me Yum-yums. She always forgets unless me Emily is there. I'll paw to you next week. Meow Bye from me Emily and Harry Meeeooowww.

Harry and Emily's Cat Chat 11-18-98:

Hi, it's me Harry! We have new pictures of us this week, and Mom says we'll have even better ones next week! Mom was furry furry sad yesterday because some mean old bean crashed into her car. Now me, I don't like that car, except of course to lay on, but Mom loves her car and was crying so hard, so Emily and me purred and snuggled all over her to make her feel better. Then Mom's girlfriend bean came over to make her feel better too. We were furry furry glad to see her. Girlfriend is my favorite bean besides Mom. She spoils me and Emily even more than Mom does! Puuurrrrrrr. We three sat on the couch and snuggled all evening. A few times they snuggled with each other so much they forgot to pet me, but I reminded them I was there! Emily pulled her "I'm mad that you haven't come over so long" act and wouldn't come to girlfriend bean at all. All the more loving for me, I say-silly kitten! Oh! Mom has been making it rain a lot this week, and sometimes she just will not make it stop! I know she can, because sometimes she opens the door and it's raining, then a minute later she opens the door and the rain has stopped. She says she can't make the rain stop, but I know she is just pulling our tails!! That's like her saying, "that's all I've got for you" when she feeds me something I don't want that day, when I know there is food I do want in the cupboard!! (Emily!! Stop! I'm not done!) Humph! Where was I? Oh! The other day when Mom was making it rain, I came in and jumped on her lamp to get warm and she pushed me out of her lap and said I was wet! Of course I was wet, and it was Mom's fault! These beans!! I mean, I love Mom, but sometimes she just doesn't make any sense at all! (OK, Emily, OK! Geez.) Emily is pushing me away from the keyboard, so I guess I'll turn the column over to her. Paw to you next week!

That Harry Meow! Complaining always about the rain!! What wrong with being a little wet?? It doesn't bother me. What does bother me is when me come in wet, Mom wants to dry me!! Me hate that! As if me hasn't a puuurfectly good tongue!! Like Harry said, girlfriend bean came over last night to make Mom feel better. It had been furry furry long since she came here last, so of course me wouldn't go see her! Me love her furry furry much, but what self-respecting cat would go to a bean who has not around for long been?? (yes, Harry, me is talking about you! You is shameless!!) Well! Me told that girlfriend been just what me thought about her not being here for so long in tail-speak, then went and hid in my box. She called and called, but she knew what me was saying! As if any cat would come when called!! Claws and Tails!! These beans just don't understand what being a cat all about is. Next time girlfriend bean comes over, me will let her pet me-maybe! Anyway, after girlfriend bean left, me and Mom snuggled til we fell asleep. It was furry nice. Mom is better feeling today. She says a friend is her car going to fix good and cheap. That is good, since Mom spend all her money on food and yum-yums for us! (Mmmmerooww! Me is hungry now. Need more yum-yums!) Mom!! Kitchen Patrol!! Oh, paw to you next week. Purrs and Snuggles. Me Emily and Harry Meow.
© 1998 Ariel, Harry, and Emily

Poetry Corner
This new poem was inspired from a song off a CD. The poem was added to the new poetry collection called Moments of Life:

"The Part"
November 19, 1998

Oh, but I need...
Need someone to love me
But I don't know
Who will take the part

Been searching
The night lonely
The stars blue
But can't find you

Need someone
For life
Just right
But who'd play the part

We are masks
Sweaty clay
Clutching hands
Eyes staring

Want someone
Anyone under skies
Open and free
Only a part to play

And I look forever
Lonely, depressed
Music cut short
But can't find that someone

I yearn, burn
For anyone to love
But I don't know
Who will take the part...

In The Park
The park should be full of friends and fun right now. I am sure Thanksgiving will be eventful and full of great tastes and smells. Christmas planning is in full swing. You can't forget all those New Years' eve parties either. Be careful now.

I know the marina is full of boats and those wonderful fishing maniacs. Oops, I mean fanatics. The boating has to be extremely good, if the small water-skis don't run over you. And, of course, the restaurants are always fine. Then there is US1 traffic which is always super busy. Crossing US1 toward Key Largo is an adventure though. I never minded because I just turned right and then doubled back. You have to just see the perspectives.

I have been monitoring the weather there from my weather email I get three times a day. I like the temperatures and the weather in general. Here in Virginia I can't remember the last time I saw the sun. The wet, cold feel in the air is hard for me to tolerate. The Keys always seemed warm to me.

I miss the swimming and sitting by the pool. Of course, I and the cats miss all of you. Ebony, though, mostly misses the hot, sun-filled lizards that she used to hunt. Finally, having some experience with the bike path, be extremely cautious all you bikers, walkers, and runners. Big autos and trucks can give out split lips, broken bones, and cause bruises if you are not really very careful.

"The Mountains of Ao"
Tears from Ao continue serialized each month in the Internet e-zine (an electronic magazine) called The Outer Rim at the internet URL of www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/1225/. I am working hard on The Mountains of Ao chapter 11 of 22 chapters. Existing proofreaders please contact me via email/snail mail to arrange for quick delivery of the latest version of the novel. A new sample will be ready soon.

If you want to become a snail-mail proofreader, write to Larry Shaffer at the below address. I will send you a 3½ inch diskette (specify content format needed.) All others wanting to be proofreaders please apply via the email form link listed below. Nondisclosure statements will be required for all.

The Dull Stuff
Inputs and letters to this journal are subject to approval by Ebony. All inputs may be edited for content and become the property of Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company.

The address follows:
Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company
PO Box 501833
Marathon FL 33050-1833
(305) 743-9648 voice/data/fax

Internet URLs: http://RunesofAo.com
http://RunesofAo.com/aobp/
http://RunesofAo.com/ebony/
http://RunesofAo.com/abby/