I'm happy to present the cover art for the upcoming anthology Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse.
Plans for this collection edited by Lyn Worthen began last fall, and that's when I wrote my story, "The Witch of Washington Park." Who knew? The Doomsday Clock from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was set at two minutes to midnight.
In January 2020, it moved up thirty seconds, to a minute and a half.
Visit the Camden Park Press Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse page
The submission call read "It’s time to turn the `man and his dog wandering through a dystopian world' trope on its head..."
I wasn't sure at first what I'd do with that. I began with the notion of a former scientist, her name's Cassandra, making her way through a deserted city and finding a frightened boy holding a cat.
She was working to establish a bit of an oasis where food could be safely grown in an urban environment. Most of the world outside, a landscape ravaged by climate and nuclear disasters, but she and her cat named Midnight were holding on.
She'd grown despondent, however. Taking care of the boy, naming his cat Raven, offering him bits of culture and history while teaching him about agriculture began to give her new life.
Yet threats loom, threats always loom.
As always when a story takes off, the writing experience was exhilarating.
The collection includes many other great tales. Cats that eat zombies. Badass librarians, cat ladies battling something like Cthulhu and much more. It's arriving soon, so keep watching your favorite bookseller's site.
See also: Quoth the Raven featuring my story, "A Cooler of Craft Brew."
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