RT convention

It's been a while since I've blogged here. Too long! Wow... A while back, I posted that I'd be attending Romantic Times convention in Orlando, FL. This week (Tuesday-Sunday) was it. There's so many things that happened, and just the fact that it was my first convention (related to writing) I'd ever been to, I was a little overwhelmed. After a day or two, I started coming down from being so wide-eyed by all of the people and events.

I went to some great workshop/panels on Urban Fantasy and the various other ones they had like Blogging your way to Self-Promotion with J.A. Konrath. That one helped me a lot since I have a blog, but I'm still trying to get the hang of blogging on a regular basis. It was more easy to blog with The Deadly Vixens because I had a set day each week and a basic idea on what topic I'd write about. I think after going to that, I have a better grasp of how to make things work for me though.

I'll write more about RT in the coming days, and post pictures from the convention that I took, which I'm excited about. Woohoo! Now I need to get back to my novel, which had a few requests. *big grin*

Superstitions regarding Cats

Today I'm going to be talking about some of the superstition regarding cats. Being a cat lover, I found the topic in general quiet interesting. Below are the most fascinating I was able to find.

As most people know, Ancient Egyptians worshiped cats, and as one of my favorite cat-related quotes go, "Thousands of years ago, cats were worshiped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." Anyone who owns a cat knows this is true, but, back to the subject. =) Part of the reason why Egyptians worshiped cats were because of the cat’s "glowing" eyes. As I found from one of my sources, "This was because Egyptians worshipped the sun, and they believed that cats could retain the sun's power within their eyes. They believed this because of a retina adaptation called ‘tapetum,’ which is the phenomenon that causes cats’ eyes to appear to glow in the dark; anyone who has seen a cat has probably noted this phenomenon, wherein a cat’s eyes reflect a somewhat green circle of light." That's surprising to me since I hadn't really heard of that idea before doing my research, but it makes a lot of sense.

Another very interesting tidbit is that during the medieval ages just before the Bubonic Plague really started up, there was a lot of cat killing going on. And...guess what? That is one of the reasons why the Bubonic Plague was so devastating. Cats would have been important in killing the brown rats, which spread the black plague.

Another source has this to say about cats in the Middle Ages, "It was largely in the Middle Ages that the black cat became affiliated with evil. Because cats are nocturnal and roam at night, they were believed to be supernatural servants of witches, or even witches themselves. Partly because of the cat's sleek movements and eyes that 'glow' at night, they became the embodiment of darkness, mystery, and evil, possessing frightening powers. If a black cat walked into the room of an ill person, and the person later died, it was blamed on the cat's supernatural powers. If a black cat crossed a person's path without harming them, this indicated that the person was then protected by the devil. Often times, a cat would find shelter with older women who were living in solitude. The cat became a source of comfort and companionship, and the old woman would curse anyone who mistreated it. If one of these tormentors became ill, the witch and her familiar were blamed." That makes more since on why people thought they needed to kill cats at the period of time, but it's still so horrible!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this topic! I'd love to hear what you think about these beliefs as well as share your own. Have you heard of interesting cat superstitions or tidbits?

Interesting Links: http://cats.suite101.com/article.cfm/egyptian_cat_myths
http://www.cat-health-behavior.com/cats-history.html
http://maxellah.tripod.com/superstitions.htm

Class is over...

I had thought wrote a blog toward the beginning of the month about being involved in the excellent Empowering Character's Emotions class with Margie Lawson, but I guess I didn't. It was hosted by the PASIC chapter of RWA. Needless to say, it has been mind-blowing and intense with all of the great information! Margie is an excellent teacher, so if anyone is interested in taking her classes, which I will so be doing again in May, her website address is www.margielawson.com. Now I'm going to mosey on to bed in hopes of a productive day tomorrow. =)