Cleo's Room Publishing

Twins joined at the soul...

From the moment I rescued Cleo, I knew, it was she who would rescue me.  She was my feline twin, and we were joined at the soul. She even loved writing as much as I did. Cleo often helped me type, leaving pages filled with her own special words such as 4l;kd/9fdugfmyp8`2h1n*r.  When I printed out drafts to proofread in bed, Cleo would carefully and deliberately stand up, turn a circle or two, then lie back down on top of each page as I flipped it onto the “edited” pile beside me.  If I hand-wrote too many corrections, Cleo would chastise me by swatting the pen, leaving her own special proofreading marks on the page. 

Cleo was a gorgeous Devon Rex cat with the Sphynx gene.  Devon Rex felines have softer-than-velveteen curly or wavy “fur” (which isn’t fur at all, but is undercoating), and those that have the Sphynx gene often have areas with no hair.  Cleo had no whiskers, no eyebrows, no tail hair, no facial hair, and the softest down-like waves covering the rest of her.  Her coloring resembled that of a mountain lion cub, and she possessed the intelligence of a third-grader.  She could do several tricks on command and came to me every time I whistled for her.  Each night when it was time for bed, I'd say, “Come on; let’s go to Cleo’s room,” and Cleo would run to follow me.  My special nickname for her was “my sweet lady girl.” 

While I've written several full-length manuscripts over the years, I wasn’t ready to publish them.  When I knew it was time to publish my our debut novel, Cleo and I made our final edits and got things prepared to go.  And then Cleo got sick.  After a brief but devastating illness, she had to leave.  It was with the weight of a broken heart that I had to publish our novel without Cleo by my side.  So, to include her in the only way I could, I decided that our work would be published by Cleo’s Room Publishing.  I figure that’s the least I can do to honor my sweet lady girl.