Flash here. Guess what? I don’t have to stow away in Cindy’s suitcase after all! She said I can come on the retreat with her today as long as I behave myself and don’t bother the other main characters who might be tagging along with their authors.

Who me?

I think I know why she’s letting me come. She’s working on my story again. See, we finally got the revision letter from Scholastic. For about a week Cindy stared at a big piece of cardboard covered with sticky notes, mumbling words that made no sense at all. Structure. Catalyst. Midpoint. All is lost.

Hel-lo? I’ll tell you what was lost—her brain. I mean, come on, we can’t sit around playing with color-coded sticky notes when we’ve got work to do! The Scholastic editor is waiting. Could we please get writing already? Finally, she sat down at the computer and I curled up on her lap.

I have to say she’s made good progress since then, but she wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much done without my help. Maybe I should change my name from Flash, Feline Extraordinaire to Flash, Feline Extraordinaire and Professional “Mews.”

Get it? Like a muse? Ha! Sometimes I am so clever I amaze even myself! No wonder Cindy can’t do without me while she’s gone on this retreat for four days. Well, I got a plane to catch. I’m still hoping one of the other authors’ main character is a sweet green-eyed GIRL cat. I won’t bother her. Cross my whiskers.