This fun book to read is a great guide on how to make your cat a star, but the author also puts a lot of humor into what she writes. And let’s face it: if you want to work with your feline and send them skyrocketing to stardom, you must have a sense of humor.
My eight cats are a constant source of companionship and enjoyment, so I paid close attention to every suggestion made. Will my cats soon become household names? They will if I take the time to do the things laid out for me in this book.
From how to make your cat a star to what to do when and if your cat’s fame goes away, this book covers it all. In just the first chapter, you are told how to determine the type of cat (or cats) you have to work with, how to give your cat a memorable name, and how to obtain cat-sized props.
Descriptions are given of many different types of cats so you can determine what you have to work with. Is your cat a Sweet Baby Kitten, a Lazy Bum, a Total Badass, a Daredevil, a Clown, a Complete Moron, a Heartthrob, a Scary Ugly Beast, Clinically Insane, or Utterly Bland? I read through these descriptions with great interest. Right now I have eight cats, but I have had many other feline companions during my thirty-three years of my marriage. I’m pretty sure I’ve had cats that fit into each one of the types described except for Scary Ugly Beast.
How do you set the scene for the photos and videos of your beloved cat? It is impossible to direct a cat, so how do you capture the perfect shot? The author suggests twenty-seven different items that should prompt your feline to do something cute. The first suggestion is one that I’m sure you have already thought of – a box. I don’t think there is a cat of any size out there that can resist climbing in a box.
Once you have captured the perfect footage of your feline, you are instructed in how to edit it and then add visual effects and sound. Then comes the main thing: how to get your video to the millions just waiting to see it. After you succeed in doing this, do you just sit back and enjoy the huge cash flow? Nope. Now you learn how to keep your kitty famous and their name on everyone’s lips.
I really enjoyed reading this book. The author made it informative and humorous at the same time. The pictures not only sparked more ideas but also were a perfect representation of just what the author was teaching.
girl writing, etc.usf.edu
How Fiction Writers Can Use This Book:
One of the things this book discusses is how to make your cat stand out by using accessories or how to give your cat character. It is easy to see how this can be applied to fiction writing. Each character we create needs to have something in his/her physical appearance, a distinctive voice or way of speaking, a unique way of dressing, or something else that makes him stand out from the rest.
If you are a writer who owns one or more cats, you could use this book in several ways.
1) It will give you some fantastic ideas on names for your own felines or names for your feline characters.
2) Any of the suggestions given in the book to take your cat to stardom could be used as a writing prompt.
3) Tips are given on how to hijack a search engine and how to use social media and certain websites to your feline’s advantage. These suggestions could be used to market your writing.
cat writing, pixabay
I was sent a copy of this book by Quirk Books in exchange for an honest review. If you would like a copy of this book for yourself so you can read how to make your cat an internet celebrity, I have provided an Amazon link below.
Amazon Link: How to Make Your Cat an Internet Celebrity: A Guide to Financial Freedom
Writing Prompt:
Have a character follow the instructions in this book to propel his/her feline to stardom. Write about the ups and downs the human and the cat experience along the way. You could make this a serious story, but I really see it as being more of a humorous one.
cat reading, pixabay
Favorite Sentences:
Or will you be forced to admit that –despite owning both a cat and a computer during this legendary Golden Age of Cat Videos – you were the only cretin in the world who failed to cash in?
Because of frequent browsing and tweeting, the viewers of your movie have the attention span of a gray squirrel.
If a cat plays a keyboard in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
smart cat, pixabay
New Words Learned:
cretin – a stupid, obtuse, or mentally defective person
jejune – without interest or significance; dull; insipid
mellifluous – sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding
obsequious – characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference
About the Author and the Photographer:
Patricia Carlin, the author, has also written How to Tell if Your Boyfriend is the Antichrist and Alfie is Not Afraid. She lives in Ardmore, Pennsylvania and is phobic about clowns, great white sharks, and petting zoos.
Dustin Fenstermacher, the photographer, travels between Brooklyn and Philadelphia. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Vice, the Village Voice, New Jersey Magazine, Washington Post Magazine and a litany of other publications. For this book, he took photos of over four dozen felines.
