Our Community

Pamela Corcoran was the first person to sign up for a writing workshop when we opened the Korongo Gallery on Merchants Row in 2010. She continued writing with me for the rest of her life. Pam was a sweetheart. We in her writing group all loved her, and we were devastated when we learned a few days after our last meeting that she had died, suddenly, after being injured in a fall. At the time, I was working on a piece inspired by Pam and her love of cats, and I was looking forward to reading it to her. The exercise began as an experiment in point-of-view. In the story, Pam was the star of a podcast, Calling All Cats, which had a worldwide following. Many of her listeners were cats, and they were able to communicate with Pam through telepathic messages. The following message is from Koko, a Japanese bobtail cat. Koko's ancestors were employed by nobles to catch the mice that nibbled on rice-paper scrolls. Here, Koko is writing in English, which is not her native language:

Dear Pampam:

Calling All Cats is great, great podcast. Me, I want to have podcast too. Podcast about bookses. I read many bookses. My ancestors were guardians of ancient scroles (rhymes with moles).

Here something I wrote.

A Cat’s Guide to World Literature

By Koko the Literary Cat

Romeo and Juliet

Everything nice. Juliet happy. Then Romeo come. Garden, moonlight. Juliet fall crazy in love. She run away. She die. Romeo die. The end.

No cats in this story.

The Great Russian Novel

All time snowing. All time dark and sad. Prostitutes, drunks, axe murderers. Many people die. No cats.

Hiawatha

A great man, a man of peace. Only big cats in Hiawatha country at this time. (No pussycats.) Poomas, bobcats, linxes, exetcha. Exetcha mean “and on and on like that.”

For my podcast, I want reviewing bookses. How to do it:

First, say what heppen. Like this: “Becoming Madame Texier is story about lady who move to France.”

Next, say the good: “This very good story. Very interesting.”

Now, say the bad: “This story very long. There are no cats.

Next, say how to improve: “Put more cats.”

How to Write Good Bookses

1. Put a cat in it.

2. Put some birds or mouses or fishes.

3. No dogs. No snakes. No loud noisings.

4. Don’t worry about spilling. Spill check will fix it.

To be continued . . .