To put it bluntly, the inspiration for the book was a cat that “took up with me” and, in fact, behaved a lot like Leo. However, as any writer worth his salt knows, there is a phenomenon where the characters in the narrative take over and are rather aggressive about how their stories should be told. This is the fun part for the writer, because at this point, he or she is whisked away to a magical land where the muse speaks, and  the author merely records. In Greek mythology, the Muses were goddesses who came and went as they pleased, visiting mortals with fresh ideas or transcendent melodies (they encompassed all of the creative arts, including music composition). Obviously, the ancients recognized this phenomenon of inspiration and also recognized the capricious nature of these deities. The prosaic term for their absence, by the way, is “writer’s block.” If  the Muses check out permanently, the writer  is finished!

Without trying to sound self-aggrandizing or belabor the point, I would also say that the creative process is clearly a mesh of what the author has lived and has observed. Obviously, there is a bit of autobiography in  virtually everything a writer pens; however, one must be careful in  assuming that everything that one writes is something that he or she did. A good writer tries to write Truth, something that resonates as “real” in the readers’ minds and hearts. But a good writer often “imagines” truth. A good writer knows it to be true whether or not she has ever personally lived or seen it.

Also, part of the observable aspects of my inspiration came from my many years of going into men’s prisons, conducting Bible studies. I encountered a multitude of “tough cats” there and came to see that, although an individual’s past might be shady and his language salty, he  may still be on  track to receive the glorious redemption that is Jesus Christ. In fact, I believe that the more “broken” and/or tempered by life’s tribulations and temptations an individual is, oftentimes, the more open he is to forgiveness and Salvation .