Today we celebrated my daughter’s 18th birthday at a laser tag joint. What fun! I happened to notice my mother carrying a copy of Shadow Cat. My word is she hard on books. The cover was rolled, the pages dog-eared. This is why I no longer let her borrow my books. She’s just got no respect for the paper.
Anyway. 🙂 Fantasy is not her thing. Last year I offered her an urban fantasy, and it left her so confused. I knew going in that Shadow Cat probably wouldn’t work for her, but she’s my mom, right?
The reading has been slow going for her, but she’s getting through it. She’s about half-way through it at the moment. I think she picked up speed after I told her to pass it along and let someone else read it. No sense forcing the issue. Reading should be fun.
As we’re strolling to the front desk, I asked her how is she liking Shadow Cat? It’s good, she said. Earlier she’d said chapter 1 started slow. It jumped right into the supernatural. However, she liked chapter 2 (mundania). Chapter 4 hopped back into fantasy land, which is likely where she set the book aside for the second time and had to force herself to pick it up again.
She’d just finished chapter 20. I followed up with, “is it getting better, worse, the same?”
“You freaky slut,” Mom said.
My eyelids went into convulsions. “What?”
“You freaky slut. I’m not going to get off on it.” She glances at me. “I can’t… not when my daughter wrote it. You freaky slut. All I can think about is you–” She walks a little faster, shaking her head. “I’m going to read it, but I won’t get aroused.”
“So is it good?”
“Yeah, it’s good.”