Cat Castellanos

Writer & aspiring fiction author. Revising final draft. Dog mom and lover of sprinkles.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The art of sentence length by Gary Provost

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

Steinbeck, what a line

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, what a paragraph...

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

Phew, we made it to #electionday2024! Things will get easier from here, folks. Now all we have to do is grab some wine and prep our safe rooms.

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

Sleeping Together in 2024

The other day, I received a phone call from a dating service. Honestly, I’d forgotten I’d signed up, but why refuse a chance at Mr. Right?

“I have the perfect guy for you,” said the professional man-herder on the other end of the line. “He’s a Christian. He’s tall. His only stipulation is he can’t be with a Trumper.”

An ache forms in my stomach. This man would have a hard time with my family at Thanksgiving.

I am not a Trumper, though I am a Republican. Like many, I am still wading through the morass of uncertainty and embarrassment that is 2024.

“You know what my stipulation is?” I responded. “I can’t be with a man who would cut someone off because of their political beliefs. It’s un-Christian. It’s unnecessary. @JamesCarville and Mary Matalin are on opposite sides of the aisle, and they sleep in the same bed! WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST SLEEP TOGETHER?”

It’s not the first time I’ve lost a relationship because of my political beliefs. In 2016, the mere suggestion that @realdonaldtrump had some redeeming qualities beyond his explosive Trumpiness was enough for my best friend to cut me off.

Now, whenever conversation edges into politics, I keep my mouth shut and pray my friends can’t smell the Republican on me.

It hurts to do so.

I want to be able to share my entire self with my friends. I want to hear their views and start a discussion, knowing its end will not bring ours.

All over the country, grandsons have cut off their Facebook-ranting grandmas. Husbands and wives have declared politics to be an exception to ‘for better or for worse.’ Dogs and cats, previously united, have once again come apart.

It seems the left is more likely to cut off their right-wing companions than vice-versa. Libs, I can hear you chanting through my screen: That’s because right-wing rhetoric is more extreme! Have you seen what my Aunt Eileen posts on Facebook???

That may be true. And yet, the right’s extreme rhetoric has been matched by the left’s action. I’d feel 85% comfortable going to a #Trump rally in a Biden T-shirt, but I’d be scared to wear a red hat anywhere, even if it didn’t say MAGA. The Democrats were once the party of civil liberties and acceptance. When did the same people who fought to save the planet and all its furry, endangered creatures become so cutthroat?

Whether we like it or not, roughly half the country will vote for Donald Trump on Nov 5th. Should he win, this will slather a tub of frosting on the divisive cupcake that has been this election cycle.

It’s easy to reject ideas that threaten our identity. It makes us feel safe, and right now, we could all use a little security. When we identify the enemy, we declare I am not one of those people. It makes us feel better for a time.

But pushing others away does not protect us. We are declaring that we are better than other Americans, and there is nothing we can learn from half the country. That’s a loss for all of us.

As a proud childless (dog) lady, it’s hard to quote @jdvance but he, too, has redeeming qualities: "If you discard a lifelong friendship because somebody votes for the other team, you've made a terrible mistake... Don't cast aside family members and lifelong friendships. Politics is not worth it. If we follow that principle, we'll heal the divide in this country."

Politics is not worth it.

We can stand against a candidate while standing next to their supporters. We are, after all, Americans. We should have inappropriately loud discussions, then sit down to eat oversized portions together.

We all need to cling to something now. Cling to the belief that we all want what is best for this country, even if we have dramatically different, or, in the case of Aunt Eileen, outdated ideas of what that looks like.

And as for this this Thanksgiving, maybe just stick to an easy topic like religion.

To my potential date: if you’re up for it, I’m up for it. We’re all in the same gravy boat now.

#election2024

[Jack Straw @JackStr42679640]

Good Dr

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

How are our writers supposed to compete with real news like this?

[Infinite Books @infinitebooks]

E. B. White on writing for children

This is it

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

This for everything

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

@jedunne @alexcast @TheSpectator Thanks Joanne!

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

Bought new slippers today. Feel oddly more put together. Might be time to reevaluate my life choices.

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

Carl Sagan on books

"What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years."

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

Welcome to the world’s slowest car crash. #CNNDebate #Biden

[Fascinating @fasc1nate]

Kurt Vonnegut's 8 rules for writing:
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1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.⁣
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2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.⁣
⁣
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.⁣
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4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.⁣
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5. Start as close to the end as possible.⁣
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6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.⁣
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7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.⁣
⁣
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.⁣

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

Can you still call it 'Netflix and chill' if you're just snuggling with your dog?

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

@WrnrWrites That is absolutely vile. Some might say, tea-gusting.

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

#Biden walks like he's climbing stairs in dark. : (

[Cat Castellanos @CatCastell]

Married/partnered/people with sleeping companions: Where do you keep your laptop, your kindle, your giant three foot stuffed dog???