Book Reviews - Author Gold

Tails From the Park Reviews

Purrrrrrrring! I can't decide whether to clean my whiskers, turn in circles, or go outside for another adventure.

It's one thing to tell stories and get them up on Amazon but getting reviews is the greatest gift an author can get. Thanks to my readers who took time out of their busy lives to post a review.

Reaching out with a paw of love.

If you want more Max get Tails From The Park (Series 3).

Who would think that a cat named Max would make me want to keep turning the page? Wherever he goes, something happens, and no matter how big the mess, he somehow comes out on top every time. Max continues to delight. VBF

There is more than one book in this series. The books are so cute and funny as they follow Max thru his adventures. I have already pre-ordered the next book. I just love cats. And I wlsh Max was my cat. C. A. Isbell 

Max lives a very full and exciting life, it is fun to see the world through Max's eyes.
Can't wait for the next one.Thomas Allen 

More great Max tails (tales). More scraps with the maintenance man, a conflict with a police dog causing the Sheriff to show up.... You need to read it yourself to learn of Max's other adventures including Max early life before coming to live with Mom and Dad, and Baby. This little character continues to delight and I hope there are more adventures to come.  OldGiantFan

Max continues to entertain me with his adventures.Mary E. Pergande

Max is such an interesting feline. Always getting into such cute situations.
The author Tim seems to think like a cat or does he actually converse with MAX??Nannyof4

Great fun. Great read. So glad I'm getting to know the Maxtor.Barbara Forman-Mack

Max

Meet My Arch Cat Rival, Ivan The Blue

Meet My Arch Cat Rival, Ivan!

Tails From The Park (Series 4) is coming out on October 15. Here's a preview from the chapter Amanda.

A few of his gang became unruly and the lieutenants had to scramble to keep control. Ivan held me down with one massive paw on my upper body. It was getting harder to breathe. His eyes flashed when he turned his head toward me. He opened his mouth and bared his giant fangs. From behind him Amanda jumped onto his back and drove her teeth into his side. He howled and shook her off. I watched as she landed against the sliding glass door. 

She got back up onto her paws and growled. When she stepped out, the floor seemed to jump under us. The deck became a mass of grey bodies as the gangsters flung themselves in all directions, trying to beat a hasty retreat as best they could. In a matter of seconds only Amanda, Ivan, his two lieutenants and I were left on the deck. I had double vision but I could see that the kitchen light had come on. The door’s lock unlatched and a whoosh of hot air ruffled Amanda’s fur. Unnerved Ivan’s lieutenants growled in that guttural foreign tongue of theirs. He moved and the pressure on my shoulder let up enough for me to pull myself out from under his big paw. Free, I backed up, which forced Amanda against the sliding glass door. The vertical blinds slapped wildly back and forth as the light threw itself and its shadows across the deck as my mom appeared over us. 

Spooked, the lieutenants backed away, almost falling off the front steps finally Ivan turned and then slowly almost casually he walked down the steps. 

I heard Mom’s voice, “Max, who’s your little friend there…honey?” How she missed seeing my tormenter I could only guess. My dad appeared, his head sticking out into the cold.

My other books are available on Amazon now.  Get more Max and a lot of Maxitude!

Max

Writing Is Work

But Storytelling Is Fun

Usually I leave the computer work to +Tim Hammill but every once in a while I like to...play around on the keyboard.

I had fun telling the stories in the latest book. Do you have Tails From The Park (Series 3)? Here's a little bit about how I got really cool with sunglasses.

She followed my gaze to her jewellery, and exclaimed, “I know, I can make you look really, really cool.”

She flung herself out of bed and from a chest of drawers pulled out a pair of blue jeans. Sticking one long leg then the other into them she forced herself into the tight pants. She grabbed a T-shirt that proclaimed, ‘custom shades by Stormi.’ Pulling the garment up and over her head, she flipped her mass of blonde hair about in the air. Now, she was ready to make me cool.

She picked me up off the bed and we ran down the hallway. She placed me on the work table, rummaged through a box on the floor, and pulled out a clear plastic bag filled with sunglasses marked ‘Baby shades-2 years old’.

“Oh, this is going to be a blast!” she exclaimed.

She worked in a frenzy, popping the dark lenses out of the frames. Placing them off to one side of her work bench, she cut the frames in places, and added plastic pieces where needed. We went through six or seven pair before she got her adjustments correct. They sat on my nose just fine and weren’t too heavy. The problem was with the ear pieces.

“You see, kid, your ears are in a totally different place than my usual customers. I’m going to have to make an extra bit of plastic that fits over your head a little on both sides and then mold the ear pieces around the back. Then, I’ll add a band of elastic to keep the glasses on.”

After the last of the final adjustments she slipped the glasses onto my head. I was sleepy so it didn’t bother me in the least. When she was finished, I curled up into a ball and nodded off to Z land.

Head bumps!

Max

The Fixer - Tails From The Park (Series 3) Excerpt

Food, An All-Time Favorite

How I Steal The Show

In my new Series 3 of Tails From The Park I get into trouble in the story The Fixer...of course. But I also steal the show from the food personality. You can get the book here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013AOZ6C4

Enjoy this tasty excerpt:

My time had come. This was going to be my best and maybe only chance to grab some of that heavenly, stinky fish. Instantly, my night vision turned on.

I leapt onto the table, brushing against a young girl who said “What’s that?” I sniffed the first bowl, no, the second no, the third bingo, anchovies…I was there. I was just about to dip into that utterly beautiful grilled fish when the light came back on. When that young girl, who I bumped into saw me and screamed.

Wendy rushed forward to my rescue. She stood in back of me as Tony strode up to us saying in his jovial voice, “And what do we have here?”

He leaned forward, with a dish of meat and grilled fish in his hands. The smell from the new dish got my attention. I reached out my paw, and I made contact with his hand. This brought me to an almost standing position. I let out an extremely polite “Meow” short but to the point, followed by a loud steady purr. Now you have to understand that my purrs are quite different from most cats. Not having a mother to learn from, I sort of made mine up much later in life. It turned out loud and rough.

Tony bent down. He held up his hand for quiet. I lifted my head closer to his ear and purred in my broken husky style. He exclaimed, “Now that’s what I’m talking about here, a fan of your grilled fish.”

 The humans are working on Book 4. And...
A paperback collection of all my stories which will be out for the Holidays. It's so great being a cat, telling my stories, and having the humans do the work.

Let me know what you think of this new book. I love my readers. Purrrrrrrr.

More Max! Book 3 is out.

Get more Max!

Meet Max, a cat who tells stories, collected in a series of humorous, adventure tales full of laughter, tenderness, and escapes in Tails From The Park. 

Max has an abundance of hereditary feline curiosity. What starts out as innocent exploration often leads to unintended escapades. He lives with his human Mom and Dad in a mobile home park where life is simple, unless you are a cat. 

Full of colorful characters whose sentiments can turn Max from quiet napping intermission to extraordinary mayhem each story sets its own pace. 

Best of all, you’ll discover Maxitude. Max has a way of telling which is full of curiosity and vigor. Life is best with Maxitude. 

Fuerza Bruta: A big yellow monster and a deep hole. 
Nostalgia: A photo album and a piece of string. 
Stormi: Max gets custom sunglasses. 
The Fixer: Max enters the foodie world. 
That’s Entertainment: Max and Baby 
The Importance of Being Max: Stage debut. 

Of course, Max has trouble interfacing with computers and their periphery. His best skill is waiting patiently for paper to come out of the printer so he can pounce. He enlists his human friend, Tim Hammill, as an intermediary to put the stories into words. 

Curl up for lighthearted entertainment and get your Maxitude. 
#MaxTails 

The Sounds Cats Make

Cat Sounds 

If you've read Tails from the Park you've encountered some of my Maxisms which are the special sounds I make to communicate both with humans and other cats.

Just for Humans

Did you know that cats have a unique ability to tailor sounds to the humans in their life? When cats want your attention they will experiment with sounds until one works to get the desired results. Some people call this idiosyncratic sounds. Cats are one of the few animals that can make up their own sounds, a cat vocabulary, localized to his own human family.

Pretty cool, huh?

A Wide Variety of Sounds

Cats have a wide variety of sounds their humans should get to know.  Here's a brief list from Messy Beast

• Caterwaul - cat wants sex!
• Chatter - excitement, frustration e.g. when prey is out of reach or escapes (involves rapid teeth-chattering jaw movements)
• Chirrup - friendly greeting sound, a cross between a meow and a purr! (friendly greeting sound with rising inflection; familiar to most cat owners)
• Cough-bark - alarm signal (rare in pet cats); like us, cats can cough both voluntarily and involuntarily)
• Growl - threat, challenge, warns others to go away
• Hiss (with or without spit) - threat, fear, warns others to back off
• Meow - general-purpose attention seeking sound used by adult cats to communicate with owners or with kittens
• Mew (of kittens) - distress, hunger, cold (to attract mother's attention)
• Purr - contentment, relaxation, also to comfort itself if in pain (cats in extremis may purr); a loud purr invites close contact or attention
• Scream - fear, pain, anger, distress
• Squawk - surprise, shock (somewhat strangled sound)
• Yowl - a threat, offensive or defensive, but also used in a modified form by some cats seeking attention when owner is out of sight
• Idiosyncratic sounds - a sound which a particular cat uses in a particular context.

If you missed the Maxisms you can get all the Tails From The Park books by visiting my author page. You can leave me a message there, too. I love to here from my readers.

How to Annoy Your Cat

Humans, beware!

Some of us do not have the mellow temperament suited to advanced yodeling. Please be sensitive to this issue.

Tim, thought this was funny. I am in disagreement on this one.