I won’t even begin to pretend that she was my cat. She existed in my wife’s life a good seven years before I even came into the picture. Still, we bonded immediately, same as she did with anyone she ever met.
On the second weekend of mine and my wife’s super-secret (she was kinda my boss) relationship, she allowed me to stay in her condo alone. Well, alone plus Zoe. She was flying to Atlanta for Shaky Knees and I had a table at Texas Frightmare Weekend. My choices were to get to know Zoe, get a hotel, or drive a three hour round-trip to the venue for three days. Let’s just say me and old Zoe got along famously. She slept with me all three nights like we knew each other. I even scooped her litter box.
She earned a lot of nicknames over the years and, as with all my pets, they get theme songs. Pazuzu and Zoodles were two of my favorites. Whenever she was hungry, I would often initiate the conversation regarding Zoodles Noodles. There was never anything with Zoe that could be considered daily conversation. We made it special.
My novella, “Starving Zoe” was originally called “The Screaming of the Trees”. One night, my wife shouted from upstairs that Zoe had a vet appointment in the morning. To confirm aloud, I replied, “So, we need to starve Zoe?”
Click.
For the next seven years, I watched Zoe go from super-chunk to skin & bones. Car rides stressed her out incredibly, and my cat – a brain damaged rescue named Keekers – would forget who Zoe was whenever she’d return from the vet. They’d fight for a month! Zoe’s last vet visit revealed the beginnings of some major kidney issues, so we pondered the choices.
Do we let her spend her last years being stressed out, poked, prodded, cut on, and medicated…
Or do we let nature take its course, give Zoe all the love and treats she could ever want as the princess she truly is/was? She has her own oil painting, for f***k’s sake.
Money wasn’t the issue; Zoe had insurance. The truth was, my wife and I agreed that anyone who truly loved their pet like a family member would choose the latter. Spending thousands of dollars to put yourfur baby through a painful hell is the furthest thing from friendship, companionship, or any other ‘ship‘ imaginable. Statistically, with Zoe’s advanced age, she’d live about the same amount of time either way. So, we chose what we considered to be the less narcissistic approach. I’m an artist and my wife’s a super-cute bad ass. We didn’t need the social media attention related to Facebook Pet Drama 911. This was our opinion, of course.
I mean, if you’ve done that before, then that’s on you. Good for you on making that decision. I hope it was an enjoyable decision and the right decision for you and yours.
As for me and mine? We’re Vulcans, deal in logic, and probably not from this planet, originally.
“Oh, bless her pea-pickin’ little old heart.” Spit.
Last night, a veterinarian came to our home. We sat with Zoe, gave her the smelliest tuna we could find at the grocery store, let her lick the cheese powder off Dorito’s chips, and loved her like we would any other night of the year. She went to sleep in my wife’s lap, and she did not wake.
It’s the next morning. I’m sitting at my writing desk and I cannot hear her purring. We didn’t play-argue this morning about how loud her stinky food was or about how much of a mess she’d left overnight in her litter box. There’s no tap of claws upon the hardwood floor as she journeys from box, to bowl, to bed (I was convinced she used just enough claw to purposely annoy me).
I cried like a kid with a skinned knee. I don’t even do that when humans die. It’s probably because none of them are as genuine as my sweet, starving Zoe.
The “comments” section is at the very bottom of the page. That way, if you’re going to be a poon, I can try to sell you a book on the way down.
The Reverend’s Reads
To most, 1865 was an eye-opening year. The American Civil War was officially over and the soldiers fortunate enough to survive the bloody conflict returned home to collect the pieces of their former lives. To young Arizonan, Robert Jack, the fateful desert homecoming marked the end to all he once knew. Forgiveness is overrated. Death is final. Revenge, however, dances between the fine lines of mortality and eternity. Love always finds a way.
“Reading Jim Walker and the Redemption Hymn is equal parts quirky fun and riveting action. Cloud’s confident, entertaining voice draws the reader in like an old radio western: the perfect bite-sized story with a main character you’re ready to follow through every adventure he finds himself on. So, tune in next time…”
– Megan Stockton, author of Lovely, Dark & Deep
The history books would read that Jim Walker was brutally executed after the Battle of Goliad, but a few promises in the right ear blurred the contrast between blood and ink. Now an aging bounty hunter on the verge of retirement, his services are requested in the Northern Arizona Territory to solve the terrifying mystery of the Verde River Massacre. With guns from a local Deputy, courage from a saloon proprietor, and a deathbed confession from an all-too-familiar Medicine Woman, Jim sets off on what could be his final adventure. Will he lay the ghosts of his past to rest once and for all, or is he simply whistling his Redemption Hymn?
“Someone call DC and tell them this is how you write a female hero character!” – Lisa Lee Tone, Bibliophelia Templum
Angel Burns is a young firefighter with a shrouded history. During a routine night at work, she stumbles upon a demonic ceremony that brings her memories out of hiding – as well as her repressed supernatural powers. Angel soon learns her life was intended for things greater than extinguishing fires for mortals. Now on the payroll of the Vatican, Angel embarks upon an epic quest to protect the Gutenberg Bibles from evil. If successful, she will secure peace for generations. If she fails, the power of the ancient books will bestow an eternity of darkness upon all humanity!
Toby Liberman is nearing the end of his rope. After a fateful confrontation with his wife’s lover, he is chased into the woods only to be discovered by an unidentifiable creature. He is attacked and rendered unconscious. Upon waking at the scene of a gruesome triple homicide, Toby is arrested as the sole suspect and thrown into a jail cell with a strange man that knows way too much about his predicament. The stranger reveals to Toby that he now possesses the curse of the werewolf. Using his new-found strength to flee his captors, Toby begins to discover that things are not what they seem in the sleepy town of Twin Oaks, TX. Now hunted by law enforcement, as well as the town’s gun toting civilians, Toby seeks vengeance against his false accusers and embarks upon a quest to clear his name once and for all.
A Curse Beyond Comprehension. A Power Beyond Belief. A Girl Far From Home. Katie Liberman is your typical eighteen-year-old college student…or at least that’s what her family thinks. Picking up five years after the events of A Taste of Home, Katie has dropped out of school and embarked upon a dangerous quest to find Kurt Jimmerson, the New York City attorney responsible for her family’s werewolf curse. Unknown to her, the attorney’s grip on the ‘City That Never Sleeps’ is tighter than imagined and she’ll need any and all help available to be victorious. But… where do you find friends when you’re Far From Home?
Twin Oaks, Texas is at war! Taking place immediately after the Far From Home events in New York City, Katie Liberman has returned to rescue her birthplace from the clutches of her nemesis. As the paranormal battle of North vs. South rages in the shadows, the tiny town must decide to fight against the odds or become one with the darkness. Blood will be shed and only one will survive as the final battle of the Home Series concludes.
I know this is the part where I’m supposed to talk about the book, but I feel as though the synopsis needs its own preface to truly understand. 2023 was quite an eye-opening year! I began it by living my dream as a vintage steam locomotive fireman, but that dream was soon squashed thanks to my writing career. It won’t matter that you wrote your extreme horror offerings years ago and under a pen name. Also, it won’t matter that your publisher and author friends from days gone by express pleasantries and kind, nurturing words to your face, because they’ll clique-up and talk trash the minute you turn your back. F**k the biz, create. Create for art, not clicks. Click for love, not hate. Those are words true artists should have no issues living by, yet most seem to hide behind their keyboard shields, flinging ill-thought words of destruction toward once-trusted ears. Don’t pour something into everything; pour everything into something. Do it all by yourself if necessary. With any luck, 2024 will be the year of The Reverend. I’m not exactly sure what that means yet, but we’ll find out together. Anyway, here are a few short stories and poems I wrote as C. Derick Miller in 2023. I stole them from myself. Fair and square. Enjoy.
Poetry has always come naturally to me. Whether it is an expression of emotion toward someone I care about, or a display of humor pointed in the direction of those I loathe, it is my true outlet. Several of these works were written in a passenger seat while exploring the highways of the United States and somehow managed to survive “The Great Ex-Wife/Ex-Girlfriend Poetry Purge” of 2019. Others were penned during COVID-19 quarantine. Although it may not be the most epic poetry collection you’ve ever read, it all contains bits of blood and soul. You will feel something. Guaranteed.
“This profound collection of horror brings classic monsters into new light in the modern day” – B.L. Blankenship, God Walks The Dark Hills series.
The modern world is a crazy place. Worrying about childish politicians, empty grocery store shelves, and our pending membership to the “global disease of the week” club, it leaves very little time for the average reader to finish an entire novel. This is where Six from Five Seven: Short Stories from a Short Man comes in clutch! A story per day to keep the impending apocalypse away, with a single day left over to contemplate why you purchased this book in the first place. That sounds like an entertaining week when compared to the one you were destined to have regardless. What do a cursed husband, a privileged brat, a curious prostitute, a repressed savior, a vengeful son, and two hell-bound soldiers have in common? Their stories lie within the pages of this collection and invite you to tag along on their journeys of fate, redemption, and demise. When finished, you, dear reader, can hide this book inside your basement with the rest of those important documents you wished you’d never taken home. The FBI won’t be happy, but at least they’ll know you’re a cool person for owning a copy while conducting the raid. That must count for something, right? Let’s hope the judge thinks so!
Also, there’s a few other things not listed here that are floating around out there. Best of luck with the hunt.
Current Projects
Rev. Dare Cloud
Reverend · adjective. worthy of adoration or reverence. synonyms: sublime · sacred.
is a Dallas author, musician, and gonzo journalist. Some of his works include the controversial splatter-western Starving Zoe (written as C. Derick Miller), the Taste of Home trilogy, and the ongoing Jim Walker series. He is also the co-host of the American Justice Podcast and Senior Writer/Junior Producer for AtuA Productions LLC. His literary crushes are (of course) Hunter S. Thompson, J.D. Salinger, and Kevin Smith. Preach truths, toke jokes, and shoplift Amazon.
“You’ve got to press it on you You’ve just been thinking That’s what you do, baby Hold it down, Dare!” – Gorillaz
The Gonzo Wolf 
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