The truth behind the Dewey stories

Due to some comments arising from my Dewey story yesterday I thought that I could do a post revealing some of the truth behind the Dewey series.  Don’t need to leave my readers totally in the dark, though I am not saying that everything will be revealed. 🙂

Why did I start a story about a cat named Dewey? Honestly not sure what made me choose a cat, being that I am a dog person. Not that I don’t like cats, I have grown fond of Dewey. I guess there was a little part of me that always wanted a cat perhaps,  so now I have an imaginary one. Ssh! Don’t tell Dewey that he is not real!

With fiction pieces there usually is some truth that inspires the writing. In the first story Dewey dug up a rose bush in his servant’s flower garden and found an old flower pot with strange writing on it. Did that really happen in real life? Not exactly, but….I was asked by a friend if I could translate Latin. I said No, and he asked if I knew anyone that did. He needed a translation for a old pot that had been dug up in the garden. Thought it was a relic and very curious to know what the pot said. I asked my friends if they knew Latin and 2 did, so I sent the Latin message to them via Facebook. Suffice to say that you really didn’t need to  know how to read Latin to translate this inscription . My friends got a good laugh. Especially the friend who was in such need of my “help”.

Did Dewey really have a late night meeting with his friend Odessa to try to get some important information?? Is Odessa totally imaginary as well? Hmm… Odessa was inspired by a real person. Thought I can’t reveal the name I can say that Odessa is as wise in real life as in the story.  Did she really have important information to give me in real life and was she sneaky about getting it. Yes 🙂

Why does Dewey’s manservant seem to come into bad luck a lot? He gets swatted by Dewey, caught in a torrential downpour because of being outsmarted by Dewey, and in the last story he fell into a deep hole and broke his legs. Yeah, its a shame isn’t it! Unlike Dewey, the manservant was inspired by a real person. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from being a writer and being able to make anything happen to a character which you can’t do in real life. So when that character thinks they are being so smart and getting one over on you, you can have some reassurance of being able to get even in your story. That’s what friends are for, right? To include them in your stories 🙂

Last but definitely not least how did Jaxon become a character in the Dewey story? Was he just made up like Dewey? Not quite, but…. Jackalopes are rare and magical creatures and yes there is a story behind Jaxon, though that may make this post too long and wouldn’t want that.

Thanks for reading the Dewey stories. I didn’t really expect them to continue past the first one but they have been fun to do and I hope you continue to enjoy them.