What My Book is About · The Abundance Institute

What My Book is About

I have decided to experiment by using Shawn's course Wordsmith Academy to complete a nonfiction book in about 6 weeks, as noted in my previous post. Specifically, I will be working on a memoir about my late cat Lydia, which should be a novella-length book. The book will be titled, "Lydia’s Lantern

what a little blind cat taught me about light."

In going through the course, I encountered the first two questions that I need to answer first:

Why am I writing this book?

I’m writing this book because my late cat Lydia—blind, albino, hearing-impaired, and quietly extraordinary—left an imprint on me that I still don’t fully understand. She arrived during an incredibly difficult period of my life, a time when I was raw and weary, and somehow this vulnerable little creature became a source of comfort and unexpected transformation. I feel compelled to follow the thread she left behind, to discover what she awakened in me, and to memorialize her in a way that honors the truth of our connection.

What do I want this book to do in the world?

I want readers to feel as if they’ve stepped into a fairy tale that happens to be real. Not a story that preaches or teaches, but one that feels enchanted—where a small, unlikely guide enters a human life and quietly shifts its orbit. My hope is that readers will feel the wonder of encountering a creature who becomes more than a pet: a mirror, a mystery, a catalyst. I want the book to awaken that soft, forgotten place in people where magic still lives and where love can transform us in ways we don’t expect.

I may change my mind, but I intend to start posting the draft on Substack. Assuming I can even use it -- I have had some technical challenges lately -- all on their end. Still waiting for them to fix the bug.

This is going to be my Substack About Page:

About Lydia’s Lantern

what a little blind cat taught me about light

There are moments in a life when the ordinary world falls away. For me, that moment came in the form of a little blind, albino, hearing-impaired cat named Lydia.

She didn’t look like a guide.She didn’t look like a myth.She simply showed up during one of the hardest chapters of my life, carrying a presence I still can’t fully explain. Her senses were muted, but something in her shone. Quietly. Steadily. Like a lantern lit from within.

Lydia’s Lantern is the story of that ember.

Through this memoir, I will explore how a tiny creature can act as a guide more surely than any self-help book or any well-meaning (hopefully) advice. Lydia didn’t teach through words or meows. She taught through being, through the way she moved—however awkwardly— in the world.

Here, I will be releasing early fragments of the book I am writing about her: scenes, remembrances, small vignettes of wonder and ache. Please note that these will be drafts. Later, the full book will most likely take a different shape. But I hope to be dropping the seeds into the soil here in this Substack

You are all welcome here. The memoir may be of particular interest to you if:

An animal has ever transformed you

You’ve carried grief that didn’t dissolve on schedule

You love quiet magic, or you simply want to walk with me as this story finds its form

Lydia wasn’t just my cat. She was a threshold, a doorway between despair and a gentler world. I’m still learning everything she came to show me.

Thank you for joining me as I follow her lantern through the dark.

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