Plot for a Best Seller Revealed

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It was too soon to write the book I wanted.

But with a thousand plus views on various admittedly eclectic substack posts, it seemed worth the adventure to corral the best reads, stir well and see what transpired.

Unfortunately, the top five posts concerned cats, flying lessons, reunions and winemaking.

Agatha Christie would have no problem folding these into a compelling mystery. Given a kitchen setting, Julia Child may have had talent enough to produce something tasty and timely, although the cats would be had to dinner, not for dinner.

A mathematician might easily augur the various permutations and combinations, do a story with all in various sequences and see, according to a reading audience, which one was most popular. The drawback would be that mathematicians require logic.

Each topic lends itself to a different feature: cats could be the protagonists or observers; there are likewise plenty of famous aviator portraits with pets, but most are canine. On the other hand, Grumman produced an entire series of fighters in the 1930s and 1940s in which “-cat” was at least a component of their names. A postwar production for agriculture continued the line.

There were various instructional manuals that could be retrofitted for cats as passengers, for example “Tailwheel Manual for Feline Amateurs”, or “Aeronautical Engineering with Special Reference to Cats”. Or, “Refurbishing Continental Engines for Tabbys”. Or “A&P&C Manual…”

None of these seem especially productive or generally interesting, however.

This leaves me to return to the primary data and reinterpret what’s next…