ReadersMagnet Review features Lynda Hamblen, author of the animal fantasy book William and Tibby Forever.

Lynda Hamblen is the author of the fantasy adventure featuring cats entitled William and Tibby Forever. In the past, we have featured articles about the book and other related subjects. Today, we get to know more about Lynda Hamblen, the cat lover, and author.

Lynda Hamblen: A Life with Cats

Lynda Hamblen is a published poet, essayist, and cat lover. Lynda Hamblen lives with her husband and her 17-year old cat named Elvira. They live in a small gray house on a hill on a farm in Obion County, Tennessee. After spending the last thirty years living with cats, she decided to write a book about a cat’s view of life, faith, and the afterlife. Lynda Hamblen wrote and published William and Tibby Forever in 2018. The book is inspired by Hamblen’s cat William. One day, he was killed, and Lynda decided to transform her grief into a story about William’s life and adventures.

Hamblen’s William and Tibby Forever

“William and Tibby Forever is a heartwarming story about the love of a mother for her children, the love of a man for a woman, and the love of that woman for her cats. It is a story about life that never ends and love that never dies.”

Although Lynda loves cats and has been living with cats for many years, she never thought of writing a book about them. As a writer, Lynda was working on her two novels. One of the works in progress at that time was a novel about a wizard whose quest is to slay the last dragon. Hamblen was also writing a novel about two female characters who accidentally swap bodies. But everything changed when one of his cats died.

William is Lynda’s cat and was very dear to her. His death somehow devastated her and made her realized how hard it must be for other pet owners, especially kids, to lose their precious animals. More importantly, it also made Lynda look at the fragility of life and how the death of a loved one can affect us deeply.

Lynda Hamblen decided to create something for the children and, in part as a tribute to William the Cat. The initial narrative is a short picture story that would show William’s adventures in heaven while Lynda and her other car Tibby go on with their life in the present. They miss William and hoping that one day they will see him again. What was originally planned as a picture book became a novella because Lynda realized that she had already written ten pages but is nowhere close to telling the part where she meets William. Deciding that she has many things to share, she instead settled for a novel.

William and Tibby Forever is a heartwarming story about two lovely cats, William and Tibby. The siblings are nurtured and cared for by a compassionate woman, with whom they share a deep bond. Together, they shared a happy hope along with the woman’s partner. Their days have always been serene and joyous, but all that suddenly changed. William was killed one day, leaving the woman and Tibby devastated and grieving. Upon waking up, William realizes that he is in heaven with other animals. What follows next is a series of adventures in the afterlife, his view of life on earth and in heaven as well. William and Tibby Forever is a book that features the eccentricities of the other cats by Hamblen.

William and Tibby Forever is an animal adventure story that will surely warm your hearts and inspire you to take good care of your pets while they are still here. Though the story might be a little weird, William and Tibby Forever is one hilarious read you will not easily forget.

To know more about Lynda Hamblen, you can purchase a copy of her book or visit her website today.