In Madalina’s design studio discussing the Zee/Zoey site

By now, you have heard me mention the name Madalina numerous times. Not only is she the enormously talented and gifted graphic designer who helped me create Zee and Zoey’s Chronicle Connection and my book, “The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey – a Journey of the Extraordinarily Ordinary,” but she has become a dear friend of mine, which is a wonderful bonus. When I first met her, it was a business relationship – client and designer. But, as time has gone by and we have spent countless hours in person, through emails, and on the phone perfecting our Zee/Zoey visions, she has become part of our family and we all adore her, both human and feline!

Besides Dan, Madalina was actually the first person to read my first draft manuscript – I wanted her to get a feel for what the book was about before I tasked her with the hugely creative challenge of designing not only the blog/website (which you can easily see is GORGEOUS), but to create an exquisite work of art for the book cover and individually  unique, stunning, and captivating vignettes for each chapter layout to do justice to my beloved Zee and Zoey and  my over-the-top creative requirements. Madalina was instantly able to get inside my mind and understood how important and how personal this project was for me. Like a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers, she took my vision and allowed it to bloom in such splendid glory, that it still takes me breath away. I cannot wait for the day I can share the book with all of you and I am so blessed to be able to have such a brilliant talent by my side. Sometimes we have to compromise on what I want and sometimes we get off track, but for the most part, once it all “clicks” the results are nothing less than spectacular!

Before all this creative process began, Madalina was actually on her way to Romania for an extended vacation with her family who live there and so she took the manuscript with her to read on the plane. Since she was gone for three weeks, I was a nervous wreck and on pins and needles waiting to hear back from her. What if she hated the book? Or, worse yet, what if she hated it, but told me she liked it to be polite. We were still in the early stages of our friendship, so we did not know each other that well yet and it would not be unrealistic to think she would not want to hurt my feelings. When I got this email response from her, I collapsed into a fit of tears, but thankfully, they were tears of joy:

“I am back from my vacation and almost finished with your book too (2
chapters left!). It has been such a delightful read, I cannot tell you how
much I enjoyed it and how it made me laugh. You are such a good writer!! I
can easily see your book becoming a movie like Marley & Me 🙂  Funny writing
isn’t easy but you seem to do it so naturally that it seems effortless. I
know your book will be a success – feline lovers of everywhere will savor
every page. And what makes it so great is also how you wrapped the stories
of the cats with the stories of the people and in the general context
(hurricanes, financial crisis, everyday life…) – people will easily
relate. I’m not sure what else to say but congratulations and thank you for
sharing this with me.”

Whew… I will never forget how wonderful that email made me feel. My gut instinct that I had a story that people would want to read was validated for me and the thought of sharing this project with her was made all the more special, because she too, saw my vision and was almost as excited as I was to bring the chapters to life. Since that point, oddly enough, Madalina has gone through her own series of cat inspired stories and I am so thrilled to have convinced her to write her own blog post and share one with you that actually happened in Romania while she was reading the book! Please drop by tomorrow to read this very special, sweet and uplifting story from her – I promise it will be worth it!

P.S. A special “shout out” to Eric, Madalina’s husband, Charlie, her lovable dog, and Tux and Skittles her beautiful cats – we love all of you!