"Travels with My Cats" is a fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

/magic realism

Magic realism

Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...

 short story by Mike Resnick

Mike Resnick

Michael Diamond Resnick , better known by his published name Mike Resnick, is an American science fiction author. He was executive editor of Jim Baen's Universe.-Biography:...

. It won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story

Hugo Award for Best Short Story

The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...

  in 2005, was nominated for the Nebula Award

Nebula Award

The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...

 in 2004.

Plot summary

Small town newspaper editor and failed novelist Ethan Owens leads a cautious, disappointing life, until he spends a few evenings with the long-dead author Priscilla Wallace, who wrote his favorite travel book, 'Travels with My Cats'.

When his only copy is destroyed at the end of the story, Ethan swears to find another and finds a new cause to go on in life

Sources, references, external links, quotations

• Travels with My Cats can be read online at Asimov's Science Fiction
  Asimov's Science Fiction
  Asimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov...
  
  : http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0501/travelswithmycats.shtml
• An audio version is available at Escape Pod
  Escape Pod (podcast)
  Escape Pod is a magazine-style podcast launched on 12 May 2005 which presents stories in the genre of science fiction. It has been called "the world's leading science fiction podcast". Until his retirement in May 2010, the podcast was hosted by founder Steve Eley and edited by Jeremiah Tolbert...
  
  : http://escapepod.org/2006/11/30/ep082-travels-with-my-cats/
• Travels With My Cats at BestScienceFictionStories.com - short story reviews and resources