Happy #FelineFriday and #FelineFourth

My sister Cat Writers Association writer Layla Morgan Wilde shares these tips for keeping your kitty cool and calm during what can be a disturbing holiday. TO start with, keep kitty inside...

more here.

An embarrassment of riches...

As you may know, I've got my big rock 'n' roll noir, World Enough, cued up to come out Nov. 1 in the states (it pubs earlier in the UK). And my next Blackie & Care feline mystery, Cross My Path, is in edits and scheduled for June 2018 (both with Severn House, if you want to check in for updates - or you can always do that here). But I'm not the type to not be writing, so I've been trying to get back to work.

The plan was to draft a new cat cozy this summer, something lighter than both World Enough and Cross My Path. And then, in the fall, start another darker mystery, something to build on World Enough, perhaps. And I have ideas for both (titles too, but not telling yet...). Only one day I start work on one, and the next I get an idea for the other. I always tell myself I should at least jot down these ideas when they come. But can I write two books at once? Can I make myself focus? I know, it's a nice problem to have.

WORLD ENOUGH is now shipping!

Yikes! You work so long on something. You try so hard to do your best... I first started writing my rock and roll mystery WORLD ENOUGH more than ten years ago. That's a story for another time, but it is finally done, and I've been patiently trying to wait until its Nov. 1 U.S. publication date, knowing full well that the finished book will start to show up for sale sometime after its July 10 UK pub. date.

What I didn't expect was that it would show up BEFORE its UK pub date. But... I just got a notice from the Book Depository, an absolutely wonderful online outlet that not only routinely offers discounts but also ships free worldwide. And, yeah, WORLD ENOUGH is now available. At a discount. Takes five to eight business days to U.S. addresses.

Do I want you to wait until it comes out here? Buy it at one of my events? Well, sure, but ...

Am I kind of nervous about actually seeing the final version? What do you think?

Anyway, it's up to you. Click here for more info: World Enough from the Book Depository.

"Let's go to the Rat..."

"WORLD ENOUGH “transported me back to clubs, where the floors were sticky, the sound was distorted, where we danced mindlessly to the sounds that were the soundtrack of our lives. This was our tribe, our scene, our being. Through the cigarette haze we lived for the moment and thought of no future…” – Oedipus, ex-WBCN

Long before I wrote World Enough, I was living it... (from Sunday's Boston Globe)

Yoga with cats for #FelineFriday

Sister Cat Writers Association member and renowned cat blogger Ingrid King has the final (funny/true) word on yoga with cats in the special "Well" section of the New York Times. (Read it here.)

Busy, busy, busy...

Regular readers will know that I'm super excited to have my rock 'n' roll noir WORLD ENOUGH coming out this fall (UK pub date July 10, US pub date Nov. 1). And I'm thrilled that my third Blackie & Care black cat mystery, CROSS MY PATH, has been scheduled for early next year (Feb. 28 in the UK, June 1 in the US). But you should know I don't like too much down time. So what's next? I will let you know soon...

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this...

Life imitates art imitates life...

Back in the Paleozoic (OK, the '80s), I was a rock critic. And while I covered a pretty wide variety of what might be labeled pop music (from reggae to county, an experience that introduced me to zydeco and Cajun), my heart belonged to the garage-punk scene centered in clubs like CBGB's or Boston's own Rat.* That's the scene I wanted to evoke in my upcoming noir mystery, World Enough, in which a former rock critic gets an assignment to revisit her old stomping grounds and finds ... murder.

So imagine my surprise when, last month, I got an assignment from the Boston Globe Magazine to revisit the Rat and why it served as the epicenter for that particular scene. This was a case of life imitating art imitating life, and I relished the opportunity to revisit the club that was not only my home away from home but that introduced me to my family of choice and, ultimately, to the possibility of writing as a career was wonderful. Only this time (spoiler alert), no bodies have surfaced in this particular outing! I've inset links above (as well as here for the magazine story and here for the book), but here's a PDF of the magazine story and, below it, my World Enough cover.

*And, yes, the Channel and Jumpin' Jack Flash and Streets and Cantone's and Storyville and Jack's and Jonathon Swifts and Bunratty's and Chet's Last Call and ...

Resistance – and kitten rescue – for this #FelineFriday

“a little black animal making haste to meet the boat. A young muskrat? A mink? No, it was a little dot of a kitten..." Read more about this fascinating exhibit of Henry David Thoreau's journals and artifacts here.

It's official!

My third Blackie & Care mystery, CROSS MY PATH, will be published by Severn House on Feb. 28, 2018 in the UK/June 1 2018 in the U.S.

My marvelous and brilliant editor calls it, "a wonderfully gripping, suspenseful and atmospheric read," and goes on to say "As with the previous two novels, the dark, dystopian, urban landscape is richly evoked, as is the touchingly protective relationship between Blackie and Care, two vulnerable creatures looking out for one another ...

As you can imagine, I am over the moon!

Musetta says, 'vote this #FelineFriday!'

Musetta says: Why not vote for the single cat-centered entry in this AllAuthor book cover contest? It only takes a moment! And then go hug your kitty. (Vote here.)

"As Dark As My Fur" is a finalist!

in this wonderful AllAuthors Cover of the Month Contest! I'm so honored. If you have a moment, would you please click through and vote for my book?