Yup, I need new photos

Musetta is still sporting this classic look, but I've replaced this old iMac with a sleek flat-screen model. Sadly, the mess on the desk remains pretty much the same! Anyway, Musetta once again takes her place among literary fat cats in today's Galleycat.

Sick as a dog, happy as a cat

Jon and I are taking turns wandering from room to room and falling asleep on various pieces of furniture. Musetta seems to approve. Wish I felt like a human, but just found out that "Shades of Grey" is now available for pre-ordering on Amazon, which makes it seem much more real. Why pre-order, though? Why not just available for ordering? (I'm not questioning the process – please, pre-order! Just the phrasing: Do we really need the "pre"? Can't you just "order" an item to be shipped when it is available?)

Spring ahead... to Probable Claws

Just got the word: Probable Claws, my fourth Theda Krakow mystery, will be published next April by Poisoned Pen Press! More info as I get it, and an excerpt will go up on my site soon. But in the meantime: someone is trying to poison shelter cats, and when Theda investigates she finds herself arrested for murder!

Where do our characters spring from?

All cats are not created equal. While Cyrus was a quiet cat, the dignified, strong and silent type, Musetta is a little loudmouth. In fact, since we were just away for a week, she's been quite chatty. Some would say demanding. And last night, I realized something. More than the barristas at the local 1369 and Peet's coffeehouses, Musetta is the model for my spunky punk rocker Violet. ("Thank God she can't dye her hair purple," says my husband.) After all, my heroine, Theda, is often prompted into action by those early morning calls... sound familiar?

Speaking of cats; this is just too weird. The following, however, makes sense.

But what about crime?

Faithful blog readers may be wondering, where's the crime?
If I've been cat happy lately, readers, it's not because death (fiction) has taken a holiday. I'm actually hard at work on a mystery project (hinted at a bit lower down), and I hope to be able to tell you more in a few months. A few months?!? Yes, that's how publishing works, kiddos – glacial compared to everything else in this electronic world. But there is a new mystery in the works, and the start of another, too, on the back burner until this one is drafted. I may be breaking format a bit on this one, too, but as a writer and a cat lover, I'm too superstitious to want to write more.

Besides, the next Theda Krakow will be out before you know it! Cries and Whiskers will hit the stores in late November – and as we all know, books make more gifts!

So, until then, enjoy the cat trivia. Crime fiction is happening, behind the scenes, even as you read this...