Cat Fight! (Crimespree lets me sound off)

Crimespree magazine let me sound off about the recent "cat fiction controversy" "... That Journal writer needed a story, and a story needs a conflict to make it bump along. But since this piece has run, I’ve realized that the question should not have been “should cats talk?” but “can an author make a talking cat credible?” Want to read more? Click here.

See you at Crimefest!

Are you going to Crimefest? This will be my first year at this international conference, which takes place in Bristol, England, May 19-22, and I'm looking forward to hearing some of the greatest minds in European crime fiction! I'm also honored to be on one panel, "Do You Think You're Cosy?" (note the UK spelling of "cozy"!) with the great Cathy Ace, Christopher Fowler, and L.C. Tyler (James Runcie is moderating). I'll also be a participating moderator on "A Life of Crime: What's the Appeal of Crime Writing?" – lots of room to play with that one! – with panelists Richard Cartmel, David Mark, Leigh Russell, and Tara Moore. Maybe I'll see you there?

See you at Malice!

Do you know about Malice Domestic? If not, you should – this is the big annual fan conference for those of us who love cozy (aka, traditional) mysteries. Held every spring in Bethesda, MD, I go as often as I can – and I'll be there this year. Plus, the panel assignments are out and I've got a winner! I'll be on a panel on Saturday, 3-3:50 p.m., with the great Carole Nelson Douglas, Linda O. Johnston, Sparkle Abbey (both members of that team), and moderator Kay Finch. The title? "The 'Paws' That Detects: Animal Sidekicks." What could be better!

"BUNNIES" is "a terrific addition to the series." Thank you!

Mutt Cafe has nothing but love for "When Bunnies Go Bad." Start here... "Clea Simon’s books are truly exemplary mysteries that skillfully capture the intricate relationship shared by humans and animals. ... The Pru Marlowe novels only get better with time and When Bunnies Go Bad is a terrific addition to the series." Read the rest here. Wow, thank you so much!

Paella with small cat

No, not what you're thinking! This is a chicken and seafood take on the Spanish classic, but served in the company of a feline, thanks to Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, a great food and cozies blog.

Can you guess the real story? (I'm on NPR!)

And here it is: the clip of me on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," the "bluff the listener" segment:

"Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me"

... is a wonderful NPR quiz show. And you should listen to it this weekend (or online at WBUR) Can't say more now... just trust me on this, and tune in!

"You can't help but fall in love with this brave cat."

Thrilled to field this review from the Conscious Cat, which called "The Ninth Life" "absolutely wonderful," saying, "What made this book for me was the absolutely wonderful way in which Clea narrates the book in Blackie’s voice. Writing in a cat’s voice is challenging,and few writers do it well. Clea does it masterfully. Blackie is all cat..." Read more here.

Do you trust me?

Do you trust me to take you someplace dark? That's the question I ask over at the Conscious Cat today.

"We authors ask a lot of our readers. When we invite you into our worlds, we ask you to suspend disbelief. To accept that cats can talk, and that ordinary people can solve the craziest crimes. We ask you to give up time out with your family and friends – as well as TV and Facebook – to spend time with an old-fashioned and slow-paced pleasure – a book. We ask that you listen to us, that you let us tell you a story. Most important, we ask that you trust us...." (Read more here.)

The cat has his say...

"Do not let my appearance deceive you. I am not like other cats..."
(Read more as Blackie from "The Ninth Life" makes a guest appearance on Dru's Book Musings here.)

Happy pub day RAVE for "WHEN BUNNIES GO BAD"

"Every chapter of this new mystery is jammed with surprises and suspense," says Kingdom Books of my new Pru Marlowe pet noir, WHEN BUNNIES GO BAD. Happy pub day to me!

Pub day RAVE for "The Ninth Life"

"Ready for some shocks to the heart and mind?" That's how Kingdom Books begins this RAVE for "The Ninth Life," with its "stunning finale." Happy pub day to me!

Happy pub day - I'M IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL!!

Honest! Here I am, talking about talking (and non-talking) cats, along with a bunch of other wonderful cat writers (and Cat Writers Association members):

When it comes to cats and speech, “people tend to feel very strongly about it,” says Clea Simon, whose first cat mystery, “Mew is for Murder,” featured silent kitties. Once, during a mystery conference panel, “I got up there and said, ‘Cats that speak, they’re an abomination.’ ”

Then she turned tail and wrote a book about a talking ghost cat.

“I realized at some point that we all talk to our pets,” says Ms. Simon, 54, of Somerville, Mass. “And most of us imagine the other side of the dialogue.”

Later note: If you can't read the story on the WSJ site, you can read it here on my website.

Pub day!

Kind of like a book birthday and I'm having twins! Both "When Bunnies Go Bad" and and "The Ninth Life" are officially out today! Let's celebrate! Both are in hardcover and ebooks, with trade paperbacks to follow. (My full bibliography is here.)

Why we write...

Why did I leave the cozy world behind? Was there some particular spur that made me write "The Ninth Life"?

I answer those questions and more as I guest blog over at Lois Winston's blog today for her Book Club Friday. I'll be answering questions all weekend!

"This remarkable duo, a cat and the girl he has claimed..."

"Simon, a writer who loves cats, creates an appealing, unusual narrator in Blackie," writes librarian/blogger Lesa Holstine of "The Ninth Life." You can read more here.

Going dark...

"Write what you know" is good advice. But I prefer "write what you want to understand." Which is how I got to my upcoming dark, new cat mystery, "The Ninth Life." As I explain today, in a guest post at Lesa's Book Critiques. {And she says I have a "terrific narrator"!)

"The series just keeps getting better and better."

In case you'd forgotten, I have a new Pru Marlowe pet noir out next week as well, with "When Bunnies Go Bad."

"This series just keeps getting better and better," says the Bristol Public Library! Thank you! Read the full review here.

The Queen loves "The Ninth Life"

"Plenty of twists and turns," says Queen of all Reads. "I loved it."

"You're not alone..."

Don’t we all feel alone sometimes? Like we’re the only ones in the world, abandoned by everyone? And at such times, isn’t a nice cuddly cat the best companion?

That’s the idea I started with when I began to write “The Ninth Life,” my new mystery and the first in my Blackie and Care series for Severn House. Only I realized early on that my story, about a girl named Care and the big, black cat who adopts her, wouldn’t be your usual cozy....

Read more in today's guest blog over at Cozy Up with Kathy – and comment to enter the giveaway for a copy of "The Ninth Life."

"I wanted a 'Team Blackie and Care' T-shirt..."

Another lovely blog review, this time from LuAnn Braley at Back Porchervations.

"Now, my adult 'logical' mind wants to say that 'a book from a cat's point of view' ... eh ... how good can it be? Pretty dang good resounds as the answer! ..." Read more here.

"A delight for anyone who relishes cat mysteries." – Library Journal

Just ... over the moon:

REVIEW

Author: CLEA SIMON

Title: THE NINTH LIFE

Publication: LIBRARY JOURNAL

Issue: 1ST MARCH 2016


Simon, Clea. The Ninth Life Severn House. (Blackie & Care Cat, Bk. 1). Mar. 2016. 229p. ISBN 9780727885715. $28.95;

Care rescues Blackie after he is almost drowned. Our feline protagonist and narrator, who has used up nearly all of his nine lives, does not remember much beyond three shadowy figures who held him underwater. Now he must save the pink-haired Care from herself and the men who seek to use her to deliver their drugs, including heroin-addicted boyfriend Tick, or frame her for murder.
VERDICT With this new cat series, the author of the “Dulcie Schwartz” books (Code Grey) takes on a darker tone. Blackie is an enigmatic hero, trying to keep Care safe and lamenting his inability to communicate with her. Care is a troubled child attempting to do right. Where they go from here remains to be seen. A delight for anyone who relishes cat mysteries.

I'm on tour!

Book tour, that is! Some of my stops are IRL – in real life – like next week, when I'll be at the great Left Coast Crime conference, or the week after (March 4, to be exact), when I have my hometown book launch party at Harvard Book Store (come on by!). But for the next two weeks, I'm also on virtual tour, thanks to Great Escapes Book Tours. So even if you're not in Phoenix or Massachusetts (or Bethesda, MD, for Malice Domestic or Bristol England...), I hope you'll stop by and say hi!

The Ninth Life "keeps you guessing all the way through"

Book Babble calls "The Ninth Life" well-written" and says it "keeps you guessing all the way." Read more (and sign up for the book giveaway) here.

Chatting about cats and books and going dark...

I talked with author Sharon Bell Buchbinder about writing and more today, here.

The Ninth Life "captivated me from the start..."

"The Ninth Life captivated me from the start. Whenever I was forced to put the book down to do chores or run errands, it stayed on my mind, the story haunting me until I picked it up again...

The Ninth Life is one of Clea Simon's best novels yet, showcasing her talent for creating vibrant characters both human and animal and for developing an unforgettable story. Her books have pioneered a new genre of animal mystery - pet noir. If you love animals and mysteries, you should never pass up the opportunity to read Clea Simon's novels."

Thank you, Mutt Cafe! Read the full review here.

"The Ninth Life" "grabs you by the throat"

"This story isn’t cute and cuddly, but oh, is it good!" says this cats and books blog, The Cuddlywump Chronicles. Why thank you! Read the whole review here.

"The Ninth Life is not a cozy mystery. It is instead the kind of darker story that grips you by the throat on page one and does not release you until you’ve turned the final page. I say it’s the book we’ve been waiting for..."

Read more here.

Misdirection and fear...

Or how to write a novel. I talk about process today on the Henery Press blog here.

"If Sherlock Holmes were a cat..."

After a very satisfying analysis of my new "The Ninth Life," the librarian blogger says:

I would recommend the book on the basis of the narrator alone, but Simon has also constructed some interesting mysteries along the way. The conclusion is very satisfying, and leaves readers poised for more to come. Best of all, the book avoids what I refer to as “First In Series Syndrome” in which an author tries to pack in a lot of background before ever getting around to a plot or characterization. A cool, clever read with heart, just like Blackie himself.


Thank you, Bookblog of the Bristol Public Library for this lovely write-up!

Booklist loves "Bunnies"!

Wow, this just came out and I AM THRILLED! "When Bunnies Go Bad," my sixth Pru Marlowe pet noir will be published by Poisoned Pen Press on March 1.

Issue: February 1, 2016
When Bunnies Go Bad.
Advanced Review – Uncorrected Proof
Simon, Clea (Author)
Mar 2016. 264 p. Poisoned Pen, hardcover, $26.95. (9781464205330). paperback, $15.95. (9781464205354). e-book, $9.99. (9781464205361).
In this latest title in the only series to combine pets with noir (or a semi-tame form of noir), animal psychic Pru deals with a sneaky rabbit and finds a few bodies strung about her quaint Berkshire hometown of Beauville. It starts with an an obnoxious tourist whom Pru observes at a restaurant with his girlfriend; later she finds his body in a condo. Maybe weirder is the fact that the girlfriend needs Pru’s help with her dog, a persnickety spaniel. And let’s not forget that rabbit, a wild bunny named Henry, who is living with an 84- year-old woman. Oh, and there’s a mobster, too, whose presence somehow forces Pru to deal with some secrets of her own about her hasty exit from New York. Usually, Pru can sort out her various entanglements by hearing what the pets have to say, but this time neither the rabbit nor the spaniel are coming through clearly. The plot is nearly as challenging to follow as the critters, but once again Simon’s wacky humor—darkish but surely not black—provides more than enough entertainment.
— Amy Alessio

Genre hopping and Small-Town Cozies!

I like to think I've always straddled genres – moving from the straight ahead amateur sleuth/cozy of the Theda Krakow to the more paranormal of the Dulcie Schwartz mysteries, and mixing in some tongue-in-cheek noir for the "pet noir" of the Pru Marlowe books. But with "The Ninth Life" I've finally jumped the fence to something darker still. And I'm thrilled that I'll be on the Genre Hopping panel at Left Coast Crime in Phoenix, AZ, next month. Under moderator Ann Cleeves, I'll be joining Chris Goff, Annette Mahon, and Mette Ivie Harrison at 9:30 on Friday, Fen 26, the first full day of the conference. For cozy traditionalists – and I hope that I still rank among these, as well! – I'll be on a second panel, on Saturday, Feb. 27, 3-4 p.m., on Small-Town cozies, with Kristi Abbott, Sherry Harris, and Paige Shelton. The wonderful Leslie Budewitz will be moderating this one. Are you attending Left Coast Crime? If so, please join us!

Publishers Weekly likes "The Ninth Life"!

And notes that I've taken "a turn to the dark side," heh heh heh!

The Ninth Life: A Blackie and Care Mystery

Clea Simon, Author

Cozy author Simon (When Bunnies Go Bad) takes a turn to the dark side with this edgy first in a series introducing Carrie “Care” Wright, a homeless girl in her early teens who lives on the streets of an unnamed city. Care rescues a drowning cat, naming him Blackie, and the two have an instant affinity, but Blackie, who narrates the tale, is an unusual feline. Care and her foster brother, Tick, who’s about 10, live in the clutches of a gang leader, AD, but Care has been mentored by a private detective and has a chance to get out of the life until her mentor is murdered. Determined to find his killer and get Tick away from AD, Care soon finds that a pernicious drug known as scat is at the center of frightening events, including the murder of a pawn shop owner. Meanwhile, Blackie knows more than any cat should, but can’t tell Care, so he does his best to keep her safe. Noir fans who are fond of felines will find a lot to like. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, Doe Coover Agency. (Mar.)

Phew! What a relief.

Signed copies of "The Ninth Life" and "Code Grey" now in stock!

Even though "The Ninth Life" isn't officially out yet in this country, Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA, just got some copies in. So I went over and signed them – and also some new copies of "Code Grey," the latest Dulcie Schwartz mystery (out a few months ago). As you can see, I'm beginning to take over a shelf there! Porter Square is a wonderful indie, with fair prices and a grand selection (and a nifty little coffee/treat café too). Drop by, if you can - or call 617-491-2220 to order your signed, first-edition of "The Ninth Life" (or any other books).

Thinking of David Bowie

Like so many of us, I've been thinking a lot about Bowie this week and trying to understand why his death has hit so hard. It started on Monday morning, when I was speaking to an older friend, who knew of Ziggy but little else. She likened him to Fats Domino, and my response was "Yes, but..." Of course, some of that is because I can't ever fully understand what Fats means to her or meant to her in her youth. But as I read and listen (and listen and read), I am struck not just by Bowie's breadth as a musician, but by his fearlessness and generosity as an artist.

Unlike so many pop/rock stars, he was so much more than one sound, one note, or even one persona. As Johnny Angel Wendell has pointed out, Bowie came out back when it was career suicide to do so. And while he was never a front-line advocate for LGBTQ or any other causes (though he did call out MTV's racism back in '83), he embodied the idea of individuality, most notably via gender fluidity, that our gender and our sexuality - our essential selves - were our own, that (in an era and field of incredible machismo) vulnerability is part of the human condition, that we all feel isolated at times, "and it was alright."

As Iggy Pop recalled in the New York Times (and Ian Hunter certainly could), he was also a generous collaborator, writing and producing and bringing out the best in others. And while Joanie Lindstrom (on the Late Riser's Club this morning) pointed out that "we all had periods where we ignored him," Bowie never stopped innovating. And a lot of that music - as we are hearing again, this week - is mind-glowingly good.

There is a reason for that consistent quality, for a career that spanned four decades: I've now read several interviews in which he espouses principles I too try to follow - notably that when the work feels too safe, it's time to move on - and I only hope I can do so with as much courage as he did. So, yes, David Bowie was a pop star and I didn't know him. But he was also one of the great artists of my time, and I am mourning his loss.

Want a SIGNED copy of my books?

Just heard that the wonderful indie Porter Square Books now has CODE GREY and THE NINTH LIFE in stock (that's right, BEFORE the March 1 release date), so I'm going over to sign copies! I may not get there until Saturday (busy writing) but that's good news -- if you call and order a copy, I can personalize one for you: 617-491-2200 (and, yes, they ship!). P.S. - They've got a bunch of my older books, too!

The librarians are coming!

The librarians are coming to Boston! ALA Midwinter is why - this weekend at the Boston Convention Center. And Sisters in Crime New England is hosting a booth, #1173 in the exhibition hall. I'll be there on Monday, noon-2 p.m., but it will be staffed all weekend long with books to giveaway, bookmarks, and other swag. If you're attending #ALAMIDWINTER please drop by!

Here's the full schedule of who and when: