My informal blog tour

I've been busy!
The last few weeks, I've been chatting and writing and it's all finally coming to light. The most recent was a really fun interview I did for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Cat Lady. But I also had a real heart-to-heart with Ingrid King over at Conscious Cats and guest blogged at Meandering and Muses and at the Creatures n' Crooks bookblog both.

Oh, and this just in - I was also interviewed for The Big Thrill, the International Thriller Writers organization.
In all of these I talk about Grey Zone and Dogs Don't Lie - as I said, I've been busy! Plus, Musetta has a new game - she knocks her toy mouse down the stairs and I'm supposed to throw it back up to her.

In case the embedded links don't work:

http://consciouscat.net/2011/03/30/clea-simon-talks-about-writing-cat-themed-mysteries/
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http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/2011/03/its-been-year-by-clea-simon.html
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http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2011/03/29/lag-time/
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http://blog.seattlepi.com/catlady/2011/03/31/cat-lady-interview-clea-simon/
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http://www.thebigthrill.org/2011/03/grey-zone-by-clea-simon/

Happy GREY ZONE (no fooling!)

Today is the official publication day of the U.S. edition of GREY ZONE, the third Dulcie Schwartz mystery! Celebrate with your favorite kitty (past or present).

And thank you (again), Library Journal!

A new mystery columnist takes over – but she relates to Dulcie and Grey Zone!

Simon, Clea. Grey Zone: A Dulcie Schwartz Mystery. Severn House. May 2011. c.216p. ISBN 9780727869920. $28.95. M
Dulcinea Schwartz’s life as a Harvard grad student is more complicated than most. She’s a bit psychic; has a ghost cat, Mr. Grey, for a muse; and is already known to the local police for earlier cases (Grey Matters). And then she just happens to be on the scene when a professor falls to his death from his department’s building. At the same time, her research into a 1794 feminist author’s writings has stalled, and this gives Dulcie horrible nightmares that further complicate her thinking. VERDICT For those seeking mysteries with a gothic twist, Simon offers a supernatural cozy that also weaves in real-life issues (e.g., sexual harassment of students). Readers will relate to the academic politics and might also like Emily Arsenault’s The Broken Teaglass as a similar suspense puzzle. Or for the paranormal element, consider Sue Ann Jaffarian’s “Ghost of Granny Apples” series.

Bittersweet

Today, as I re-read two new lovely reviews of Grey Zone, I have a confession: I did not think I'd made this book, the third Dulcie Schwartz, a very good mystery. My reasons were good: Last spring, my mother was declining through a series of illnesses and health crises that were rapidly building on each other. By the middle of March last year, it was pretty clear she was dying, and she passed away before Grey Zone was finished. Those last days – and for the weeks after – the last thing I wanted to write about was more death. I loved spending time with Dulcie and her friends (and her cats). But murder? I had lost my taste for it. This made finishing this book difficult, and before I did, I went back and forth several times – changing the murder to something else, and back again. When I turned it in, I thought, "well, it's a decent book about Dulcie. I'll do better on the murder mystery aspect next time.

And today I get these two lovely reviews. PW calls Grey Zone, "the best in the series so far." I'm overwhelmed. It is the first anniversary of my mother's death. There's a candle burning on our mantelpiece to recall her. I've been feeling her loss freshly for a while now – that St. Patrick's day trip to the ER. The calls from the doctors. The rushed trips over... the decisions. And yet... good reviews. I guess the book came out better than I had thought. My mom would have been proud, I know that. Bittersweet.

Setting up book-launch events

so far... Monday, April 11, 7 p.m.
Partners and Crime, 44 Greenwich Ave., New York. 212-243-0440.
Tues., April 12, 7 p.m.
Reading/signing with Rosemary Herbert, Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline, MA 617-566-6660
Tuesday, May 17, 7 p.m.
Book launch reading/party, Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 617-542-READ

and remember, if you can't make an event you can always call the bookstore and order a signed/personalized book!

High-quality cozy?

"Simon writes a high-quality cozy mystery, well paced and plotted, with plenty of twists." - Booklist (starred review).

Oh my! How did I miss that first time through?

Wow - thank you, Booklist!

A starred review for Dogs Don't Lie!

Pru Marlowe has recently returned to her hometown in the Berkshires, ostensibly to care for her dying mother. In reality, she fled New York when she was weeks away from completing her degree as an animal behaviorist, having endured a nervous breakdown caused by her sudden ability to hear animals. Only a few months later, after setting up shop as an animal trainer, Pru finds her best client dead, his throat ripped out, and his newly adopted pit bull, Lily, standing next to him, covered in blood. Spurred on by the desperate cries only she can hear, Pru commits herself to saving Lily and solving the murder. Simon writes a high-quality cozy mystery, well paced and plotted, with plenty of twists, and set in a New England small town full of intriguing characters. Pru’s struggles to deal with her abilities make this stand out among other animal mysteries, and the sad story of Floyd, the heart-broken Persian, will touch the heart of cat lovers everywhere. Recommend this series to fans of Blaize Clement and Rita May Brown (especially those who have grown weary of the Mrs. Murphy novels). Watch this series closely. It could well sprint to the top of the animal-cozy genre.

— Jessica Moyer

Pru gets a star from Booklist!

"Watch this series closely. It could well spring to the top of the animal-cozy genre." – Booklist (starred review)

Thank you, Library Journal!

"A delightful new series"! Woohoo!

Library Journal

Berkshires pet psychic Pru Marlowe finds her highest-paying client dead in his living room with his throat torn out. The prime suspect is the victim's blood-covered pit bull, Lily. Trying to save Lily places Pru squarely on the path to danger. VERDICT Simon, author of the Theda Krakow (Probable Claws) and Dulcie Schwartz series (Grey Matters), launches a delightful new pet series that will appeal to fans of Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Rita Mae Brown.

Wow, thank you, Robin Agnew

"[C]risp writing and polished plot are a pleasure from start to finish." – Robin Agnew on Dogs Don't Lie.

Can a book with a cat be taken seriously? (Answer: yes).

"While I often am approached by writers wanting to send me ARCs and have me read, possibly review them, and certainly try to sell them, it’s not often that I say “yes,” send the ARC, and less often when I actually read and enjoy them. However, such was the charm and erudition of author Clea Simon (who I hadn’t heard of, despite the fact that she had nine books to her credit) that I agreed to an ARC. ..." read more here.

Robin Agnew is the owner of the marvelous indie, Aunt Agatha's Mystery Books, in Ann Arbor, MI. This is from the blog "Hey, There's a Dead Guy in My Living Room."

It's official!

Dulcie and Mr. Grey will continue! Just got the contract for a fourth Dulcie Schwartz mystery! Yay! In the meantime, some of the just-out British editions of Grey Zone, the third Dulcie feline mystery, seem to be making their way to these shores. US release date is April, but if you can't wait...

Thank you, Examiner!

Love the quotes she chose. Love the four stars, too!

Review of Dogs Don't Lie by Pamela Kramer, The Examiner:

Dogs Don't Lie by Clea Simon is a clever mystery sure to charm animal lovers who enjoy mysteries. Even lovers of mysteries who aren't animal lovers will enjoy the twists and turns that meander through this story, the first in the Pru Marlowe Pet Noir series.

Pru Marlowe, who is almost a certified animal behaviorist, finds her client dead and his rescued pit bull free in the house. Of course, public opinion (and that of the police) is that the dog did it.

What no one knows (except Pru's cat) is that Pru can communicate with animals. It's a skill that almost drove her crazy, but she has effectively come to terms with her special talent.

The story is told in first person narrative--a perfect choice for hearing Pru's voice clearly when she talks about her "talent" and communicating with the animals. A clever note is that the animals (including an opinionated ferret) have names for themselves which are not the same as the names that humans call them.

Pru's cat is another opinionated. character. She seems quite a bit more intelligent than the average cat, but then if one doesn't communicate with cats regularly, how would one know the relative intelligence of a cat? An example of Wallis's dialogue: "Dogs." Wallis hissed out the word, as close to a curse as she comes. "They lie."

Not heavy reading, this is a perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter night. Or a balmy summer evening. Visit Clea's website and read about her other titles. Cleverly titled, they are clearly all in a cat-egory of their own: Probable Claws, Mew is for Murder, Cattery Row, and Cries & Whiskers.

Lovers of Spencer Quinn's mysteries starring Chet the detective dog (Dog On It, Thereby Hangs a Tail, and To Fetch a Thief) will enjoy reading Clea Simon's stories.

GREY ZONE in the house!

The third Dulcie Schwartz mystery doesn't hit stores in the US until April. But it's now out in the UK, so I just got a lovely box from my publisher, Severn House. Here's my new desk set up, too.

Henning Mankell's latest

My review of Henning Mankell's latest, Daniel, ran in today's Boston Globe. I wished I liked it more. I've also just read an advance of his last Wallander mystery and, wow, did I hate that. Sometimes, I think, a writer loses respect for his readers, and that's a sad thing.

From today's Globe:

How do we see our world, and how does that vision affect others? These are the questions at the heart of Henning Mankell’s “Daniel,’’ a quiet tragedy that sets an obtuse white man against a young African boy....

Me on "Moonlight Mile"

I'm not usually a Dennis Lehane fan. Usually seems like he's trying too hard. But going back to Patrick and Angie, he hits all the right notes - the real notes. My review in today's Globe.

Under construction...

Please excuse the lack of writing (or crime or cats) while I oversee the renovations on our new house! At the very least, this is a marvelous distraction while I await my editor's comments on the first 100 pages of Pru #2, Cats Can't Shoot. In the meantime, for your viewing pleasure...

Thank you, Library Journal!

"Don’t miss Dogs Don’t Lie (Poisoned Pen. ISBN 9781590588604. $24.95; pap. ISBN 978 1590588628. $14.95) from Clea Simon, a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and many other venues when she’s not writing sharp nonfiction works or animal-based mysteries." - from Library Journal's pre-pub alert, Spring 2011 mysteries to watch out for!

My GREY ZONE cover

The kitten leaves her mark... Grey Zone, the third Dulcie Schwartz mystery, out in the UK in Dec., in the US in April:

Billy Ruane

It seems we have lost another. Poor guy. He will be missed.

Drumroll, please...

The final cover for my debut pet noir, Dogs Don't Lie (coming in April), which Beth Kanell, co-owner of Kingdom Books, Waterford, VT, calls, "a tightly plotted and interesting mystery, with a strong underlying flavor of 'Nancy Drew grown up.'"

(and, while you should wait and get it from an indie, yeah, you can also pre-order it here.)

Foreign affairs, by the masters

"Information is dangerous currency. How we get it, what we do with it, and how we dismiss that which we would rather not know are hot topics, especially in contemporary thrillers. Spy master John le Carré has long dealt with these questions, chronicling betrayals both personal and patriotic. His British peer mystery writer John Lawton is now entering this tricky territory as well. In their new books, both authors ponder the hidden price of the data trade..."

Read more of my review in the Boston Phoenix

Nothing for it but to write

Just sent off the copy edits for Grey Zone. Sent back the corrected ARC for Dogs Don't Lie last week (did I really repeat/misspell that many words? Guess so). Have done enough research so that I should be able to write at least half this book without doing any more. Nothing for it but to write. Hooboy...

Scent bottles and other gun terms...

I love writing, but sometimes research takes the cake. I'm getting ready to start the second Pru Marlowe pet noir and have been immersed in the world of antique guns. In some ways this is silly: the collectible that appears in the first scene of this next book will probably not be seen again after page 30. But I want to get it right. And besides, when you start researching something esoteric like this, you uncover a whole world of experts and trivia. Did you know about scent-bottle powder holders? No, neither did I.

Happy Labor Day

morning coffee at the Moors Motel

Revisions and the restorative power of rock & roll

I'm re-reading Grey Zone this week - my editor loved it (yay!) but considering all the crap that went down this spring, she gave me a week to re-read/revise one more time. And I'm slogging along when, yesterday, I hit one of those passages where I wonder, "What the hell was I thinking?" Couldn't for the life of me figure it out.

Skip ahead a few hours: the Neighborhoods and Iggy Pop at House of Blues. Loving the Neighborhoods, who I used to go see in the '80s. The fact that they've stuck to it is proof that they're the real thing, artists, and the time has been put to good use. They know how to play. Then... Iggy. 63 and a little saggy, but still tough as nails. "Raw Power," wow. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is transcendent. Mike Watt playing with his leg in a brace, the band just shredding. Wonderful.

And on my way out, I realize how to rework that passage. Sweet!

"What We Have," a review

We plan, God laughs... my review of Amy Boesky's moving memoir, "What We Have," in today's Boston Globe.

Looking ahead....

OK, I admit I am psyched that Dogs Don't Lie, my first Pru Marlowe pet noir mystery, is already listed as available for preorder on Amazon (and I promise, indie bookstores, as soon as you list it, too, I'll post links!) That book won't be published until April, 2011, but it was edited and accepted in June. But I just saw that Grey Zone, my third Dulcie Schwartz mystery, is also now listed on Amazon. It's not yet available for pre-order, just there so you can be notified when it becomes available. But still... I just sent the manuscript in last Monday and my editor hasn't even read it yet! I guess it's nice that they have such faith in me and Dulcie, huh? Maybe that's Mr. Grey's influence?

"And behind the chalet, the holiday's complete..."

Cheap Trick and Squeeze, row N. So much fun. Reviewed it for the Phoenix here.

photo by Scott M. Lacey for the Boston Phoenix.

My total fan-girl moment!

Monday morning, I was sick as a dog but I had one un-missable appoint: a phone interview with Naomi Novik. Novik, you may already know, is the author of the Temeraire novels: Napoleonic-era fantasy, only set in an alternative world with intelligent, sensitive dragons. Not my usual cup of tea, but they're so smart and funny - well, others have made the comparison to Jane Austen. Let me just say it holds up.

Transcribing the tape on Tuesday, I realized how bad I sounded. But Naomi was sparkling and fun and full of news (both about her personal life with husband Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime - there's your crime fiction connection! - and about Temeraire). And later a friend pointed out that in many ways the dragons are like oversized cats, so maybe that's another connection.

At any rate, this is what ran in this week's Boston Phoenix. They promise the full transcript will be up soon, so I'll post a link then.

Tana French's "Faithful Place"

My review in the Boston Phoenix:

"Frank Mackey's life changed when he was 19. The year was 1985, and he and his girlfriend Rosie Daly were about to run away together. Growing up in Faithful Place, one of working-class Dublin's more depressed byways, they knew they had no future in Ireland, particularly because Rosie's aspiring family despised Frank's booze-ruined clan. London — freedom — beckoned, and they were making their break.

Except that Rosie never showed, and the letter Frank found made it seem she shared her parents' aversion to his violent, alcoholic family. So he went off alone, hating everyone who'd doomed him to a lonely, loveless life.

Twenty-two years later and Frank Mackey is still in Dublin, though he's never returned to the old neighborhood. Now he's on the Undercover Squad, with a beautiful daughter, an educated ex-wife, and the kind of life nobody in Faithful Place could ever imagine. His only contact with the past is through one sister, Jackie. And so, when she calls to say that Rosie's suitcase has been found in the abandoned house where the lovers used to meet, the complications are not only criminal, they're personal, as Frank's past rises up to meet him with a vengeance....

Read more: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/arts/104817-tana-french-gets-her-characters-where-they-live/#ixzz0tRH35yrf

One down, one to go

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy! DOGS DON'T LIE, the first Pru Marlowe mystery, is finally through revisions and on track to be published by Poisoned Pen Press next April. This cover isn't final, but it looks pretty good, doesn't it? (If you don't think so, please tell me - and why - before publisher commits to it!) Cover will have "A Pru Marlowe pet noir" on it somewhere, I am told.

Now I'm finishing up the third Dulcie Schwartz mystery, GREY ZONE. I'm now doing one of my favorite tricks - reading it through in a different typeface. I find I catch so many more errors and awkward passages that way. For me, Times Roman is the norm so reading a printout in Helvetica pushes me just enough out of my comfort zone. And, yes, I do recycle.

GREY ZONE is due to its publisher, Severn House, at the end of the month, which has had me feeling like I had plenty of time. Except that yesterday I got an email from my editor, asking if all was on track and could I send her a blurb. They'd like to publish GREY ZONE in December! (That's UK publication, US is usually three months later.) December 2010!! Yikes.

So it's back to work for me. One down, one to go....

It's not just sour grapes.

Am I right folks?

Introducing Pru Marlowe and the genre of "pet noir"

From Publishers Marketplace:

"Mystery/Crime: Clea Simon's DOGS DON'T LIE, first in a new "pet noir" series featuring a bad-girl animal psychic and her sidekick, a crotchety tabby, to Annette Rogers at Poisoned Pen Press, in a nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in April, 2011, by Colleen Mohyde at Doe Coover Agency."

More info when I have time - am now waiting to hear from editor on Dogs Don't Lie revisions and also finishing up Dulcie #3, tentatively titled "Grey Zone." So a little harried, but VERY HAPPY!!

Drumroll, please...

wait for it...

Found dialogue

I love summer (or, ok, spring) in the city. Everyone lives outdoors, from the shirtless man in mardi gras beads to the couples returning from dinner out. And as we did the same, we encountered these random bits of conversation:

2.

" ... I don' t think anyone could live 20 minutes underwater..."

2.

"It has a little bit of everything."

"No, it doesn't."

3.

"My father always kept his shotguns (plural) under the bed."

All dialogue, as Stan Mack used to say, verbatim.

Me on "Agents of Treachery"

I got to review the new spy-fiction anthology "Agents of Treachery" in today's Boston Globe:

"What is the proper setting for an international thriller in these global times? Is it World War II, the last unequivocally just war, or the fight against terrorism? Does it take place in Europe or the Middle East, or right here at home? These are some of the questions tackled by the authors in this packed anthology, “Agents of Treachery.’’...

read more here: http://shar.es/mlU3u