FAN MAIL, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

A few days ago, I received a fan letter. I don’t get a lot of them, so I’m always excited when a reader takes the time to send me a note. I was eager to check it out when it arrived in my inbox, but in no way was I prepared for the words I read. 

As an author of cozy mysteries, I keep my stories light. I love the gentle genre that promises a few hours respite from the real world. But I also try to add a note of sincerity, of grace, and maybe a bit of optimism as well. Yes, like many of us, I want to save the world. 

I usually have no idea if any of these subtleties come through to my readers. Then this letter came: 

 

Dear Ms. Hunt,

 

I am in the middle of The Ghost Cat of Ocean Cove, and it’s such a perfect book for me I don’t want it to end. Camellia’s dream is my dream too, leaving the big city and moving to a cottage on the coast with my cats, so I am reading very slowly, especially since it’s the first book of the series! I can’t wait for the next one. 

 

The world feels like such a mess right now. Getting lost in a mystery with a cast like a Miss Marple Mystery, and a ghost cat (!!) helps me cope. You remind me that it might someday be possible to take a different path in life. 

 

Reading your book feels like sitting by the fireplace with my furry ones when it’s pouring rain outside, (my favorite thing to do) even while riding a city bus in Seattle. That’s quite an accomplishment!

 

Thank you for the comfort and joy you have given to me through your writing. It really is a blessing.

 

Jennifer

 

After I stopped smiling and crying, I wrote back to Jennifer, whom I’ve never met. I told her how much her letter meant to me. And do you know how she responded? She sent me pictures of her cats!

 

Have you ever received a fan letter that’s stopped you in your tracks? I hope so, because this one made my day year!

   

You can find Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer on her blogsite: https://molliehuntcatwriter.com/ 

Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/MollieHuntCatWriter/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/molliehuntcatwriter/

Twitter: @MollieHuntCats

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HOW A WRITER IS LIKE A CAT, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

 

Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

I just adopted a cat—another one—and as I watched this new boy do his cat thing, it suddenly occurred to me why my writer’s lifestyle fits so fluidly with that of the clowder*.  There are exceptions of course, like when Tyler thinks breakfast should be at five in the morning. I’m not an early riser and I don’t do anything before coffee. But in many ways, we are very much alike. 

Crazy in the wee hours.

Writers are known to get some of their best story ideas in the middle of the night. My cat Tyler seems to think that’s a pretty good time to dash around the house like a mad thing—not so different from me typing feverishly on my laptop at 3:00 a.m. 

Solitary among others.

Cats are aloof, no matter where they are. There may be ten other cats in the room, yet each of them rests in their own little bubble. Though some writers are gregarious, many are introverts whose way of adapting to life with people is to create a personal space for themselves alone. 

Tight focus.

Have you ever watched a cat go after a moth? They are fixated on their prey to such an extent that their skin twitches and their pupils dilate. It’s as if there is nothing else in the world. When I’m writing, I become so focused in my work that time ceases to exist. A gun could go off and I might not notice. 

Photo by Bill Stephan on Unsplash

Routine.

Anyone who knows cats has learned, one way or another, that cats thrive on routine. They have an established schedule and are unhappy when that schedule is interrupted or changed. Writers often share that respect for routine and can get very nasty when someone intrudes on their designated writing period. 

Some people won’t like us.

Just as some humans suffer from ailurophobia, there are those who don’t like writers either. “Dislike” may be too strong a word. Perhaps “misunderstand” would be more accurate. There is a misconception that a writers’ life is easy, merely jotting down stories on paper and picking up million dollar checks. If that were truly the case, I’d be jealous too, but unfortunately it’s not. 

Naps.

All creative endeavors require rest. Napping with cats restores energy to both cat and human.

Photo by Tucker Good on Unsplash

 

There are other ways writers are like cats, at least I enjoy thinking it’s so.

That’s all for meow.

 

*Clowder: a group of cats.

Cat Writer Mollie Hunt is the author of the Crazy Cat Lady Cozy Mysteries featuring Lynley Cannon, a sixty-something cat shelter volunteer who finds more trouble than a cat in catnip, and the Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy where cats save the world. She also pens a bit of cat poetry. 

You can find Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer on her blogsite: www.lecatts.wordpress.com

Amazon Page: www.amazon.com/author/molliehunt

Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/MollieHuntCatWriter/

@MollieHuntCats

Sign up for Mollie’s Extremely Informal Newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/c0fOTn

A WRITER'S CHRISTMAS LIST, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

  

Aside from the usual things—peace on Earth, a lottery win, a pony (that’s a hold-out from when I was a little girl)—all I want for Christmas are:

 

AUTHOR EVENTS.

I used to get so nervous before a book event that I’d swear I’d never do one again. Now I miss them like crazy.

BOOKSTORES.

Remember back when we could go to a real live bookstore? See our books placed lovingly on the shelves?

CONFERENCES.

From Pop Cats to the Cat Writers Association Conference to the Las Vegas Star Trek convention, 2020 was cancelled and it looks like 2021 may not be much better. I can’t wait until it’s safe to go out again. Besides the joy and vivacity of the various events, I love staying in hotels and ordering room service.

EXERCISE.

OMC! Did I say the E-word? I’ve never been the one to go to the gym or play sports, but BC (before Covid) I got a certain amount of exercise in my daily life. Now my biggest exertion is moving from screen to screen—laptop, computer, TV, phone. I don’t have the desire or discipline to do pushups with Richard Simmons, but if I don’t get going, I fear I’ll turn into Jaba the Hut.

FELLOWSHIPS.

Zoom is great! I don’t have to dress or brush my teeth. I can even set a background so my associates think I’m in Hawaii or the Louvre instead of my messy office. But online chats will never replace in person events, no matter how hard everyone tries.

MEETINGS.

I belong to several writers’ and other groups that hold regular meetings, at least they did BC. Some have moved to Zoom, but others have fallen by the wayside. Hopefully when this is all over, those groups can move forward again. We’ve lost so much during this pandemic, but I have high hopes for people’s enthusiasm about what comes next.

NEW IDEAS.

You’d think working on four books would be enough to keep me busy, and it is, but all four are in various stages of editing. I have nothing new to wrap my head around, which may be for the best since my head isn’t working all that well these days.

PRESENTATIONS.

Another in-person event put on hold, presentations, both mine and other people’s, were one of my favorite pastimes. I’ve done a couple of them on Zoom but felt such distance from my little audience of squares, I preformed poorly. Sorry about that.

REVIEWS.

I know people are reading. What else do we have to do (besides Netflix and Amazon shopping?) so why aren’t I seeing a rise in book reviews? Maybe everyone’s stunned into silence by the current events. I know I am.

SLEEP.

I don’t know about you, but my sleep cycle is all messed up. I’m awake half the night, then dog-tired after lunch. What I wouldn’t give for a good night’s sleep where not a creature is stirring not even a cat—I mean, mouse.

What’s on you Writer’s Christmas List this year?

TALES FROM THE REWRITE, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

Last week when I was at the beach, I worked on reading (aloud) the proof copy of Cat Winter, one of my latest WIPs and the 2^nd book of the Cat Seasons Tetralogy. The manuscript has been through several edits, a beta reader, and a trip to my editor, so I went into it thinking, with a few tweaks here and there, the book would be ready to publish. The first pages came off without a hitch; then the red lines began. The way I proof is to mark directly in the proof book with a red pen—soon there were more pages with red lines, circles, and arrows that not.

Okay, that's pretty normal—for both Cat Café and Cosmic Cat, I slogged through two full proofs before I was happy. But then I ran into a bigger conundrum: you see, Cat Winter, like all the Cat Seasons Tetralogy, is in two parts. The first part is relatively tame violence-wise, but part two, when my heroes travel back in time to antediluvian South America, things begin to get ugly. I suppose like many of us, I had been traumatized at a young age by stories of atrocities committed by people of that era. I'm not sure if it was a catharsis to write about such horrors, but none the less, I got down and dirty. That would be fine since this isn’t by any means a “cozy” story, except that part 1 of the book flows in a completely different vein. The ultra-violence doesn’t fit. I need to tone it down. This means a huge rewrite. Not what I had planned.

How much violence do you tolerate in your fiction? How much do you enjoy? Where does violence fit into your taste in books? 

With the pandemic, as well as the Black Lives Matter protests, our penchant for reading violent stories is changing. We no longer want to hear about the rogue cop who does it all his way, no matter what laws he breaks or who gets hurt. But we don’t want a tiptoe through the tulips either. 

Cat Winter, being a sci-fantasy about cats saving the world, doesn’t have any cops, but it’s not all tulips either. Rewriting is hard, sometimes harder than the original draft; still, it’s the right thing to do. Be warned, however, I won’t be throwing out all the carnage. It’s way too much fun! 

Note: Cat Summer, the first book in the Cat Seasons Tetralogy, published by Fire Star Press last year, just won the Cat Writers’ Association Muse Medallion for best sci-fi/fantasy book 2019! This prestigious award is an exciting badge of honor for my debut sci-fantasy.

COVID-BRAIN, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

Are you feeling strange? A slump in energy? A change in writing habits? An excess of anxiety? Do you spend an inordinate amount of time on the couch watching movies? Maybe even old television series you would not have bothered with before this grand isolation came about? Do you eat at odd hours, wake during the night, sleep later than usual, take a nap (or two) during the day?

For a while, many eons ago last March and April, many of us went crazy cleaning, gardening, cooking, playing with pets. But that burst of savage energy wound down at some point, and here we are, dead in the water. A friend of mine calls it Covid-brain. It's not that we have the virus, but our lives are impacted by it just the same.

Some of us are sick with headaches, body aches, fatigue, stomach and gut issues. Do you wonder at times, Is this it? Do I have it? Am I going to die? Or has the situation induced an anxiety episode or brought on depression? Those of us who live with mental health issues are always on the brink of a fall. Since depression and anxiety can be triggered by nothing whatsoever, the fact life as we know it has changed, that a deadly virus threatens our lives and the lives of our loved ones, that leadership is lacking and the country is divided, the fact that we are not the only country to be falling apart, the fact that some people think it’s okay to threaten others... oh, God, need I go on? Yeah, if we don’t have anxiety by now, we’re not paying attention.

I am an optimist. I believe everything that’s happening is moving us on a path that needs to be taken if we are to find peace. But lately it’s been hard to see past the symptoms of upheaval to the better things to come.

I am writing 3 books. One is a sci-fantasy about cats changing the world. (Oh, how I wish those kitties could jump in and save us now!); one is the first of a new cozy series; and one is the seventh in another set of cozies. I can still do that, though for the first time, I find myself wondering why I bother. My sales aren’t great and I have no heart for advertising. I finally recognized the feeling I’d been carrying around for the past month as, “I give up.”

I give up.

But I’ll still keep on writing and taking care of cats.
I will be a good person.
I will not hate.
I will not ridicule.
I will try to empathize with every single person.
If that’s not enough in the face of global bedlam, tough.

CAT SUMMER WINS BIG PURRS, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

I have some great news! Cat Summer, (FireStar Press 2019) has won a Certificate of Excellence for Books: Sci-Fi Fantasy in the Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communications Contest.

As a longtime member of CWA, this is not my first COE, but the thrill never goes away. The association has a strict judging policy, and there is no guaranteed winner if the judges deem no work is up to their high standards. So, yay! Three separate judges consider Cat Summer to be of the highest quality!

Now the book competes with others in its category for the coveted CWA Muse Medallion which will be announced at the CWA Communications Contest Virtual Awards Ceremony in August.

Cat Summer is Book One of the Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy. Here’s the blurb:

Lise has a special destiny: to help a clowder of sentient cats save the world from an evil older than history itself. It is a terrible battle, but Lise and her feline comrades prevail, putting an end to war, poverty, ignorance and want. The world is a better place. 

Or is it? 

A century later, it becomes clear that something has been lost. The new civilization produces no artists, no musicians, no scientists, no philosophers. Inertia has taken hold. Lise, now at the end of her life, must join her cat-friends once more to restore the Spark of the Human Spirit, but the goal cannot be reached without sacrifice.

To note, I also received COA’s for two of my cozy mysteries, and one for a set of cat poems, so I’m really happy right now!

The Cat Writers’ Association is a global cat-centric professional organization dedicated to excellence in written, visual and audio media.

Find out more on my blogsite: www.lecatts.wordpress.com

Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/MollieHuntCatWriter/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7768987.Mollie_Hunt

@MollieHuntCats

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WHAT’S IN A NAME? by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

Ever wonder where writers find the names for their characters? With billions of names floating around, how does one go about choosing the right one for each person in a book?

For me, most of my characters’ names just appear out of nowhere. The tall, elderly man is most certainly Ellery. The slightly dotty collectibles dealer is Dovey, as in lovey-dovey. The dead man is Jonathan Chambers, I don’t know why. He’s dead. I don’t even know what he looks like. But I know his name.

Then there are some characters that defy this sort of cosmic inspiration. The hero of my new mystery series eluded me for quite some time. A septuagenarian who solves crimes with the aid of a ghost cat seemed like a perfect Agatha, but there are far too many of those sleuthing around cozy mysteries as it is. Same with Amelia. Clarissa wasn’t quite right, and neither was Camella. I finally lit upon Camelia, like the flower, and this one stuck. Stay tuned for Camelia Collins and her ghost cat Soji, coming next year.

Back when I was a reader, before I was a writer, I wondered what would make one author choose odd or unusual names and another pick the most common. Now that I find myself in their place, I realize every writer has their own system. I personally try to choose unique names for the sake of creating a memorable character.

As I said, most names come to me, but what if they don’t? There is always the internet, but I find those long, alphabetical name lists to be two-dimensional; it’s hard to connect first name with surname and be sure they fit. When I worked in filing, I’d write down names that caught my eye on a Post-it. (One name only so as not to break any HIPPA rules.) I’ve checked my FB friends and the phone book. Sometimes I pick something in the room. My character Guinness MacAngus from Cosmic Cat began in the kitchen of a house where I was live-in cat-sitting. The owners had a wooden Guinness Stout crate on top their fridge.

Covid-19 had changed how we do things in ways we could never have imagined. My sisters-in-laws get together with my husband and me to take walks in a cemetery. I know that may sound strange, but many of our loved ones reside on that peaceful hilltop. We can stroll around, a safe six feet apart, and enjoy the fresh air in relative isolation. As you can imagine, we look at the beautiful old gravestones, many dating back to the 1800s. On our last trek, I realized that here was a wealth of names, just waiting to become a character in a book!

So look ahead for first names Thana, Owen, Angeline, Ward, and Gabriel. Last names Christner, Service, Brichard, Noble, and Flutz. These, and more, are all ready to come to life in my stories. And next time you take a walk, see what character names might be right before your eyes.

How do you find your character names?

 You can read more from Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer on her blogsite, www.lecatts.wordpress.com.