Crafty Cat (Crazy Cat Lady Mystery) by Mollie Hunt
About Crafty Cat
Crafty Cat (Crazy Cat Lady Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
11th in the Series
Setting - Oregon
Publisher : Independently Published
(October 29, 2024)
Paperback :
265 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8340449023
Digital ASIN : B0DJPYRLKH
Romance, death, and cat quilts. What does quilting have to do with murder? Lynley Cannon is about to find out.
Lynley Cannon has a new hobby—making cat-themed quilt donations for the ShadowCat Rescue auction. The small quilting guild is run by three generations of women and two cats, but when the elder of the family is murdered, Lynley’s job shifts from crafting to sleuthing.
Who would want to kill such a dear old thing? The police think they know, but they don’t have all the facts.
As secrets come out and a romance is uncovered, the quilting project begins to fall to pieces. Lynley jumps in to help the family navigate the justice system, but when a neighbor is found dead and another of the quilt shop’s owners missing, even Lynley is at a loss. It takes a couple of crafty cats to get to the bottom of this stranger-than-fiction crime.
About Mollie Hunt
Cat Writer Mollie Hunt is the award-winning author of two cozy series: the Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries featuring a sixty-something cat shelter volunteer who finds more trouble than a cat in catnip, and the Tenth Life Paranormal Mysteries involving a ghost cat. Her Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy presents extraordinary cats saving the world. She recently released a COVID memoir which she calls, "a tale of a plague and politics, of depression and inspiration, and an ode to the very real and healing presence of cats." In her spare time, she pens a bit of cat poetry.
Mollie is a member of the Oregon Writers’ Colony, Sisters in Crime, the Cat Writers’ Association, Willamette Writers, and Northwest Independent Writers Association (NIWA). She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and a varying number of cats. Like her cat lady character, she is a grateful shelter volunteer
Interview
Where are you from?
Though I have lived
many places, including the California desert near Palo Verde and the wilds of
Vancouver Island, British Columbia, I currently live twenty blocks from where I
grew up in Portland, Oregon.
Tell us your latest news?
I launched a book!
Oh, right, that’s what this blog tour is all about. Crafty Cat, my eleventh
Crazy Cat Lady cozy mystery, is out in the world for all to read. That’s big
news to me.
When and why did you begin writing?
I’ve always loved
reading and tried my hand at writing once or twice throughout my lifetime, but
it wasn’t until my husband Jim got a computer in the mid-nineties that I tried
my hand at writing the mystery that had been buzzing around in my head. Jim was
working in Japan at the time, and because we had been remodeling the bedroom, I
was sleeping on a futon in his office. One night, I got up at two a.m., went to
the computer, and started writing. Before I knew it, an hour had flown by, and
I was already forty-five pages into “The Oldest House.” From then on I was
hooked.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
It’s hard for
beginning writers to think of themselves as such, but I was lucky enough to
attend a workshop given by the prominent sci-fi author David Gerrold. Among the
many other things I learned, the fact that one is a writer if one writes was
among the most important.
What inspired you to write your first book?
I loved mysteries
and puzzles, but my first several attempts at writing them were less than successful.
The stories were good, but I had yet to develop my writing style or learn where
the commas went. (Another thing I learned from Mr. Gerrold’s workshop was that
“the first million words were practice.”) When I launched into Cats’ Eyes, book one of theCrazy Cat Lady mysteries and first of my books to
be published, I didn’t know it was to become a series. I suppose the
inspiration behind it was the old saying, write what you know. I knew cats.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I have a voice, but
I don’t think of it as a style.
How did you come up with the title?
Often, I have the
title before I start writing the book. Cat Café is a good example—I
just loved it as a title and knew I had to write something to go with it. Crafty Cat wasn’t as easy. I actually went through several ideas and even a fan
survey before I came right back to my original plan.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Some cozy mysteries
include recipes or gardening tips; mine offer information about cats. At the
beginning of each of my chapters is a tip or fact about cats, cat care, cat
lore, and more. I want people to learn about cats, because I believe cats have
a lot to teach us about living life.
I also have a
diverse cast of human characters who for the most part (excluding the villains
of course) have a penchant for kindness. Kindness is the key to improving our
world,
What would you like my readers to know?
Cats are amazing.
Writing is amazing.
Reading is amazing.
The world is
amazing.
Also, spaying and
neutering your pets to decrease overpopulation works!
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I liked the interview.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Interviewers always make me think.
DeleteThanks for the Crafty Cat feature and the interesting interview. It's always fun and a little scary to answer questions about oneself.
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