Guest blogger — Clea Simon

Today FO welcomes Clea Simon, author of the Theda Krakow mysteries. Her new book, CRIES AND WHISKERS, the third in the series, is out just in time for Christmas from Poisoned Pen Press.  I met Clea last year when we were on a panel together in Plymouth, Mass. I bought her second book, uncertain about the whole cat mystery thing. I like my mysteries a bit more hard-boiled. But Clea’s books surprised me. Her books have an edge to them, maybe it’s all that rock ‘n roll she deals with in her work as a music critic/writer. She did interview Alice Cooper last year. But whatever it is, when you read one of Clea’s books, you’ll find a lot more than you expected. So without any further ado, I give you Clea Simon:

    When did I become the neighborhood cat lady? Okay, yeah, I write mysteries with cats in them. They have cats on the cover and cat jokes in the titles. But still, did I really deserve the Crazy Cat Lady action figure one of my friends gave me for a recent birthday? And did all my other buddies have to nod in acknowledgment of what they, clearly, saw as the perfect gift?
    Let me state for the record. I have one cat. I have always only had one cat, though at times it has been a different cat. I am by nature more of a cat person than a dog person. That’s just the way I am. To me, they’re just cuter, quieter and cuddlier, than dogs. At heart I agree with Time columnist Joel Stein, who asked, “How can people love something so much that they're willing to walk behind it and retrieve its feces with their own hands every day?” (Scooping a litterbox is different. It just is. Email me if you want to get into it.)
    But the cats in my books are real cats. And real reviewers — i.e., not family — point out that while my mysteries are traditional, they are not cozy, or, well, not that overly cutesy cozy that has taken over the subgenre.  First Offenders author Karen Olson did me the honor of saying I had the “purr-fect dose of noir” in my latest, for which I’m most grateful (and for which I’ll forgive her that “purr-fect”). The cats in my book don’t solve the mysteries (though they may help). They don’t talk. They do real cat things, like fall asleep when people are talking to them. That’s why I love them. They’re real cats.
    I mean, I make a point of including real animal issues in my mysteries. That sounds awful – didactic, boring – and I hope it’s not. It’s just that when I hear about a cat hoarder (you know, the real “crazy cat ladies”?) I think, “There would be a lot of people who would want to kill a hoarder.” And when I learned about the animal rights vs. animal welfare debate – aka “all domestic animals are evil” vs. “pets are people, too,” to wildly oversimplify – I thought, “Wow, what a great motive for murder.” And I do hear about these things because I am on various cat chat groups and belong to sundry feline-affiliated organizations.
    But I’m not obsessed, okay? It’s just that I get so much more of my writing done when someone lays her furry little bulk down against my feet and then I can’t move because she’s just so adorable. But that’s just human. I mean, look at that face! And, please, stop laughing.

Comments

[Felicia Donovan]

Clea, congratulations on CRIES AND WHISKERS and best of luck with that!

I have to confess that I've never had a cat and have always been a "dog" person, but one of my dog rescues happens to have very cat-like behavior - hopping up on places and perching, climbing into your lap and curling up, I swear sometimes he even purrs. He's as close to a cat I've ever had. Now if only I could train him to a litterbox...

Felicia Donovan
THE BLACK WIDOW AGENCY Series
www.feliciadonovan.com

[Lori G. Armstrong]

Welcome Clea!

Karen says great things about your books - I'll have to put you on my list :)

[Clea Simon]

Thanks, folks!
AndFelicia, I'm pro-dog, too (non-speciesist). My good friend Vicki has two Irish wolfhounds that are bigger than she is, and I've learned they are the sweetest, gentlest creatures on earth. Then again, maybe they're really very shaggy horses.

[AlisonGaylin]

Hi, Clea and welcome! I've always loved both dogs and cats. And, while we just have a dog now, I still miss our cat Jake, who loved beef jerky and scones, lying on newspapers we were trying to read and walking up to the dog and swatting her for no apparent reason.

[Clea Simon]

Jake sounds wonderful, Alison. We tend to call lying on the newspaper "reading with her ass." (I wonder if the blog will let me post that?) As in, "I'd pass you the Book Review, but Musetta's reading it with her ass right now." At which point, she's likely to swat at one of us for no apparent reason.

[spoveafeste]

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