Blog
Here comes the sun!
We've made it thus far, to the shortest day of the year. From now on, the sun will linger a little longer. Hang in there!Happy Solstice!
Addicted to cats?
According to this article in the New York Times, there may be a biological basis for cat hoarding (not animal hoarding in general, but specifically cats). It cites the Centers for Disease Control talking about how the common parasite, toxoplasma gondii, may make us...
Thank you, RTE!
Reviewing the Evidence has come to be one of the most respected crime fiction review sites, covering both US and UK books. And they can be critical. Therefore, I was overjoyed to see this review of Cries and Whiskers. How can you not love a review that opens like...
“Cats Are Not Killers, They Are Predators”
Louise Holton and Maggie Funkhouser of Alley Cat Rescue sent me the following response, both to the New York Times Magazine article that discussed feral cat predation and to my own talk/blog, "Is This Kitty a Killer?" I think they make some excellent points.Humans...
My putative pub date.
Note to actual readers: Real blog topics begin right below this bit of BSP. Please read on.OK, for the BSP: Today is my Amazon pub date, a date chosen pretty much at random (Barnes and Noble.com has had my book for at least a week, as have various lovely independent...
Is this kitty a killer?
Look at the book cover to your left. Look at that little black and white face. I ask you, is that the face of a killer?Now, I write murder mysteries, but even for me that question might sound a bit odd.I mean, I’ve always promised my readers that no matter how many...
Doris Lessing
Let us suppose floods wash through our cities, the seas rise . . . but the storyteller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us - for good and for ill. It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed....
The Animal Connection
Dateline: Boston, Monday afternoon!Cries and Whiskers makes the New England Cable News Animal Connection, featuring friend and colleague Vicki Constantine Croke. (She's the author of a wonderful true-life animal adventure, The Lady and the Panda, and several other...
The ethics of mysteries…
Hey, if you're reading this, you probably have heard this basic idea already. Supposedly mystery readers love mysteries because our books impose some kind of order on the universe. Things make sense, clues lead to conclusions, and justice is served. (This is different...
my virtual cat-driven tour…
I'm continuing to make the rounds of the blogosphere! Today, I'm at Working Stiffs and tomorrow I'll be at First Offenders. Of course, tomorrow for real I'll be at Harvard Book Store for my book release party, too! (7 p.m.! Wine, cheese, cookies, books). Thanks to...