I'm so happy to welcome Carolyn Haines to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Carolyn writes the Familiar Legacy series. BONE-A-FIED TROUBLE is the ninth book in the series and was released today!
Kathy: BONE-A-FIED TROUBLE is the ninth book in the Familiar Legacy series. How did the idea for a detective cat come about?
CH: My first experience in novel publishing was with Harlequin Intrigue. I wrote as Caroline Burnes. I had a wonderful editor, Tahti Carter, who encouraged me to push a little at the standard structure of the Intrigues (male-female POV, third person). I came up with a black cat named Familiar, who escaped from a research lab. And Familiar had a 1st person point of view—with his thoughts. Familiar was smarter than the average biped and a little condescending toward humans because he fully believed himself superior. He’d patterned himself after Sam Spade (kind of a Humphrey Bogart rendition.) And one of my most popular characters was born. I wrote 22 Familiar books for Intrigue and I’m now reissuing some of them as I get my rights back. But Familiar was my character with a long history of traits and characteristics that I’d given him. When I thought of creating a publishing venture with Familiar’s son, Trouble, as the central character, I wanted to start fresh with the character so all the writers could have input in shaping him. And boy, have the other writers risen to the challenge! Trouble is also superior, but he’s been greatly influenced by Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. Even though Trouble is a Wetumpka, Alabama cat—he “thinks” with a slight British accent! But he is a fine detective, like his father.
Kathy: In this latest release Tabitha Kingsley poses as a psychic medium in order to find her missing sister. Do you believe that some people actually have the gift?
CH: I absolutely do. I know some very gifted psychics and mediums, and in my crazy life, I’ve seen a couple of ghosts. Not the scary ones, just the lost ones. (Yeah and they STILL scare me!) I’ve always been interested in what lies beyond the world we experience. My books often have paranormal elements.
Kathy: I've known some psychics, but only recently have I met some psychic mediums. Have you ever been to a psychic medium?
CH: I have. I went to a “Soul Survival” seminar at the Omega Center and had the privilege of working with and hearing some incredible people. I’m also going to see John Edwards. I enjoy the energy and also the healing that so many people get. I have a dear friend who is a terrific channeler, and she sometimes brings me messages.
Kathy: What first drew you to mysteries?
CH: I fell in love with sleuths reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. And Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Author Conan Doyle (who by the way was deeply involved in spiritualism). I love scary stories, too. I have a crazy family and we thought it was fun to scare the devil out of each other with pranks. (I have a good heart, thank goodness). I think all good books have a little bit of mystery in them. Think of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, which is never thought of as a mystery, but who was attacking Scout? What really happened to Boo Radley? Why was Atticus able to stand up for what was right when others couldn’t? All mysteries swirling around the story. Readers are compelled to understand the characters in a story, and that means solving the mystery of who they are and why they act in the ways they do. I just love it!
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
CH: I do write in a number of other genres: crime fiction, mystery, suspense, romantic mystery, humor, horror, gothic, paranormal mystery, historicals, short fiction, and non-fiction. A lot of my books are a combination of several genres, such as the Pluto’s Snitch mystery series. Those are historical (1920), mysteries with a strong paranormal element. I am what is jokingly called a genre slut. I just love stories and I don’t care what label is put on them.
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
CH: Currently I’m writing three different series—the Trouble black cat books, which are part of an author collective. We share the cat and his voice, but each author puts her own style on her book. Trouble is a fun cat to write about. These are mysteries with a little bit of romance. They are standalones and need not be read in sequence.
I also have the Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series. The 20th book in the series will be published May 14, GAME OF BONES. Sarah Booth and her friend Tinkie became accidental detectives, but they’re pretty good at it. The series is set in Zinnia, Mississippi (the Delta region of my home state). And the books don’t have to be read in order, though a lot of people like to do it that way. The characters do grow and change. But each book is a complete mystery, therefore they are technically standalones.
I indulge my love of a little chill with the Pluto’s Snitch series. I’m writing the 4th book in this paranormal/historical/mystery series set in the 1920s in the Deep South (so far, but I have a great idea for a Hollywood mystery for this series. Hollywood in 1920 just fascinates me.) Raissa is able to see the dead and communicate—sometimes. But she is aware that the dead lie and can be duplicitous. Her partner, Reginald, is able to read the living and their motives. Usually these books contain a double mystery (past and contemporary) and some historical figures, also a few gothic chills.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
CH: My characters become my family. I love the ones who agree with me! Ha ha. Sometimes they are contrary and cranky (just like family) and I don’t like them at all. But then they do something that makes me laugh or cry and I love them again. I don’t have a favorite.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
CH: The black cat books are patterned after two very special black cats that I was fortunate to share my life with. E.A. Poe was the prototype for Familiar. Coal Shaft Haines set the pattern for Trouble. I miss those cats every single day.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
CH: I love working with St. Martin’s on the Sarah Booth books. I’ve had consistently wonderful editors and a truly supportive network. But writers are independent cusses by nature. I met some people who were striking out to indie publish and it sounded like a lot of fun. Someone should have warned me about the work! I realized that publishing is changing, just like the music industry changed. I didn’t want to be caught flat-footed and crushed under the “new” order. So I have the best of both worlds. One foot in traditional publishing and one foot in indie publishing. I will add that a good book can only become a great book with an accomplished editor. So no matter which world I’m in, I deeply value the editors I work with.
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
CH: Mary Shelley, James Lee Burke, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King. And there would be lots of booze.
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
CH: I’m re-reading an old classic—BLACK AMBER by Phyllis Whitney.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
CH: I run an animal rescue on my little farm. I love to horseback ride and wallow with the dogs and cats. Some of the animals I care for have been so mistreated that a little love means everything to them. I like to play practical jokes on my friends (and why they don’t gang up and kill me I’ll never know). I walk in the woods and take care of my yard and 25 acres of fence line and pasture. And I get together with friends and play cards or games. In many ways, I’ve just refused to grow up. I highly recommend this attitude. Once they trick you into being a grown up, you’re doomed!
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
CH: Coffee, Jack Daniel’s, chocolate, catsup. I read this and realize that I may need an intervention!
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
CH: I have plans for new books in all the series, and if I had more time, I’d write more things. It just takes forever to write a big book. Dang it, I need a clone. Now that would be really, really scary. BONE-A-FIDE TROUBLE comes out March 4 (today!), GAME OF BONES with Sarah Booth will release May 14 and you can pre-order. A VISITATION OF ANGELS (Pluto’s Snitch) will release in the fall—if I work hard enough.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
CH: I love to tell stories and I get to do that. And by some magic, readers like to read my stories. I am the master of my own destiny. (Yeah, right.) For most of my life I’ve worked two jobs (I was a journalist, worked in PR in education, and finally taught the graduate and undergraduate fiction classes at a major university for 14 years) while I also wrote books. I’ve published over 80 books. I gave up the “day job” in 2016 and now I totally control my schedule. Well, that’s a lie. I have more vet appointments than I can shake a stick at. And I have to really beat the bushes to keep the vet bills paid. I do understand that there is a certain madness to working so hard to care for 23 animals including 3 horses. I also help with several feral cat colonies with spay and neuter. (Please, please spay and neuter your pets. So many die because they are unwanted.) So I work harder than ever, but I also can get up from my desk and go clean horse stalls if I’m stuck in a writing corner, or walk in the woods, or cook pot of soup. It’s control of my time—and time is really the only that we have that matters. And I know some really, really cool people who are also writers and readers.
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Enjoy an excerpt:
Chapter
One
I smell money! I’ve heard the expression
all my life and thought it was an exaggeration of the rapacious American spirit
of Manifest Destiny. Not true! I, quite literally, smell it. It’s the odor of
this rich Delta soil being turned over by the big machines plowing and
planting. Another money crop is going into the Mississippi alluvial ground, and
yes, now I understand what money smells like. Something to keep in mind as I
learn my way around Sunflower County in Mississippi.
I’m
here on a mission. A fellow feline, Pluto Delaney, has called me in to assist
him in resolving a mystery. Pluto needs
to find a missing female humanoid. Trudy Wells belongs to one sassy little
marmalade kitty named Vesta, and Vesta is missing her human. Pluto has a thing
for Vesta, and I’m here to help. Nothing flips my ascot as much as a mystery
given to me by a black cat almost as eloquent and articulate as I—a mystery
that also involves a missing person. If anyone can find the missing girl, I’m
that bloke.
Pluto,
who lives on a fine plantation in the Mississippi Delta, has issues of
transportation. He’s not savvy about hitching rides and public transit, which
is in short supply in the land of King Cotton anyway. When he heard I was in
town with my biped, Tammy Lynn, he sent out an S.O.S. I responded, of course,
and hence I’m currently sussing out the circumstances at the elegant Long Hall,
home of Samuel and Charline Long. They’re elders of the agricultural Long
family—the place where Trudy Wells worked before she vanished off the face of
the earth. While it’s possible Trudy has simply moved on, Pluto suspects foul
play.
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Check out the following links to keep in touch with Carolyn and purchase her books!
www.carolynhaines.com
https://books2read.com/BoneAFiedTrouble
