It’s my birthday week and what better way to celebrate than to launch a new book. Giddy-Up, Olivia! is Book 8 of the Calico Cat Mystery series, my 64th cozy mystery with cats, and my 108th book total. Here’s the description:
Olivia flaunts her inner cowgirl.
In this story, Olivia teams up with an unlikely cohort. Together, they help solve a spooky mystery and surprise everyone when the two of them capture the mastermind behind it all. Olivia keeps busy on a road trip to Texas. She saves a child after a frightening accident, squeals on a pair of thieves, uncovers an awful small town secret, and tries to tame a herd of out-of-control goats. She also helps a young woman keep from making a painful mistake.
Here’s what readers are saying:
“These books are always heart-warming.”
“The characters are charming, have depth, and are believable, if you can think outside the box.”
“A really fantastic storyline with wonderful characters.”
“This is a very good series.”
“An awesome read!”
Both the kindle and print versions are available at amazon.com
Today is National Take Your Cat to Work Day. So many of us these days work at home—when our cats allow it. So we know full-well what it’s like to work with a cat underfoot; on the desk; dancing across the computer keys; or meowing to be fed, played with, noticed… If you work at home with cats, I wonder, how many times a day do you pick up your favorite pen from the floor, move a cat from the paper you’re trying to work on (or your phone or laptop), or clean up a spill of water, paperclips, or paperwork?
last couple of years it has become a way of life for millions more people, who have had to learn to work amidst household activities which include children and pets. Have you ever taken a pet to work at an office away from home, though?
causing havoc. Think about it, there are probably plenty of things at your place of business for a cat to push off onto the floor, for example, and lunches to taste, and people to greet.
Are you a Garfield fan? If so, this is the day to celebrate the “cheeky” cat, as he is called. The Garfield comic strip was established in the 1970s by Jim Davis and featured his own cat and his dog, Odie. As you probably know, the Garfield rage has exploded over the years into movies, many items featuring Garfield motif—such as clothing, knick knacks and even cookbooks featuring “recipes with cattitude.”
The owners of a new company introduced themselves to me this week. They’re selling kits made in the Ukraine for building your own cat tree. I like the concept. You might, too. Learn more here: 
A couple of days ago Olivia and I watched a tree squirrel make his way along a power line from a pole to a tree. That squirrel was swishing his tail and pounding it all along the way. Swish-swish, bam-bam. That’s when I realized that Olivia must have been brought up by squirrels, because she uses her tail to express herself just like that silly squirrel was doing.
it. Sometimes she swishes it in warning or irritation and she bangs it on the floor when annoyed. Hilarious! She also pets me with her tail—that’s so sweet and she slaps me with it, depending on her mood and her desire at the moment. I’ve come to the conclusion that Olivia’s spirit animal is 
a squirrel, although sometimes she reminds me of a young goat, leaping into the air on a whim, jumping against the wall and kicking off of it then racing around the room like a crazy goat kid. She’s a mole sometimes—holing up under blankets when she 
doesn’t want to be seen or bothered. She can be a little piggy when eating, and a parrot with her chatter when she wants something or wants me to do something. There’s the owl aspect at times—oh the stare with the big eyes. And for a time there when she was a kitten, she used to fetch like a dog. She’s my first fetching cat. She would bring me a toy, drop it in my lap, and wait anxiously for me to throw it, then bring it back again and again.
It appears that the cat café was not a passing concept. Not only are the numbers of cat cafés growing in the US and Japan, which was probably the second country to adopt the idea (Taiwan being the first known), but in many other countries as well. I couldn’t find statistics on the actual number of cat cafes worldwide or even in the US, just know that if you love visiting cat cafés, you
may be able to find one or more just about anywhere you travel. One just opened in Dubai, for example. And, according to my research, some cat cafes are actually profitable.
The point of the cat café, of course, is to find homes for cats, and this is possible in most instances when the establishment is making a profit. How does one do that? Many cat café owners make ends meet through the restaurant part of the business. I’ve visited cat cafes that don’t actually have a café. They serve treats from machines. Others have enough going on aside from the 
cats to generate a profit. One cat café I visited had a lovely boutique which I must say I supported. I still enjoy wearing the cat-motif sweater I bought there. That cat café also featured a food truck out front with picnic 
tables where you could eat either before or after your cat visit.
and Purr Cat Café and how about the KitTea Cat Lounge.
Book 8 of the Calico Cat Mysteries is the focus here in the factory this month. The book is completed—except for the final touches. The manuscript is back from the editor, I’ve completed my final edits, the print book is formatted and now the formatter for the ebook version is working her magic.
If you’re like me you look for cats everywhere you go. Or at least you notice them when you’re out walking, driving, traveling, shopping. You see them in yards, lolling in windows of neighborhood homes, roaming in parks, outside restaurants, and working in industrial yards and warehouses. Some of us even go to the trouble of visiting cats at shelters, cat cafés, and businesses that “hire” cat greeters, mousers, etc.
find cats in a variety of businesses over the years—my veterinarian’s clinic, a bookstore, the library, a packing house, pet stores, on boats, and even at the beach. In England, you might see cats guarding royal properties—well, actually, I think they’re hired as mousers. In Japan, you can ride a train filled with cats. (On my bucket list.) As a child, all I had to do was visit my grandparents’ homes and I’d see 
cats—one or two at one grandmother’s house and dozens at another. (Yes, I believe she was a car hoarder.)
This “holiday” comes once a year on June 4, but if you’re like me you celebrate it many times every day. A pet here, a fur-ruffling there…You run your hand over your cat’s silky fur every time you walk past her. You pick her up and snuggle with her, you encourage her to jump in your lap while you’re relaxing and she encourages you to scratch her neck, and you tickle her 
cute tummy whenever she’ll let you and massage those sweet paws.
People ask me how I came to write about cats and how I come up with so many different plots. I mean here we are 64 books later—each book containing multiple side plots to accompany the main one and I’m still at it. Olivia’s Book 8 is with the editor as I write this and I’m spending hours each day fleshing out Book 58 of the Klepto Cat Mysteries.
were in junior high school back in 1973. I wrote articles for magazines. I had a few columns in magazines and a newspaper and I published a few books along the way. In 2012, with hundreds (maybe thousands) of published articles to my credit and 
somewhere around 40 books, I retired from nonfiction and wrote my first cozy mystery with cats—a Klepto Cat Mystery, Catnapped, which was actually inspired by a true story. I’m pleased and proud to say that I continue in my original goal as a writer–to inform, educate, and entertain readers through my Klepto Cat Mysteries and my Calico Cat Mysteries.
