{"id":1748,"date":"2017-01-25T04:18:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1748"},"modified":"2017-01-25T04:18:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:18:26","slug":"wild-and-sometimes-crazy-wednesday-secrets-to-the-klepto-cat-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1748","title":{"rendered":"Wild (and Sometimes Crazy Wednesday) \u2013 Secrets to the Klepto Cat Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Merriment-coverWe\u2019ve just published both the print and Kindle version of Klepto Cat Mystery Book 21, Merriment, Mayhem, and Meows<\/em><\/strong>. Order your copy at amazon.com.<\/p>\n

People who don\u2019t write are often curious about people who do. They\u2019re interested in how authors work, live, entertain themselves\u2014what they read, if they have creative outlets, and so forth. The question I get most often is, \u201cHow do you come up with so many story ideas?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s a legitimate question for someone who has trouble putting a grocery list together or who has never written anything beyond a thank you note or letter. But my response generally doesn\u2019t satisfy people. They still can\u2019t wrap their head around the concept that someone can pound out six books per year\u2014over 300,000 words every twelve months. Plus another 80,000 words of blog posts. Not to mention all of the promotion material an author produces\u2026So we\u2019re probably talking more like 500,000 words per year or more than ten million words over the five years I\u2019ve been writing the Klepto Cat Mysteries. \u00a0Yeah, that\u2019s pretty much a foreign concept to most people.<\/p>\n

So what do I say to those who ask how I come up with so many different stories and \"lilywritingIMG_1705\"scenarios for books featuring cats? It\u2019s a puzzle to me. You might also wonder how I come up with posts for this blog five times a week\u2014now numbering 500 posts. The ideas just come to me. I sit down to write a post or a story, often having no clue as to what I\u2019ll write, and soon I\u2019m deeply involved in fleshing out a theme or a story or a mystery.<\/p>\n

Most of the people who ask me this question\u2014\u201cHow do you come up with so many stories about cats?\u201d\u2014have read my Klepto Cat Mysteries. Lately, I\u2019ve had this question from people who have not read any of them. And I recently discovered they were asking this from a totally different perspective. These folks thought my books were cat-driven\u2014that the cats talked and thought and that they propelled the story. No wonder they were confused. How would you write an entire novel for adults\u2014let alone 21 novels\u2014completely based on a cast of cats?<\/p>\n

Actually, my stories are not cat-driven, they are human-driven. There are a variety of interesting human characters in the Klepto Cat Mysteries\u2014the mainstay characters, Savannah and Michael, a married couple of veterinarians; Margaret (Maggie) Savannah’s sometimes cantankerous aunt; interesting friends and family; and, of course, Craig Sledge, a no-nonsense, softie of a detective\u2014among other characters who pop in and out of the stories.<\/p>\n

The starring cat is Rags, a klepto who loves to be involved in whatever\u2019s going on and often throws a wrench in the works. The detective has learned to rely on Rags\u2019s instincts and sometimes calls on him to help with a case. Since Rags is a cat, Detective Craig Sledge has to deal with feline behavior\u2014a bit elevated at times\u2014but feline behavior, none-the-less.<\/p>\n

So, while Rags and his feline, canine, and even equine friends play important roles in the Klepto Cat Mysteries, the stories are told from the human characters\u2019 point of view. There are no talking cats and no cats with their own point of view\u2014except that which is implied through their actions.<\/p>\n

\"Lily

Lily Likes Books<\/p><\/div>\n

So how do I come up with fresh material for so many stories? If I figure that out, I may bottle it. I suppose it has to do with my training as a freelance article writer. In order to create enough fresh article ideas to earn a living, you really must pay attention to what\u2019s going on around you\u2014to see a story in every encounter and experience. I\u2019ve lived long enough to have had a lot of experiences and I\u2019ve observed, read, been entertained by countless scenarios of all kinds. So I imagine these are all inside me somewhere. Is that where imagination comes from?<\/p>\n

I believe that my thoughts that end up as part of my stories are a mix of\u00a0 truth and imagination. Those who write fantasy probably dig deeper inside their imagination to flesh out their stories. My stories seem to reflect the fact that I\u2019m fairly center-brained, as opposed to operating exclusively from the right brain or the left brain. So you\u2019ll see a lot of truth in my stories. I\u2019m also a teacher at heart and I can\u2019t seem to help sprinkling my stories with the positive values I cherish. I\u2019m often commended for that. And I\u2019ve always had a fascination and admiration for cats. I adore writing about them, and helping others to understand and appreciate them.<\/p>\n

So how do I come up with so many stories? It\u2019s still a bit of a mystery to me. But I plan to keep priming the creative pump and let the creative juices flow as long as it is in me to write these entertaining stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve just published both the print and Kindle version of Klepto Cat Mystery Book 21, Merriment, Mayhem, and Meows. Order your copy at amazon.com. People who don\u2019t write are often curious about people who do. They\u2019re interested in how authors … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,10,3,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1750,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions\/1750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}