{"id":5008,"date":"2021-06-08T03:39:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T11:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=5008"},"modified":"2021-06-08T03:39:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T11:39:57","slug":"tell-all-tuesday-why-cozy-mysteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=5008","title":{"rendered":"Tell-all Tuesday \u2013 Why Cozy Mysteries?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Okay, so the decision was made. I would write what I called light mysteries\u2014fun, easy-reading, light-hearted mysteries. I\u2019d been reading them and liked the feel-good feeling of having entered a world apart from my reality and being thoroughly entertained throughout the experience. I\u2019m not much for hard-core, sappy, or fantasy fiction. I don\u2019t choose to read science fiction. I wanted to \"\"see if I could replicate the style of those \u201clight\u201d mysteries I\u2019d been reading. But I needed a theme. Then I remembered something\u2014another author I used to read. Lillian Jackson-Braun, wrote fiction featuring cats. I\u2019m guessing she was at least one of the first to write sweet mysteries with cats. YES, I thought. Cats. I want cats in my stories.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, I\u2019m pretty sure it was with my current tabby, Lily\u2019s urging that this thought came to mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"But is this already being done? Is there a market for light mysteries with cats, I wondered. By then I\u2019d already joined the Cat Writers Association and I knew there was at least one writer who was emulating Ms. Jackson Braun\u2019s concept. Additional research showed that there were others and that these books were called, cozy mysteries. How cozy! But was there a market for them? Were they selling? Was there room for another cozy mystery with cats?<\/p>\n

The answer seemed to be yes. Okay, that\u2019s it. I\u2019d write cozy mysteries with cats. Additional research revealed several more cozy mysteries series with cats, and they all had themes. What would be my theme?\"\"<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, a cat answered that question for me. My tabby cat, Lily, had a unique habit or behavior. She constantly brought me her toys and even my slipper socks. Could I create a cat character from Lily\u2019s quirk? I\u2019d heard about cat \"\"burglars\u2014klepto cats. In fact I\u2019d read of one in veterinarian, James Herriot\u2019s delightful books in the 1970s. \u00a0I always believed that if Lily had been allowed to run free outside, she probably would \"\"have brought us all sorts of trinkets and treasures from around the neighborhood\u2014an interesting and fun concept.<\/p>\n

The first thing you should do when you hit on a theme you want to write about is to find out if anyone else is already doing this. My research indicated that there was not, so now I had chosen my genre and theme. It was time to develop a cat character. But how? What qualities would the cat need? What kind of cat should I feature? Tomorrow I\u2019ll discuss how I chose my staring cat\u2014no it wasn\u2019t Lily and I\u2019ll explain why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, so the decision was made. I would write what I called light mysteries\u2014fun, easy-reading, light-hearted mysteries. I\u2019d been reading them and liked the feel-good feeling of having entered a world apart from my reality and being thoroughly entertained throughout … 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":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008"}],"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=5008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5009,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions\/5009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}