Animals as Main Characters, Sidekicks, or Extras by Jenn McKinlay

Recently, I sat down with Booklist and was asked about the animals in my life (Booklist Reader Interview). And I told them...

"We have Otto the schnauzer with the best self-esteem of anyone I’ve ever known. He is my familiar and follows me everywhere. Yes, even into the bathroom. Next we have our rescue, Annie, the uber-sensitive pit bull mutt who cowers if anyone raises their voice; she does not like conflict. Subsequently, there are no arguments in our house because no one wants to upset the dog. Then we have the escape artist Loretta, our black cat, who has disappeared numerous times only to return days later with a mysterious look on her face, making us all wonder what sort of adventure she had while away. Patsy, Loretta’s sister, is our big-boned feline, who loves her food and everyone else’s food and is the one who is actually in charge of the house. All the pets run away from Patsy when she is in a mood. Lastly, we have Kevin, the fish who won’t die. Ten years ago, we took him in for our neighbor while he painted his living room, but Kevin, who likes to spit rocks, never left. Meanwhile the neighbor has moved away, left the state actually. We are thinking we will have to put Kevin in our will."




I realized when I answered their question that having a life that has gone to the dogs, cats, and fish is probably why I write animals as supporting characters into all of my books. While none of the animals is the main character in their story, they are certainly ever present sidekicks.

For the mysteries, I have a dog named Heathcliff in the library lover’s books, and for the cupcake bakery series, there is a cat named Captain Jack. In my romantic comedy Bluff Point series, it’s all "about a dog", the first book co-starring a rescue named Tulip, and in BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE (coming out tomorrow!!!), the story features a geriatric golden retriever, Saul, a disabled basset hound, Hot Wheels, and a foul mouthed parrot, Ike. And in my upcoming new romantic comedy series, the cats rule the roost, so clearly my fiction is full of what my dad would have called “fur people”. 

Why do I include animals (aside from the fact that I love them, obvy)? Because I think having animals in the stories allows my characters to show vulnerabilities where they might not be able to otherwise. Also, there can be some darn funny scenes when you have a parrot whose catch phrase is, "Oh, for f**k's sake!" And, no, he didn't say fork.

How about you, Reds? Where do animals fit into your stories? And if they don’t, why or why not?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: All of my  my main series characters have pets-wait, do they? Yes, they do. Jane has her cat Coda, and Charlotte has Botox. Jake has a golden retriever, Diva. But! Having a dog became a burden, I have to say, because Jake was always having to go take care of her. So I dropped Diva off at Jake's mom's house, and that, serendipitously, became a story line. (All the animals are rescues, I just realized.)  Which is part of the point, kind of, isn't it? A main character having a pet proves they are kind and loving and responsible and--since the pet loves them back--it reinforces that you are supposed to like the character. (Remember Save TheCat, right? I'm laughing because in The Wrong Girl, Jane actually DOES save a cat, and I worried that was too on the nose.)   And in Say No More,  poor sad victimized  agoraphobia Tosca has a fish, a single goldfish, swimming alone in a glass bowl.  See what I did there? :-) 

I've auctioned off a pet's character's name a couple of times, and the results really dictate what the pet will be. Cooper turned out to be a killer (literally) Irish Setter.  And Rocco, well, I had to make Rocco a puffy little white lapdog. Long story. 

LUCY BURDETTE: all three of the main characters in my mystery series have had cats. Yoda (my elderly feline in residence) would tell you that this is obviously because cats are superior beings. In the Key West mysteries, Hayley arrived in town with her gray tiger Evinrude. I think I recall correctly that realizing he came with a litter box was a defining moment for her ex-boyfriend deciding to throw them out – obviously he was a CAD! You may remember that this cat caused an extensive discussion with my former editor about how to portray his expression on the cover. 

Cats on the cover for Lucy!

JENN: Cats on covers, Lucy. Don't even go there!

LUCY: I too, Hank, have auctioned off pet naming opportunities in this series. So there are now three elderly animals living on the houseboat next to Hayley and Miss Gloria's place--Schnootie the schnauzer, and two older cats, Dinkels and Jack. And I ended up having to give a little dog to Detective Nathan Bransford because of another auction. The winner was a Chihuahua/ Miniature Pinscher mix named Ziggy Stardust. He doesn't make a lot of appearances, but he would say they're always at key moments. 

HALLIE EPHRON: I have no pets in my life but that hasn't kept me from putting them in my books. Phoebe, a key character in NEVER TELL A LIE, is "a dog of indeterminate breed with a fat sausage body, skinny legs, and the black jowls of a bull mastiff.  The dog’s snout was studded with white whiskers and her fur was brown and threadbare in places, like a well-loved plush toy." It wheezes and stutter-steps along, and takes a star turn in saving the life of the main character. 

In THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN, my old woman has a cat named Ivory ("The cat draped itself, languid and boneless in her arms, and purred like a wheezy truck engine.") who helps the the main character figure out what's going on.

Maybe that's what my new manuscript needs, a few pets... or maybe some vermin.   

INGRID THOFT: I never noticed before you asked, Jenn, but I have no pets in my books!  None!  That’s crazy, and I’ll have to rectify that in my WIP.  It’s not a mystery why pets aren’t on my brain:  We don’t have any.  Although both my husband and I had dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, and the occasional lizard as pets growing up, we’ve been without animals throughout our adult lives.  I’m allergic to cats and dogs, and we travel enough to make caring for any fur people a dicey proposition.  My husband does have a beautiful, large saltwater fish tank, which demands his time and attention, although most of the functions can be automated if we travel.  

So, there’s going to be a pet in SUBMERGED, but which pet?  I’m off to look at dog images on the Net!

JENN: Ingrid, this is exciting. It's like you're getting an actual pet. Do keep us posted. I think virtual/fictional pets might be the best sort to have. Did I mention I cleaned up twelve spots of dog vomit this morning. Ugh.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Jenn, one of Duncan and Gemma's new kittens is named Captain Jack and the other is Rose, which is one of my little inside jokes that no one except Doctor Who fans will get. But Duncan's parents also have a border collie named Jack, and a main character in an earlier book was called Jack, AND the book-in-progress has a character named Jack.... So there's another post in there on name repetition, I think...

Deb's Cat

JENN: Debs, I love the name Jack (clearly). I wanted to name one of our hooligans Jack but with the last name Orf...yeah, no.

DEBS: I think my only book without animals was the very first one, A SHARE IN DEATH. In the second book, Duncan adopts his dead neighbor's cat, Sid. In the fifth book, Kit (Duncan's son) finds a little terrier abandoned and shivering behind a Tesco supermarket--hence Tess.  In the eighth book, Gemma adopts a cocker spaniel named Geordie. And in the sixteenth book, Kit and Toby rescue a mother cat and kittens and are allowed to keep two of the kittens, which puts animals in the immediate family now at two dogs and three cats.  There are many more sprinkled throughout the series. I like writing about animals, and it certainly reflects my life, with two dogs and three cats. Hmmm. Are you seeing a pattern here? I hadn't even realized I'd mirrored my own household.... There are certainly dogs in the b-in-p, too, several border collies, an Irish deerhound, and a Jack Russell terrier. Cats may insinuaate themselves, but England is, after all, a very doggy country.

Deb's dogs

My favorite charity naming character was an English Mastiff named Mo who appears in WHERE MEMORIES LIE.  I had a really hard time trying to figure out how to work this big dog into the book, but in the end he almost stole the story.


RHYS BOWEN: I've steered away from pets in most of my books. I heard horror stories from friends who gave their sleuths a pet and every time they didn't feed the cat or walk the dog for twenty pages they got letters telling them how terrible they were. Actually it's never really been a factor because Molly Murphy in the early 1900s could barely afford to feed herself and Lady Georgie doesn't really have a place to call her own. But in the book In Farleigh Field there are a couple of lovely golden retrievers who play a part in the story and in the next Royal Spyness book I'm writing there are some very annoying birds! (whom Hank might recognize).

How about you, Readers? Are you partial to fiction with pets, why or why not? Or do you even notice?

What Do You Know for Sure?

INGRID THOFT

I'm taking a page from Oprah today and sharing one of my favorite features from her magazine.  Every month, the last page of "O" is devoted to her column, "What I Know for Sure."  The concept was introduced to her many years back by the film critic Gene Siskel, who always asked this as the closing question in his interviews.  He saw it as a tool to break through the public personas of celebrities and get to the heart of each person's experience. 

What do I know for sure?

I know that I married the right guy--a shy guy, which is why you're only getting a glimpse.  We first met when we were sixteen and started dating a few years later.  Just a couple of months into our relationship, I knew he was "the One," and he hasn't disappointed.  I could go on and on about him, but fans of my books should know he's one of the reasons I persevered, even when getting rejected.  He supported my dream of writing fiction and never wavered in his belief in me.  Publishing can be a tough and unpredictable business; having a partner to cheer you on makes the journey easier and more fun.

I know that I will never regret speaking up.  I will only regret staying silent.  As long as you speak with civility and are willing to listen, saying what you think can never be a bad thing.  I'm not talking about telling your neighbor that her dog is ugly or the checkout girl that she wears too much blush.  I'm talking about speaking up when someone says something that offends your sense of decency or questions your worth.  If I offend someone...oh well!

I know that the ocean is a place of wonder, and I'll never tire of exploring its depths and its amazing creatures.  Take for instance, the Mantis Shrimp (picture compliments of the shy hubby.)  Its technicolor appearance is mind-boggling, but it also has aquatic superpowers.  The shrimp's claw, which is actually referred to as its "club," can break quarter inch thick glass.  The mantis stores its energy in its club, and when released, it acts like a spring-loaded mechanism with more force than a 22-caliber bullet.  So word to the wise:  Don't touch the Mantis Shrimp!

Now it's your turn!  What do you know for sure?

Royal Pain or Royal Pleasure?

INGRID THOFT

When the announcement was made that Princess Kate (officially the Duchess of Cambridge) was pregnant with her third child, the news was heralded around the world.  Our own Jenn McKinlay posted about it on Facebook, and I “liked” it.  But someone else wondered, who cared?  Who cared that a duchess in another country was pregnant again?

I care, for a couple of reasons.  The first is that I grew up in the age of Princess Diana.  My fascination started with the announcement of her engagement on February 24, 1981.  I got up insanely early that same July to watch her wed Prince Charles, in her dress with a 25-foot train.  Everything about Diana was captivating—from her clothes, and jewelry to her independent streak and the joy she took from her sons.

Before Diana, I had little experience with the monarchy, but I knew that Diana was different, something that was confirmed on April 9, 1987 when she shook hands with AIDS patients without wearing surgical gloves.  This seemingly simple act made waves across the globe and confirmed that Diana was endlessly empathetic and brave enough to buck the traditional tide of the monarchy.  For the rest of her life, she was beautiful and best dressed, but she was also human and seemingly always chose to make a connection with her fellow man and women. After being raised in the age of Diana, how could I not love the monarchy?

This inclination has only been reinforced by Prince William and Prince Harry (and Kate, of course) who seem committed to continuing the good works of their mother and tackling issues that are meaningful to them.  Through their royal foundation, the Duke and Duchess and Prince Harry have declared their charitable focuses as the armed forces, conservation, cyberbullying, mental health, and young people.  They’ve already made a Diana-like impact with their “Heads Together” campaign which shines a light on the stigma of mental illness and works to connect individuals with the resources needed to maintain strong mental health.

But there’s another reason I follow the royals.  At a time when the world seems out of control, and the news is often bad, I welcome good news in whatever form I can get it.  A new royal baby is a cause for celebration, just like the wedding of William and Kate provided an escape from day-to-day challenges.  I got such a kick out of their recent trip to Poland and Germany; I loved seeing Kate’s outfits and the delight on the faces of the crowds who greeted her. Is it frivolous and superficial?  Of course, but what’s wrong with that?  I dare say the world isn’t suffering from too much joy and lightness these days.

So where do you fall on the spectrum of royal watching?  Do you marvel at the jewelry the duchess wears on state visits or do you quickly move on to other news?

Great Mysteries of Our Time

INGRID THOFT

We’re all mystery lovers:  We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t!  Most of the mystery readers I meet also enjoy the puzzle of real life mysteries.  It’s not unusual to find kindred spirits at mystery conferences who also love Forty-Eight Hours and Dateline.  

Some mysteries will remain mysteries during my lifetime, and that's okay. But there are some questions to which I would love to get the answers. Here are some of them:

Amelia Earhart

What really happened to Amelia Earhart? Did she crash on an island and live for many years among the native population? Did her plane crash into the Pacific, the mystery of her disappearance far outlasting the length of her natural life? And did you know that she was married to George “G.P.” Putnam of the publishing house? The very house that publishes my books? Amelia was thirty-nine at the time of her disappearance. Can you imagine the things she would have accomplished had she lived?

D.B. Cooper
Living in the pacific northwest, I’ve found that D.B. Cooper has particularly captured the imaginations of local mystery fans.  On November 24, 1971, a man boarded a plane in Portland, OR, and during the flight to Seattle, WA, made a ransom demand.  The flight landed, refueled and took on board the requested $200,000 and four parachutes.  All the passengers with the exception of four members of the flight crew were released.  The flight took off again, and somewhere over the Washington/Oregon border, the hijacker jumped out of the plane with the money.

Fragments of the money were found in 1980, but otherwise, no remains or evidence have been discovered.  D.B. Cooper wasn’t actually the name of the hijacker who purchased his ticket using the alias “Dan Cooper.”  A man named Dan Cooper was cleared early on in the investigation, but a reporter misheard his name and from then on, the hijacker was known as D.B. Cooper.  Did he survive the jump out of the plane?  If so, where did he go?  If not, where’s the rest of the money?

Kryptos

This is a mystery that’s new to me and one that was made by design, literally.  Outside of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, there stands a sculpture by American artist Jim Sanborn.  There are four encrypted messages on the sculpture, three of which have been solved.  The fourth remains a mystery and a source of much speculation in the worldwide community of cryptographers. Kryptos is featured in Dan Brown’s novel “The Lost Symbol.”  This is a mystery that will perhaps be solved; Sanborn has given two clues to the "New York Times" to help puzzle fanatics solve the fourth message.

So what really happened to Jonbenét Ramsey, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman?  Is Jimmy Hoffa really buried under the west end zone in Giants' stadium?  Will Malaysia Airlines flight #370 ever be found?  

What about you? Which mysteries would you love to see solved in your lifetime?

LIES SHE TOLD--Or Did She?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Craig Johnson tells the story about how the biggest lie in fiction is that disclaimer in the front of the book that says: "This is a work of fiction. All characters, locations and events portrayed in this novel are products of the author's imagination....."  Something like that. You've seen it.

Well, sure they are. Products of our imaginations. But as the incredibly talented Cate Holahan says the author's imagination gets fueled by reality. So what's real--and what's made up?

CATE HOLAHAN: The hilltops smoked. I watched the swirling vapor as my boots sunk into the spongy, moss-covered ground beneath my new hiking boots. The wisps rose, not fell. I couldn’t ascribe them to the clouds that tumbled over the tallest peaks ahead in a slow motion waterfall. This was different.

 

This, as I would soon learn, was dangerous.

"Watch your step and stay close behind.” Our Icelandic mountain guide shouted over his shoulder at me and my fellow travelers. His name was Helgy, and he nearly matched my pre-conceived picture of an Icelandic wilderness guide. Tall. Tow-head. A modern-day Viking complete with broad shoulders propping up a water-proof, Gore-tex jacket. Only the beard that I’d imagined would cover the face of any proper Norse descendant was missing.

Helgy halted at a ridge and motioned for the stragglers to join him. He pointed below. “It’s twice the boiling point. Maybe more.”

I peered down at the milky pool steaming in the crater inches from Helgy’s feet, fighting my insane desire to strip down to my bathing suit. The water beckoned, a private blue lagoon for the five people in our hiking party. An escape from the island’s frigid summer air.

“I want to get in,” a friend said, echoing my thoughts.

“Well, you’d never get out.” Helgy’s smile dropped into a serious line that made up for the lack of beard. “It would melt off your legs and then, since there is nothing to hold on to, you’d sink below and disappear.”

I looked from the bubbling pool to admire the bucolic landscape boiling before us. “Wow,” I said. “There are so many ways to get rid of a body up here.”

And, just like that, I had a story idea. Later that night, in the safety of my hotel room, I sketched out an entire novel.

I retell this vacation anecdote because it touches upon the theme of my latest thriller, Lies She Told (Crooked Lane Books. Sept. 12, 2017). Where do writers get their ideas? How do they twist the truth to create fiction? Where are the lines beneath the lies?

     Lies She Told concerns a suspense writer, Liza, whose work-in-progress novel points at clues to a disappearance in her real life. The story alternates between Liza and the tale of Beth, her novel’s protagonist. After a body is found, the lines between Liza’s real life and her fiction begin to blur, forcing Liza to question the origins of her ideas. Has she subconsciously picked up on details about the people closest to her that could reveal a killer? How much of her art is an abstraction from her actual life? What is her fiction showing about her latent desires, suspicions, and frustrations? 

Whenever I write, I ask myself these same questions. My characters, I know, are amalgamations of people in my real life, fictional folks in admired novels, and myself. As my protagonist says in Lies She Told, “to be a writer is to be a life thief. Everyday, I rob myself blind.” 

When writing, I continually wonder where I am drawing the line and whether I am crossing boundaries that I shouldn’t.

Good fiction must have deep characters that are more than fractions of their creator. My people have to come from me without being boring, old me—or my lovely, but far-too-functional for thrillers, friends. 

I evaluate my characters against what I believe to have inspired them, constantly checking whether I have abstracted enough. Is this character too recognizable as my best friend from high school or have I stolen her speech patterns but actually based the personality on someone/thing else? 

Is a character reacting the way I imagine that I would in a similar scenario or is she being true to her backstory and responding in a way that is organic to how her was raised? Are my characters actions naturally leading to plot elements or am I orchestrating from on high, forcing plot points and the story I want to tell instead of the tale that would flow from my fictional people?

I think all writers must do a similar kind of analysis to make sure that they are telling a rich story with varied characters that act in accordance with their invented histories. Just because I am writing the story doesn’t mean I get to control it. My book’s protagonist, Liza, certainly doesn’t.

HANK: Authors, how do you handle real-life characters who try to get into your books?  Readers, do you think authors are making people up--or stealing from real life? 

Cate Holahan is the USA Today Bestselling author of The Widower's Wife (Crooked Lane Books, Aug. 2016) named to Kirkus' Best Books of 2016. Her third suspense thriller, Lies She Told (Crooked Lane Books, Sept. 12, 2017) was a September pick by Book of the Month Club.  In a former life, she was an award-winning journalist that wrote for The Record, The Boston Globe, and BusinessWeek. She lives in NJ with her husband, two daughters, and food-obsessed dog, and spends a disturbing amount of time highly-caffeinated, mining her own anxieties for material.  

LIES SHE TOLD:  The truth can be darker than fiction. Liza Cole, a once-successful novelist whose career has seen better days, has one month to write the thriller that could land her back on the bestseller list. Meanwhile, she’s struggling to start a family, but her husband is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. As stresses weigh her down in her professional and personal lives, Liza escapes into writing the chilling exploits of her latest heroine, Beth.

Beth, a new mother, suspects her husband is cheating on her while she’s home caring for their newborn. Angry and betrayed, she aims to catch him in the act and make him pay for shattering the illusion of their perfect life. But before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s tossing the body of her husband’s mistress into the East River.

Then, the lines between Liza’s fiction and her reality eerily blur. Nick’s body is dragged from the East River, and Liza’s husband is arrested for his murder. Before her deadline is up, Liza will have to face up to the truths about the people around her, including her own. If she doesn’t, the end of her heroine’s story could be the end of her own.