What We're Writing AKA PANIC! @LucyBurdette #giveaway

LUCY BURDETTE: The deadline for the first draft of The Key Lime Crime, scheduled to be published in July 2020, is speeding toward me. We also have a very busy summer lined up including a trip to Scotland and two family reunions. Don’t ask how I’m going to get everything done – I’m liable to panic and melt down right in front of you.

In this 10th Key West mystery, T-bone the cat makes his first appearance. So when Crooked Lane asked for cover art suggestions, I requested that the artists include Mr. T-bone. Here's the draft of the artwork--that's him on the bottom left. He and I agreed it's going to be adorable!

All that is great, except that last weekend Mr. T-bone developed a terrible case of spring fever. He desperately wanted to be outside hunting things and enjoying the wilderness, such as it exists in Connecticut. On Saturday, John went downstairs to  make coffee and came upstairs with terrible news: T-bone was gone. We figured he jumped on a tall narrow screen in the kitchen, and his weight pulled it out of the window. And he was a free man! 

We were distraught, and spent most of the day searching through the salt marsh and the woods calling for him. I reported his chip number missing to the Pet Watch organization, and emailed all the neighbors to be on the lookout. Naturally, I googled 'how to find a missing cat.' According to one website, most cats are found within 300 to 500 feet of where they went missing, if they are not accustomed to being outside. (And despite T-bone's insistence that he can handle anything because he was born and raised on the streets of Key West, we know our neighborhood contains both coyotes and foxes. Boney, as we affectionately call him, would make a tasty snack.)  

At least, I said, trying to look on the bright side, we didn’t find any tufts of orange fur in the yard. 

Such was the positivity that I was trying to cling to. Eventually I went to bed, but woke around 11:30 hearing John calling for him one last time. And then what sounded like a conversation between John and Boney. The prodigal had returned. We were so thrilled and relieved. 

If he had permanently disappeared, I have to admit that one of the many things I worried about was how I would share this heart-breaking news with his online admirers. Not to mention how I would bear a book cover featuring my kitty when he'd been gobbled by a predator? Crisis averted. And trust me, we'll be watching him carefully so he doesn't escape again. 

To set things up for T-bone’s appearance in The Key Lime Crime, Nathan Bransford’s mother is visiting unexpectedly right after Christmas. Since he is in charge of all the security details for the influx of New Year's Eve visitors, Hayley and Miss Gloria are tasked with entertaining Mrs. Bransford. In this scene, they've taken her on a train tour of the holiday lights, and Miss Gloria thinks she saw a stray kitten at the last stop. When they go back to look, they find the cat, but also a body. The cops come to investigate, beginning with asking the gathered neighbors if they know the victim...

A woman piped up. “I think she owns the new bakery on Greene Street. Over by the bight? She makes a key lime pastry that’s to die for. Really, it blows the rest of the bakeries in town out of the water.”

I gulped. Even as we spoke, that same Key lime napoleon from Au Citron Vert was sitting in my refrigerator with the other slices of Key lime pie. It wasn’t quite fair to compare puff pastry to a piece of pie, but since the owner of this new bakery refused to make a pie and yet had garnered an avalanche of reviews on the various foodie websites in town, I felt I couldn’t ignore it. Now I knew where I’d seen her face: The bakery and the pastry chef had scored a big feature on the front page of the Florida Keys Weekly right after Thanksgiving. I’d been home more than usual, tending to Nathan’s injuries, and had the time to read all the local papers cover to cover. And only yesterday, I’d seen her slam a wet pie into David Sloan’s face when he dismissed her from his contest. If this person had been the author of that gorgeous flaky confection, she would never be making another. I was flooded with sadness.

Miss Gloria approached the sidewalk where I stood with Nathan’s mother, watching Nathan interview the bystanders. She was carrying an orange tiger kitten with white paws, one of them half white, half orange like a frosted half-and-half cookie. Even though Miss Gloria crooned sweet kitty nothings to him, he seemed terrified, ready to bolt the instant she loosened her grip. He mouthed a silent meow. 

“That’s T-bone,” the chatty neighbor said. “I’m surprised you were able to lure him out of the shrubbery, he’s a little skittish with strangers.”

“Soft kitty, warm kitty…” sang Miss Gloria. He snuggled lower into her arms and I was pretty sure I heard him begin to purr, exactly like the kitten in the song. 

“We’ve seen a lot more of him than we’ve seen of his owner lately,” the neighbor said. “I’m not sure she was even feeding him. He was over on my porch most mornings. I admit I gave him some snacks. But I couldn’t take him in, my big guy would tear him to bits.”

She held her arms out for the kitten. “I volunteer for the Florida Keys Humane Society so I’ll call someone to pick him up. I can check on him tomorrow during my shift.” 

Miss Gloria looked near tears, but we had about all the living things we could handle on our little houseboat. Adding a kitten would push us deep into the red zone of crazy pet people. She handed the tiger kitten over and I circled my arm around her waist. “It’ll be easy to find that guy a good home—he’s wicked cute.” I squeezed her gently and smiled at her and then Nathan’s mother. “If we’re finished here, let’s head back to the houseboat. I think we all need a drink.”

“I’ll be there when I can,” Nathan called after us. “Definitely don’t wait on me for dinner. And I’m certain you’ll be asked to talk to us again, especially about the question of what caused you to return to this house.”

I have a copy of the audio version on CD of A DEADLY FEAST, the ninth Key West mystery, to give away today. To be entered in the drawing, answer this question: How important are book covers in your decisions to buy a book? What draws you in?

The Key Lime Crime is coming July 7, 2020, which gives you time to catch up on Death on the Menu and A Deadly Feast! Meanwhile, big thanks to Ann Mason for suggesting the name of the fancy bakery, Au Citron Vert...