A Place for Cats?

JRW welcomes another cat-loving mystery writer today--Karen Olson. Karen is the author of a series set in New Haven, CT featuring reporter Annie Seymour. And Karen's brand new book in her tattoo shop mystery series, PRETTY IN INK, hits bookshelves this week. Welcome Karen!

KO: Let me first say: I love cats. I am a definite cat person. Growing up,
we had so many cats that I’m not sure I can name all of them. Some
didn’t last too long, but others we had for a long time. As an adult,
I had a cat named Thisbe for 20 years. When I met my husband, I told
him I’d had Thisbe longer than any man. He took that as a challenge.
Sadly, Thisbe went to the big catnip patch in the sky five years ago.
But we now have two cats, Eloise and Hemingway. They are both a little
too fat, even though we don’t feed them as much anymore. Eloise does
like to nibble crumbs off the floor, so maybe she’s getting too many
carbs. She was named after Eloise at the Plaza; she’s more than a
little crazy. Hemingway was named after Ernest, because while he’s
very macho, he’s also a little bit gay.

Again, I want to say that I love cats. But I have been very reluctant
to put them in a book.

In my first mystery series, my protagonist, police reporter Annie
Seymour, couldn’t possibly have a cat. Annie is a bit too
self-centered and too independent to have to worry about a cat. She’s
working all the time and wouldn’t have time for it. In my tattoo shop
series, Brett Kavanaugh lives with her brother, Tim, a Las Vegas
police detective. They’re both in their 30s, single, and not thinking
about a pet. In fact, they could possibly both be dog people, but
since dogs are way too high maintenance, it just won’t work to give
them one. Somehow going out and solving crimes isn’t conducive to
walking the dog a few times a day.

That said, I know how much readers enjoy a good cat in a story. And I
don’t mean the cats that solve the crimes or speak to their owners or
each other. My good friend Clea Simon writes wonderful books with cats
in them, and the cats never speak but play a big role in the plots.

Always looking for a way to connect with readers, I began to wonder if
I shouldn’t put a cat in one of my books. Should Sylvia Coleman, the
elderly tattooist in my Ink series, own a cat? Maybe Bitsy Hendricks,
the tattoo shop manager who is a little person, or Joel Sloane, the
tattooist who looks like a biker but has a much gentler soul (see
reference to Hemingway, above).

No, none of those things would work. I tried. Really I did. But what I
ended up with was the perfect cat for PRETTY IN INK, set in Vegas with
drag queens at its plot’s center: A stray, feral cat skittering
through the parking lot at Chez Tango, the drag queen club, with a red
ribbon in its mouth. His appearance is brief, but notable. It plays a
role in the plot without being overt about it.

What about you? Do you think cats have a place in mystery novels?

JRW: Always room for a cat, Karen! Good luck with the new book! Read more about Karen, her cats, and her series at her website. And she's standing by for comments and questions.

Karen E. Olson

"Olson brings a journalist's eye for detail and immediacy to this series. You'll want to give yourself an early deadline to read her latest story."
- Richmond Times-Dispatch

JAN: Karen and I met via Internet, just shortly after my first book came out. Since both of us were working at New England newspapers, we immediately had a lot in common. We had even more in common when she sold her first book and we wound up at the same publisher and editor.

Her first book was Sacred Cows, which won the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award. Now, the fourth in the Annie Seymour series, SHOT GIRL, is in bookstores, and the first in her brand new tattoo shop mystery, THE MISSING INK, will be out in July.

It seems to me that there are a lot of former reporters who become mystery writers. The first thing I wanted to know was about Karen was her particular transition from newspapers to murder: what it was that prompted her to write her first mystery.

KAREN: I only spent six years as a reporter, and then 16 as an editor. I was a nighttime copy editor for 10 of those years, and I would get home from work at 2 a.m. all wired up with nothing to do. So I started seriously writing fiction (I’d been writing for years but never finished anything). I loved mysteries and figured I’d try my hand at one.

JAN: Personally, I think a lot of the lessons you learn in news reporting come in handy when you write a mystery. Are there any special skills you found that translated well or were especially helpful?

KAREN: Meeting deadlines and being able to write on command. I don’t have to wait for a muse to come and tap me on the shoulder. I grab an hour to write and I just sit down and write. I know that comes from the discipline of working for a newspaper. I’m also a pretty good self-editor, although I prefer the creating rather than the editing when it comes to my own work.

JAN: In Shot Girl, Annie’s ex husband, turns up dead at a bachelorette party. How did you come up with the idea for this scenario – and the question everyone wants to ask --any former boyfriends or exes who inspired you?

KAREN: I do have an ex-husband, but he’s nothing like Annie’s ex. I like to put Annie in uncomfortable situations, and what could be more uncomfortable than having your ex-husband dead on the sidewalk and a gun that matches the bullets in your car?

JAN: Tell us about New Haven and why it makes a great setting for a mystery series?

KAREN: New Haven is more than Yale, but I don’t know that many people realize that. It’s got a very rich history, interesting neighborhoods, great restaurants. It’s also got crime, which is key for a mystery series! I’ve shown a different neighborhood in each book, to show the city’s diversity and history. It truly is another main character in the books.

JAN: Is there anything you learned about Annie Seymour that you didn’t know before?

KAREN: I didn’t know why she’d left her ex-husband until I started writing SHOT GIRL. And once I did, it explained so much!

JAN: Tell us what you are working on now?

KAREN: I’ve got a new series starting next summer. The first book, THE MISSING INK, will be out in July. The protagonist is Brett Kavanaugh, a tattoo shop owner in Las Vegas. It’s been great fun, and while at first it was out of my comfort zone, it was incredibly liberating and my first readers think it’s the best thing I’ve done! The second book will be PRETTY IN INK.

JAN: Besides her mystery series, Karen also edits a medical journal for Yale part time. She lives outside New Haven with her husband, daughter and two cats.

And now finally, the Jungle Red Quiz!

Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot?

Neither. I’m not an Agatha Christie fan (yes, everyone can gasp now…and no, I don’t like The Maltese Falcon, either)

Sex or violence?
Yes.

Pizza or chocolate?
Oh, yes, certainly.

Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan? (We won't even include Sean Connery because we know the answer. Don't we?)
Daniel Craig, hands down. Although I loved Pierce Brosnan best in “Matador.”

Katherine Hepburn or Audrey Hepburn?
Katherine, of course.

First person or Third Person?
I don’t discriminate.

Prologue or no prologue?
Absolutely no prologue.

Your favorite non-mystery book?
Non-fiction: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived (about Henry VIII’s wives)
Fiction: Wuthering Heights

Making dinner or making reservations?
Definitely reservations.

And now, tell us four things about you that no one knows. Only three can be true. We'll guess.

I partied with bikers at a Hell’s Angels pig roast.

I danced with George Michael at a club in London.

I dated a UPS delivery guy and we had sex in the UPS truck.

My cat was held hostage for ransom.

Make your guesses on the comments page and come back tomorrow when we reveal just what's true about Karen Olson, and what's complete fiction!