Monthly Archives: June 2014

Petectives: Under Fire playlist

Gatsby with his favorite book

Gatsby with his favorite book

A list of songs that I listened to while writing my cat mystery novel, Petectives: Under Fire. Some of the songs have a strong thematic link to the story, while others helped me set a scene or get into the heads of the characters. The story takes place on the Fourth of July during a heat wave so there’s lots of music related to the summertime and hot weather.

Heat Wave – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly and the Family Stone

Stoned Soul Picnic – Swing Out Sister

Summer in the City – Lovin’ Spoonful: When you hear this song it immediately evokes the feel of a sweltering hot summer day.

Little Willy – The Sweet: According to Wikipedia, this song is about a stray cat that hung around the garage where the band members practiced.

New Age Girl – Deadeye Dick: I was listening to this song when I wrote the chapter featuring the character, Sunshine the hippie tortoiseshell cat.

Fire – Ohio Players

Lies – Jonathan Butler

Gimme Some Lovin’ – Sam and Dave: Somehow I’ve always heard this song as “Gimme Summer Lovin’”.

Why Can’t We Be Friends? – War

In the Summertime – Shaagy featuring Rayvon: Reggae/Rap reworking of the Mungo Jerry classic.

Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran

I’ll Take You There – BeBe and CeCe Winans

Love Rollercoaster – Ohio Players: That’s right, there’s two Ohio Players songs on this playlist!

Will It Go Round In Circles? – Billy Preston

Summertime – Billy Stewart

Walk Us Uptown – Elvis Costello and the Roots

Summer Breeze – Isley Brothers

Bang Bang – David Sanborn

Cat Webcomics

Gatsby surfing the web

Gatsby surfing the web


Hi humans, Gatsby here. Everyone knows that cats rule comic strips. A lot of people are aware of the newspaper antics of comic strip cats Garfield, Bucky and Heathcliff but cats also rule the internet. At the place where comics and the internet intersect there are a bunch of webcomics that feature a feline point of view. Here are my favorites:

Breaking Cat News: http://www.breakingcatnews.com/
Three house cats act as newsmen reporting on the everyday goings on in their house. The food bowl being empty on an early Saturday morning is treated as seriously as CNN reporting on a stock market crash. Hilarious. My favorite reports are: “The Woman is Trying to Make the Bed” and “The Man Has to Get Up Early Tomorrow”

Doctor Cat: http://doctorcatmd.com/comic/doctor-cat
Absurdist comic about a cat doctor (No, not a vet – a doctor that happens to be a cat). Find out how someone born without thumbs can perform surgery!

Cat versus Human: http://www.catversushuman.com/
The cat and the human don’t seem to be in opposition as the title might have you believe but these cartoons are humorous observations on feline – human behavior.

Eat, Sleep, Sniff: http://www.eatsleepsniff.com/updates/tag/diary-comics
The ongoing story of the cartoonist and his cat Tali. And his wife and his baby. In that order. This guy is really into his cat.

Shut Up, Garfield! http://shutupgarfield.tumblr.com/
A version of the Garfield comic strip where Garfield is deprived of his thought balloons. This has the effect of making his owner seem insane. The internet seems to do this kind of thing to Garfield a lot.