National Hug Your Cat Day?

Apparently yesterday was ‘National Hug Your Cat Day’ so Gatsby gave Yoshi a big hug:

cats hug

Yoshi’s never been much for hugging. So he decided to start a new Holiday: National Strangle Your Cat Day:
Yoshi strangling Gatsby

Note – No cats were actually strangled in the making of these photos. Yoshi swears that it was just a little cat massage.

Petectives Out and About

On Saturday June 6th we’ll be appearing at the Westerville Library’s “Local Author Festival” along with over fifty other Columbus, OH are authors. (Actually Yoshi and Gatsby won’t be appearing but they’re sending their human representative.)
Details: http://www.westervillelibrary.org/events/?event=20942

Yoshi’s Book Reviews – Doctor Cat

yoshi reading

Greetings! Yoshi here with a new book review. Today I’ll be looking at Doctor Cat by Sarah Sobole:

dr cat

As a cat detective, I’m a big fan of cats in other professions so I was quite interested in a book about a cat physician. This is a graphic novel, a collection of the webcomics that can be found at http://doctorcatmd.com/. The book is about a cat (named Doctor Cat) who maintains a medical practice and is somehow able to perform surgery without thumbs. His problems start when he accidentally leaves a mousey toy inside of a patients chest. The patient immediately calls in Lawyer Cat to make things right. The books features some great cartooning that people of all ages can enjoy while also having some sharp Doctor/Lawyer jokes for the adults.
I highly recommend Doctor Cat.

My dog ate my Girl Scout cookies!

As you may know Yoshi and Gatsby are my cats and they star in the “Petectives” mysteries as cat detectives. In real life they live with a dog named Sparky Jones:

Introducing...Sparky Jones!

Introducing…Sparky Jones!

The other day I came home to find the tattered remnants of what had been full Girl Scout cookie boxes on the living room floor. Apparently putting them in a cardboard box on top of a counter wasn’t enough to keep them away from Sparky:
IMG_0038 (2)

So he got a sign to wear:
IMG_0042 (2)

Later I asked him if he felt bad about what had happened. His answer:

wink, wink!

wink, wink!

Sparky was able to smooth everything over by making sure that I saw him reading one of my books:

When am I going to be in these books?

When am I going to be in these books?

Note: They say that chocolate is poisonous to dogs but whatever they use in Girl Scout cookies didn’t seem to harm Sparky whatsoever.

Cat Interview!

yoshi-and-gatsby-21.png

Cat detectives Yoshi and Gatsby were recently interviewed by Rocco the Tuxedo Cat from the “Cats, Books and … More Cats!” blog. If you’ve ever wanted to see two cats interviewed by another cat, check it out:
http://catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com/2015/01/rocco-interviews-petectives-yoshi-and.html

This actually wasn’t the boys first interview. Last year they sat down with Truffles the Tortie blogger over at Melissa’s Mochas, Mysteries and Meows:
http://www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com/2014/02/truffles-interviewsyoshi-gatsby-from.html

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