Writers Writing: A New Series From Carolyn Hart

From Carolyn Hart:

Ideas for books arrive as fragments, wisps, insubstantial imaginings. Often the end result owes little to the genesis. I had - I thought - a great idea for a lighthearted story about a protagonist who looks at a cat and perceives its thoughts. There were not to be talking cats. I have too much respect and awe for cats to presume to engage them in coversation. Could be great fun, right?

Not this time.

WHAT A CAT SAW does indeed feature a protagonist who perceives a cat's thoughts but the book is intense suspense with an underlying story about two lonely people who may - or may not - have found each other.

Nela Farley, an out of work reporter, arrives as a stranger in a small Oklahoma town to take her sister's place at work at a charitable foundation while she is on holiday. Nela walks into an apartment, looks into the eyes of a cat, and learns more than it is safe for her to know. Along the way she tries to avoid arrest for a theft she didn't commit and solve the riddle of malicious occurrences at the foundation. After a bitter divorce, Steve Farley is back in town to take over the family newspaper. He knows and respects the cop who's after Nela, but he is intrigued by the new woman in town.

Nela and Steve and the life and pulse of a smalltown newspaper reflect my love of the good reporting that makes small town newspapers important to a town and to its readers. I majored in journalism and was a reporter only briefly when out of school but I have never lost that fascination with reporting.

Will Nela and Steve in WHAT THE CAT SAW (Berkley Octber 2 2012) be back again?

That's up to readers. Nela and Steve debut this fall. The fourth in the Bailey Ruth series - HIJACKED GHOST - will be published by Berkley in October 2013.

I love writing about Bailey Ruth, a redheaded ghost late of Adelaide, OK. I also love writing about Steve and Nela and would be interested to know what happens to them.

I'm reaching out to readers in September to share news of WHAT THE CAT SAW. If you are interested in receiving a newsletter, please go to my websitewww.CarolynHart.com and sign up.

And, as they used to say in the old time radio soaps, Will Nela and Steve return? Will Bailey Ruth continue her heavenly adventures?

Stay tuned.