Meep is Nat’s cat and, in a lot of ways, her first friend. She’s had Meep since she was really young. Meep is a special cat — she’s a genetically modified hypoallergenic cat (you know, for people with severe cat allergies, which Nat’s mom has). That means she’s also a really expensive kind of cat (I’ve based her loosely on the hypoallergenic cats available from companies like “Lifestyle Pets“). This is about what I imagine she looks like:

Meep!

If I’d really thought about her name before she became “Meep” to me, I’d have named her Pixel (bonus to you if you can figure out why), but once I started calling her Meep, the name stuck. Meep’s cat name and human name are the same since Nat just used the name that Meep gave her when she asked. Even kittens are very opinionated on what their names are.

Now, Rufus Brutus the Third aka Tiddlywinks (his human name given him by Easton West) is a cat of another color. Literally. He’s the cat on the cover of the book and yes, he is indeed pink. He’s a Scottish Fold cat which gives him a different kind of look — small, flattened ears, a roundish-face, and kind of buggy eyes.

He’s pampered, spoiled, and very opinionated. You know, a cat.

Since he’s the favorite pet of a rich and famous celebrity blogger he’s never experienced anything more taxing than…well, okay, he’s never before experienced any trouble. He’s always gotten his own way. So when the kitty litter hits the fan, it really gets his dander up.

He’s the cat that Nat sees in the online video that starts off the whole wild madcap caper and, to be honest, they don’t really hit it off in the beginning. But by the end, they’ve come to respect each other.

Harley / PD

Lastly, there’s Purr Daddy aka PD aka Pebbles (his human name). He’s Ian Abbot‘s cat and one of my favorite characters in the book. I have no idea how he came to be named PD (yeah, I know, if I don’t know who does?), but he’s always been that in my head. He’s actually the first cat I came up with. The first chapter of the book that I wrote is one where Nat is at Ian’s house (though she was named Kathryn/Kat then and he was called Nick) and PD figures large in it.

I love PD.

Originally he was going to be a calico, but most calicos are female, so he got changed to orange and white, which actually works out really well because my old cat Harley was orange and white. Harley died a few years ago (um, three-ish, back when we lived in Chicago) and I still miss him. One of my most favorite cats ever, though I’ve loved all of my cats. So PD looks like Harley. The picture here is the very last picture taken of Harley (day before he died). Just like PD, he had lots of attitude and a bit of a preoccupation with his nether regions.

If you have any questions for the cats, post ‘em here and I’ll have ‘em answer.

I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, but I’ve had a case of the blahs. I’m working on it. Sometimes the blahs just happen.

In great news, we finally got our stuff from Chicago! It’s SO nice to have our own things again. We did get rid of almost all our furniture but the few pieces we kept we’ve mostly been able to put into our flat here in London (except our massive old hall tree). And Max is SO excited to have a bunch of his old stuff too — stuff he’d forgotten about completely! It was like a second Christmas. I’ve also got my supply of my own books again, so might have to figure out something to do with that. Like I have some hardbacks left and I don’t think you can buy those anymore (just paperbacks in the stores now, from what I understand). So if people are interested, maybe I’ll list ‘em (signed, of course) for sale here. Very limited supply though. We’ll see.

And in EVEN BETTER NEWS, I’ve got two blurbs for CAT GIRL’S DAY OFF now! One from the awesome Saundra Mitchell:

“When I need to read something smart and funny and completely original, I turn to Kimberly Pauley. CAT GIRL’S DAY OFF is a manic, madcap adventure that satisfies from the first page to the last.”—Saundra Mitchell, author of Shadowed Summer and The Vespertine

and one from the equally awesome and lovely Alex Flinn:

“I read and enjoyed Cat Girl’s Day Off and would really like to provide a blurb.  How about “Cat Girl’s Day Off was such a fun, adventurous romp!  I couldn’t stop reading it . . . with my cat.”—Alex Flinn, author of Beastly and Bewitching

I just love that! And, by the way, if you haven’t read any books by either of them yet…what are you waiting for? Love, love, love them which makes getting blurbs from them that much better.

And I also realize that I have not yet posted an (ahem) December Sneak Peek for CAT GIRL’S DAY OFF yet. Er. So I owe you one. And one for this month. But since I’ve been so terrible, I will, in fact, post THREE sneak peeks this month. So stay tuned.

So, what do you think? I love that they really gave her the hair I wrote about (purple streaks!) and that the cat really is pink (’cause he totally is). And I love that the speech bubbles give a hint at how the book is a bit of a madcap caper. And I definitely like that Nat didn’t wind up being one of those girls with no faces you so often see on covers today (not that I have anything against those…there’s just so many). Because without a face, you wouldn’t have been able to see that Nat is, indeed, half-Chinese. There’s no whitewashing going on here. And I like that a lot.

And even cooler? I did a search and the book is actually already up for pre-order from Barnes and Noble!

Don’t forget to check out all the Sneak Peeks!

This was as close as I could get it with the Sim

Name: Melly Zinsz

Age: 16

Height: Not quite tall enough, but not too bad. Taller than Natalie Portman but shorter than Charlize Theron.

Build: Slim, I guess.

Talent: Acting

Hair: Light brown with some golden highlights

Eyes: Hazel

Ethnicity: Little bit of everything, but mostly German and Norwegian, I think.

Grade: Sophomore

Best Subject: Drama

Best Friends: Nat Ng and Oscar Green

No idea who this RL girl is, but she'd make a good Melly!

A Brief Interview:

Can you describe yourself in one word?

One word? That’s kind of hard. What do other people usually say? Like, describe how you look in one word? Or more like how you are? I mean, people say I’m pretty, but I don’t want that to define who I am. Even if I do want to be an actress. I don’t have to be just a pretty face, right?

Um, well, how would your friend Oscar describe you?

Oscar? (thinks) Melli-licious.

Right, then. Okay, you said you want to be an actress. Doesn’t everyone?

(laughs) Not my friend Nat! But, yeah, I guess a lot of people do. But I’m going to do it. I’m learning everything I can about it. Studying. I go to the theater, take acting lessons, have a vocal coach…I’m serious. What I really want to do is get into movies and then, when I’m old, do some stage work. Broadway. I’ve done some stage around here, but mostly just high school and community theater stuff.

Sounds like you’re pretty focused.

You have to be! There’s so much competition! You’ve got to be serious about your craft. Any advantage you get, you have to take it!

How do you get through Writer’s Block? Is there any such thing? Or is it just a bogeyman myth to frighten writers?

Who's a pretty bird?

In other news, Happy (American) Thanksgiving! It was strange celebrating it over here in the UK since they don’t have the holiday (really — it goes right to Christmas here as far as decorations and holiday stuff).

But we did the whole thing here in our flat — turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, saying thanks… I do love this holiday. It’s not about taking (other than taking another helping), it’s about thanking and appreciating.

We’ve also got up our Christmas tree now and it’s starting to feel real joyful around here. Happy everything to you and yours!

It sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? And cute? I mean, look up “quotes about cats” on Google and you’ll get TONS.

Well.

Reasonable until you have to start tracking down permissions for them for your publisher. There are 36 chapters in CAT GIRL. Some of the quotes are from characters in the book, but a lot of them aren’t. The best ones are from some of my fav people.

And I am happy to report that some quotes from Robert A. Heinlein are IN the book! Favorite. Author. Of. All. Time. I know people ask me that question all the time (who’s your favorite author, huh, huh??) and I’ve often hemmed and hawed about the answer. BUT. If you want to know which author I own the most books of, which author I have read more than any other, which author I SO wanted to meet when I was growing up (other than Douglas Adams), it is, by far, Robert Heinlein. And he had quite a bit to say about cats, lucky me.

And a really great quote from Paula Poundstone (SUCH a funny lady) is going in too! Woot! Still waiting to hear back from Garrison Keillor and George Will. Sadly, an Erma Bombeck quote is not going in. Ah, well. There are so many that are going in, however, that I’m super excited. Dan Greenburg, Stephen Baker, Maurice Burton, Mark Twain…

Stay tuned…I’ll be posting a behind the scenes sneak peek of another character soon! Actually, you wanna vote? Should I post one of Melly (a best friend of Nat’s) or Easton (a celebrity blogger)?

Welcome to Autumn (our front window)

There are dreams and then there are Dreams. Of the former…I’ve been having really strange ones lately. Like mini-movies that may or may not actually include me in it (do other people have dreams they aren’t in or is it just me?). The kind where you wake up, heart racing, wondering what happens next. And then bummed because you’ve woken up and you’ll never know now.

I have stories that have started out that way (kinda like Stephenie Meyer, I know, but *not* at the same time…mine have never had sparkly vampires in them) and some of them might even turn into full-fledged novels one day. Though in the light of day, things that make sense in the dream-world, don’t always hold up well under scrutiny. Chimpanzee wearing a purple-striped bikini and eating an ice cream cone while standing on a rolling ball? Um, maybe not.

I often tend to dream really crazy dreams when I’m working on  a book. They don’t necessarily have anything to do with the book (Ask Me, for instance, definitely has no chimpanzees in it). Maybe they are just a by-product of your imagination working over time. After all, sometimes thorny plot issues have a way of solving themselves in those midnight hours.

As for Dreams with a big D…I’ve been wondering what mine really is now. Once upon a time, my Dream was to be a published author. And I am (since 2008! Whoo!). Was it a dream come true? Well, not totally (not that I’d trade it for the world! But no matter what you think it will be like, it’s not it). And while I’d love to have a Big Dream like hitting the NYT’s Bestseller list, I don’t really want that to be my Dream, you know? I’d like something, well, bigger. More meaningful and less commercial-y feeling.

What is it? I dunno yet.

What’s your dream? (don’t worry, I’m not going to co-opt it. Well, unless it’s really good…)

In writing-ish-ness, I’m still working on Ask Me. Need to finish it up in the next month before the holidays really kick in and The Max is off from school. Some days it is really flowing. Other days…pulling teeth, dude, pulling teeth. I like the story though. And the main character, Aria, even though I know I’m about to make her life really, really miserable.

On Cat Girl’s Day Off, the copy edit is all done and the galleys are about to come to me for a final review (maybe today or tomorrow! Ack!). The ARC cover has been settled on (love it). Only disappointing note is that I came up with a too-late-to-use title idea. But hey, if I get to write a sequel, I’ve got a great title for it now. So that’s something.

It was just so perfect. Sigh. My editor liked it too, but it was too late since the sales people have been out since September with sell sheets.

And in Sucks to Be Me third book-ish news…honestly, I really still don’t know what to do there. I do so love it that you guys email me and leave comments every week asking about the status. I am just so leery of self-publishing (though I don’t see that I have a choice in the matter if I want to get it out there). And the first two books are still selling (and have apparently reached far away places like Malaysia–thanks, Dylan, for the picture of my books in a store there!). I was reading this article on The Millions and it really rings true to me.

Though the idea of getting funding through Kickstarter is appealing to me and it looks like there are writers who have successfully done this (and then I could use that money to actually produce a physical copy of the book, not just an eBook, which is something I’d really like to do). Of course, if I did that I’d have to come up with some really cool things for backers…*thinks* Basically, the Kickstarter funding would replace the advance I would normally get from a publisher and cover some advertising and production costs. I have to look into that. It has definite possibilities. If anyone has any ideas related to that, I’m all ears. I don’t think (at least, not how things stand currently in publishing) that I want to normally self publish stuff…I like having a publisher to do the grunt work so I can concentrate more on the writing-y bit. But it may work for a third Sucks to Be Me book.

But first I have to finish Ask Me.

As a bonus for actually reading this long rambling blog post and getting this far, here’s a snippet that has not yet been worked into the book (but will be soon…though it may not survive exactly as written below…):

“Will?” I called again, louder this time. I stood by his car and switched my flashlight off to save the battery I had left. It wasn’t fair that I couldn’t ask myself questions and get answers. I tried it, even though I knew it wouldn’t work. It never had before. “Where is Will?” I said, feeling silly.

“Here.” He came up behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders and leaning forward. “Right here.” I could feel his breath on my right ear. I turned around and found myself nose to nose with him, literally. I backed up, but his car was in the way.

“Hi,” I said, suddenly wondering how my breath was. I hadn’t anticipated being quite this close to him. I swallowed and resisted the urge to lick my lips. Only girls in movies did that.

Writing runs on inspiration. And perspiration too, sometimes. And is fueled (at least in my case) by solitude and living in your own head. This picture (down at the bottom of that linked page…I’m not sure who took it or who runs that blog but oh what great photos they post…and my edited version above) is one of the ones that has been a touchstone for me in the book I’m working on now (Ask Me).

I’ve been thinking about the visual aspect of this story a lot, as well as the auditory. Music is very important to this character. I’m trying to live in her head. It makes me a little sad and pensive to be there. She’s got some baggage and some damage. But I guess we all do, don’t we?

What does that picture make you think of? How does it make you feel?

Anyway. That’s what I looked like last night.

I don’t know why, but I was SO nervous about clicking the little button that would make the contest software pick the winner. I was stressed. But I did it. And poof! The winner is a lady named Jacquie. So, congrats to Jacquie! Woot! Woot!

I learned some lessons with this giveaway. On the whole it was fun. My absolute favorite part was seeing the extra point submissions of fan art and fan fiction (which, by the way, I am always overjoyed to see). Totally LOVED all of that. Didn’t so much love the bit of drama at the end with the points and YouTube stuff. People were nice about it. Hopefully everyone understood I wanted to be fair to everyone (and, weirdly enough, the lady who won just had 520 points, not anywhere near the top of the leaderboard but that’s random for you).

So, anywho, congrats again to the winner. And a BIG thank you to everyone who participated. I <3 you guys.