Let me explain.

Back before I was a PUBLISHED author (and yes, you should read that in a big booming voice, because that’s how it feels to you before you’re published), I had a blog. In fact, you could call me an early adopter. I’d had a blog for years. The majority of those posts have actually been imported into this blog now (under the category My Old Writing/Personal Blog — it’s all from when I lived in Kentucky and Florida and was writing but not published).

I was interesting (some of the time). Funny, even (not always intentionally). Random people I didn’t know read my blog. But most of all, I was me, warts and all (I don’t literally mean warts, because that would be kind of gross–no offense to anyone who actually has warts or anything–I mean it in a metaphorical kind of way…and here I’ve figured out I should probably just have skipped the warts thing entirely. Oh well.). I didn’t sugarcoat things (much). When I was feeling ambivalent or scared or excited or whatever, that was how I posted. Nowadays, there’s the pressure to put up a good front. We’re not supposed to talk about the bad things (oooooh scary shivers). We’re supposed to put a positive spin on things. We’re not supposed to piss anyone off.

So when I had to share with fans that (some of whom write me on a daily or weekly basis) that my old publisher would not be publishing any more Sucks to Be Me books, I had to do it in as positive a way as possible when, if I’m being honest, I feel really sucky and miserable about it (don’t get me wrong, I love my editor and I don’t blame her at all…it comes down to business decisions and publishing is a business. And they’ve gone back to just publishing their core D&D stuff.). And when I talk about possibly releasing the third book in serialized eBook format myself, I’ve tried not to let on how much that really terrifies me and worries me that it will be a complete waste of time, even if it would make some diehard fans really happy.

Or, on the flip side, when talking about the new book I’m working on, I’m supposed to keep it all close to the vest and not let out too many details. So I’ve talked about my Sekrit Project or the dark thing I’m working on rather than actually coming out and saying, hey, I’m working on a new book. My working title is Ask Me. It’s quite dark, but I’m pretty excited about it. It’s got a girl heroine who starts out really kind of paralyzed by her situation and her otherworldly abilities and it’s got a couple of hunky guys, each of whom may or may not be a murderer. It’s got some funny moments, but mostly it’s dark. I kinda worry that it’s different than what my fans are expecting, but on the other hand, it may open doors to me because, honestly, it’s got a really good hook and could probably be considered really commercial. There’s one big publisher potentially interested in it already based just on the hook alone which, yeah, I didn’t actually share just now, but that’s because even though I’ve decided to share more, I do have to keep some things back and this is the big wild and wooly Internet.

So. Anyway.

I really am going to try and be much more me. There may be more sentence fragments and there’s definitely an excellent chance there will be a plethora of parentheses.

Feel free to ask me any questions. I’d love to answer ‘em. You know, in the spirit of openness and whatnot.

Grace

We named her Grace
because there was not a graceful bone in her body.
As a kitten, she would fall off of everything,
a skinny pile of soft black fur and big eyes.

She grew into herself
and became a diva of a cat
with a tummy that swayed as she swaggered
and moves that would put a wrestler to shame.

She was not a delicate cat…
no lithe, undulating tabby
padding through the night on tip-toe paws.
She was the opera singer of cats.

That is how I want to remember her,
larger than life,
vocal and insistent, but still sweet and soft,
always wanting to be near, but not too close…

A true cat.

You remind me of me

A long time ago (longer, perhaps, than I care to admit),
I was you.

No, really.

I was that teenage girl who loved books–
(and big words, bodacious being one of them…
it trips so well off the tongue)
and found myself in them
sometimes more than I found myself in me.

I wrote poetry
and read
did things with my friends
and read
sometimes avoided my family
and read
went to school
and…snuck books to read

Always, always, the books,
the stories, the characters, the pages…

turning, turning, turning

Someday, I hope you see a girl
who reminds you of you

…and makes you smile.

I Don’t Know You

I don’t know you,
and you don’t know me.

That’s the beauty of the Internet, isn’t it?

Here we are, two strangers,
colliding, connecting
over twitter handles and hashtags

Two bits in cyberspace
running into each other out of nowhere
and forging a connection
however tenuous or small

It’s a virtual tea time,
minus the scones.

So, let’s have a chat.

You want to talk cats?

Gordon

There’s this librarian I know—
you might have seen him…
can’t miss him, really.

He’s the tall one over there,
with the glasses
and the
slightly unruly hair…
and the always ready smile
framed in a rather glorious mustache.

Can’t miss that, can you?

And you definitely can’t miss
how much he likes…no, loves
Books.

(hey, he is a librarian)

…but it’s not only the reading he loves, but the sharing of books
with the local teens, who come slouching or sauntering or shouting
into the library, caught up in their own world and drama and details
to suddenly be mesmerized and entertained and captivated

with books.

Yes, you can’t miss that.

Of course, it’s actually harder to get back into first person, present tense than it is to get back into Mina’s head. It’s just such a different way of writing.

Anyway, I’m 1600 words into the new story which isn’t *just* a short story. I’d say it’s also the start of the third book (wherever or however that’s going to go in the long run I dunno, but we’ll see). And, just for you…here’s a tiny little sneak peek at the very first bit:

Myth: Vampires keep to themselves.
Truth: Hey, we’re as friendly as the next fanged bloodsucker.

I hate airports. Actually, I hate airport security. I especially hate that point where you have to empty your pockets of everything, step through some weird time-machine looking contraption, and smile politely or risk being frisked by total strangers. But mostly I hate the part where everyone takes off their shoes.

Having a vampire-ized supersniffer really, really, really sucks sometimes.

What I’ve got here is a girl who feels very alone and the music is something that sustains her through the day. It’s another way she hides from others. It’s a curtain or a veil between her and everyone else.

Come on. We’ve all had those days, haven’t we? Where the pulsating drum beat in our ears is more real to us than our own heart beats? Where the lyrics take the place of conversation…where you can see their lips move, but what you’re hearing is the music, not the voices.

I’ve been asking people on Twitter for good song suggestions. Angsty, melancholy, you-against-the-world, lonely kind of stuff. Maybe ethereal too. I don’t see this girl as a heavy metal fan. If you’ve got one, I’d love to hear it.

Here’s the playlist as it is developing so far:

1. Solitude by Evanescence
2. Cold, Cold Heart by Norah Jones
3. July Flame by Laura Veirs
4. Real Love as sung by Regina Spektor
5. All the Same to Me by Anya Marina
6. Sullen Girl by Fiona Apple
7. Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen (though, yeah, the character probably wouldn’t have heard of him)
8. Studying Stones by Ani DiFranco
9. Circle by Edie Brickell (probably too old, but still)
10. Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing by Chris Isaak
11. Beautiful by Christina Aguilera
12. Hey Pretty by Poe
13. Losing Hope by Jack Johnson
14. The Shining by Badly Drawn Boy
15. Mr. King by Nerina Pallot
16. Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri
17. Truth by Alexander
18. Escape Myself by Nouvelle Vague

And I’m going to be adding to this as I go. Here’s hoping I don’t drive my husband crazy. He’s more of a Blues man.

Grace, about to pounce an unsuspecting Harley

Seeing as how the cat is out of the bag now about my new book…

I had an idea.

Yeah, I know. Dangerous.

While I’m really excited that Cat Girl’s Day Off is coming out in Spring 2012 rather than in, say, Fall 2012, Spring still seems like an awfully long time away. I know that it’ll actually be here before I know it (um, hey, is it really June? Almost the end of June? And have I really been living in London for like 6 months now??) but at the same time it feels like forever since I started working on the idea.

Actually, I just checked and the original kernel of the idea was written down in July 2008. It’s changed and morphed a lot since then and I didn’t actually start really writing it until November 2009 (according to Word…at least, that’s when I created the original file). So, yeah. Cat Girl’s been on my mind for a while. And I want you to get to know the characters too (especially Oscar. I admit it. I love Oscar.).

So. The idea. Every month until the book comes out (whenever that will be in Spring 2012), I’ll be posting a Behind the Scenes look at one of the characters or something to do with the story. There will be some deleted bits from the book, character bios, that kind of thing. If you have questions as things come out, let me know (I’ll tell you what I can without giving away the story).

I’ll be notifying newsletter subscribers of each bit as it posts or you can just keep an eye on the blog (or on the page I’ll be creating for the book). Hope you enjoy!

“Okay, Natalie, give me one good reason why I should bail you out of jail and not tell mom and dad.”  Viv widened her eyes at me, making her look even more like a living, breathing manga than normal. “And you know I can tell if you’re lying.”

That’s true; one of my older sister’s many Talents is her built-in lie detector. But will she even believe the truth when it’s so far out there it sounds like a lie? And will she believe it in time before someone bites the big one?

This is all Oscar’s fault. Him and his stupid celebrity addiction. But then again, none of it would have happened at all if that idiot blogger hadn’t come to town.

I should never have listened to that cat.

Kimberly Pauley’s CAT GIRL’S DAY OFF, when a girl’s celebrity-addicted friends make her watch a viral Internet video, her secret “talent” to understand the language of cats catapults them into a celebrity kidnapping mystery with ties to Hollywood and Ferris Bueller’s Chicago, to Stacy Whitman at Tu Books, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2012, by Larry Kirshbaum at LJK Literary Management (World).

Yes, if you’ve been following me on Twitter, this is the book I wrote last year before we moved to London from Chicago. In fact, if you’ve been following me on Twitter and replying to my tweets, you may very well have influenced the book…

If you couldn’t tell from the title and the description, it is another funny book. Nat Ng is a girl who can talk to cats…in a family full of people with Talents like levitation and laser vision. Her Talent puts her — very unwillingly — right in the middle of a celebrity kidnapping plot, along with her two best friends. There’s some romance too and lots of snarky cats (seriously, if you’ve ever “owned” a cat, you can imagine what they would say, can’t you?).

I’ve already turned in one revised draft to my editor, Stacy, and I’m super excited. Can’t wait for everyone to meet Nat!