Looking Out The Window: Lisa Lickel Tells Us About Mau Cats, The Pets In Her Fancy Cat Series. She Also Shares An Excerpt And Has A Giveaway
A Warm Welcome to Lisa Lickel
Lisa will give away either an e-Book or a print copy of Meow Matrimony, winner's choice. (U.S. residents only for print.) To enter to win leave a comment and an email address.
Fancy Cats
Psalm 104:24: How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Lisa tells us how she decided to write about cats and gives us a little information on Mau cats.
There was history! These green-eyed, short-haired beauties are the only domestic spotted cats introduced to the US in the mid-1950s. They were depicted in ancient times, from the age of the Pharaohs, several hundred years BC, mummified and deified. Here’s an article from the Smithsonian Institute which history nerds might find interesting: Why Ancient Egyptians Loved Their Kitties
The Mau has been clocked at more than thirty miles per hour and can leap up to six feet or better. The Maus in my stories are loving and very loyal, as well as persnickety with personalities that leave little mercy. Maus have three sub-categories: the Silver, the Bronze, and the Smoke. In the last twenty years, another recognized color, Blue, has been added to refresh the genetic line.
Maus are generally healthy and good with families. I chose them for my stories because they are show cats and a cat fancier’s association seemed like a good place for my three main characters to meet. In the first holiday novella that introduces the characters, Meow Mistletoe on Amazon the friends connect at a Christmas party. In Meow Mayhem, two of the characters and their cats team up to help their friend. Each has a different type of Mau, but all are drawn initially together because of their love for their pets. You can learn more and watch a fun, short video on my web page
That's so interesting. Thanks for sharing. Now, tell us a little about yourself.
I’m an eclectic reader and writer. I thought briefly about writing a book and sent in a children’s story to one of those magazine advertisements when I was young, not realizing it was sort of a scam. I was introduced to the vices of the publishing world early, and I didn’t follow through. When my youngest child was about to fly the coop I took the Christian Writers Guild course. CWG taught me about the various types of writing and how to legitimately find agents and publishers. I signed with my first agent and got a contract for Barbour Publishing’s mystery book club about the same time in 2007, and I can’t seem to stop! Ten years later, my husband and I built a retirement home and somehow I find time to write and mentor in between traveling and enjoying our six grandkids. Visit with me on my website
Were you an avid reader as a child? If so, what did you read?
I sure was. With a history and civics-teaching dad and a librarian mom, our house was chock-full of books everywhere, all the time. My parents let me buy whatever I wanted whenever that scholastic catalog came out. I remember eagerly waiting or the book of the month club books which I share with my grandkids now. Dr. Suess and other sixties favorites, then Elizabeth George, Speare, Madeline L’Engle, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, and eventually CS Lewis, and the classics.
Why do you write?
I surprised myself when I actually wrote a whole novel as the end lessons of the two-year CWG course. It didn’t hurt, or seem too hard, and I did reasonably well by finishing in the top ten of nearly four hundred entries in the first First Novel contest. I eventually signed with an agent, and the books kept flying out. I get discouraged like everyone else every few years and “quit,” but that never lasts long. I’m back at it again soon with projects for years to come.
What themes do you write about?
My stories all tend to deal with family. What makes a family, how families struggle and love each other, how they come to be and fly apart, and how faith ties or suffocates, depending on how that great and terrible love of God is interpreted. I write about love and sacrifice and prejudice, jealousy and misunderstanding and well-intended acts that somehow go wobbly. Those are the best sorts of fuel for the imagination’s engine.
What is your writing schedule and where do you write?
I tend to be always on or take days off. When I’m working heavily on a project, I’ll spend several hours a day at it, but I am active in several local organizations, mentor and edit authors, and do a lot of book reviews, so that all takes time. When I can force myself to only read a couple of hours a day and write a few hours, and work on marketing, I reach a happy balance. I schedule family time, and try very hard to not take on too much at once, but sometimes…like now….I end up with twelve book reviews to do when I really want to finish a publishing project with another author and get to work on my next book—my new novel that I plan to spend the rest of the year working on. Time always flies!
Does your faith affect your writing? If so, how?
I like to build my books around a central verse whether I use it as an epigraph or not. That helps focus what I want to share, and shapes my character’s personalities. Even if some of my books don’t follow exact Christian genre principles, the stories are all clean and wholesome. If my dad is going to read my books, then I’m not able to write anything that would embarrass me or him! The even greater influence is my heavenly dad who’s watching me and reading my work.
Tell us about your latest book.
Meow Matrimony is the third story in the Fancy Cat series. The whole series started as an experiment of trying to write in first person and I wasn’t sure it was any good or that I liked it, so it’s amusing to me how this seems to be the most successful of my ventures. They are a lot of fun to write, and I enjoy Ivy, the main character. In Meow Matrimony, Ivy and Adam were perhaps somewhat influenced by their pet Egyptian Mau cats who got together at the end of the first book and had kittens. They’re planning their wedding. Ivy comes home from work for lunch one sunny morning to espy the box of wedding invitations she’s ordered. When she realizes the invitations have come to the wrong address, she does a good deed by delivering them across town to their rightful owner, only to find the owner deceased. Through quirky circumstances, she’s suspect number two in a tale of familial dysfunction that leaves Ivy wondering if she’s truly wife material, let alone capable of being a good parent. Ivy is determined to not only clear her good name, but find the killer.
Introduce us to the main character in Meow Matrimony.
Ivy Amanda McTeague Preston is a modern young woman with old-fashioned sensibilities. Her father passed away when she was a young girl, and she was raised alone by her mother, Geneva, a professor of criminal studies at a small college. Ivy runs a personal tech services business from her home, and she’s been in a lukewarm relationship with Stanley, who took her for granted (with her permission). The fizzle of that relationship precipitated her move to Apple Grove and her new and passionate romance with Adam, who became mayor of their new community. The job comes with a lot of busy work and meetings, which leads to a certain amount of stress. They both love their work and their pet Egyptian Mau cats, Memnet and Isis, and the kittens. Adam has a chain of trendy coffee and book stores mostly in Chicago, and has hired Ivy to oversee the tech side and daily operations in Apple Grove. They enjoy working together and look forward to their coming nuptials. If they can get Ivy off the hook for murder.
Buy in eBook and print online, and as of July in large print.
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Excerpt From Chapter One
I came rudely alert to the 2:48 a.m. summons of my business phone. I fumbled for the receiver on my nightstand and squinted. The ID was unfamiliar. I frowned. In the middle of the night? This had to be a crank call. I hoped it wasn’t one of those angry-at-the-world abusive-types. I was tired and not in the mood to be professionally pleasant. I held the headpiece next to my ear and answered. “McTeague Technical Services. This is Ivy. How may I be—”
“mm—get--help---call---mmm--Don—”
I couldn’t make anything out through the crackling static and so I got out of my nice cozy warm bed and went to stand by the window, hoping for a clearer signal. A burst of static rocketed me backward and I held the phone away from my ear. “Oww!”
I sat on the end of the bed and checked the phone, expecting smoke. The background was lit, but the call disconnected. I got back into bed, but switched on my bedside light. I searched the caller ID and came up with Chicago. Summersby Building.
A soft buzz indicated an incoming call from the same number.
“Hello? Who’s there?” All I heard now was a soft buzz. Then a distinct click. At least the recorder had been on.
I yawned. Summersby Building was probably a construction company doing work for one of the new businesses coming to Apple Grove. That’s why I was here, too, invited on behalf of the mayor’s new community growth incentive. I yawned again, turned my business phone to silent and pulled the covers up to my chin.
The next evening, after my third attempt to reach my friend Donald, the mayor of Apple Grove, Illinois, I ran my fingers across the screen of my personal phone. Pictures of my cat last year at Christmas at my home in Maplewood. I usually found pictures cheerful. Comforting. But not the holiday ones which reminded me of all I hated about Christmas.
Now, in the twilight on the cusp of summer in a new and unfamiliar home, the pictures made me homesick.
When I moved here two months ago, April Fool’s Day, to be exact, the phone and cable companies had wondered about how I could make McTeague’s Services work with my three servers. I showed them Donald’s letter of reference and the preliminary approval of the exception to the zoning ordinance in this quiet little neighborhood.
My business was dedicated to tech for non-techies, computer set-ups, web design, personal computer lessons. I had to supplement that with other home-based requests that sometimes went along with my home visits, such as pet, houseplant, and mailbox sitting for those going away for whatever reason. Small businesses needed web maintenance. I also offered letter and blog writing services, and help with forms. In this day and age of rapidly changing informational systems, everyone needed help.
I toyed with the phone. This evening, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Donald’s silence was not a matter of choice. I had to help my friend. I looked up a phone number and tapped it out.
“Apple Grove Police. Officer Ripple. How can I help you?”
“Hello. I…I need to report a missing person. Maybe a kidnapping.”
“Name?”
“Ivy Preston.”
“Right. High Vee? Could you spell that, please.”
“I – V – Y. Preston.”
“And where are you now, ma’am? Can you see any weapons? Do you know the name of your kidnappers?”
“Oh, no, Officer. It’s not me. It’s the mayor.”
“Mayor? Got that. First name?”
“Donald.”
“Donald Mayor. And is he a relative? Is there a note?”
“No…you’ve got it all mixed up. I’m calling about somebody possibly kidnapping Mayor Donald Conklin.”
“You think someone’s going to kidnap the mayor? That’s a pretty serious charge.”
“Not going to. I think they already did.”
“We’ll send someone over to talk to you. What’s your address?”
“Three-twelve Marigold.”
“Ah, yes. The Pagner house. And you have some sort of evidence?”
“Well, I received the strangest call last night on my business line and now he won’t answer his private number. I’m worried.”
“Business line?”
“I own the new tech services business in town. McTeague’s. Donald invited me.”
“Okay. Sit tight. I’m sending Officer Dow over to you to take your statement.”
“Thank you.” I hung up and wondered what kind of a statement I was expected to give. I had the recording, but unless you knew the context, it could mean anything. Maybe I should call someone. How do I know I can trust the police here? You see it all the time on TV. Sometimes the bad guys aren’t who you think. My mental contact list was pretty slim. My neighbors, who I didn’t know all well. Mom—who lived a couple of hours away.
A knock on the door saved me from a slide into self pity. I let in Officer Ann Dow. And smiled politely at the little wisp of a blonde who looked like the east wind would carry her away if she hadn’t been anchored by her sturdy shoes and even sturdier holstered shiny black weapon.
“Thank you for coming.” I’m not huge, but I looked down a couple of inches on her.
“So, tell me about this alleged kidnapping.” The officer got out her pad and pen. She shushed her shoulder mic.
“The mayor is missing.”
She didn’t say anything at first. “And you believe that because…?”
“I received this strange call late last night. On my business line. Donald asked me to move my tech services business to help Apple Grove. Now he’s not answering my calls.”
“I’m not privy to the mayor’s office practices,” she said, straight-faced.
I ignored her implication and instead got out my office phone, explaining she could hear for herself. “This call came in, but it was all static-y and garbled. I couldn’t make out much except ‘Don,’ and ‘get.’”
She listened. “Get what? ‘Don’? And you think it came from the mayor?”
“I don’t know for sure. The caller ID said Summersby Building in Chicago. I just thought you should check it out.”
Officer Dow tapped her pen on her pad. She shook her head and returned to the kitchen, me following like a lost puppy. “I’ll make a report,” she said, reaching for the door. “Maybe you should notify the FCC. If you get threatening calls, you should call the telephone company. We’ll talk to Mrs. Bader-Conklin, who’s been in the office today covering for her husband who’s on a business trip. If that’s all, I’ll let you get back to…what you were doing.”
“Thank you. But—”
Click. She was gone.
And I thought Apple Grove seemed like such a nice town.
Bio: Lisa Lickel is a Wisconsin author of inspiring fiction who loves books, collects dragons, and travels. She writes novels, short stories, feature articles, and radio theater, and loves to encourage authors through mentoring, speaking, and leading workshops. Lisa is a member of the Wisconsin Writer’s Association, the Chicago Writer’s Association, and secretary/instructor for Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp and Writing Retreat, Inc. She is an avid book reviewer and blogger, and a freelance editor. Find more on Lisa' Website
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Photo credits:
The cat as a mythic warrior on papyrus has appeared many times in many formats on the internet and is impossible to trace to an original copyrighted format.
The bronze Mau is by liz west from Boxborough, MA - Egyptian Mau, CC BY 2.0
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