Two-for-Tuesday: KAREN E. OLSON and CLEA SIMON are visiting tomorrow

[Clea_Simon]

Oh - and do I have a set number in my head? Nope, I want to write until a character seems out of options or out of verve... but who knows when that will be?

And on that note - I'm going to bed! Thanks for having us here today, everyone! I'll keep stopping in to see if any other questions show up. In the meantime, hope you enjoy our books. If you want to read excerpts, please come by my website at http://www.cleasimon.com  - I've got bits of all the books up, and pictures as well.

Good night!

Clea 

[RosemaryH]

Hi Ladies,

Clea and Karen are two of my favorite women in the book biz (I gravitate toward smart, funny people) Sorry I missed you guys yesterday..I didn't see the post that you'd be here until this morning.  I have a question... I've scrolled through the posts and don't think I saw this...as experienced series writers, how do you know when your series is over? Does it just hit you that your amateur sleuth can't plausibly stumble over any more dead bodies? Have you ever considered having her change jobs ( so she can!)

See you guys at New England Crimebake! www.crimebake.org

Rosemary

www.rosemaryharris.com

[Clea_Simon]

Good question, Ro. Wish I had an answer! I am taking a break from Theda, partly because I'm not sure what to do with her next - partly because my editor suggested it. But I don't think she's dead, just needs a rest. For me, rather than the crimes, it's the personal development. My characters are usually in transition one way or another - so when they seem to be resolving, well, what's left? But I know that life is transition, so I'm sure that there will be more to come... for Theda and Dulcie, I hope!

[Hank_Phillippi…]

Hey Karen and Clea:

Just back from New York where I had such a rickety bad laptop--now home and catching up!

(And to any lukers--these two are stellar. Absolutely stellar. Clever and thougthful and original and witty and terrific. They are must-reads!)

And yes, my cat Lola, who died at age 20, visits me in my dreams from time to time. She talks. And I have awakened, and thought to myself--"Lola said"..and then I think, whoa. Lola talked. But in the dream, it doesn't seem strange at all.

You two--when you write your characters--do you "become" them? How much of them is you?

[Hank_Phillippi…]

Forgot to sign my post! Sigh.

soo...

xo  Hank

http://www.HankPhillippiRyan.com

And yes, Rosemary! 

See you guys at New England Crimebake! www.crimebake.org

[becke_davis]

I love the name Lola! The cats I had as a teenager both lived into their twenties. My oldest cat died last year at age 17, and she was pretty senile by then. I'm intrigued by this whole idea of ghost pets, because friends of mine also felt their pets were still with them after they died.

[Clea_Simon]

Hi Hank! Welcome home - and, yes, your "Lola said" experience was the kind that sparked my "Shades of Grey." I was constantly thinking, "Cyrus said..."

As to me becoming my characters or vice versa, I think that happens quite a lot. I mean, I figure all my characters are parts of my personality - only taken to extremes. Mes I might have been. And so, yes, when I'm writing them, I do find myself acting more like that side of me!

Very much looking forward to your new AIR TIME!! Out soon, yes? 

[becke_davis]

Clea has a new release today!

Dogs Don't Lie 

Synopsis

Pru Marlowe isn't your ordinary animal psychic. A tough girl on the  run from her own gift, Pru left the big city to return to her   picturesque Berkshires hometown looking for a little peace. Too bad   that her training as an animal behaviorist got her mixed up with  Lily, a rescue dog, and Charles, her person. Now Charles is dead, and   Lily looks good for it. After all, Lily is a pitbull, a fighting-ring   dropout, and way too traumatized to give Pru a clear picture of what   she has witnessed.

But Pru knows something about bad girls trying to  clean up, and, with a sense of justice strong enough to overcome her dislike of human society, she takes the case. Listening to the animals, Pru picks up clues—and learns there are secrets in the  pretty little town that make murder look simple.

Unable to tell  anybody about her psychic abilities, uncertain at times about her own  sanity, Pru comes to realize that if she clears Lily, she’ll likely   become the prime suspect—or the next victim. While the only  creature she can totally trust is her crotchety tabby Wallis, Pru’s  got to uncover the real killer—and find a way to live with her gift—before the real beasts in the town savage her and those she   has come to love. The first in the Pru Marlowe “pet noir” series.

Clea Simon is a Massachusetts-based writer, journalist and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Ms., Rolling Stoneand Salon.com. She's the author of three nonfiction books, Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings, Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads, and The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats. She lives in Cambridge, MA, with her husband, the writer Jon S. Garelick, and their cat, Musetta. Mew is for Murder is Simon's first mystery novel.

Library Journal

Berkshires pet psychic Pru Marlowe finds her highest-paying client dead in his living room with his throat torn out. The prime suspect is the victim's blood-covered pit bull, Lily. Trying to save Lily places Pru squarely on the path to danger. VERDICT Simon, author of the Theda Krakow (Probable Claws) and Dulcie Schwartz series (Grey Matters), launches a delightful new pet series that will appeal to fans of Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Rita Mae Brown.