There’s always a first for everything. I’ve already featured winery cats, a topiary cat, and even a dog on this blog, but today I am interviewing an alien cat.You heard right,a space kitty.
What is your name and your author’s name?
My name is Zari A. My author’s name is Bonnie Elizabeth.
Mice to meet you both.
What book(s) have you appeared in? Please list them and their genre.
I’ve appeared in many books. Whisper Bound, Taken by the Sound, An Air of Suspicion, Little Dog Lost (oddly I have a most starring role in that one), Death Interrupted, Down in Whisper, A Haunting Whisper, A Haunting Attraction, and Secrets Not Whispers.
Wow, Meow. You must surely be a superstar. I only have 3 books to my credit so far.
Are you in a series? If so, please give information about it.
The series is the Whisper series. It’s contemporary fantasy. My author and I like to think of it as the corner where paranormal romance meets urban fantasy meets cozy mystery. There are two main characters, Meg Barringer who is a PI and kind of a stick in the mud and my human, Rain McFarland who used to be a social worker but now runs the security side of the PI firm Meg started.
Whisper isn’t an ordinary place. There’s an earth spirit there who’s awake, most are sleeping now, too many people and too much busy-ness, so odd things happen there. The people on Whisper who spend the most time with Peter all have talents.
And then there’s me. I’m really an alien from another world. My people study other worlds by going to them as the species we believe are the apex species. I thought that species on Earth would be the cat. I am not certain I was wrong. But at any rate, there I am.
Pawsome! I am honored to interview an alien in cat form. This truly was on my blog’s bucket list.
Are you based on a real cat such as your author’s? If so, please give further details.
I’m not based on any of the author’s cats, although Chey, her Siamese has a mention in one of the books and we have named other animals in our stories after cats and a dog we knew.
That’s great. My author has a Siamese, too, and I am based on him, although he’s Oliver and I’m Sneaky. She wrote her first book using my predecessor Floppy’s real name.
Can you share an excerpt from one of your books that features you in an important scene? If so, please include it.
This is from Little Dog Lost, towards the end. It is a book that features me in most scenes. This one is important because I have gotten my friends into a place where they can take on the bad guys. (You can tell they are bad because one does not like cats).
“Down,” I heard Zari say in my mind. I was lucky that I was used to obeying the cat. I dropped immediately to the ground just as someone started shooting. Someone else returned fire from the doorway. I put my hands over my head and curled into as tight of a ball as I could, hiding near the wall. More shots echoed around the room, enough that the echoes filled my ears with ringing. At first I thought the shooting had stopped so I started to uncurl. Then I noticed the heavy black boots of two men standing just outside the door. I raised my eyes enough to see dark green pants above the boots. Both wearers were men holding very large guns. Their belts held even more firepower. They moved slightly as if they were still shooting, but no sound came from the guns.
I saw someone walking towards them, wearing the same combat boots and fatigues. I couldn’t see a face at first, but the cut of the hair looked familiar. I craned my neck, rising just above the table. I hoped I wouldn’t be noticed. I saw Peter’s familiar face. He was dressed much like the guards, in combat fatigues and Kevlar. Even the gun he held looked like one of theirs. I wondered if he’d created it or picked up one of their own. Hard to say. I ducked back down. No shots came in my direction. Apparently no one had noticed me.
“Where are you?” I mentally asked Zari.
“In the room where the guards were playing cards earlier. I licked the nose of one of the ones Peter has sunk into the ground.”
“Be careful,” I said. “One wanted to bite you.”
“I went behind his head and used his hair to sharpen my claws earlier,” Zari said. “I don’t like him.”
“And you dislike him in particular because?”
“When he saw me, his first thought was how much he hated cats.”
“So you aren’t exactly changing his mind, you know.”
“Are you breaking tiles?” she asked.
Quite exciting. I am impressed. You are an excellent alien actor.
What do you like most about your role in your authors’ books?
I like that I am smart and sophisticated and that I can do what I want. I am not at the mercy of meow and many times I can order Rain, my person, around. Frequently I am the one who solves the mystery because I am smarter than the average person.
I help find clues and solve mysteries in my author’s Cobble Cove mystery series, but I’m sure I’d do a better job if I had extraterrestrial powers.
Are you a talking cat in your books or just a silent one like I am who just meows occasionally?
I am telepathic and I can talk to most people via telepathy, always assuming they listen. It is easier with some people than others. Meg can’t talk to me at all and I’m not certain why, although I can get messages to her via Peter. He’s easy for me to talk to.
That telepathy gig certainly sounds cool.
What advice would you give other cat characters?
Be yourself and don’t be afraid to steal the story!
Paws up to that.
Do you have any new books coming out? Please give dates and details.
Bonnie Elizabeth is taking a break from the Whisper series. She’s starting up a series of books on a teenaged girl who becomes a fairy godmother. She will have a short novel and a regular novel coming out about her this year. I have hopes that at the end of the year she’ll get an inspiration for another Whisper novel or two.
I hope so, but maybe it will give me and other non-Whisper readers a chance to catch up with the earlier ones. Just because I’m a character cat, doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy reading books by other cat characters. I use them for ins-purr-ation.
Are you and/or your author on social media? If so, please list your links.
Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBonnieElizabeth/
Author Website: http://www.bonnieelizabeth.com/
Publisher page: https://www.facebook.com/MyBigFatOrangeCat/
Publisher Website: http://mybigfatorangecat.com/
Chey is on Facebook too: https://www.facebook.com/TheCatPostIntelligencer/ (but she usually doesn’t talk about me).
She also has her own website: http://www.mysiamese.com
Thank you so much for the great interview, and best whiskers on you and your author’s upcoming books. Now can I have a ride in your spaceship before you leave, please?
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