Crafty Cat (Crazy Cat Lady Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
11th in the Series
Setting – Oregon
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently Published (October 29, 2024)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 265 pages

Synopsis

Romance, death, and cat quilts.
What does quilting have to do with murder? Lynley Cannon is about to find out.

Lynley Cannon has a new hobby—making cat-themed quilt donations for the ShadowCat Rescue auction. The small quilting guild is run by three generations of women and two cats, but when the elder of the family is murdered, Lynley’s job shifts from crafting to sleuthing.

Who would want to kill such a dear old thing? The police think they know, but they don’t have all the facts.

As secrets come out and a romance is uncovered, the quilting project begins to fall to pieces. Lynley jumps in to help the family navigate the justice system, but when a neighbor is found dead and another of the quilt shop’s owners missing, even Lynley is at a loss. It takes a couple of crafty cats to get to the bottom of this stranger-than-fiction crime.

Amazon

Guest Post

CRAZY QUILTS AND RESEARCH

Do you quilt? Do you know someone who does?

In my Crazy Cat Lady Mystery, Crafty Cat, I was faced with just such a question.

Though I love and respect the beautiful work in a nicely-made quilt and enjoy going to quilt shows, my only personal experience with quilting was a patchwork crazy quilt I made back in the seventies. There was no pattern to it, just scraps from other projects pieced together on my mother’s zigzag sewing machine. It was no work of art, but it did keep us warm, and I enjoyed the memories conjured up by the fabric of the various patches.

When I began writing Crafty Cat, in which my hero Lynley Cannon joins a quilting guild, I quickly realized I needed to do some research. In the story, the guild was making small quilts with designs featuring cats to donate to a cat shelter charity for a fundraiser—were there actual cat-themed quilting patterns? If so, what were they called? Lynley’s octogenarian mother had made a cat-themed quilt when she was a young woman. She used a classic pattern—but was there one?

I knew a bit about sewing in general, having done various projects in the past, but times have changed, and so has the equipment. Most quilters now use machines made for that purpose with computer chips and preprogrammed designs. I needed to bring my knowledge up to speed, but then I hit a roadblock. The only thing I learned from looking into modern quilting methods was how far beyond my experience, knowledge, and understanding it had evolved. I would have to take a class just to be able to name the parts of the machine. But I could avoid this issue if I had the guild meeting in a rather old-fashioned setting where quilters sat around a table to do their thing. Some worked by hand, while others brought their own portable machines.

Research is a huge part of writing any story. Non-fiction works can take months, even years of research to gather all the necessary information. Researching for fiction is less demanding, but the author still needs to know enough about their subject, be it quilting or particle physics, to sound credible. If a reader catches incorrect details, it can cause them to step out of the story. “Suspension of disbelief” only goes so far. You can have a talking cat who travels to space on a cloud, but when that cat goes twenty-four hours without a meal or a nap, cat folks will question the author’s cat savviness. They may quit reading entirely or just consider it a bad book. Neither is optimum for the author who hopes for readers to enjoy their work and want to read more of it.

Thankfully, research is fun. Nowadays, there are so many sources to consult. The go-to, of course, is the internet, but there are also libraries, interest groups, experts, and personal contacts. Information is everywhere, and I’ve discovered things I never knew I wanted to know. I’ve found out how machines functioned, what life is like in the Arctic, the intricacies of spinning one’s own wool. I’ve learned about the Masons, art retreats, cat cafés, and Comic-cons. Through writing Crafty Cat, I managed to gain a better understanding of quilts and quilting. I’m not sure if Lynley will keep on with the guild in subsequent stories, but I’m thinking about taking a class myself. There is always something more to learn.

About the Author

Cat Writer Mollie Hunt is the award-winning author of two cozy series: the Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries featuring a sixty-something cat shelter volunteer who finds more trouble than a cat in catnip, and the Tenth Life Paranormal Mysteries involving a ghost cat. Her Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy presents extraordinary cats saving the world. She recently released a COVID memoir which she calls, “a tale of a plague and politics, of depression and inspiration, and an ode to the very real and healing presence of cats.” In her spare time, she pens a bit of cat poetry.

Mollie is a member of the Oregon Writers’ Colony, Sisters in Crime, the Cat Writers’ Association, Willamette Writers, and Northwest Independent Writers Association (NIWA). She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and a varying number of cats. Like her cat lady character, she is a grateful shelter volunteer

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