Debra H. Goldstein's Blog, page 21

A Picture Tells A Story – Beats Writing A Blog This Week

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Bittersweet Life Cycle Moments – a Reason Not to Write

Bittersweet Life Cycle Moments – a Reason Not to Write by Debra H. Goldstein

Sometimes, life gets in the way of writing. This is one of those weeks that my thoughts are more concerned with life cycle events than they are with “writing.” By the end of this week, my sister and I will both welcome grandchildren. She knows hers will be a girl; my daughter and her husband opted to be surprised.

I always have referred to my daughter and her twin brother as being my miracle children. Having them wasn’t easy – my pregnancy, while successful, also forced this type A person to spend almost eight months on my back or in and out of hospitals (I empathize with Princess Kate and Amy Schumer). Although the holy terrors were due on April 1 (it seemed appropriate for me at the time), they arrived in February, but they thrived. They now are grown, and my daughter is having her own child.

Talking to my friends who are in the same position, we all agree our children’s pregnancies are a time of excitement and fear. We want the pregnancy to go well and the baby to be born healthy. We can’t wait to hold our children’s babies and we pray we can still remember and have the endurance to feed, burp, diaper, and do the other chores — like running up and down the stairs, associated with a newborn.

This is another time of miracles.

But I’m also saddened that my sister and I can’t share our moments of joy with our mother. Perhaps our daughters will memorialize her (or our father) by naming their babies after them, but it isn’t the same as it would be to see the excitement and happiness these children would have given their great-grandmother. The picture at the top of this blog was taken of my mother at my daughter’s wedding. Mother’s face radiates her thrill of sharing in that life cycle event. Can you imagine how she would have felt this week?

By this time next week, my sister and I will both be beyond Cloud 9, but I’m sure as we count fingers and toes and check out hair and eye color, a momentary thought of whether the babies bear any resemblance to their great-grandmother will flit through our minds. What about you – any bittersweet wonderful life cycle moments?

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Guest Blogger: Grace Topping – The People You’ll Meet

The People You’ll Meet by Grace Topping

When I think about my journey to publication, Dr. Seuss’s words often come to mind, “Oh the places you’ll go!” A terrific line, but to me, a more important thought was “the people you’ll meet.”

As a budding mystery writer, I traveled to Orlando to attend Sleuthfest, Boston to attend Crime Bake, Bethesda to attend Malice Domestic. As nice as it was visiting those places and attending the conferences, it was the people I met that made the biggest difference.

I attended my first Malice Domestic, a conference for fans of traditional mysteries, as a fan. I enjoyed hearing authors talk about some of the books I’d loved, but I went home after a pleasant weekend and didn’t think much about it. Little did I realize that I would attend Malice again one day with the goal of becoming a mystery writer, and that many of the attendees would become dear friends.

Years later, when I again attended Malice Domestic, I actually got to spend time with some authors. I had met author Janet Bolin online through the Sisters in Crime (SINC) chapter, the Guppies. That weekend at Malice, Janet showed me the ropes and took me to lunch with other cozy authors, including Avery Ames and Krista Davis, who made me feel at home. If it hadn’t been for Janet, I probably would have wandered around feeling a bit lost.

It was the generosity of authors like Susan Froetschel, who at a Chesapeake SINC meeting told me to send her my manuscript and gave me encouraging feedback that kept me going. Another chapter member, Elaine Douts, invited me to join her group blog, Writers Who Kill, conducting interviews with mystery writers. Through WWK, I met more writers.

I continued “meeting” writers online through the Guppies, but it was when I attended Sleuthfest, a writers’ conference in Orlando, that I met more Guppies in person—writers like Debra H. Goldstein, Marilyn Levinson, Karen Duxbury, and Betsy Bitner. Little did I know at the time how instrumental Debra and Marilyn would be in my career.

Over the next few years, I exchanged manuscripts with fellow Guppies Diane Vallere and Kendal Flaum, who gave me valuable feedback. I eventually obtained an agent, but kept rewriting, getting input from writers like Debra, Marilyn, Connie Berry, Linda Reilly, Shari Randall, Kait Carson, and Barbara Ross, who I met at Crime Bake. Each helped me make my manuscript better and they bolstered me up when I got discouraged.

Finally, when I realized that my current agent had done all she could, it was Debra and Marilyn who encouraged me to query their agent. I did, and she was able to sell my manuscript in two months. Thank you, Debra and Marilyn.

On April 30, my cozy mystery, Staging is Murder, was released. I’m thankful every day that as I traveled the road to publication that all the wonderful writers I mentioned and many more walked along with me, pulled me out of holes, and pointed me in the right direction. I can’t thank them enough. The “people you’ll meet” was definitely the best part of the journey.

Staging is Murder

Laura Bishop just nabbed her first decorating commission—staging for sale a 19th century mansion that hasn’t been updated for decades. But when a body falls from a laundry chute and lands at Laura’s feet, removing flowered wallpaper becomes the least of her duties. To clear her young assistant of the murder and save her fledgling business, Laura’s determined to find the killer. Turns out it’s not as easy as renovating a manor home, especially with two handsome men complicating her mission: the police detective assigned to the case and the real estate agent trying to save the manse from foreclosure. Worse still, the meddling of a horoscope-guided friend, a determined grandmother, and the local funeral director could get them all killed before Laura props the first pillow.

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Grace Topping is a recovering technical writer and IT project manager, accustomed to writing lean, boring documents. Let loose to write fiction, she is now creating murder mysteries and killing off characters who remind her of some of the people she dealt with during her career. Fictional revenge is sweet. She’s using her experience helping friends stage their homes as inspiration for her Laura Bishop mystery series. The first book in the series, Staging is Murder, is about a woman starting a new career midlife as a home stager. Grace is the current vice president of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and a member of the SINC Guppies and Mystery Writers of America. She lives with her husband in Northern Virginia.

http://www.gracetopping.com

https://www.facebook.com/GraceToppingAuthor

https://twitter.com/gtoppingauthor

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Returning to Childhood

Returning to Childhood by Debra H. Goldstein

Last Friday was Passover’s first 2019 Seder. At one time, our extended family’s Seders averaged 20-30 attendees, but in the past few years the death of the older generation, the different cities our children have settled in, and the activities of our children and grandchildren significantly decreased that number. This year, only four of us – my husband’s sister and her husband and my husband and me – were at the table.

Even though our number was low, we celebrated the holiday in the traditional manner. We went through the Haggadah saying the prayers and reciting the story of Passover, we ate too much food, and we enjoyed being together. At other homes throughout the city and the world, the same rituals were followed.

After the evening ended, I exchanged an e-mail with a friend, who attended a much larger family Seder. She told me about an interesting occurrence during their meal. Traditionally, the youngest at the Seder, is asked to recite the four questions. This year, for the first time, the six-year-old grandchild of the host and hostess skyped from New York to recite the four questions in Hebrew and English. The family was thrilled, while the child took great joy from participating so successfully in her grandparents’ Seder.

Our Seder was a little different. No child skyped in. Because I was the youngest in attendance, I asked the four questions. It seemed funny not to have a child asking the questions, but at the same time, it felt right. The moment of the four questions passes quickly, followed by the family taking turns giving the answers or explanations, but it is the moment from this year’s Seder that will stick with me.

It has been a long time since I recited the four questions. It has been even longer since I was a child. But, for a moment, I again was both. Have you ever had a moment that returned you to your childhood?

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Barb Goffman – Guest Blogger – With a Little Help from My Friends

With a Little Help From My Friends by Barb Goffman

Ah, the perennial question: Where do you get your ideas? Mine spring from all kinds of places. Newspaper articles. Overheard conversations. Advertisements. Sometimes they seemingly spring from nowhere, a random product of the weirdness that is my brain. But even those out-of-nowhere stories likely had some seed from which they grew—something I saw or heard or thought that stuck in my brain, waiting for me to realize its potential.

As the meme goes, everything is fodder. It’s why it’s good to read widely, to eavesdrop with abandon, and to always, always listen to your friends.

For instance, a few years ago I spent Thanksgiving with my dear friends Sherry and Bob Harris and their daughter, Elizabeth. (Yes, Sherry of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries series.) Bob spent some of his formative years on a ranch out west. We ended up talking about his ranch days and somehow we got on the topic of exploding cows. (Lovely dinnertime conversation, no?) I’d heard of exploding cows, but I’d always thought they sounded like a myth. Why would a cow suddenly explode? God bless, Bob. He knew all about them. Why they explode. When they explode. How to try to keep them from exploding. If it hadn’t been for this unusual conversation, I never would have written “Till Murder Do Us Part,” which involves—as you can imagine—exploding cows. (You can read this murder-mystery story in the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies. Wildside Press, 2018).

My friend Donna Andrews (yes, she of the Meg Langslow mystery series) has been a good source of inspiration, too. We used to live about two miles from each other, so we’ve driven together a number of times, often passing a Catholic Church near her home. One day as we drove Donna mentioned that the church used to be a nudist colony. If that weren’t enough for a conversation starter, she added this tidbit: In the 1940s, a murder happened there. Hello! Oh, the ideas that sprung from that. Where a nudist would hide a murder weapon was the question I kept coming back to. So I addressed it in my story “Murder a la Mode,” in which a proper young southern woman ends up having Thanksgiving at … you guessed it … a nudist colony and, of course, someone dies during dessert. (You can read this story in the anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Second Helping (Untreed Reads Publishing, 2012).

If you know Donna at all, you know she likes to talk about her twin nephews. They’re in high school now, but when they were much younger, she relayed a story of taking them to an ice cream shop that offered all kinds of toppings. The boys had finished their chosen toppings and wanted more, and they let this be known by yelling so the whole store (and maybe the whole state) heard: “Worms! We want more worms!” (Gummy worms, I’m told.) I filed that tidbit away in my memory bank, and when I sat down to write a story years later, those worms surfaced. What, I thought, if a Thanksgiving guest entered a home to hear the children clamoring for more worms. And my imagination took off from there, resulting in “Bug Appétit,” my short story currently nominated for the Agatha Award. (You can read it online here: https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/assets/3/6/Goffman_Bug.pdf.)

So this all goes to show, author friends, pay attention to your friends and your surroundings. You never know when something interesting will cross your path … or your plate.

` ` ` ` `

Barb Goffman has won the Agatha, Macavity, and Silver Falchion awards for her short stories, and she’s been a finalist for national crime-writing awards twenty-three times, including a dozen Agatha Award nominations (a category record). Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, among others. Her book, Don’t Get Mad, Get Even, won the Silver Falchion for the best short-story collection of 2013. To support her short-story habit, Barb runs a freelance editing service, focusing on crime fiction. Learn more at www.barbgoffman.com.

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There Simply Isn’t Enough Time in the Day by Debra H. Goldstein

There Simply isn’t Enough Time in the Day by Debra H. Goldstein

Have you ever wondered why so many Type A people only sleep a few hours each night? I’m positive there is a scientific explanation, but I’ve got my own (and I’m sticking with it). There simply isn’t enough time in the day.

I’ve been doing a little survey on this topic respecting women. Personally, I average four to six hours of sleep a night until my body insists on crashing for an eight to ten-hour period. My body clock hates six a.m., but has no problem being fully awake between two and four a.m. My low point is at three p.m. One of my dearest friends has a similar body rhythm – which makes for wonderful e-mail exchanges at one in the morning.

One of my daughters gets up between three and four a.m., but we don’t call her house after nine. An attorney I had lunch with today told me she keeps a similar schedule. I don’t know how they do it.

I feel the same way about an internet writing group who banded together to have a morning sprint. By the time I wake up, they’ve all put in a few hours of solid writing – and some of them don’t even need coffee before they sprint.

The one thing that all have in common is they are overachievers. There’s no way they could maintain their homes, shop, do the laundry, write books, make presentations, put in ten-hour days at the office, be at everything for their children, and pay attention their spouses or pets if they limited their activities to the twelve hours of daytime. What each juggles and accomplishes is only achievable by encroaching into the other twelve hours. There simply isn’t enough time in the day. What about you? Do you have enough time?

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Guest Bloggers: T.C. Lotempio and Rocco – Can a Cat Be Inspirational? Oh yes, especially if his name is ROCCO

Can a Cat be Inspirational? Oh yes, especially if his name is ROCCO….

By T. C. Lotempio

I have always been an animal lover, especially of cats. When my calico died a few years ago, I went to my local Animal Shelter and adopted a handsome tuxedo cat named ROCCO. It soon became apparent that he is the “boss” of my family, which includes three other cats! But never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever expect him to be the driving force behind our blog, www.catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com, or end up as the star of his own mystery series!

Well – to clarify – the series isn’t named after ROCCO. He was just the inspiration for one of the main characters, a feisty tuxedo cat named Nick. Nick’s a cool cat, one with a sharp mind who likes to play SCRABBLE, and spell out clues so his human, Nora, can solve mysteries! Here’ a brief synopsis of book one, Meow if it’s Murder, taken from the cover back:

Nora Charles doesn’t believe in fate, even if she is a crime reporter who shares a name with a character from The Thin Man. In fact, she’s moving back to Cruz, California, to have a quieter life. But after finding an online magazine eager for material, and a stray cat named Nick with a talent for detection, Nora’s not just reporting crimes again. She’s uncovering them…

Back in her hometown, Nora reconnects with old friends and makes some new ones, like Nick, the charming feline who seems determined to be her cat. But not everything about Cruz is friendly. Writing for a local online magazine, Nora investigates the curious death of socialite Lola Grainger. Though it was deemed an accident, Nora suspects foul play. And it seems that her cat does too.

Apparently, Nick used to belong to a P.I. who disappeared while investigating Lola Grainger’s death. The coincidence is spooky, but not as spooky as the clues Nick spells out for her with Scrabble letters—clues that lead her down an increasingly dangerous path. Whether fate put her on this case or not, solving it will take all of Nora’s wits, and maybe a few of Nick’s nine lives.

Granted, ROCCO wasn’t the only inspiration for the series – but he was and is a large part of it! And he reminds me, every day, in his own catly way…I mean, you would think HE wrote the book! Although….in many ways, I think he did. But let’s keep that OUR secret.

ROCCO isn’t my only source of inspiration, either. His brother Maxx was the prototype for Toby in the Cat Rescue mysteries! Maxx was a stray that my friend Barbara found in South Jersey; in the book Toby’s a stray too, and a very particular one. He’s been deliberately chasing away people who might adopt him, waiting for, as one of the volunteers put it, “his perfect human”. Well, Syd McCall seems to fill the bill!

A one-eyed Persian cat that was owned by a former neighbor of mine was the inspiration for the character of Purrday in the first Pet Shop mystery, The Time for Murder is Meow. And the popular Princess Fuzzypants is the inspiration for yet another character in an upcoming series!

So I suppose when people refer to me as the “Lady who writes those cat mysteries” they’re not far off the track!

What are some things your pets do that inspire you to do different things? ROCCO and I would love to know! Visit my website, www.tclotempio.net and drop us a line!

You can keep up with Toni and ROCCO at www.catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com, where they interview authors and have giveaways every month!

You can also sign up for Toni’s newsletter on her website: www.tclotempio.net

You can purchase the Nick and Nora Mystery Series and the Cat Rescue Series here:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_bylin...

Rocco and Toni are giving away one copy of either the Nick and Nora or Cat Rescue Series.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While Toni Lotempio does not commit – or solve – murders in real life, she has no trouble doing it on paper. Her lifelong love of mysteries began early on when she was introduced to her first Nancy Drew mystery at age 10 – The Secret in the Old Attic. Toni is also passionate about her love for animals, as demonstrated with her four cats: Trixie, Princess, Maxx and, of course, ROCCO, who not only provided the inspiration for the character of Nick the cat in the Nick and Nora mystery series, but who also writes his own blog and does charity work for Nathan Fillion’s charity, Kids Need to Read! She (and ROCCO, albeit he’s uncredited) pen the Nick and Nora mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime – the first volume, MEOW IF ITS MURDER, debuted Dec. 2, 2014. She, Rocco and company make their home in Clifton, New Jersey, just twenty minutes from the Big Apple – New York.

Where to find them:

ROCCO’s blog: www.catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com

Website: WWW.tclotempio.com

Amazon- Meow if its Murder

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Blogs for You, for Me – What Shall it Be?

Blogs – For You, For Me – What shall it be? by Debra H. Goldstein

Do blogs make a difference? Do people still read them? I personally think so, but I’m not sure. The reality is we are all inundated with blog messages. How do you pick and choose which ones to follow or read?

During the past few months, my writing efforts have been devoted to blogs. I wrote forty-four leading up to the recent launch of One Taste Too Many, the first book in my new cozy series. Some were straight blogs about writing, some were responsive interviews where I explained my thought processes or motivation related to writing One Taste Too Many, and some were from the viewpoint of either my protagonist, Sarah Blair, or from RahRah, her pet cat.

It was interesting to see how my mood impacted what I wrote and how I employed different styles if the piece was intended to be serious or to have a funny or whimsical nature. Sometimes, I discovered writing in the third party, as RahRah, was completely freeing. He had no filter!

I enjoy It’s Not Always a Mystery because it lets me share personal thoughts, as well as writing related topics, and gives me an opportunity to introduce authors you might not otherwise be familiar with. Most importantly, it permits me to have a forum to say thank you to you for your support and friendship. I love what blogs let me do, but what do you want from them?

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Guest Blog: Sneaky Interviews Debbie De Louise

Sneaky Interviews Debbie De Louise for It’s Not Always a Mystery

Sneaky the Library Cat from the Cobble Cove mystery series here interviewing my author, Debbie De Louise, about our books and her other writing.

Hi, Debbie. Thanks for agreeing to this pawsome interview. Even though I’m one of your characters, there’s a lot I don’t know about you. May I ask how you came up with the idea for our books and how you created me as one of the characters?

Hello, Sneaky. That’s a great question. I’ve always loved animals especially cats, and I like to read and write about them. When I came up with the idea for A Stone’s Throw, the first book of the series, I created Alicia, the librarian, as the main character and thought it would be fun to pair her with a feline sidekick. Even though Sneaky doesn’t live with Alicia, she sometimes keeps him at her house when the library is closed. They’ve also formed a special bond throughout the four books of the series as Sneaky has helped Alicia in various ways in solving the mysteries or being involved in them somehow.

Regarding how I came up with the idea for the series, it’s hard to explain. It just all seemed to come together. I actually didn’t plan on a series with the first book, but I grew fond of the characters and, like you, they seemed to take on a life of their own and inspired me to continue their story.

That’s pawsome, Debbie. What are your plans for the next book in the series? I know you haven’t started it yet, and I’m curious. I also really want to know if my role’s going to change at all. I realize you introduced a female kitty in the latest book, Love on the Rocks. I didn’t like her at first, but then we worked together on that nasty kidnapping and murder case.

Well, Sneaky, it’s true I haven’t started the next book yet, but I have some ideas. If you recall, Alicia was offered the position of Director of the Cobble Cove library at the end of Love on the Rocks. I don’t want to give any spoilers because some people haven’t read all the books yet, but there’s never a shortage of mysteries in Cobble Cove. As for your role, I don’t plan on changing it much. You’ll still be top cat in the series, so don’t worry. The only change I may make is to have Fido, Mac’s dog, have a larger role in at least one upcoming book.

Sounds good. I like Fido. He’s a cool dog. Is there anything else you’d like to say about the books or about me (I love compliments)?

I’d just like to mention that the four books of the series are all available as eBooks and also print copies. They are also free to subscribers of the Kindle Unlimited program. They’re nice, clean reads with a touch of romance and a bunch of quirky characters and pets. You can find them on Amazon, and the paperbacks are on sale from a variety of sellers.

Thanks for that info. I hope more people will try our books. They won’t be disappointed. Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about the Cobble Cove mysteries or any of your other books, Debbie?

Yes, Sneaky. I have a character chat group on Facebook that’s hosted by one of the characters in my books each month. The January host is Oliver the cat from my mystery, Reason to Die. People can join the group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/748912598599469/

I also have a monthly author newsletter that I email with updates about my writing. This month, I’m featuring a newsletter survey for a $10 amazon gift card. Subscribers just need to fill out the survey before January 31. Here’s the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3ZZWZ2N

To subscribe to my newsletter, readers can complete the pop-up form on my website: https://debbiedelouise.com

Last, but not least, you will be helping me host a special Valentine’s Day Paw-ty on Facebook with other cozy mystery authors. The paw-ty will take place on Friday, February 8 from 12 noon to 9 pm EST. The event link to RSVP is: https://www.facebook.com/events/542490769487750/

That’s purrfect, Debbie. Thanks for sharing our paw-ty. It’s been sweet as catnip chatting with you. I can’t wait to be in your next book. Maybe you should list your social media links so more readers can follow you.

Great idea, Sneaky. Here they are:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbie.delouise.author/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Deblibrarian

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2750133.Debbie_De_Louise

Amazon Author Page: Author.to/DebbieDeLouise

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Guest Blogger: Anne Louise Bannon – Covering Up

Covering Up by Anne Louise Bannon

I’ve always been a dialog kind of woman. When I’m writing, the conversations between characters always come first, and then the visual descriptions. In fact, I have two main characters that I’ve never actually described. So, while I have learned how to add the visual elements into my stories, there was one other visual that I’ve needed to be on top of – the cover.

You see, I’m what we’re calling an indie author these days. That means self-published, which also means I have to put a cover on anything I write. For a non-visual person, this has been quite a challenge. Even those covers I pay (and I do pay for some), I have to have a clear idea of what it should look like so that my cover designer has an idea of where to start.

For the covers I have to do myself, what I mostly need is a single image that can stand for what the book is about. It’s kind of like writing your elevator pitch, but only with a single image rather than a single sentence. And I have an additional challenge since most of the covers I do myself are for novels that I serialize on my blog, I also have to turn my cover image into a header that has a completely different aspect ratio.

For example, a book cover is generally narrower than it is tall – I make mine for a paperback that will eventually be eight inches tall by five inches wide. A header is way wider, say about six inches wide by an inch and a half tall. It can really throw your composition off, let me tell you.

As it happens, I’m starting the serial for the fourth novella in my Operation Quickline, my cozy spy series. Yes, I wrote a series of cozy spy novels/novellas, as in novels about a pair of spies that focuses on their lives and relationship and does not have a lot of graphic sex or violence. Okay, there is plenty of sex, but it all happens off-screen, so to speak.

The novel is Fugue in a Minor Key. My characters, Sid Hackbirn and Lisa Wycherly, bring Lisa’s nephew Darby to live at their place because Darby’s having some serious problems. Then an old girlfriend of Sid’s surprises him with a son he never knew about. Oh, and there’s a sting they’re trying to run on a bunch of guys stealing secrets from a local defense plant. Yeah, a lot going on.

For this particular series, I hit upon the idea of creating a rubber stamp effect on the title, kind of like a Top Secret stamp on a manila envelope. I used the envelope for the background of the second book in the series, Stopleak, and featured a box and strapping tape for the third book, Deceptive Appearances.

In Fugue, apart from the title, Sid and Darby are both musicians and that’s how they bond, so while there were plenty of manilla envelopes flying about, there were also several scenes where Sid and Darby are playing music together. So that’s how I decided to feature the envelope and some sheet music that I, uh, may have played around with. So the cover was mostly getting the text on in a balanced way, then laying out the envelope and the music.

The header was a bit harder. Truth be told, I’m not entirely happy with it, so it might change. But you didn’t hear me say that, right?

Learning how to do all this has not been easy, but it has been fun. And it’s also helped with how I see my writing. Beginning on January 18, I’ll be starting a new serial on my blog. Check it out at https://annelouisebannon.com/fiction .

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Anne Louise Bannon is an author and journalist who wrote her first novel at age 15. Her journalistic work has appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Wines and Vines, and in newspapers across the country. She was a TV critic for over 10 years, founded the YourFamilyViewer blog, and created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog with her husband, Michael Holland. She also writes the romantic fiction serial WhiteHouseRhapsody.com, Book One of which is out now. She is the co-author of Howdunit: Book of Poisons, with Serita Stevens, as well as author of the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s, and the Operation Quickline series and Tyger, Tyger. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters.

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