Zora:. Do you have a favorite book in the Witch City Mystery series?
O’Ryan: Listen, you CAN tell a book by its cover! The best books in this series, paws down, have the biggest pictures of ME. My favorite so far is It Takes a Coven. That is a great shot of me.The latest, Bells, Spells, and Murder, has a lousy cover.
Winkey wanted to know if you give Carol ideas by communicating with witches.
Certainly not. My previous person was Ariel Constellation, a witch who got most of her ideas from me. If she’d paid more attention to me, she wouldn’t have wound up floating face down in Salem Harbor. You’re right, Winkey, I do give Carol ideas for her books and I really like Lee Barrett’s witch friend River North. She’s very pretty and kind to animals — but not nearly as wise as I am.
Are your ideas better when Aunt Ibby feeds you?
Aunt Ibby is a great cook and Lee isn’t. She can barely boil water but does pour dry Kitty Kibble into my red bowl in a timely fashion and lets me sneak pepperoni when she and her boyfriend Pete Mondello order out for pizza. My ideas remain fabulous either way.
Does Carol give you enough credit for your work?
Absolutely not! She’s thanked everybody from her high school English teacher to the baker at Publix in the acknowledgements. But a word about O’Ryan? The brains behind the whole thing? No! Heck, if it wasn’t for the opposable thumbs problem, I’d write the darn things by myself. Typing isn’t easy for me.
Zora: Do the other cats in Salem help you solve crimes?
Yes indeed. Salem has a fine cat community. Most of us are descended from that unpleasantness back in 1692. I’ve called on cat friends from time to time to help Lee out of various jams. Once a whole gang of them saved me from using up one of my lives when Lee got mixed up with the wrong people. But most of the time, it’s me — bailing her out. In the most recent book, Bells, Spells, and Murders, my cat friend Frankie and I got her out of some really scary big-time trouble.
What do you do when they ignore you?
If you can, get them to put in cat doors — lots of cat doors. That way you can come and go as you please and don’t have to pee on the newspaper because they forgot to clean your litter box. But peeing on newspapers is kind of fun. Sitting on the keyboard when they’re trying to write is fun too. They are forgetful creatures, thinking about book things when they should be remembering where they left the car keys or what kind of cat food to buy. I don’t know how many times I have to say I like pate’ better than the grilled stuff.
Do you have advice for other cats who live with writers?
Treat the poor things gently. Lots of purring and lap-sitting helps them relax.They need to get up early to write, especially if they have deadlines. Sitting on their chest and staring at them wakes them up. They drink a lot of coffee and sometimes share the cream. That’s nice. All in all, it’s a pretty good life.
The latest book in Carol Perry’s Witch City series is Bells, Spells, and Murder.Kensington Books will release the eighth book in the series, Final Exam in the spring.
This article appears in Oct 25 – Nov 1, 2018.