Feline Fun Friday – Questions People Ask Authors

Budding and potential authors as well as readers are interested in the author’s life. I’ve been writing for publication for nearly 50 years. Here are the two most frequently asked questions I get. First: “How do you come up with all those ideas?” I was asked this question many times over the 40 years that I wrote articles on so many different topics for so many different magazines. Now that I’m writing fiction, people question my ability to imagine—how can I come up with so many different stories for my Klepto Cat Mysteries and Calico Cat Mysteries? Note: If you’ve read my fiction books, you know there are stories within the stories.

I’ve actually been dinged by reviewers because of my style, yet Rags’s and Olivia’s fans claim that’s the way they like it. As some of you know there’s a lot of activity and action on the way to the main mystery in both series.

Another question I get is, “How long does it take you to write a book?” Yes, I am prolific. Before the Pandemic years I was producing 6 books a year. In 2020, however, I produced 9 books and again in 2021 I published 9 books. How long does it take to write a book? I did the math. I can write and edit a book in two-three weeks. The beta readers get it then and they take about five days to read through the manuscript. It takes about 7-10 days for the editor to do her work, then I do another edit/proof or two and we start the process of formatting the print book. Oh, and I do another complete edit/proofing once the hard-copy is ready. Are you following this? This process takes another week or so. Then we turn the manuscript over to the woman who formats the ebook—for your Kindle reading pleasure. She spends another five or seven days on that process and we’re ready to publish! Six weeks. It’s right around 6 weeks work for each book.

And it might interest you to know that while my beta readers have the book and then the editor, I am busy working on my next book. I always have two books at some stage of production  at the same time.

So what’s happening in the Klepto and Calico Cat Mystery Factory now? Book 6 of the Calico Cat Mysteries is with the editor as we speak. And I’ve just finished the first draft of Book 56 of the Klepto Cat Mysteries.

Moving right along, as they say.