To Catch a Cat Thief
By: Sean Cummings
Publisher: Rebelight Publishing
Genre: Middle Grade/mystery/humor
Hundreds of cats are missing! Fear not-Penelope Ann Pickersgill and her hippie grandma are on the case.
While her friends go to cool camps, twelve-year-old Penelope has to spend the summer with Grandma Bev, who is convinced that cat-eating aliens are beaming the town's furry friends aboard their mother ship at night.
Lights in the sky point to UFO's, but Penelope is sure there's a more logical explanation. With a little help from Sherlock Holmes, she and Grandma Bev set out to find the cats. Will they be able to solve the mystery before all the cats in Thornhill disappear?
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Gust Post Topic:
What was your train of thought when coming up with To Catch a Cat Thief?
Sean Cummings - My train of thought in writing To Catch a Cat Thief was pretty basic: write something light, airy and fun. I had just completed work on my post-apocalyptic thriller for teens THE NORTH and in order to write that book, I had to explore some very dark themes while at the same time, paint a vivid picture of a post-apocalyptic world with danger at every turn. I remember saying to my wife, “I have no idea how authors who write apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction manage to keep doing it because it’s depressing.”
I had always loved mysteries as a child and I decided that if I was going to tackle a middle grade mystery that it should be laugh out loud funny and there should be some very eccentric characters as well. I knew I wanted to write a book with a grandmother/granddaughter as a detective duo, but there would be a very real danger of the grandmother becoming the primary character because she’s got decades of experience on the granddaughter. I had to come up with an idea that would allow grandma to remain larger than life and to offer the occasional pearl of wisdom, but where the granddaughter would be the brains behind the duo.
So … I went full hippie.
It seemed to me that a good number of grandparents nowadays were young people back in the 1960s so it became really easy to create a character who hadn’t really left the 1960s in Grandma Bev. She’s fun, light and airy as I’d hoped and of course she’s a major league conspiracy theorist who thinks the establishment is always there, always watching.
I started powering out a couple of chapters early one Saturday morning. That’s sort of how I try an idea out – I take it for a test drive by writing a chapter or two. Anyway, the first draft was done within a month. Then came more flushing out, a second draft. I sent it to my agent – she suggested some valuable changes and voila! The final draft was done.
So there you go – that’s how the book came into being. The good folks at Rebel Light Publishing did a bang-up job editing and of course the cover art is a heck of a lot of fun.
Who should read this book? Anyone who wants a good belly laugh. Ex-hippies with grandchildren and of course 8-10 year olds.
Enjoy!
Giveaway Information: Contest ends November 27, 2015
• Two (2) winners will received a physical copy of To Catch A Cat Thief by Sean Cummings (US/Canada)
• Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of To Catch A Cat Thief by Sean Cummings (INT)
Sean Cummings is a mutli-published author with works ranging from urban fantasy (Shade Fright, Funeral Pallor) to dark fantasy and superheroes. (Marshall Conrad) 2012 saw the publication of Sean’s first young adult novel. Poltergeeks is a rollicking story about teen witch a race against time to save her mother’s life. The second book Student Bodies, hit stores in 2013. In 2014, he published The North, a gripping post-apocalyptic thriller for teens. To Catch a Cat Thief is Sean's first middle grade novel.
Sean lives in Saskatoon Canada with his wife, two lazy cats and a spotted dog named Stormageddon. You can learn more about Sean and his books at www.sean-cummings.ca.
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