By Kris Bock. “Gripping.” “A page turner.” “I couldn’t put it down.” Why do some books get this praise? Characters, plot, setting, and theme are all part of pacing. Compelling characters mean readers will care about them. Stakes that are high and vitally important to the main character help readers root for those characters to […]
Cat Writers' Association
Who are the Cat Writers’ Association? Nancy Peterson
An interview with CWA member and former President Nancy Peterson by Mollie Hunt. Who are the Cat Writers’ Association is a series of interviews with CWA members, but not your usual who, what, and where discussion. I like to ask a different set of questions and am always amazed by the answers. I hope you […]
How the Cat in the Blue Virus Mask Changed My Life
by Linda Wright It’s all his fault. His fault that my writing career took a 180 degree turn from “serious” Private Investigator (PI) novels, in which my cat-loving animal rights sleuth mends the world, to . . . cat silliness. One particularly miserable day in 2020, I was sure, as were many of us, that […]
How Joining the Cat Writers’ Association Started Me on My Publishing Path
By Debbie De Louise. As a child, I loved to read and write. I also loved my cats. My parents were animal lovers, so I grew up surrounded by pets, both dogs and cats. During my college years at LIU/Post where I studied English and then library and information science, I wrote a daily diary, […]
Global Pet Expo 2023 Report, Part 2
By Lynn Maria Thompson In Part 1 of this year’s GPE report, we explored new products from the Cat Writers’ Association’s sponsors. In this part, we’ll venture out into the broader world and look at some of the products we saw from other companies. There’s so much to see! While it’s been a few months […]
The Curse of Verse: The Top Ten Reasons Editors Hate Rhyme
by Lee Wardlaw “The apparent ease of Dr. Seuss’s verse and his mad-cap nonsense have inspired so many untalented poets to mimic him that editors cringe when they see a [rhyming] manuscript.” – Ellen E.M. Roberts, Editor If you’ve written a feline-inspired picture book or poem in rhyme, is it cursed to a life […]
Cat Writing in Multiple Genres
by Mollie Hunt Fiction? Non-fiction? Mystery, thriller, cozy? Sci-fi and fantasy? Children’s, YA, memoir, and poetry? If you look at the CWA Book Directory* you’ll see instantly that cat writing comes in all flavors. The booklist itself has fifteen categories for authors to choose from, and that’s not counting the vast selection of sub-categories. Those […]
How a Kitten Became My Muse
by Valerie Ramer As a kid growing up in the Bronx in the 1960’s with just my dad and sister, I felt like a misfit. “Where’s your mom?” kids would ask. I had no idea. She left the family when I was two years old. Everyone else seemed to have a mom, how come I […]
Why Every Author Needs to Work With a Professional Editor
By Ramona D. Marek, MS Ed. Background I grew up in a home of readers. We read everything from cereal boxes to Shakespeare. My mother was a writer and an academic editor for 40 years, so my siblings and I grew up writing; for us it was as normal as playing outside. While Mom checked […]
Q&A With CWA President Marci Kladnik
Have you met CWA president, Marci Kladnik? Here is a Q&A so you can get to know who is at the head of our association.