In conversation with 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 for each interview and am always amazed by the answers. I hope you are, too.
Our guest today on Who are the Cat Writers’ Association? is Amber Royer. Amber writes the Chocoverse comic telenovela-style, foodie-inspired space opera series, and the Bean to Bar Mysteries. Her workbook/textbook Story Like a Journalist and her Thoughtful Journal series allow her to connect with writers. Amber is repped by Jennie Goloboy of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. She holds a Master’s of Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas (UNT) and earned her undergraduate degree in English from Lamar University. She’s taught writing for UT Arlington Continuing Education (and others) since 2008 and lectured at sci-fi, mystery, and other writing conferences across the country.
Amber and her husband live in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area, where you can often find them at local coffee shops or hanging out with their pair of tuxedo cats, Addie and Sean. Be sure to check out Amber’s podcast, “Story Like a Journalist Radio,” on Spotify.
Part 1
About My Craft:
I write cozy mysteries and science fiction.
The Bean to Bar Mysteries feature a chocolate-maker sleuth who gets to hang out with a different companion animal in each book. In two of the books, those animals have been cats. One of them, Ruffles (first appearing in A Study in Chocolate), was modeled on my first tuxedo cat.
In my Chocoverse space opera trilogy, one of the fan favorite characters is an alien from a leopard-like humanoid species who is very cat-like in her behavior. She’s an alpha predator by nature, but in need of a close-knit community, and both a nurturer and a protector.
How Cats Inspire My Creativity:
I came across a quote on social media once (sadly, I don’t have the attribution) about how the author was frequently asked about how she could write such lovable villains. Her reply: She owns cats. That kind of resonated with me. Because yeah, your cat can be staring at you while she’s nudging your coffee mug off the counter, but 5 minutes later, she wants cuddles. She’s a complex little individual. Taking time to understand my cats definitely helps writing nuanced villains, but I think that complexity and inherent good-natured likeability you see in a cat can come into play with all types of characters.
One of my cats definitely thinks of himself as a protector and guardian of the house, and he’s quick to offer healing purrs when we’re sick or sad. Yet, he’s the one who cannot stop himself from eating random things he finds around the house (despite our best efforts) that aren’t food. Because nobody’s perfect — not even your story’s heroes.
My cats, both present and past, have inspired fictional cat characters, too. I love including real behaviors from my cats, or specific stories about things they have done, in stories. It is such a grounding element.
What I Enjoy About Belonging to the CWA:
It’s such a positive group of folks! I’ve been a part of several of the creative retreats, and everyone there, no matter whether they are writers, artists, or nonfiction creators, has a common thread to spark discussion and allow for an interchange of appreciation and encouragement, even of genres/forms that participants might not otherwise enjoy. Plus, I get to show off pics of my cats!
Part 2
Mollie: What is your favorite cat movie and why?
Amber: This is such a tough question, because several movies were very formative to me. I can’t count the number of times as a kid that I watched That Darn Cat! or The Three Lives of Thomasina. And there was a time when I could sing all the songs from The Aristocats.
Today, I think I will have to go with The Cat from Outer Space. Yes, I am fully aware it only has a 67% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the special effects are clearly from the 1970s. The entire plot revolves around a man helping an alien cat with a telepathic/telekinetic collar retrieve the element he needs to get his spaceship running again. It’s over-the-top cheeseball fun, and it knows it, giving itself the tagline, “Close encounters of the furred kind,” but Jake was such a self-assured cat character, and this film clearly laid some of the groundwork for later sci-fi involving both talking cats and crash-landed space ships. (For some reason, it feels most closely kindred to Resident Alien.) I would have seen it on VHS as a kid in the 1980s, and you can see some influence from it in my work.
Mollie: What crosses your mind when someone tells you they don’t like cats?
Amber: I think, You haven’t seen my cats. They’re the best!
But honestly, that person was probably introduced to cats in a negative way (as kids can get scratched, etc., if they approach a cat too quickly or try to grab it), or they haven’t been in a situation to really get to know a cat. I’ve had people tell me that cats don’t display affection for their owners, or that they are only interested in people because of food.
This is clearly untrue, but it is hard to explain to someone who has never spent time with a cat. Sometimes, all it takes is one positive encounter with a cat to change someone’s mind.
Mollie: Do you sing to cats? If so, what songs do you sing?
Amber: I thought I was the only one who did this. Yes, I make up silly songs about my cats, inserting their names or cat-related items into pop music, show tunes, even camp songs from when I was a kid. Sometimes I re-work the entire song. For example:
(To the tune of the camp song Wiener Man, which starts off, “I know a wiener man/he has a hotdog stand. . .”)
I have an Addie cat
What do you think of that?
She has ears just like a bat
She hears everything!
Her brother’s name is Sean
His tail is very long
He chases her all day long
’cause they love to play.
Hot dog, I love that Addie Cat! (And Seany, too!)
I try to make sure they each have songs, so if I play around with words for Sean:
To the tune of What’s Up, Pussycat?:
What’s up, Seany Cat? …
(And I have to boop) Your cute little Seany Cat nose!
Then I have to come up with something different for Addi.
To the tune of Copacabana (but much happier than the original!)
She’s an Addle. Addle Badadle!
The cutest cat south of Seattle.
She’s so cute! A cute patoot!
Mollie: Where are you sitting right now? From where you are, how many cat-themed objects can you see? How many cats?
Amber: I’m in my living room. I count nine cat-themed objects (not including toys belonging to the cats). There’s a cat-print blanket on my chair, a magnetic pair of mini-scissors on the fridge featuring a cat hiding behind a bunch of bananas, paw-shaped magnetic clips for holding paper, a mug hanger printed with cats so the hooks are their tails, and several cat mugs.
I can see two cats, and I am holding one of them as I type this. (Jake and I both work from home, and the cats both try to help. Addi, especially, wants to get on camera when I am recording the podcast or teaching a virtual class, and will parkour off the back of my chair or the bar behind me to get in the shot. She once wriggled under the setup I had used to elevate my laptop/webcam, and I had to keep talking and pretend my camera didn’t look like an earthquake was happening in my recording nook.)
Mollie: What’s the craziest thing your cat’s ever done?
Amber: Sean and Addie are crazy, but they’re not the craziest cats I’ve ever had. I had a cat that developed a bad habit of getting up onto the toilet seat to reach the toilet paper holder. She would shred entire rolls of toilet paper. We would try to dissuade her, but what stopped her was one day she slipped and fell in the toilet. She ran wet under the bed and never touched the toilet paper again.
Amber: Sean and Addie are crazy, but they’re not the craziest cats I’ve ever had. I had a cat that developed a bad habit of getting up onto the toilet seat to reach the toilet paper holder. She would shred entire rolls of toilet paper. We would try to dissuade her, but what stopped her was one day she slipped and fell in the toilet. She ran wet under the bed and never touched the toilet paper again.
Mollie: How would you identify your cat in a lineup?
Amber: It would be very difficult to pick out Sean or Addie, since sometimes I can’t even tell them apart from each other — especially when one of them is doing something the other generally gets in trouble for. They are both tuxedo cats from the same litter, so I like to call them twins. They do look a bit different in their faces. Addi has white hairs on her nose and forehead, so she looks like she pushed her face into the snow. Sean looks like he has a drop of milk hanging from his mouth.
But like most twins, their personalities couldn’t be more different. In a lineup, Addie would be the one hanging from the ceiling, a puffball in her mouth. (She actually loves to fetch.) Sean would be curled up asleep, with his favorite crinkle fish.
Mollie: Please give us the names and short descriptions of your cats.
Amber: Sean and Addie — both age 2 ½. They are siblings from the same litter as our colleague Dusty Rainbolt’s Wigglebutt. While Wigglebutt looks a bit like a Siamese, both of my guys are tuxedos. Addi’s my little girl cat, since she weighs only about 7 pounds. I think she missed a growth spurt when she was sick as a kitten. Sean’s almost twice her weight. Their markings are almost mirror images of each other, so from the back or across the room, I sometimes have trouble telling them apart. They both have gorgeous green eyes.
A note from Amber: Come visit www.amberroyer.com for puzzles based on my cats. (And stuff about my books and podcast while you’re there.)
About the Author:
Cat Writer Mollie Hunt is the award-winning author of two cozy series, the Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and the Tenth Life Mysteries. Her Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy features extraordinary cats saving the world. Mollie also released a cat-themed COVID memoir. In her spare time, she pens a bit of cat poetry as well.
Mollie is a member of the Oregon Writers’ Colony, Sisters in Crime, the Cat Writers’ Association, Willamette Writers, and Northwest Independent Writers Association (NIWA). She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and a varying number of cats.
Big thanks to Amber for letting us get to know her better!
Fantastic article, Mollie! Great to hear about your craft, Amber. I definitely get a sense of the characters’ complexity and good-natured likeability in your novels. Always good fun. Thanks for sharing about your muses. ~ Mewla