August 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Joining me for this episode is award winning author Cate Conte. Cate and I have a fun chat about her latest cozy, in the Cat Café Mystery Series, Claws Out. We discuss the characters, new real-life local and the murders in the mystery. Cate and I also discuss what it takes to write a mystery series, as well as writing different genres. Of course, as usual, we discuss the importance and reward of rescue animals and organizations. Have a listen to one of the best, Cate Conte. Enjoy!
EPISODE NOTES: Cate Conte - Claws Out
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EPISODE NOTES: Cate Conte - Claws Out
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/animal-writes-animal-writers-and-best-selling-authors-pets-animals--6666984/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Let's talk pets.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Animal Rights on at Life Radio. It's your host,
Tim Link and I'm so glad you're joining us today.
Super duper excited. Got one of my favorites on. It's
been a minute or two we're talking Offline's like, oh
my god, time flies. So yes, what my mom and
dad used to say is true. But we're so glad
to have her back. We got Kate Kantak coming back
(00:27):
on the show. You know, we're gonna talk to Kate
about her latest book, Claws Out. Of course, it's part
of the Cat Cafe mystery series, so we want to
see what the ins and outs are without giving it
all away. See who maybe some existing characters, we know,
some new characters on board. And then of course we
won't let Kate off the hook without telling her how
(00:48):
she masters her craft of writing. So it's gonna be
a great show, a lot of fun. So everybody hang tight.
We'll come back and write off this commercial break. You're
listening to Animal Rights on pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
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(01:27):
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Speaker 1 (01:40):
Let's talk pets on cetlife Radio dot com. Welcome back
to Animal Lights on pet Life Radio. You know what
I mean now is award winning author and the release
of the new book Clause Out. Of course we're talking
to Kate Kante. Kate, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Hi, Fin, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
We're super duper excited to have you back on and
super excited for the latest book, Claws Out or the
Cat Cafe mystery series. So tell us a little bit
about this particular book and yeah, give us the highlights.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, this book was a fun one to write. So
I decided that the gang had to get off the
island because you know, in true cabitcoat fashion, there were
a lot of dead people in a very small amount
of square footage. So Maddie ended up getting gifted a mobile, well,
a food truck, that they turned into a mobile cat
cafe slash food cafe, and so they take this truck
(02:37):
off the island and they go to the Provincetown Cat
Literary Festival, where of course murder and mayhem and Sue
and a famous author is murdered and all kinds of
problems arise.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I love that, you know, and whether we're on the
island or off the island, if your famous person don't
go yep, one hundred percent. Oh my goodness. So tell
us a little bit about how this book maybe is
a little bit different in or how they tie into
the rest of the Cat Cafe mystery series. How do
we go out doing that?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, so it's a little different, but you know, it's
still the same people. We've just got a limited amount
of the normal crew. Mattie's entire family ended up coming
for the trip, and of course Lucas, her boyfriend, and
some of the shelter people, so Adele and Harry, who
end up being big parts of the mystery. So you know,
you're still going to see a lot of the same characters.
(03:27):
They're just not going to be in their usual place
and they're meeting a whole bunch of new, new friends
that you know are going to become part of the
story as well this time.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Good and maybe even become part of the casualties possibly,
you know, you never know, never know, never know, you
never want to get. It's great to be friends with
your main character, but it's also forewarn if you know
read in advance, you never know.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, she's always worried that her boyfriend's going to start
wondering like, hmm, should I actually be dating this girl?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, I'll just leave it dad, the audience decide that.
So when putting together this particular part of the series,
this particular book claws out picking your brain on that
and tying it into a whole series, how do you
determine what the next steps are? I mean, are you
that far in advance where you're saying, okay, I already
got the next two or three books because I have
an idea where I want my main characters to go.
(04:19):
Or is it something that pops up in your mindset
or in today's society and newspapers. Newspapers I'm dating myself
are and.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I'm little I'm a newspaper girl too. No, it's interesting.
So this book was the last one on the contract
that I had currently, I did get a contract for
two more, so more books are coming, so don't worry.
But this was the last one. So it was a
three book contract, which has has been routinely what my
contracts have been. So I have been planning out the
(04:48):
books in kind of that three book arc. Right, it's
related to the characters and their arcs and what they're doing.
And so for this one, I you know, I didn't
really I honestly didn't think that they weren't going to
renew the contract. So I did write this book as
if it was going to be, you know, a potential
end of a series. So that's something that we have
to think about as we're getting to the end of
a contract. So do we write two endings? You know,
(05:09):
one of the series keeps going and one of it doesn't.
Do we leave it ambiguous enough that, you know, we
can maybe go in and make a few edits if
it doesn't and we have to close the loop on things.
I actually didn't, honestly didn't give that a thought when
I was writing this one. I wanted them to go
on a new adventure. I still had a lot of
ideas for what Maddie and her crew could get up
to so you know, I was hopeful, and it looks
(05:31):
like the publisher also felt that way. So there's more
books coming, so I didn't have to worry about wrapping
it up so much. I did wrap up one storyline.
It was related to a secondary character, one of Maddie's
family members, had a storyline that was running through the
last couple of books, So that gets wrapped up in
this one.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's fascinating. I picking your brain on that, because you know,
I have talked to obviously numerous authors, and a lot
of times when there is say a series, a three
book deal is usually the normal way of going. But
I never after all these I've been doing this show.
I started when I was very young, of course, but
all the years I've been doing this show, I never
even thought about that, and the fact that, hey, you know,
(06:09):
as a writer, do I just assume that contract ends
and maybe they'll buy a new series of mine or something,
or do like you said, do I write two endings
that could go either way? So if they do re
up me for another one, two, three more, I've got
it in the can ready to go. So I think
it's very fascinating to know that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
It's you know, you got to think about these things, right,
because if I don't think a lot of readers understand
that we don't have the say, oh, you know, unless
we're independently published, we don't have the say over whether
a series is going to continue or not. And I've
seen in you know, multiple social media threads readers expressing
real dismay that you know, their series ended, their favorite
series ended, and they didn't feel like they got resolution,
(06:51):
and almost you know, seeming like they were angry at
the author for doing that. And we have to kind
of go in there and say, hey, if it was
up to us, we'd keep going forever. But it's not
up to us, and we don't always have the notice
right to you know, plan for that.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, And there's so many things as an author that
you go through because you know it is in the
publishers slash editor's hands on what they want to do.
They don't often let you know well in advance so
you can prep for it for that to happen. And
also how do you handle that situation because you know,
you don't want to go killing off the main character
(07:25):
and we know we never kill off animals andless kids
that's a no no in all circles and all rounds.
But the main character, you know, or even a secondary character,
you don't want to just our literuily say okay, I
need to wrap them up, unless this is the uh
science fiction or horror book that we're dealing with where
they always come back to life. But in this case,
that's not true for this type of mystery, right.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So yeah, with a cozy, you know, people want to
know at the end of the day. People. I think
greet cozy is because at the end of every book,
they want to know that even if they're reading about
this you know, murder and this crime and this terrible
thing that happened, that they're going to get justice and
they're going to get a nice, happy ending tied up
in a boat and you know it's ten x for
the series. They want to know if their series is
ending that all these people are okay, justice and order
(08:10):
has been restored to town and everyone's good and they're
you know, writing off into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I love that, and I love that terminology. Explain that
to the audience a little bit more. I'm not saying
they're naive to it, but a cozy, you know, I
don't hear that very often, especially when we're talking about
series of books, mystery series of books. But your books are,
you know, really cozies. Explain that a little bit to us.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, that's what they call them so cozy. It's a
you know, it's a subgenre of the mystery genre. And
they're really just books that are there's no less of
a crime involved, there's no less of a puzzle or
a murder involved. They're just you know, you're not going
to find a lot of gore on the page in
a cozy. Usually, well most ninety nine and a half
percent of the time. I don't think I've ever seen
(08:53):
a cozy that didn't have any amateur slut solving the mystery.
They take place in small communities, so whether that be
an actual small time or a small community within a
larger town. And you know, again, the whole premise is
that justice is going to be restored. So you're not
going to get one of these really sad endings or
these really ambiguous endings related to the crime itself, because
that's just the deal that cozy writers and readers have together.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Nice nice So putting together this particular book is part
of the series. Did you purposely go in to write Okay,
here's the consistency, here's how I saw written the previous two,
here's how I've written the characters. Did you follow that
sort of script moving forward or was it something that
was there a new twister or a new thought you had,
because obviously you've been writing these for a little while now,
(09:40):
and you started very very young of course too like me.
How'd you go about doing that? And is there some
difference in this particular one or can everybody expect the
sort of the same flow with similar characters and things.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, I mean, you know, again, it's a little different
because they're not in their typical space, but the soul
of the books and the series it has not changed
at all. Right, So Maddie and Grandpa are still doing
the investigating, there's still a lot of family involvement. There's still,
you know, a lot of things happening that you would
expect to see on Daybreak Island itself. There's still a
ton of animals involved, so Jj of course comes off
(10:16):
island with them, as do some of the cafe cats
because they're coming in the mobile truck. So you still
get the animal expertise going on in there, and then
the plot itself is centered around a cat literary festival,
so you know, cats are still at the heart of things,
rescue is still at the heart of it. The organizers
are a fundraising organization. The organizers of the lit festival
(10:38):
are a fundraising organization as well as authors that write
about cats, so you know, the heart of the series
remains the same. But I just thought it would be
fun to get them into a different location and doing
some different things. And this time I took them to
a real town, so I had to be a little
bit more diligent about, you know, making sure that everything
made sense and that I'm actually going to Provincetown this
week for a visit after a horse in the book.
(11:00):
But I haven't been there in a long time, so
I'm like, wow, I hope, I I hope I don't
screw up the you know, streets and the landmarks. And
so I have a friend who goes all the time
kind of walk me through, like Okay, this is still
here and this works over here, and you know, it's
hard working with a real place. I haven't done that ever,
just as it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah. Yeah, Because the other books are you know, I
guess I viewed them as sort of a real place.
You know, it is like not real, but based on
something that's real. And and I've always loved your writing
in the fact that you know, you have the main
characters that we know and love, and obviously there's tons
of animals involved, but each one of them seems to
have a voice and a purpose for being here. It's
(11:41):
just not you know, arbitrarily. Okay, we got our we
got our leave, we got Grandpa there, we got the
boyfriend and a dog, and okay, let's throw out some
other animals in hereby I'll be happy. They all seem
to have a purpose or a reason for being in
that particular conversation at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, and JJ. You know, I don't know if I
ever told you the story about Jay, the real JJ,
but so JJ in the book is based on a
cat that I had. He was a rescue His real
name was Junkyard Johnny. He was rescued from a junk
yard in New Hampshire, and he was just the chunky
orange cat. You know, I love I'm a sucker for
orange cats, so I knew he had to be the
you know, the mascot of the books. But yeah, the
(12:18):
way that Matty even found JJ in the very first
book at her grandmother's grave was meaningful, right, And you know,
I've always wanted to I've always wanted the books to
be meaningful in the sense of really focusing on rescue,
focusing on you know, what rescuers actually go through, and
focusing on the animals themselves and how they have to
live until they're rescued and what that means as a cause. Right.
(12:42):
I think people sometimes think, oh, the cute cats in
the cafe, but nine times out of ten, again, I
don't know of any cat cafes that aren't tied to
an actual rescue. So there's, like you said, a meaning
and a purpose behind it.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
That's right, That's right, And I love that. I love
the aspect of it. And I will say I'm a
sucker for orange cats. To my story about my orange
boy Charles is he showed up one day as I
thought he was a Farrell, but he just was the
town greeter for all the females, We'll just put it
that way. And so I started giving Charles, the big
orange cat, a little morsels, a little food. Next thing,
(13:16):
I know, he brings us three females with him, and
then a week later we have about nine kittens and
me will say, yeah, thirteen cats later, all trapped, neutered
and released, and they all started to stay at the house.
So I love those orange boys. We gotta be careful
for them, their rascals.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, but thank you for fixing them. That's lovely.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolutely do that neutering and Spain take care of those
animals for sure. Yep, everyboddy hangti. We're gonna come back.
Wrap this commercial break, we'll continure conversation with award winning
author Kate Kante. Talk to her a little bit more
about her book, Claws Out, and then I want to
pick her brain even further about writing. Yeah, it's she
a five thirty am girl every morning writing ten thousand words.
(14:00):
Everybody hangtight. We'll find at rafter this commercial break. You're
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Speaker 4 (15:05):
Let's talk past, Let's contalk about life.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Radio headline Radio atlive radio dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And welcome back to Animal Lights on pet Life Radio.
Tenure conversation with award winning author Kate Kante or Lady's
book Claws Out. So Kate, when people get a copy
of the book, cozy up with it and read straight
through because they're going to be fantastic. What do you
hope people walk away from when reading this particular book
or reading this series.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yeah, I mean to go back to the rescue piece
that we were just talking about. I'm so passionate about that,
and I really want people to First, I want them
to enjoy the book. I want them to be entertained.
I want them to enjoy going back to visit friends
that they have made, hopefully over the series and you know,
catching up on their lives and going on a new
adventure with them. And I also hope they can take
away some tidbits about rescue and like I said about,
(15:58):
you know, how rescuers were, what it means to actually
do animal rescue, because sometimes it looks really fun and
easy on the outside, but it is not. I mean,
it's fun always, but it's not easy, right, That's all right,
And to just you know, maybe think a minute before
looking somewhere other than a shelter for a pet.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Absolutely, there's all kinds of fantastic animals out there of
all types, cats, dogs, and the plethora that can be
found at your local rescues. And yeah, it's very rewarding.
As a former president of a humane society, I know
that it's very rewarding. And I still am heavily evolved
in animal rescue, but you know, it's a lot of
(16:38):
tear jerking and heartache as well, but that goes along
with all the love. And I always encourage people with
rescues to get involved with your local rescues at a
grassroots level and offer whatever you can. It could be
anything from petting and brushing the animals to if your
skill set is website development, they need those type of
(16:58):
people too, or fundraise or et cetera, et cetera. So
definitely reach out to your local rescusing and get involved.
You'll be glad you did.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
So let's talk a little bit about writing in general.
I put a teaser out there. Are you in fact
the five thirty am the alarm goes off and I
was going to say, pen and pencil. I'm really dating
myself on this show. Computer in hand, ready to go
doing those ten thousand words or is it more of
a hopefully you're not like me and wait till a
few weeks before deadline and then say, oh no, I
(17:27):
gotta go get it going.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I've had my deadline challenges, believe me. I think every
writer has. But you know I usually don't wait till
three weeks before the book is due to start writing
the book. That would be a scrups.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Very smart, very smart, smarter than I am.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
But I'm not a five thirty in the morning girl.
I do get up pretty early. I have a morning
routine that I do, and but part of that routine
is I leave my laptop on the floor next to
my bed. I know, when I was supposed to have
laptops in the bedroom and all that, but for me,
it's easier to just reach down and pick the laptop
up and start writing instead of having a walk into
my office get the computer. I mean, then you could
(18:02):
just easily say, oh, I'll do it later, right, So
I have to trick myself into, you know, being able
to do things very easily. So I do try to
write in the morning. I have at least an hour
blocked off before I take the dogs for a walk.
I wish I could do ten thousand words in an hour.
That would be amazing and I would probably have the
book done in like a month, but unfortunately no. But
(18:22):
I do try to shoot for like a thousand words
a day. And you know, it's different for every writer.
Some some people don't do word count. It depends on
where I am in the book really, so when I'm drafting,
I try to shoot for a thousand words a day
just to kind of keep myself in the story.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Nice. I like that. Yeah, And it is different for
every author, you know. I don't know if I've ever
heard the one you put the put the laptop or
the pad where you'll trip on it in the morning
so you can get the story of it. That's a first.
So you're unique as usual on that. But there's no
set reasoning or way of going back doing that. And
that's why I always like picking the brains of the
(18:57):
professionals out there, because there's no right or wrong as
long as you get it you know, in there and
get it published. That's the key behind it, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I say that to a lot of writers that I
work with, like, you know, don't worry, but I'll tell
you how I do it, but don't worry about doing
it like I do it. If that does work for you,
right here a thousand different examples, if you talked to
with a thousand different.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Writers exactly, Yeah, everything from you know, there are some
authors that I talk to and work with that you know,
they storyboard everything out before they even start, which is
great if you can do that, and others are you know,
per you know X number of words, they're going to
stick to it. Some will say they never watch what
they're typing, worry about the editing later, which I find
(19:38):
extremely difficult to do. And so there's no real ride
wrong reason too. It just got to do it. That's
the key thing behind it.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yep. Consistency and just showing up even if you know,
and also taking the time to think and to brainstorm
about your work. Right a lot of people, and I
do this myself, so I'll speak for myself. I get
hung up on the oh my god, I didn't write
X amount of words today. No, but I spent you know,
forty five minutes thinking through my plot and planning out
some scenes that I was missing or whatever. It is
(20:06):
right to help me tomorrow when I pick up the
computer to go faster and be able to get more done. So, yeah,
it's not always just putting words on the page. If
you're thinking about it or daydreaming about it, it's still.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Writing, absolutely absolutely, and there's always the research that goes
behind it too. Like you and just mentioned, you know,
you're going to a real place you know, which you've
had to sort of still keep it sort of a
fictitious place but a real tan. So you have to
get all the uh, you know, the information correct too,
So it's not as easy as just you know, Wikipedia,
(20:38):
how I wus down is you got to put a
little bit more effort into it there, for sure. So
as a writer, whether it's a first time writer that's
out there or even a season pro that maybe has
taken on a different type of genre or whatever it
may be, any sage advice outside of do what works
for you.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I mean, I think if you're tackling a different genre
or if you're a new writer, you know, you have
to come to it with the beginner's mindset. Right, It's
not going to be and I'm saying this perfection thing
because this has been my issue for so long. You
can't come to it with a perfectionist mindset. You have
to come to it with a beginner's mindset. You have
to know that the first draft that you put down
is going to be probably crap, but then you have
(21:18):
something to work with so you can get hung up
on oh my god, my first chapter isn't perfect, and
never write any farther than that, or you can brain
dump a bunch of crap and then go back and
use it as a canvas and make it sound great. So,
you know, I'm working on a different type of book
right now. That's different for me. I haven't written a
book like this in a long time, and so I
have to remind myself it's not going to be great
(21:38):
right out of the gate. You're going to have to
do a few drafts of this thing before it takes
any kind of shape at all. So just get the
story down and stop worrying about it.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I love it, and I love how you phrase it.
So brain dump crap? Is that the professional terminology?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
That's my professional terminology.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yet there you go. But you put it on a canvas.
You know, it makes it nice. You know, it's like
Picasso or something. So it works out. Well, that's fantastic. Well, Kate,
where can people find out more about you? What's going on,
where you'll be, where we can get the book?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So on and so yeah, So Kateconti dot com. You
can find me there and you'll find links on the
website to my podcast, my substack, all the books, all the.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Things, fantastic, serverybody go to Kateconte dot com. We'll make
sure we get that posted. Pick up a copy of
Claws Out, and while you're there, pick up the rest
of the Cat Cafe mystery series. You're going to enjoy it.
It's a nice, fun, interesting mystery series with all kinds
of animals, and it's a nice cozy too, so it
works out for everybody. So pick up a copy of
(22:37):
the book. Yeah, so thanks for coming on the show
and all look forward to chatting with you some more
down the road.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Well, we're coming to the end the show today. I
want to thank everyone for listening to Animal Lights on
pet Life Radio. I want to thank the producers and
sponsors for making this show possible. Do you have any questions, comments,
or ideas for the show, drop us a line at
petlife radio dot com. We'll be glad to answer your questions,
entertain your comments, and bring on the people you want
to hear from. Most. While you were there, check out
(23:04):
all the other wonderful posts and shows on petlife radio
dot com. It's a chronic coopia of barking fun. So
until next time, write a great story about the animals
in your life, and who knows You may be the
next guest on animal rights on pet Life Radio. Have
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This is pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Let's talk pets.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Animal Rights on at Life Radio. It's your host,
Tim Link and I'm so glad you're joining us today.
Super duper excited. Got one of my favorites on. It's
been a minute or two we're talking Offline's like, oh
my god, time flies. So yes, what my mom and
dad used to say is true. But we're so glad
to have her back. We got Kate Kantak coming back
(00:27):
on the show. You know, we're gonna talk to Kate
about her latest book, Claws Out. Of course, it's part
of the Cat Cafe mystery series, so we want to
see what the ins and outs are without giving it
all away. See who maybe some existing characters, we know,
some new characters on board. And then of course we
won't let Kate off the hook without telling her how
(00:48):
she masters her craft of writing. So it's gonna be
a great show, a lot of fun. So everybody hang tight.
We'll come back and write off this commercial break. You're
listening to Animal Rights on pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
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if you can give them one more? But give them ten?
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(01:27):
about the benefits of spee and neoter and meet Scooter,
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give them ten dot org.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Let's talk pets on cetlife Radio dot com. Welcome back
to Animal Lights on pet Life Radio. You know what
I mean now is award winning author and the release
of the new book Clause Out. Of course we're talking
to Kate Kante. Kate, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Hi, Fin, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
We're super duper excited to have you back on and
super excited for the latest book, Claws Out or the
Cat Cafe mystery series. So tell us a little bit
about this particular book and yeah, give us the highlights.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, this book was a fun one to write. So
I decided that the gang had to get off the
island because you know, in true cabitcoat fashion, there were
a lot of dead people in a very small amount
of square footage. So Maddie ended up getting gifted a mobile, well,
a food truck, that they turned into a mobile cat
cafe slash food cafe, and so they take this truck
(02:37):
off the island and they go to the Provincetown Cat
Literary Festival, where of course murder and mayhem and Sue
and a famous author is murdered and all kinds of
problems arise.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I love that, you know, and whether we're on the
island or off the island, if your famous person don't
go yep, one hundred percent. Oh my goodness. So tell
us a little bit about how this book maybe is
a little bit different in or how they tie into
the rest of the Cat Cafe mystery series. How do
we go out doing that?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, so it's a little different, but you know, it's
still the same people. We've just got a limited amount
of the normal crew. Mattie's entire family ended up coming
for the trip, and of course Lucas, her boyfriend, and
some of the shelter people, so Adele and Harry, who
end up being big parts of the mystery. So you know,
you're still going to see a lot of the same characters.
(03:27):
They're just not going to be in their usual place
and they're meeting a whole bunch of new, new friends
that you know are going to become part of the
story as well this time.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Good and maybe even become part of the casualties possibly,
you know, you never know, never know, never know, you
never want to get. It's great to be friends with
your main character, but it's also forewarn if you know
read in advance, you never know.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, she's always worried that her boyfriend's going to start
wondering like, hmm, should I actually be dating this girl?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, I'll just leave it dad, the audience decide that.
So when putting together this particular part of the series,
this particular book claws out picking your brain on that
and tying it into a whole series, how do you
determine what the next steps are? I mean, are you
that far in advance where you're saying, okay, I already
got the next two or three books because I have
an idea where I want my main characters to go.
(04:19):
Or is it something that pops up in your mindset
or in today's society and newspapers. Newspapers I'm dating myself
are and.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I'm little I'm a newspaper girl too. No, it's interesting.
So this book was the last one on the contract
that I had currently, I did get a contract for
two more, so more books are coming, so don't worry.
But this was the last one. So it was a
three book contract, which has has been routinely what my
contracts have been. So I have been planning out the
(04:48):
books in kind of that three book arc. Right, it's
related to the characters and their arcs and what they're doing.
And so for this one, I you know, I didn't
really I honestly didn't think that they weren't going to
renew the contract. So I did write this book as
if it was going to be, you know, a potential
end of a series. So that's something that we have
to think about as we're getting to the end of
a contract. So do we write two endings? You know,
(05:09):
one of the series keeps going and one of it doesn't.
Do we leave it ambiguous enough that, you know, we
can maybe go in and make a few edits if
it doesn't and we have to close the loop on things.
I actually didn't, honestly didn't give that a thought when
I was writing this one. I wanted them to go
on a new adventure. I still had a lot of
ideas for what Maddie and her crew could get up
to so you know, I was hopeful, and it looks
(05:31):
like the publisher also felt that way. So there's more
books coming, so I didn't have to worry about wrapping
it up so much. I did wrap up one storyline.
It was related to a secondary character, one of Maddie's
family members, had a storyline that was running through the
last couple of books, So that gets wrapped up in
this one.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's fascinating. I picking your brain on that, because you know,
I have talked to obviously numerous authors, and a lot
of times when there is say a series, a three
book deal is usually the normal way of going. But
I never after all these I've been doing this show.
I started when I was very young, of course, but
all the years I've been doing this show, I never
even thought about that, and the fact that, hey, you know,
(06:09):
as a writer, do I just assume that contract ends
and maybe they'll buy a new series of mine or something,
or do like you said, do I write two endings
that could go either way? So if they do re
up me for another one, two, three more, I've got
it in the can ready to go. So I think
it's very fascinating to know that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
It's you know, you got to think about these things, right,
because if I don't think a lot of readers understand
that we don't have the say, oh, you know, unless
we're independently published, we don't have the say over whether
a series is going to continue or not. And I've
seen in you know, multiple social media threads readers expressing
real dismay that you know, their series ended, their favorite
series ended, and they didn't feel like they got resolution,
(06:51):
and almost you know, seeming like they were angry at
the author for doing that. And we have to kind
of go in there and say, hey, if it was
up to us, we'd keep going forever. But it's not
up to us, and we don't always have the notice
right to you know, plan for that.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, And there's so many things as an author that
you go through because you know it is in the
publishers slash editor's hands on what they want to do.
They don't often let you know well in advance so
you can prep for it for that to happen. And
also how do you handle that situation because you know,
you don't want to go killing off the main character
(07:25):
and we know we never kill off animals andless kids
that's a no no in all circles and all rounds.
But the main character, you know, or even a secondary character,
you don't want to just our literuily say okay, I
need to wrap them up, unless this is the uh
science fiction or horror book that we're dealing with where
they always come back to life. But in this case,
that's not true for this type of mystery, right.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So yeah, with a cozy, you know, people want to
know at the end of the day. People. I think
greet cozy is because at the end of every book,
they want to know that even if they're reading about
this you know, murder and this crime and this terrible
thing that happened, that they're going to get justice and
they're going to get a nice, happy ending tied up
in a boat and you know it's ten x for
the series. They want to know if their series is
ending that all these people are okay, justice and order
(08:10):
has been restored to town and everyone's good and they're
you know, writing off into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I love that, and I love that terminology. Explain that
to the audience a little bit more. I'm not saying
they're naive to it, but a cozy, you know, I
don't hear that very often, especially when we're talking about
series of books, mystery series of books. But your books are,
you know, really cozies. Explain that a little bit to us.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, that's what they call them so cozy. It's a
you know, it's a subgenre of the mystery genre. And
they're really just books that are there's no less of
a crime involved, there's no less of a puzzle or
a murder involved. They're just you know, you're not going
to find a lot of gore on the page in
a cozy. Usually, well most ninety nine and a half
percent of the time. I don't think I've ever seen
(08:53):
a cozy that didn't have any amateur slut solving the mystery.
They take place in small communities, so whether that be
an actual small time or a small community within a
larger town. And you know, again, the whole premise is
that justice is going to be restored. So you're not
going to get one of these really sad endings or
these really ambiguous endings related to the crime itself, because
that's just the deal that cozy writers and readers have together.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Nice nice So putting together this particular book is part
of the series. Did you purposely go in to write Okay,
here's the consistency, here's how I saw written the previous two,
here's how I've written the characters. Did you follow that
sort of script moving forward or was it something that
was there a new twister or a new thought you had,
because obviously you've been writing these for a little while now,
(09:40):
and you started very very young of course too like me.
How'd you go about doing that? And is there some
difference in this particular one or can everybody expect the
sort of the same flow with similar characters and things.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, I mean, you know, again, it's a little different
because they're not in their typical space, but the soul
of the books and the series it has not changed
at all. Right, So Maddie and Grandpa are still doing
the investigating, there's still a lot of family involvement. There's still,
you know, a lot of things happening that you would
expect to see on Daybreak Island itself. There's still a
ton of animals involved, so Jj of course comes off
(10:16):
island with them, as do some of the cafe cats
because they're coming in the mobile truck. So you still
get the animal expertise going on in there, and then
the plot itself is centered around a cat literary festival,
so you know, cats are still at the heart of things,
rescue is still at the heart of it. The organizers
are a fundraising organization. The organizers of the lit festival
(10:38):
are a fundraising organization as well as authors that write
about cats, so you know, the heart of the series
remains the same. But I just thought it would be
fun to get them into a different location and doing
some different things. And this time I took them to
a real town, so I had to be a little
bit more diligent about, you know, making sure that everything
made sense and that I'm actually going to Provincetown this
week for a visit after a horse in the book.
(11:00):
But I haven't been there in a long time, so
I'm like, wow, I hope, I I hope I don't
screw up the you know, streets and the landmarks. And
so I have a friend who goes all the time
kind of walk me through, like Okay, this is still
here and this works over here, and you know, it's
hard working with a real place. I haven't done that ever,
just as it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah. Yeah, Because the other books are you know, I
guess I viewed them as sort of a real place.
You know, it is like not real, but based on
something that's real. And and I've always loved your writing
in the fact that you know, you have the main
characters that we know and love, and obviously there's tons
of animals involved, but each one of them seems to
have a voice and a purpose for being here. It's
(11:41):
just not you know, arbitrarily. Okay, we got our we
got our leave, we got Grandpa there, we got the
boyfriend and a dog, and okay, let's throw out some
other animals in hereby I'll be happy. They all seem
to have a purpose or a reason for being in
that particular conversation at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, and JJ. You know, I don't know if I
ever told you the story about Jay, the real JJ,
but so JJ in the book is based on a
cat that I had. He was a rescue His real
name was Junkyard Johnny. He was rescued from a junk
yard in New Hampshire, and he was just the chunky
orange cat. You know, I love I'm a sucker for
orange cats, so I knew he had to be the
you know, the mascot of the books. But yeah, the
(12:18):
way that Matty even found JJ in the very first
book at her grandmother's grave was meaningful, right, And you know,
I've always wanted to I've always wanted the books to
be meaningful in the sense of really focusing on rescue,
focusing on you know, what rescuers actually go through, and
focusing on the animals themselves and how they have to
live until they're rescued and what that means as a cause. Right.
(12:42):
I think people sometimes think, oh, the cute cats in
the cafe, but nine times out of ten, again, I
don't know of any cat cafes that aren't tied to
an actual rescue. So there's, like you said, a meaning
and a purpose behind it.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
That's right, That's right, And I love that. I love
the aspect of it. And I will say I'm a
sucker for orange cats. To my story about my orange
boy Charles is he showed up one day as I
thought he was a Farrell, but he just was the
town greeter for all the females, We'll just put it
that way. And so I started giving Charles, the big
orange cat, a little morsels, a little food. Next thing,
(13:16):
I know, he brings us three females with him, and
then a week later we have about nine kittens and
me will say, yeah, thirteen cats later, all trapped, neutered
and released, and they all started to stay at the house.
So I love those orange boys. We gotta be careful
for them, their rascals.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, but thank you for fixing them. That's lovely.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolutely do that neutering and Spain take care of those
animals for sure. Yep, everyboddy hangti. We're gonna come back.
Wrap this commercial break, we'll continure conversation with award winning
author Kate Kante. Talk to her a little bit more
about her book, Claws Out, and then I want to
pick her brain even further about writing. Yeah, it's she
a five thirty am girl every morning writing ten thousand words.
(14:00):
Everybody hangtight. We'll find at rafter this commercial break. You're
listening to animal rights on at Life Radio.
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Speaker 4 (15:05):
Let's talk past, Let's contalk about life.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Radio headline Radio atlive radio dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And welcome back to Animal Lights on pet Life Radio.
Tenure conversation with award winning author Kate Kante or Lady's
book Claws Out. So Kate, when people get a copy
of the book, cozy up with it and read straight
through because they're going to be fantastic. What do you
hope people walk away from when reading this particular book
or reading this series.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yeah, I mean to go back to the rescue piece
that we were just talking about. I'm so passionate about that,
and I really want people to First, I want them
to enjoy the book. I want them to be entertained.
I want them to enjoy going back to visit friends
that they have made, hopefully over the series and you know,
catching up on their lives and going on a new
adventure with them. And I also hope they can take
away some tidbits about rescue and like I said about,
(15:58):
you know, how rescuers were, what it means to actually
do animal rescue, because sometimes it looks really fun and
easy on the outside, but it is not. I mean,
it's fun always, but it's not easy, right, That's all right,
And to just you know, maybe think a minute before
looking somewhere other than a shelter for a pet.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Absolutely, there's all kinds of fantastic animals out there of
all types, cats, dogs, and the plethora that can be
found at your local rescues. And yeah, it's very rewarding.
As a former president of a humane society, I know
that it's very rewarding. And I still am heavily evolved
in animal rescue, but you know, it's a lot of
(16:38):
tear jerking and heartache as well, but that goes along
with all the love. And I always encourage people with
rescues to get involved with your local rescues at a
grassroots level and offer whatever you can. It could be
anything from petting and brushing the animals to if your
skill set is website development, they need those type of
(16:58):
people too, or fundraise or et cetera, et cetera. So
definitely reach out to your local rescusing and get involved.
You'll be glad you did.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
So let's talk a little bit about writing in general.
I put a teaser out there. Are you in fact
the five thirty am the alarm goes off and I
was going to say, pen and pencil. I'm really dating
myself on this show. Computer in hand, ready to go
doing those ten thousand words or is it more of
a hopefully you're not like me and wait till a
few weeks before deadline and then say, oh no, I
(17:27):
gotta go get it going.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I've had my deadline challenges, believe me. I think every
writer has. But you know I usually don't wait till
three weeks before the book is due to start writing
the book. That would be a scrups.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Very smart, very smart, smarter than I am.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
But I'm not a five thirty in the morning girl.
I do get up pretty early. I have a morning
routine that I do, and but part of that routine
is I leave my laptop on the floor next to
my bed. I know, when I was supposed to have
laptops in the bedroom and all that, but for me,
it's easier to just reach down and pick the laptop
up and start writing instead of having a walk into
my office get the computer. I mean, then you could
(18:02):
just easily say, oh, I'll do it later, right, So
I have to trick myself into, you know, being able
to do things very easily. So I do try to
write in the morning. I have at least an hour
blocked off before I take the dogs for a walk.
I wish I could do ten thousand words in an hour.
That would be amazing and I would probably have the
book done in like a month, but unfortunately no. But
(18:22):
I do try to shoot for like a thousand words
a day. And you know, it's different for every writer.
Some some people don't do word count. It depends on
where I am in the book really, so when I'm drafting,
I try to shoot for a thousand words a day
just to kind of keep myself in the story.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Nice. I like that. Yeah, And it is different for
every author, you know. I don't know if I've ever
heard the one you put the put the laptop or
the pad where you'll trip on it in the morning
so you can get the story of it. That's a first.
So you're unique as usual on that. But there's no
set reasoning or way of going back doing that. And
that's why I always like picking the brains of the
(18:57):
professionals out there, because there's no right or wrong as
long as you get it you know, in there and
get it published. That's the key behind it, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I say that to a lot of writers that I
work with, like, you know, don't worry, but I'll tell
you how I do it, but don't worry about doing
it like I do it. If that does work for you,
right here a thousand different examples, if you talked to
with a thousand different.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Writers exactly, Yeah, everything from you know, there are some
authors that I talk to and work with that you know,
they storyboard everything out before they even start, which is
great if you can do that, and others are you know,
per you know X number of words, they're going to
stick to it. Some will say they never watch what
they're typing, worry about the editing later, which I find
(19:38):
extremely difficult to do. And so there's no real ride
wrong reason too. It just got to do it. That's
the key thing behind it.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yep. Consistency and just showing up even if you know,
and also taking the time to think and to brainstorm
about your work. Right a lot of people, and I
do this myself, so I'll speak for myself. I get
hung up on the oh my god, I didn't write
X amount of words today. No, but I spent you know,
forty five minutes thinking through my plot and planning out
some scenes that I was missing or whatever. It is
(20:06):
right to help me tomorrow when I pick up the
computer to go faster and be able to get more done. So, yeah,
it's not always just putting words on the page. If
you're thinking about it or daydreaming about it, it's still.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Writing, absolutely absolutely, and there's always the research that goes
behind it too. Like you and just mentioned, you know,
you're going to a real place you know, which you've
had to sort of still keep it sort of a
fictitious place but a real tan. So you have to
get all the uh, you know, the information correct too,
So it's not as easy as just you know, Wikipedia,
(20:38):
how I wus down is you got to put a
little bit more effort into it there, for sure. So
as a writer, whether it's a first time writer that's
out there or even a season pro that maybe has
taken on a different type of genre or whatever it
may be, any sage advice outside of do what works
for you.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I mean, I think if you're tackling a different genre
or if you're a new writer, you know, you have
to come to it with the beginner's mindset. Right, It's
not going to be and I'm saying this perfection thing
because this has been my issue for so long. You
can't come to it with a perfectionist mindset. You have
to come to it with a beginner's mindset. You have
to know that the first draft that you put down
is going to be probably crap, but then you have
(21:18):
something to work with so you can get hung up
on oh my god, my first chapter isn't perfect, and
never write any farther than that, or you can brain
dump a bunch of crap and then go back and
use it as a canvas and make it sound great. So,
you know, I'm working on a different type of book
right now. That's different for me. I haven't written a
book like this in a long time, and so I
have to remind myself it's not going to be great
(21:38):
right out of the gate. You're going to have to
do a few drafts of this thing before it takes
any kind of shape at all. So just get the
story down and stop worrying about it.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I love it, and I love how you phrase it.
So brain dump crap? Is that the professional terminology?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
That's my professional terminology.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yet there you go. But you put it on a canvas.
You know, it makes it nice. You know, it's like
Picasso or something. So it works out. Well, that's fantastic. Well, Kate,
where can people find out more about you? What's going on,
where you'll be, where we can get the book?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So on and so yeah, So Kateconti dot com. You
can find me there and you'll find links on the
website to my podcast, my substack, all the books, all the.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Things, fantastic, serverybody go to Kateconte dot com. We'll make
sure we get that posted. Pick up a copy of
Claws Out, and while you're there, pick up the rest
of the Cat Cafe mystery series. You're going to enjoy it.
It's a nice, fun, interesting mystery series with all kinds
of animals, and it's a nice cozy too, so it
works out for everybody. So pick up a copy of
(22:37):
the book. Yeah, so thanks for coming on the show
and all look forward to chatting with you some more
down the road.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Well, we're coming to the end the show today. I
want to thank everyone for listening to Animal Lights on
pet Life Radio. I want to thank the producers and
sponsors for making this show possible. Do you have any questions, comments,
or ideas for the show, drop us a line at
petlife radio dot com. We'll be glad to answer your questions,
entertain your comments, and bring on the people you want
to hear from. Most. While you were there, check out
(23:04):
all the other wonderful posts and shows on petlife radio
dot com. It's a chronic coopia of barking fun. So
until next time, write a great story about the animals
in your life, and who knows You may be the
next guest on animal rights on pet Life Radio. Have
a great day. Let's talk Pats every week on demand
only on petlife radio dot com.
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