ROCCO interviews....Thumper of Black Cat Legacy!

Today my guest is Thumper, star of the Black Cat Legacy Mysteries written by Elaine Faber!

Elaine Faber is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Inspire Christian Writers and Cat Writers Association. Black Cat’s Legacy is the first of three Cat Mysteries involving Thumper, the cat who solves mysteries with the aid of his ancestor’s memories. The sequel, Black Cat and the Lethal Lawyer will be published this fall.

Elaine lives in northern CA, with her tolerant husband and four house cats, including a tuxedo cats who looks a lot like Thumper! Another three feral cats come to the back door night and morning, asking for a handout. A portion of the proceeds from her Black Cat mysteries goes toward cat rescue organizations.

And now….Thumper!

R: Welcome to the blog, Thumper! For all our interested readers out there – particularly the feline ones – describe a typical day in your life.

Thanks for the chance to share my story, Rocco. I spend a good deal of time in the lawn swing outside the office of Herman’s Motor Lodge which resides beside Fern Lake in No. California. I scope out the arriving guests and determine if they have cat treats in their pocket and their level of catitude. I may want to sleep in their cabin on the end of their bed that night. 

R: How did you and Kimberlee get together?

She and her little girl came to the lodge last summer. The minute I laid eyes on her, I knew she was the ‘one’ that generations of my ancestors had waited for. It was my job to help her solve the Fern Lake mysteries, and trust me, there are plenty!

R: Tell us about your ability to recall your ancestor’s memories. When did you first realize you had it, and how do you cope with it?

Easy Peesy! All cats have their ancestors’ memories. People call it instinct. But, most cats don’t have six toes on each foot, like I do, which gives me the ability to act on those memories. Sort of like fine tuning a television set and seeing the whole scene play out in stereo and living color. My ancestors’ legacy required me to help solve the murder when Kimberlee arrived at the lodge.

R:  What do you love most about Kimberlee?  Dislike most?

She’s very innocent and sweet, but she has lot of guts, too. She struggles to stay strong even when things get tough, which of course they do, repeatedly. She falls in love with Brett, an author who tries to help solve her father’s cold case murder, but the local fem fatal, Dorian, also has a crush on Brett, so we have a bit of a love triangle. I point the trio toward clues, but sometimes they don’t understand, even when I put them right under their inferior noses.

R: What’s the story behind your name?  Are you a Disney fan? (as in Thumper of Bambi fame)

Kimberlee’s little girl says I ‘fumped’ on her cabin door the first day they came to the lodge. So, she said, ‘I letted him in. His name is Fumper, like in my Bambi book.’ So, Thumper was the kid’s idea, not mine. I’d rather be Spike or Butch, but what can you do? All my ancestors were called Black Cat. The name Thumper has been a challenge. Some folks get the idea that maybe I’m a push-over, like the bunny rabbit in Bambi, but proving them wrong has made me a stronger cat.  

R:If you could change one thing about Kimberlee  what would it be?

She adds onions when she cooks liver. I could do without the onions. And she cries a lot. I hate to see a woman cry. Other than that, she’s okay.

R: What are your and Kimberlee’s future plans? Any new adventures on the horizon?

Oh, my, yes. Check out my sequel, Black Cat and the Lethal Lawyer. Kimberlee took me to Texas to visit her grandmother. But, Grandmother had an evil ulterior motive behind the invitation, and her lawyer! Why, you wouldn’t believe what shenanigans and skullduggery he was up to. We call it a tale of betrayal and greed with a splash of fantasy. The fantasy part is me getting to the bottom of things and saving Grandmother’s wretched life. I didn’t like her much, but she is family, after all.

R: Tell us about this human, Elaine Faber? Does she do a good job of portraying you and your adventures?

I’m not sure if I’m a character in her head or she’s a character in mine. Folks say she writes ‘cat’ better than she writes English. She ‘gets’ me and brings me to life on the printed page. One of her cats, Boots, looks like me, or I look like him. It’s one of those chicken and the egg things.

R:  Any chance of your getting a “sidekick” in these stories- like maybe a handsome tuxedo cat–anytime soon?

Affirmative! I fall madly in love in Black Cat and the Lethal Lawyer. Noe-Noe is an orange tabby seductress with eyes the color of mustard and stripes the color of marigolds. When the sun bounces off her silken ears, her fur looks like rows of buttercups set in a field of marigolds, shot through a summer sunset. Her eyes, midnight slits peeking through golden moons… Sigh! But I digress. Yes. She becomes my sidekick in this and the next story in the series, Black Cat and the Accidental Angel, due to be in print mid-2015, which picks up where Lethal Lawyer leaves off. Noe-Noe is saucy and snippy but I love every inch of her from her nose to the kink in her tail.  

R:  Just for fun…

Catnip or scratching post?.  Umm…scratching post.. or couch. Same thing

Tabbies or Tuxedos?  Definitely, tabbies

Fish or Steak?  We don’t do fish in our house, so I guess steak

Shakespeare or Stephen King?  Yikes! Neither. Give me a good Sneaky Pie or Cat Who any day of the week. Or better yet, one of Mom’s books. They’re the best.

Thanks Thumper!

Thumper’s human, Elaine Faber, will give away an e-copy of Black Cat Legacy to one lucky commenter!  To enter, leave your name and email address in the comments section of this post. For extra entries, you can:

Follow moi on Twitter @RoccoBlogger

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Contest ends midnight,Nov. 21. Winner chosen at random by random.org. Good luck!