I've been sitting on this news for a while, but now that my new book has officially dropped it is time for me to tell you all about it. And if this is the first you're hearing about my novel Marked Territory from Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press, then settle in for a bit... you're going to want to listen to this pitch!
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| Got your ears open? |
At it's core, Marked Territory is a noir mystery thriller about a back alley heavy getting roped into someone else's problems. And the deeper he digs, the less things start adding up. So far so Bogart, right? The difference is that in this book our protagonist is a Maine coon named Leo. And before you start thinking that this is one of those books about animals solving human crimes, the rest of the cast are New York City street beasts, too. From Charity the church mouse, to Ringo Longtail the current mover and shaker among the south side's raccoons, every member of the cast is an animal of one variety or other.
The humans are still there, it is NYC after all, but they're just background characters. Sort of like how dogs and cats are treated in most other novels; there, but rarely noteworthy to the meat of the narrative.
And for those looking for the specifics, he's the back cover material:
"Leo does his best to keep his whiskers out of other people’s business.
He’s perfectly content to spend his days stretched out in the sun, or
wandering through his little patch of the Bronx. So when a south side
mouse comes to him with a sob story about a pack of hound dogs trying to
run her and her friends out of the abandoned church they call home, his
first instinct is to walk away.
But why would a mouse be
desperate enough to call on an alley cat for help? The raccoons on the
south side have their paws in the mix, he discovers, and any deal the
raccoons are tied up in is guaranteed to get messy. Add in the fact that
the dog pack seems to have come out of nowhere, and Leo’s got more
questions than answers.
Curiosity killed the cat, as the saying
goes, but Leo isn’t going to stop digging until he figures out exactly
why St. Bart’s has become… Marked Territory!"
Wait a Minute... This Sounds Really Familiar...
If you'd a longtime reader of mine, this might sound like a familiar premise to you. You're not imagining things, either. You see, Leo first came onto the scene a few years back in my short story "Stray Cat Strut" in the collection From a Cat's View. In that story an old shelter mate of Leo's named Tigger calls in a favor to get the big bruiser to help an uptown cat find her missing sister. It's not a job he particularly wants to do, but a favor is a favor, so he starts digging... and uncovers something particularly sinister going on in a bad part of town.
For those who've read it, don't you fret... the Persian will be back again in future stories. And if you're not sure what I'm talking about, I'd recommend getting a copy of this anthology as well so you can get the complete history of Leo and his adventures to-date.
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| You have not heard the last of me... |
So... Is This The Start of a Series?
Ideally, I'd like it to be! People who know me as a writer know that I'm not really big on writing series, but I've got plenty of future cases for Leo to take up if a tomcat enforcer with a bottle brush tail and a chip on his shoulder is something the readers out there would like to see.
But, as with anything else, what's really going to decide if that happens is the audience! So if this is the sort of thing you'd like to see me develop and expand on, make sure you get your copy of Marked Territory as soon as you can! Then after you give it a read, drop a rating and a review on it, and don't forget to tell your friends and family to give it a read as well.
Because if the demand is high enough then I'll have no other choice than to give you what you want, will I?
Also, for those who are still on the fence Amanda Lyons has a lovely review up at PetLife!
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