Hi, all,
I’m establishing the Midnight Louie category on the “real” blog here. I hope. An unconnected blog was used by the first commenters when the new web site first went up and I’d like to get every “cat”egory, especially Louie, all on the same page, as they say.
The main categories here are Midnight Louie, his own self, Irene Adler and Delilah Street. There’s also a Prose and Process category about writing.
If you post on this message, I’ll assign you to the right category. Writing is my beat; managing computer programs is not my strongest suit.
Thanks for your interest and support!
Carole, Louie, Irene, Delilah and assorted other figments of my imagination
Hi Carole and Midnight Louie,
I started reading the series about a year ago, and I have to say I’m “hooked” now. I just finished Cat In A Diamond Dazzle and I’m ready to start the next book. I love Louie’s “voice” in the books. You must know and love cats because you definitely have the perfect cat perspective in the books. I have four cats. My husband and I have a soft spot for black cats. They have the most unique purr-sonalities and they tend to be overlooked in shelters. We have a pint-sized six year old guy named Nelson, and we named our most recent black rescue, Franklin (Frankie). We also have a old grey female tabby named Jennyanydots and a young white tom cat named Jimmy. I look forward to reading the entire Louie series and hope to catch up before you finish. All the best to you and Louie, Jr. I hope he is ok.
Patrice, Jenny, Nelson, Jimmy and Franklin
Wow, Nathan! You are probably my oldest youngest reader!
The mystery of the cover colors: I recall the Blue Monday and Crimson Haze came out originally with red for the “Blue” title and blue for the “Crimson” title. I remember clearly it took until a second or third edition on the Blue Monday paperback to get the background also blue, at my request.
What happened, I think, is that with Cat on a Blue Monday, the third Midnight Louie book after Catnap and Pussyfoot, the publisher wanted to establish a continuing title sequence. I wanted it to be alphabetical to help readers follow the series in correct order. So each title would have a “color” word that would also be alphabet from “B” on. I don’t think the art department got this message and simply picked a color that best went with the small mystery “vignette” behind the curtain Midnight Louie is pulling down. But we all got on the “same page” with Cat in a Diamond Dazzle. Also, the interpretation of the “color” word is broad, sometimes being a jewel-tone and even a pattern.
Hi Carole!
I’ve been a long time reader of your books (ever since I was three or four and would carry them around, reading what few words I could then).
Anyways, I was wondering, when Cat on a Blue Monday was published in paperback, why was the color of the cover changed from blue to red?
Thanks for providing many hours of enjoyment for me and fellow readers alike 🙂
– Your loyal reader, Nathan
Omigosh! They ARE radical! Delilah Street needs them too. Thanks, Gannie Cool!
That is amazing! Thanks for passing on the tip, Mary!
Thanks, Ilse, for the error report. It was a mental snag no one caught. I learned about it way back when, but such things can’t be retro-fixed.
Temple NEEDS these shoes … http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.177623002293542.58215.168277499894759
Does Louie know a cat like Cooper, the photographer? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/artinfo/cooper-the-cat-photographer_b_863555.html?ncid=wsc-huffpost-cards-image
He might prove helpful in unraveling some future mystery.
Carole,
this is just a heads up for Temple! Please, tell her that Brian Epstein was the manager of the Beatles not Brian Eno, a well respected keyboardist who once worked with Bryan Ferry, to add another Bri/yan to the mix! She makes this mistake in Cat in an Orange Twist in chapter 45.
Best regards, Ilse
Hi, Patti,
It’s so great to “meet” a new and such an enthusiastic reader! We have inside and outside kitties, but not in your numbers. You are a wonder to care for so many.
Yes, it’s a sad reality animal lovers go through again and again, reminding ourselves that we gave our furry friends the best possible life for as long as possible. Still so hard every time. Your plans to put Squiggy to rest are very touching. No doubt about it, our animal companions are truly that through the hardest of times. I wish you all blessings in your own circumstances.
Thanks for writing.
Carole
Hello Amy and the fur-kids!
Thanks for the appreciative words. I know publishers are converting books for the e-readers as fast as they can. I really love that so many of my readers reread my books. I strive to write books that are meaty enough so readers can do that, and also bury sneaky little “clues” to what’s coming that readers can pick up on a second reading.
Thanks for your prayers for Midnight Louie, Jr. He’s a most remarkable fellow. I “met” him at Lubbock Animal Services during the first ML Adopt-a-Cat book tour. We drove almost six hundred miles to go back and get him. He was absolutely ecstatic to be adopted and showed it. He’s had a great life and his photo on a lot of book jackets.
Thanks from me and Louie, Jr.
Hi there, Amelia,
You have a few hefty felines! The tuxedo cats are so appealing. We had one named Longfellow and Cat in a White Tie and Tails is the working title of Louie #24. 🙂
Louie will be so purrfectly pleased that he’s your favorite cat series feline. I’m sure that “Z” will not end Louie’s career. He has 99 lives.
Sadly, our house cats don’t. I lost the devoted Summer at 20 years and four months two years ago. Thanks for your good wishes for Midnight Louie, Jr.
The next Louie book is Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta. Check into signing up for his newsletter on my website if you don’t get it yet!
Very Best Fishes,
Carole
Hi Carole and Midnight Louie. I just discovered your books at a local books store and bought every one they had and look forward to enjoying them, I got so far 7 of them and plan to buy them all. I am the mommy to 16 inside and 14 outside kitties. I know how you are feeling about your cat having cancer, I just had to make the sad decision to have our oldest cat Squiggy put to sleep and I have his ashes right now. He was my husband’s baby and I wish I could bury him with him, but cannot so I am going to do the next best thing and bury his ashes in his favorite flower garden in our yard with his own little tombstone I had made.
I look forward to all your wonderful books. I will pray that your kitty gets well. I am a cancer survivor of a little over a year. My cats got me through mine and the death of my husband during the middle of it and they are my family and my strength. I wish you the best.
I love your Midnight Louie series-and I hope Midnight Jr. is doing well. I’m praying for him!
I can’t wait till they’re all out on Nook and I can read them again in order 🙂
I absolutely love all the Midnight Louie books. I have two large black cats myself, Bearcat weighs in at 17# and Felix is 18# (so they are catching up to Louie). I also have a smaller tuxedo cat names Baby who weighs a mere 8# and a rather large Maine Coon (20#)named Binky. I have read other cat series books but none can compare to Louie’s commentary, I hope once you get to Z you continue writing the lovable Louie books and I hope Louie is better soon, I too know what it is like to lose a beloved pet, I had to have my only female put down in November, she was 20 years old and I miss her dearly. Answer when you can…I’m not in a hurry (except for my next Midnight Louie adventure)
Dear Melanie,
Thanks so much!! Midnight Louie, Jr., is a special cat (all cats are, but he’s particularly remarkable) and we welcome all the best wishes and prayers for his survival!
His first reaction to the prednisone and first few chemotherapy pills was not as strong as hoped. He is somewhere around 16, having been adopted from a shelter where guesswork is the norm. We hope to have him as long as it’s good for him. I wish I had the time to update the site to have a mine and yours cat page . . .
Hi again, Juli and Mr. Mitts,
I’m tickled to hear a subplot development surprised you! As much as I like to have a main mystery the book is built around, I do love those little subplot surprises. Often even I don’t know they’re coming up. As for marrying off all of Fontana, Inc., I doubt there’s room enough for that by book “Z.” Although I plan on there being life after “Z.” Thanks for your appreciation and support! Authors thrive on the positive like everybody else, maybe especially so.
Dear Marilyn,
It warms an author’s heart to hear that a new readers has started with a recent book in a series and gone back to read all the previous ones . . . all the way back to the “prequel quartet” in this case! Glad to hear Louie staying on his toes is a big draw. Hope you enjoy my other series. I call myself a literary chameleon because I’ve written books in so many genres, but I also combine genre elements in the same book.
Hi, Elizabeth,
Glad to hear you have “Louie-itis.” 🙂 Books are in a watershed period of changing from print-only to e-books also, but all titles should eventually be available in e-book.
Yes, more are coming! Louie V, W and X are contracted for. I’m even now reading the galleys of Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta and thinking my, oh, my what will my “W” title be? I wrote down some posssibilities long ago. I’m trying to insert a cover image for the first time. We’ll see how that works out.
Carole & Louie Jr.,
I hope the pill for Louie’s cancer treatment is a great big sucess! I know the emotional pain of living with a sick cat and loosing a cat to cancer! My cats & I will be praying for the best outcome! Please keep all of us fans updated as to his progress! Furry blessings to you both!
We are currently enjoying “Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme” and can not wait to see what comes next. We will admit to being speechless when Miss Kit Carlson married Aldo. What are the possibilities of you marrying off the rest of the Fontana Boys in upcoming Midnight Louie Books – or would that be telling?
Thank you so much for utterly enjoyable books.
Carole, I first found Midnight Louie in the Saphire Slipper and then went back and read the rest including the playing card series. I love them all. I am currently finishing Topaz Tango and just got Ultramarine Scheme. I can’t wait for the next books to come out they are great. I love how Louie pretty much solves the crimes before anyone else. Thanks for writing such a great series. I may have to check out some of your other series while I am waiting for the rest of this one.
Hi Carole
I have read all of Midnight Louie’s adventures except Catnap and Cat On A Blue Monday (which I haven’t been able to get my hands on). I own two black cats myself, one male and one female and thoroughly enjoyed the series. I sincerely hope though, that there will be more stories of Louie, Temple and friends in the near future. I would like to know what happens to them! Thank you, Elizabeth Hewson
Hi, Loretta,
I wish I could write them faster too! What I’m really thrilled about was I’d projected 27 novels in this sequence and it looks like
I’ll make it there, with books V, W, and X contracted for, thanks to loyal readers like you. Of course I won’t abandon Louie after that, but he hasn’t told me into what wild adventures we will go next.
Thanks for your enthusiasm!!
Hi, Melanie,
Thank you for the big vote for Midnight Louie and his series! Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta arrives around Aug. 3 this year.
I attended Sleuthfest in Florida several years ago, but never did a signing in the state, although I was considering moving there a decade ago.
I’d love to visit again, but nothing’s planned.
My Midnight Louie, Jr., now has an associate membership card in the Costco pharmacy plan. Unfortunately, he was just found to have cancer, but a human chemotherapy pill may be able to keep him going for some time. He’s the cat I’m pictured with on the book dustjackets.
I absolutely wait in suspense for your next
Midnight Louie book. I have them all up through
Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme. Sounds selfish but
wish you could write them as quickly as I can read
them! That would be heaven on earth. Do love ALL
the Midnight Louie books. Thank you!
Hi Carole & Midnight Louie,
I just finished Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme & can’t wait until the next book arrives on the shelves! I’ve read all the books in order since Catnap. They are all wonderful!!! Do you ever get to visit Florida? I’d love to go to any book signing that you may have in the nearby area!
Hi, Karen, Blue Monday is a good place to start if you don’t know Catnap and Pussyfoot were the first two titles. Blue Monday is where the ongoing
background mysteries take off, so that’s pretty early in the series.
Thanks for your sympathies on the Playing Card Louie series. I Louie and I hadn’t been abused on that project, there never would have been a Midnight Louie mystery series, so it’s a great example of making lemon chiffon pie out of lemons. 🙂 I find that if you keep forging ahead when something that seems really bad happens you will end up in a better place, perhaps, than you’d been headed to before.
The good news for you is that Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme is out in hardcover, and Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta is coming out next Aug. 3 or so. With “W” and “Y” in the planning stages. And, yes, there is more Midnight Louie than the letters of the alphabet, just as the quartet preceded the mystery series. It’s quite a feat to have such a long series (almost) completed, something we owe to Louie’s loyal readers over the (gasp) past two decades.
You can sign up for my newsletter on the site and get the annual edition with very occasional updates, and that lists the series’ order.
Thanks for dropping by the blog. Happy New Year!
Carole and Louie
The advice to get my earlier work available for e-readers is great. The publisher is doing that ASAP with my two mystery series. I’ve reverted most of my backlist. My New Year’s Resolution is to get an Irene Adler Novella in that e-book form. Must start small and learn. I hear it isn’t hard, except for the time I’d spend reading again for typos and getting a simple cover design, and maybe writing a short explanatory foreword on how the story came to be written. It would be fun, actually! 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement
Hi Carole,
I wanted to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed the Midnight Louis Series. Thanks to my friend Caroline, I starting from Cat on a Blue Monday, through Cat in a Topaz Tango before I learned about the ‘Cat and the Playing Card’ series. Those were wonderful, too bad the editors put you and Louis through so much editing!
It’s fun now learning the beginning of the story. My next are Catnip and Pussyfoot but I’m not sure what I will do when I’m done with those; I sure hope another mystery comes out!
Thanks again for writing!
Sincerely,
Karen Smith
Hi there, Ms. Douglas!
I wish to spit that your agent and publisher would get together with the various booksellers and get ALL your earlier (and you-approved verskions) series titles out on ereader formats… both Kindle and Nook compatible formats.
DO keep us posted on how that goes. It’s profitable to you in the long run…. and it’ll bring you even wider exposure!
Hi again, Juli!
Yes, that is some T-shirt. I designed it and it has lots of front and back graphics and text. Not too many left, and I’ll probably have to
go to an online maker where the colors and designs are more limited. Another thing on my list: design logos and graphics for Louie, Irene and Delilah!!
Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme came out in hardcover Aug. 3. The paperback will be out at the end of June. I have an adhesive color bookplate I designed and can sign if you send me a SASE business size envelope. Warning: author falls into black holes of deadline and can be slow to respond. I asked Santa for three clones for Christmas but got clown puppets!
Happy New Year!
Dear Carole and Midnight Louie;
I received my Midnight Louie tee shirt in todays mail and I am head over heels for it! Next on my list of things to acquire – an “paw-tographed” copy of Ultrmarine when it becomes available. ( A girl has to have a dream )
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and
Best of Nip
Dear Juli,
I’m pretty enamored of the Midnight Louie Austrian crystal shoes myself! Premiere shoe designer Stuart Weitzman made them as a gift for me and Louie! My clever former student assistant, Jennifer Waddell Null, once turned a pair of black heels into a Midnight Louie shoe likeness with glitter and glue. I wish I could offer readers that option! I do sell a Midnight Louie t-shirt, but that edition is running out and I’ll probably get some designs on a site like Cafe Press or Zazzle in the future.
Mr. Mitts sounds handsome indeed. Thanks for the FaceBook page reference. I have a FB page, and they’ve set up Midnight Louie and Irene Adler pages for me. You have a lot of Louie to catch up to . . . yes, I’ve thought about jewelry and might get the time to do it someday. Oh, after book Z the only thing I know is Louie must rock on!
Very Best Fishes,
Carole and Louie
Hi, Sifra,
Thanks so much for writing of how you discovered Midnight Louie’s adventures. I’m so glad a reader who wasn’t originally English-speaking could come to appreciate the “colorful” language in the Midnight Louie voice, which is based on some colorful early 20th-century American writers like Damon Runyon and Raymond Chandler. You have perfectly summed up what I’m trying to do with the Midnight Louie series: reveal human characters and motives. I’m very glad you’re totally “converted” to cat mysteries, including mine.
Very Best Fishes,
Carole and Louie
Dear Midnight Louie and Carole;
Oh, how I adore the photo of the Midnight Louie Shoes, almost wish I could order a pair! And the purse if magnificent. Somebody is extremely talented. A line of Midnight Louie jewelry – just what every cat lover needs…
My sassy cat Shadow has a FB page, TheShadow_Nash where you will find pictures of Mr. Mitts – at least a good stunt double for Louie if needed! (as if) Although he is long furred as opposed to Louis plush coat.
I’ve just finished Cat in a Golden Garland and started on Hyacinth Hunt, which brought up the jewelry idea. Think about it. And after you work your way through the alphabet, where will Louie and Miss Barr go from there? I cannot wait to see!
Best of Nip. Juli
Dear Mrs. Douglas,
Last summer by chance I discovered your Midnight Louie Mysteries. I was trying to complete my collection of “The cat who…” by Lilian Jackson Braun, looking for another Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown and curious for Rebecca M. Hale’s cat mysteries. I ordered a few books online and glanced at the usual “Customers who bought this book, also bought…” It aroused my curiosity, so I bought “Cat in an Orange Twist”. It took me a while to get used to your colourful English (I’m Dutch) and I obviously missed information from previous books. So I decided to start all over again with “Catnap”, “Pussyfoot” and the next books in alphabetical order. I like your dynamic style of writing very much. You have an eye for details and paint them in beautiful language. In each book the main characters are deepened and their personal histories and motives revealed more and more. You even make me believe cats can talk and think like humans. I just finished “Cat in a Crimson Haze” and am looking forward to “Cat in a Diamond Dazzle”. Already I’m addicted to Midnight Louie. Meanwhile by the same “Customers who… also…”-trick I discovered another cat mystery author (Shirley Rousseau Murphy). I’m afraid this hobby of mine is running out of hand. I’ll soon need an extra bookcase for my cat mysteries. I’ll reserve the top shelve for Midnight Louie!
Hi, Linda,
You’re right. The Matt/Max question is a conundrum, with each having devoted adherents (including me).
Oooh. You’d be missing a lot of Max’s storyline if you skip to Ultramarine Scheme. (Except for Red Hot Rage, which had to be a “pause” book.) Also, Max is always on everyone’s mind. It’s been a joy for me to follow these characters’ developments.
Anyway, you must do what you feel comfortable with. A little “high anxiety” is good when reading a book or watching a movie, but too much of a good thing can be bad.
I have to add that my characters have their own wayward wills sometimes, and that, too, is the joy of writing. But there is no way Max can be left out.
As an only child of a late-in-life mother, I can sympathize with your empty nest syndrome. I’m hoping you find that being out of the nest doesn’t mean being out of your life. Good luck!
Very Best Fishes,
Carole and Louie
P.S. At least I can assure you that the series is contracted for through book “X.”
I vote for Max. I’m sure your readers are mostly strenuously in favor of either the very good boy or the(slightly)bad boy. Once attached to a character, I don’t like to see that character supplanted by another.
Matt is very likeable and I want him to be happy but he cannot replace the magic of Max for me as a romantic focus, so I’m almost too impatient to read any book where Max is not a serious contender. (I’ve only read as far as “Cat in an Orange Twist” and, in a state of high anxiety,have read the summaries for the books that follow it with the result that I am contemplating just leaping to your newest book at this point.)
Maybe I’m infantile or something, but it’s too late for me to change stripes at my age (my only child, born late in my life, will soon be leaving the nest–so maybe I just get set in my ways these days.) So here I am putting in my vote for Max–bring him back!
~Lindea Nier
Dear Tracey,
Thanks to you and the other posters for commenting on Louie’s birthday, Oct. 31. Alas, his collaborator was snowed under with work and let his loyal fans languish. I will get 90 strokes with a wet whisker for that!
Thanks for your loyalty and patience!
Very Best Fishes,
Carole and Louie
Wow! You have C, D, E, F etcetera books to read through. All the letters are contracted for through “X.” Thanks for dropping by
to say you’re enjoying the series!
Cat in a Topaz Tango, by the way to both Judi and mare and all posters, just this weekend won the Cat Writers’ Association Muse Medallion awards for best novel in a tie, and best short story for “Butterfly Kiss” in the short story anthology, The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2!”
Hi Judi,
I can sure understand those who are uncomfortable with unwed couples. But, in this series
it’s far from “falling into bed,” at least as that is portrayed in most novels nowadays. My
theme when I started the series was “sexual responsibility in the age of AIDS” for both
humans, and cats.
The fresh new breed of female P.I.s back at the turn of the ’90s were turning into
stereotypes of what I called “androgynous Amazons,” who had the same “punch-first,
ask questions later” lone-wolf isolation and unprotected one-night stands as the old-time
male private eyes.
So my characters put a lot more consideration into their relationships than most
mysteries, and even most novels show today, and sometimes the books have been criticized
for that. The fact is, characters and people who mean well may still not do the right thing.
It’s what Temple said in one book about “hoping to be honest (sometimes with oneself) and
trying to be true.”
I’m glad you can enjoy the series despite your big reservations.
Carole and Louie
Carole Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your Midnight Louie books! I am in the middle of Blue Monday………love it! thanks Mare in Wi
I have been reading about Midnight Louie from “Catnap” on, but am frustrated that the Max questions continue to be unanswered. I am uncomfortable with Temple’s ease of falling into bed without benefit of wedding ring, but the rest of the story is so good I try to ignore that flaw in my favorite citizen of Las Vegas and her cohorts. Oops, discovered there’s a newer book out I’ve missed…”…Topaz Tango” Mayhap Max will either be buried or resurrected. You are a marvelous writer…don’t ever stop!
Dear Juli,
Mr. Mitts sounds like the perfect Midnight Louie reading companion, from looks to literary associations. The publisher did send me on Adopt-a-cat tours for the books and I did visit Michigan, but that ended after 9/11. Airport security doesn’t make book tours as possible as before. I used to get up at 4 a.m. to take commuter flights to the next stops on very tight schedules for early morning TV shows, dragging my bags onto the tarmac and on and off the planes. Don’t think I’d be up to that now! I KNOW Louie wouldn’t.
Good to hear from you! Please sign up for the newsletter if you don’t get it.
Carole and Louie
Dear Ms. Douglas and Midnight Louie;
Came across my copy of Catnap while re-organizing my bookcases the other day and realized just how much I was missing that handsome dude. I am gathering the books from ebay, but better yet, it seems I have my very own Louie to occupy my lap as I read, although Mr. Mitts weighs only a paltry 15 pounds, he is a magnificent black long haired cat, a Hemingway, hence the name, with a talent for doors and cabinets. I hope to read lots more of Louie and Miss Temple Barrs’ adventures in years to come. Any chance you will make it to Western Michigan for a book signing in the future?
Hi, Judy,
The Louie series is written like a three-year TV series with ongoing character development and even some unanswered murders lingering until the Big Reveal at the end. Which is why after the first two, Catnap and Pussyfoot, I put an internal alphabet in the titles. At book “L” I started using the “Previously in Midnight Louie’s Lives and Times” foreword so new readers could get a feel for what had gone before. Yes, I borrowed that from TV series. 🙂
I totally enjoy introducing historical figures to readers. Most of them in the Adler series are self-made artists and tradespeople, the beginning of the middle-class and American takeover from European aristocracy. Love that you leave a book to find new readers at the doctor’s office! Great marketing idea! Thanks!
I go to a couple big conventions that travel. April 6-10, 2011, I’ll be at the RT BOOK Reviews magazine event in L.A. http://www.rtconvention.com. Saturday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. they open the ballroom up to the public for a small fee and there are 250 authors seated alphabetically with their books to sign, including major bestsellers. Hope you can make that! 🙂
Cheers,
Carole and Louie and the cool cats
Carole, I saw Ultramine on the shelf for new books and picked it up at the library, so maybe I’ll read a few from the back and then get back to the front of the alpha list. I’m on to “V” next and then “T”.
Now I’m back from vacation and reading Spider Dance. Thanks for introducing me to Lola and Nelly Bly. Those are two names I’d heard before but never investigated. So of course I had to get over to wiki to check them out. Love the way you weave real folk into your novels.
I don’t see you headed to California yet. Any chance you’ll get to the UCLA Book Festival next year?
I still leave one of your books at one of my doctor’s offices as a teaser each time I have an appointment. They’ve always found a new home and hopefully a new reader.
Give my love to Louie, Louise and the rest of them cool cats.
After spending the summer reading about Midnight Louie’s adventures in “Catnip through Topaz Tango,” I’m eagerly waiting for Louie’s next adventure to be published. Being raised Catholic and having lived in Las Vegas, made my summer reading of Louie’s mysteries an enjoyable adventure. After reading a book, I couldn’t wait to find the next book in the series. Thank you for making my summer reading so enjoyable!
I love cats, your stories, and I look forward to commenting on your website.
Keep the stories coming.
Thank you,
Tracey Bonner