But the wraith ignored them even as the upstairs lights twinkled and flashed until the whole backyard was awash in colour, and the laughing child’s cries turned into moans, then whispers.
The woman held out her one free arm. The cats tensed. The child upstairs must have leapt out the window, for its silvery form flashed in front of the startled animals’ eyes before it was caught by what they clearly realized could only be its mother. The coloured lights flared, then went out with a pop.
The three figures commingled into one vertical shape. It turned on its side and was just mist, floating out over the ice.
Defiance blinked. The feeling of the little female huddled close to him was not unpleasant. She mewed hungrily. He thought of the beef in pastry at home. Come on, he indicated by rising and brushing against her with his shoulder, you better come with me.
ABOUT THE BOOK
I’m indebted to The History of Art by Jacques Thuillier (Éditions Flammarion, Paris, 2003), from which I took the examples of paintings. The compare and contrast comments are mostly my own.
I’m also indebted to Terry O’Shaughnessy, director of The Greenwood Centre for Living History in Hudson, Quebec, the centuries-old house I use as a model for The Maples, who, mishearing the name of my dog Mata when I referred to her as a hairy husky, renamed her Harriet the husky, thus providing an idea for introducing such a one into The Cat Between. Terry and others at Greenwood, including Audrey Wall, have also graciously allowed me to hold launches for the Maples Mysteries at the house. And over the years, the local poetry group I belong to, the Greenwood Poets, have met there many times. Thank you!
When I wrote The Cat Among Us, the first in The Maples’ series, my old cat Chanel, on whom Marigold the bossy calico is based, had just died, and the book became an homage to her.
In the second book, The Cat Vanishes, Bob, who’s based on my other cat from that time, Aiden, assumes the dominant role, both in the book’s action and in Gerry’s heart. Sadly, Aiden has also left us.
Now in The Cat Between it’s Stup—I mean Graymalkin’s turn to give us the cat’s eye view, and he’s based on a cat that belonged to a landlady I lived with, in a long-ago life in Toronto. You could never completely trust him. A few new characters are introduced, not the least of whom are Harriet the husky, a.k.a. our husky-Labrador cross Mata, and Jay, based on my and my daughter’s new kitten Jackie O.
That’s why the first handwritten draft of this book is a bit more crumpled and tea-stained than previous ones: Jackie, sitting on my lap, and simultaneously playing with the curious dog Mata’s nose as she learns her job of being a writer’s cat.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Montreal and raised in Hudson, Quebec, Louise Carson studied music in Montreal and Toronto, played jazz piano and sang in the chorus of the Canadian Opera Company. Carson has published nine books: Rope: A Tale Told in Prose and Verse, set in eighteenth-century Scotland; Mermaid Road, a lyrical novella; A Clearing, a collection of poetry; Executor, a mystery set in China and Toronto; In Which and Measured: Books One and Two of her historical fantasy trilogy The Chronicles of Deasil Widdy; as well as her three Maples’ mysteries: The Cat Among Us, The Cat Vanishes and The Cat Between.
Her poems appear in literary magazines, chapbooks and anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry 2013. She’s been shortlisted in FreeFall magazine’s annual contest three times and won a Manitoba Magazine Award. She has presented her work in many public forums in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Saskatoon, Kingston and New York City.
She lives in St-Lazare, Quebec, where she writes, teaches music and gardens.
The Cat Between Page 19