Monday, December 12, 2011

Cat Treat Monday: Author Edie Ramer, Belle, Rose and Sky

We are very pleased to introduce you to our guests today. Mummy just finished Edie Ramer's book Cattitude and she loved it. She said she would like to give it more than five stars on Amazon but they only allow five. 


Cattitude blurb: It's all in the Cattitude...

After Belle the cat switches bodies with a psychic on the run from a murderer, she wants her perfect cat body back instead of this furless human one. But she doesn't count on falling in love with her former owner. Or that a CEO and a beauty queen want to use up her nine lives. Now is her chance to prove anything a human can do, a cat can do better.


Edie has some adorable babies to tell you about so I'll just turn it over to her with no further ado. 

 CC said to write a few paragraphs about my fur babies. I could write a book about them, but I’ll restrain myself. The English setter came first. We’d lost Lulu, our beloved English springer spaniel a few months before, and I couldn’t stand being without another dog. We decided to go with a different breed this time to avoid comparing our new dog to Lulu. (Which didn’t work.)

After reading a half dozen books on dog breeds, we decided on an English setter. We got Sky from a rescue association. She was just under a year old. Beautiful. Super high energy. In great health. She even came with her original papers, including her vet information. (Which we really appreciated.) We knew she’d be energetic, but what we didn’t pay so much attention to was the part in her breed description that said “stubborn.” The books should say “super stubborn.” Or “makes a mule look malleable.”

But she’s a sweetheart. Great with children. Loves to be petted. Hates to be alone. Which is where the cat came in...

My husband refused to get another dog, and I’d heard that cats had a calming effect on a dog. Sky had been dropped off with all her papers at a cat kennel, so we thought she must be used to cats. We got Belle from our local humane society. The minute I brought her home, Lulu sniffed the carrier and I could just tell what she was thinking.

“Lunch!”

It took a couple of months before Belle got used to us. I quickly fell in love with her. I’d thought I was a dog person, but now I know I’m a cat person, too. It’s because of her that I wrote Cattitude. While on a break at a previous workplace, eight of us talked about what kind of animal we’d like to be if we could have our choice. The majority of my co-workers wanted to be a cat. That conversation stayed in my head and one day when Belle was purring on my lap, I wondered What if the opposite happened? What if a cat turned into a woman?

That’s when I knew I was going to write a book about a cat who changes bodies with a woman and keeps her cat attitude. I tried to give the cat in the book a different name—because she really isn’t my cat—but none fit as well as Belle.

We inherited Rose the beagle when my father-in-law died. She was 17; now she’s 19. Very old. It’s amazing because when we got her, she was obese. She could barely drag herself up the stairs. (She follows me everywhere.) Now she’s trimmed up nicely and she scampers, and I take her and Sky for long walks. Though she has arthritis and limps, she doesn’t let that stop her. My only regret is that we didn’t have her much sooner.







I’ve exceeded my few paragraphs. It’s a pleasure to be here and I’m grateful to Confucius Cat and Patricia for letting me talk about my fur babies.

Mum's Cattitude Review - Five Stars
I LOVED this book. As a cat lover, I was drawn to the tagline: Anything a human can do a cat can do better. How perfect! That's a sentiment I see my cat thinking every day. *Confucius Cat says: darn right! * In her heroine, Belle, Edie Ramer has managed to capture the feline thought process and translate it into a humorous and endearing character who charmed me from the first page. The book is often laugh out loud funny, as when Belle is considering living life as a woman instead of a cat and decides she'd rather have a hairball in her throat. Or the passages on Belle's Harry Potter obsession. I could definitely relate to those and at one point had to take a drink of water, I was laughing so hard.  The hero, Max, is loveable and relatable as well. He's so attractive and wonderful, ...well you'll have to read the book to know more. Ramer has also done a fantastic job with the relationship between Sorcha (who becomes a cat) and the little girl she grows to love. Cattitude is a must read for cat lovers...and everyone else.


You can follow Edie Ramer on Twitter @Edie Ramer and check out her other books at http://www.EdieRamer.com

23 comments:

Edie Ramer said...

Confucius and Patricia, thank you so much for having me here and for the wonderful review.

Patricia, I'm delighted that you enjoyed Cattitude so much. This is a great start to a Monday!

Norah Wilson said...

Loved reading about your collection of pets, Edie! I can hear how much you love them. :) And what a fabulous premise for your book!!!

Edie Ramer said...

Norah, thanks for stopping by. I love all my books for different reasons, but Cattitude is my favorite.

Lisa Mondello said...

Loved reading about your pets. I too have a very old rag doll cat (18) and a still fiesty beagle (10). They have such great personalities! I love writing about animals, too, because those personalities come out and provide comic relief sometimes to sensitive situations.

Lisa Mondello
http://www.lisamondello.blogspot.com

Edie Ramer said...

Lisa, a "rag doll cat" is a great description!

Beagles have the best personalities. Mine is sleeping behind me now. For once, she's not snoring. lol

I'm going to check out your books to see how you handle the animals in them. :)

Tori Scott said...

Looks like it's back to Amazon to buy yet another book. This one sounds great.

I still miss my beagle mix that I lost two years ago. They are such wonderful companions.

Edie Ramer said...

Tori, thank you! Beagles have such a loving personality, I can see why you miss yours. After we got Sky, my husband said he would've liked a beagle. I asked why he didn't tell me before. I would've liked one, too.

But now we have ours, so it worked out just fine.

Mariodacatsmom said...

Love reading books about animals, since I'm an animal lover. This sounds like a good read. I'll be going over to Amazon to pick up a link for the Nook.

Edie Ramer said...

Mariodacatsmom, I can tell from your name that you're a cat lover. I hope you enjoy Belle's story!

Marilyn Brant said...

I loved this book, too! Edie did such a fabulous job with characterization, especially with Belle - I adored her! As for fur babies, I'm unfortunately allergic to cats, but we had a couple of very lovable guinea pigs for a time, and there was nothing like snuggling up with them... ;)

Edie Ramer said...

Marilyn, my son had a guinea pig. I never snuggled with it, but they're cute, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

L. j. Charles said...

Thanks for sharing your wonderful pets, Edie. I haven't read Cattitude yet, but it's going on my TBR stack today.

Lucie j.

Renee Pace said...

Great post. I love dogs having grown up with them but I'm such a cat person. I have two and would love another one but my two are a handful and since one is now a senior a newbie kitty isn't good for her. Book sounds wonderful.

Edie Ramer said...

Lucie, you're so sweet! I hope you enjoy Cattitude.

Edie Ramer said...

Renee, the younger cats are so cute - and they're also trouble. lol Like puppies.

I would love another cat, but my husband wouldn't. I'm not sure if Belle would like another cat in the house, either. She's used to being the queen.

Linda Andrews said...

I'll definitely have to add Cattitude to my TBR pile. Do you have plans to have a dog become the perfect man?

Edie Ramer said...

Linda, I did write a book something like that. But it didn't turn out as well as Cattitude. He was too childlike and it had a bit of an ick factor. I might rewrite it some day and make him smarter.

I hope you enjoy Cattitude!

Christy Hayes said...

Edie,
Love your pets! Dogs and cats together always make me smile. We've never been brave enough to mix the two. It's dogs all the way with us!

Edie Ramer said...

Christy, I saw something on TV that said cats had a calming effect on dogs. We thought that might be good for our super high energy setter. But we didn't see that. Probably because the cat is mostly upstairs and the dog downstairs.

Maureen Fisher said...

I loved reading about your book and your pets. A fun blog.

Edie Ramer said...

Maureen, thank you for stopping by!

Maree Anderson said...

What a fantastic post, Edie! I definitely want to come back as a cat... so long as I get to live in your household *g*. And Cattitude sounds brilliant. I'm off to buy this one right now!

Edie Ramer said...

Maree, if you turn into a cat, I definitely want you to run to my house. lol