Interview with Sophie, Andrea Sisco's Shih Tzu

Sophie Pike was born on November 13, 2008. She's a ruby AKC Shih Tzu and is a running, tumbling, licking, fun-filled bundle of joy. She came into Andrea Sisco and Bob Pike's life when she was 13 weeks old. She's the joy of their lives. And they are really, really, really tired.

Mom, Andrea Sisco, writes cozy mysteries and her web site is www.AndreaSisco.com. She also is the co-owner of Armchair Interviews, an author book review and interview web site. The web address is www.armchairinterviews.com.

Andrea's first mystery novel, A Deadly Habit will be published in July 2009. Read my mom's review of her book on Blogcritics Magazine. My mom also interviewed her. Don't miss the fun interview!

In Sophie's own words...

My mom, Andrea Sisco, is a new mom. It's been twenty-five years since she' had a puppy running around the house and nine years since her beloved Samantha died. She grieved a long time.

I think my ability to play, pee and pooh non stop has been a shock. Mom's not getting any younger, you know (I've been "sufficiently:" warned about telling her age). And the mind does deteriorate when you get older, I understand. You know, forgetfulness.

I've only been in the family for a couple of weeks but I've learned some important things.

1. Mom is pretty serious about potty training. Security has been heightened since my arrival and any sniffing and running in circles results in a trip outdoors. Pronto.
2. It's really cold outside in Minnesota right now so you know I don't want to do my "business" outside. I heard her mention that we'd be going to the Arizona house in April and it's warmer there. My question is, why aren't we there now?
3. I can always make my Mom laugh and laugh and laugh. Even when I can't figure out what is so funny.
4. Mom loves to be kissed by me.
5. Mom loves to cuddle with me (Big Secret here! Dad doesn't know she allows me to cuddle with her in bed when he's gone). You won't tell will you? If you do, you'd better have the CIA on speed dial.
6. I'm being trained to travel by plane (Mom flies a lot). I have my own bright red (it is my color) travel crate. I think I'm becoming a fashionista cuz' my coats, sweaters, leashes and collars and crates are pretty spiffy.
7. I think Mom and I are going to have a lot of fun and I'm happy that I've brought so much joy to her life.
   

Tell us, Sophie. What do you do for amusement while Andrea pounds at the computer all day and ignores you?

There is no ignoring me. I simply don't allow it. After all, it is all about me. I'm a puppy for goodness sakes. Everyone (I'm teaching my Mom) knows that puppies must play, play, play. And then there is that little matter of potty training. She's a drill sergeant about that. That's one area in which I can't deter her with my sunny personality.

I'm really small right now (I weigh 5 pounds) so she allows me to sit in her lap while she writes book reviews. She doesn't allow me in her lap anymore when writing her next Penelope Santucci novel. You see we were killing (yes she murdered a man) the bad guy and I squirmed too much (I am not a fan of murdering people) so she announced, "I guess I will write when you're sleeping."

Well, we'll see about that!

Does Andrea fall asleep when she reads a book? Does she snore? What titles keep her awake the longest?

I don't know what snoring is. And I don't know if she fell asleep reading before my arrival, but she does now. She says she's getting older and I'm a handful! I guess it's because I still wake up during the night to go outside and that interruption keeps her tired during the day. Don't tell her that sometimes I just wake up because I want to cuddle with her. You do have the CIA on speed dial, right? Perhaps the Secret Service? You never know when you'll need witness protection.

What are you talking about, Sophie! Of course I have the CIA on speed dial. The CIA and I go a long way. But do go on. I'm loving all the inside info on Andrea... Does she ask your advice when she's stuck? Does she even listen?

Well… As I told you before, I'm pretty busy and so she's not writing much cuz' I'm still a baby and I demand all of her attention. However, she talks to me ALL the time. Nonsense I tell you, it's all nonsense. Sometimes I just want her to be quiet. I mean do I really need to know she's going to the bathroom, or that she's going to get dressed, or take a shower, or go to the club to work out? Oh, yes, that last one. I absolutely do need to know when she is leaving me. I don't want her to leave me. She's my Mom! I'm a baby and I don't want to be left alone!

(Jeez, what a cry baby) OKAY... What advice would you give to those pets that have to live with irrational, insufferable, egotistical authors?

It's all in the training. If you train your Mom early and well, it will be worth it later on. After all, we are not just their pets, we are their children. At least that's what my Mom, Andrea Sisco says.

And really, I haven't seen the bad side of my Mom yet. She's all about loving on me. Oh, but there are those potty accidents. She does get a "gleam" in her eye when that happens. So I guess the evil eye is about as far as it goes. She is pretty much of a braggart about me though. But that is as it should be.

Will you be boasting to your other pet friends about this interview? Do you think they'll be able to take it?

My Mom is just beginning to socialize me. Her goal is 100 new people and pets in a hundred days. That means we hang out at Pet Smart a lot! I plan on telling all my human and pet friends about this interview. It might help sell Mom's book (and that can only mean more treats and stuff for me) and of course, my Mom loves me and I love her so I want to help all I can.

My friends will probably be jealous about this interview, but more so because my Mom and I are growing so close. She says she loves me sooooo much. And you know what? She does. I can tell. I don't think we'll be needing the CIA any time soon. Or witness protection. We're pretty tight.

Oh, gotta go. She's starting to smooch on me. I think I'll see if she'll scratch my belly.

I guess Andrea is right... Sophie IS a handful...

Interview with Mischief, Anne K. Edwards' naughty cat

Mischief is a naughty cat who lives with mystery author Anne K. Edwards. Mischief is not the only cat in the house. He shares his home with DOZENS (yeah, you heard right) of other cats and a few horses. Anne is a fierce cat lover (my mom once sent her a coffee mug that says 'Crazy Cat Lady') and divides her time between writing and taking care of her demanding critters. She's the author of Death on Delivery, The Last to Fall, and the children's book, Jeremy and the Dragon. Together with my mom, they wrote The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing. She also edits a cool newsletter for writers and book lovers, Voice in the Dark.

BIO: My name is Mischief and I am a Thief among my many other occupations. I steal ball point pens, balls, silverware, bits of paper and wood from near the stove. Mom doesn't have a picture of me, but if you picture a pirate with a patch over his eye you pretty much have an idea of what I look like. I only have one eye due to an infection I got from a raccoon last year and the doctor said it had to go. The incident hasn't slowed me down one whit. I get into as much as I can, open cupboard doors and snoop in forbidden places, play with other cats who only want to sleep, and in general am hyper active and into everything. I try so hard to live up to my name. After the operation I became a house cat and only one cat objects to my presence. I think she's a bully, but Mom loves her anyhow. I'm long, lean and fun in a gray coat with black stripes. I carry my tail straight up and love to sneak up on my housemates.

As a housecat I don't have a blog or website. Only Mom does. It's http://www.Mysteryfiction.net.

My favorite thing to do when I'm tired is to sleep with Mom, but I'm not a lapcat. I do love to get into things when she's on the computer however. There is a lot of interesting stuff on the table. Papers and books to knock on the floor, pens to steal, a printer to watch, and a cursor to chase on the screen.

Sorry about your eye, Mischief, but, you know, that black patch must look kind of cool. Gives a dangerous edge, you know. So, are you the boss of Anne K. Edwards?

There are too many other cats around for me to be the boss, but together we do run things. Even Dad gives his chair to a new gray and white kitten who is very nice, but has no name yet. He is Doodles' brother and they look alike.

Mom who is Anne K. Edwards doesn't sit still long enough for us to boss her much. She writes a little, and then runs to break up our fun and then one of us steals her chair. We do have it worked out so that she gets the most uncomfortable place to sit. After all, we are CATS and we deserve the best. Once, we were gods in Egypt.

Now that's something that has always puzzled me--our fall from favor. One day we're gods and mummified like the pharoahs and the next, some guy is digging up our little mummies and shipping them off to England to sell as doorstops. How undignified is that?

Does Anne fall asleep when she reads a book? Does she snore? What titles keep her awake the longest?

Mom falls asleep for anything. She is ancient in cat years and we look for Dad to hire a keeper for her any day now. The truth is, she does snore sometimes when she is very tired. And nothing keeps her awake now. When she is sleepy, off she goes. When she was young, she loved history and animal stories and they'd keep her awake until that last page. She loved The Black Stalliion series the best then. History took over later and mysteries followed. Today she reads almost anything when she has free time but with so much assigned reading for review, that is far between.

Is your mom as stable as she looks in her website photo?

Mom doesn't put a photo on her website but as to her stability, we have our doubts. She talks about cooking our gooses when we're bad, but I've never had a goose. And now she's threatening to make dragon burgers out of some dragon she knows. She'd send you one but the post office wouldn't like packages with green goo seeping out of the wrapper. And I think they'd smell funny too.

Cooked cat, huh? Hmm... (shaking off evil thoughts) Does Anne plot like a madwoman or just write "down the bones"?

Mom is a madwoman I think. She writes as she gets time and picks it apart as she goes. She never outlines or plots out her work. It is a surprise to her when something takes a twist she didn't expect.

Well, my mom is a mad woman too, so we have one thing in common. Does she ask your advice when she's stuck? Does she even listen?

No to both questions. Mom doesn't ask cats anything about her work even though we willing to help. She talks things over with the horses though. She says she gets her straight in the barn while she's shoveling out a stall. I think the fumes get to her is what I think. That stuff I ripe...

Sounds like my kind of perfume, Mischief. The nastier, the better. What advice would you give to those pets that have to live with irrational, egotistical authors?

I'm not sure I can answer this. You do know that cats are more irrational and egotistical than authors. We expect and demand what we want when we want it even if we don't really want it. It's our way of showing our control of the person in our lives.

For instance the cats Wanda and Hobo meow to be let in and meow to be let out in the same ten minutes. They will take their time to decide if they really want in or out while Mom or Dad holds the door for them. Often they change their minds and walk awa.

It's the right of cats to have service and obedient servants who must put their writing after our wants. We expect to have their attention any time we need it.

Since Mischief is a talkative cat, I decided to publish his long monologue here:

Mischief's Ramblings...

Anne K. Edwards is not the most considerate pet owner. She's always taking one or more of us to see the vet. Now that is scary. What cat wants to ride in a cage in a car? She could let us drive though and that would be fun. She says that idea is why her hair is turning gray.

Mom writes anything that comes to mind. She doesn't belong to any one genre. Of my favorite book by Mom is probably Jeremy and the Dragon because I can identify with the dragon. He's always hungry and I like to eat often too.

Mom can't ignore me when she's writing because I'm often on top of the keyboard or pushing it on the floor.

When she's not around to ignores us, we cats hold meetings to decide who's going to bug her next. We take numbers for that. Then we like to walk around meowing like our heart is broken, just to make her jump up. She worries about us then. If that doesn't work, we jump in her lap, start fights, knock things over that makes a lot of noise or chase each other up and down the stairs, or pull things off the bookshelves.

Mom doesn't keep a schedule. She says its impossible with all of us around, but she hates discipline anyhow. She writes as she can or the mood strikes her.

Mom isn't a hermit, but she sleeps a lot...

Mom mostly ignores reviews. She gets them as publicity promo but she knows bad ones are part of life.

Mom doesn't need writer's block or procrastination not to write. She's got us.

We never try to get her to start writing, only to stop. We're more important.

Mom has frostbite on her nose and fingers from standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open. But she doesn't often take anything out. No connection between writing and obesity as most writers aren't that much overweight.

Mom doesn't like book promo work. She's done a few radio shows though and enjoyed them.

The best part of havin an author as mom or dad is they aren't aware a lot of what we get into and often they don't bother trying to find out what happened when we go tearing by after we did something and it crashes. She says if the house doesn't fall down, not worth the time. The worst part is probably the same thing. She doesn't pay us enough mind. As long as the roof stays up to keep the rain off her head, she doesn't care too much what we do. She knows we are inventive and nosy at what we get into. And we do reward her with quiet time when we nap.

Signed Mischief, The Thief

Thanks, Mischief! You make a very interesting blog guest!