Sunday, January 31, 2010

Interview with Tigger, proud owner of Chelle Cordero



My guest today is a kitty named Tigger. He shares his home with romance and suspense author Chelle Cordero. Also with two other cats (see below right). Tigger is here today to spill the beans on Chelle...

Tell us, Tigger. How did you come to live with Chelle?


My mom, Chelle arrived at the Animal Shelter in Pomona, NY one day in September 2008 where I had just been dropped off a few days earlier. She had some 2-legged family members with her and they were quite noisy coming into the room where I was sleeping – actually I was imprisoned behind bars!
I heard them come in and began waving frantically for rescue. Chelle heard me and saw my paw signaling to her. I heard her talk with Mark (my
dad) about my age, I was three years old then, and they said I needed “saving”.

I was really thankful and made sure to cozy up to them in the
“acquaintance room”. They started the paperwork to adopt me… but before I could get them to make our great escape, they picked out two kittens to come home with us as well. (Actually I’ve grown pretty close to my new brothers.)

Why did she name you Tigger? Is she a Winnie de Pooh fan?

Tigger was the name on the cage where they found me – the people I lived with before had called me that. I was told they had to give me up because of allergies, it was a bummer. But good things came out of it and I
am very happy being here.

What's it like living with Chelle?

I think it’s pretty great living here. Chelle is “My person” and I’ve made that pretty clear to my brothers, Mario and Luigi, and the other two-legged residents here.

Mom and Dad have always had feline family members and I’ve seen lots of pictures of my past brothers and sisters – the house is fairly well broken in for comfort. We get served our meals twice a day but there’s always water and crunchies if we feel like snacking ‘round the clock. And we have our own bathroom downstairs with two litter boxes so we never have to wait. They also buy us toys and play with us a lot.

I hear she writes books... Tell us about them.

She writes a lot! Sometimes she gets so busy and I try to help her, but I get a lot of typos on the keyboard. I do send a lot of her emails though, that’s easy, I just hit the mouse on her desk for her – unfortunately I don’t always wait for her to finish typing her email.

She writes mostly romantic suspense – quite steamy! (I’m neutered so I don’t really understand about all that) I’ve heard that the love stories are very deep and a lot of people enjoy reading them. Let me see if I can remember all of the titles – Bartlett’s Rule, Forgotten, Within the Law, Courage of the Heart, Final Sin, Hostage Heart and her most recent
A Chaunce of Riches. Final Sin is a murder mystery.

Of all her books, which one is your favorite? Why?

I would feel better about her books if she had a nice cat or two in them…

I’ve changed my favorites a few times with some of her newer books. Right now I think I am partial to Hostage Heart. The hero, Ryan, is not the man that the heroine, Deanna, thinks he is, and that really makes the story interesting. Also Hostage Heart is post Katrina and Ike and Chelle did a lot of research into that since much of the action takes place down south. Just
reading it really makes me want to meow with a southern drawl. Just recently author and editor Carolyn Howard-Johnson named Bartlett’s Rule by Chelle to her Top Ten Reads list of 2009! It’s a really good book with a story that is well worth telling.

Authors are pretty busy... does she have time for you?

She always manages to make time although sometimes I want more. I think Chelle originated the attack-hug and she even purrs at me. I like it when she scratches my ears.

Since she has a home office, I try to “go to work” with her every day. Sometimes it’s a very long day and we are both so tired at the end of the day. I love the commute though!

Are you allowed to sit on her lap while she writes?

I let her type at my desk. Actually it started out as hers but I sort of took it over. I have this one favorite spot to curl up right under her desk lamp so I feel all warm and relaxed. Chelle keeps a small bowl on the desk and a bottle of water so when I get thirsty I can have a drink of
water – it helps me think when we are trying to work out a story plot.

Does she have a website and blog?

Yes, yes and yes. Chelle has a very nice website at http://ChelleCordero.com and she has an author blog at http://ChelleCordero.blogspot.com. Everyone can read about her books and all
of the other websites she is involved with. They also can see how to connect with her on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Chelle also offers a weekly online writing course available with a Kindle subscription called Living, Breathing, Writing (http://bit.ly/pILcG). She gets down to the nitty-gritty of writing and being a professional writing. Her weekly articles are full of great tips and she always offers
writing prompts and exercises – I love it when she lets me try out a writing prompt or two.

Thanks so much for letting me talk about my mom, author Chelle Cordero. I think she’s kind of purr-fect.

Thank you for spilling the beans, Tigger!

6 comments:

  1. Yes, Tigger, I've heard the complaint that we writers don't put enough cats in our stories! Keep buggin' your mom about that issue!

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  2. Ok Tigger and L Diane Wolfe, I will try to put more meow-ers into my stories.

    Thank you Mayra for allowing Tigger a chance to mouth off. Great blog!

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  3. This is great! I'm so glad we got to hear the inside scoop! :)

    Thank Tigger for me! :) And tell him to tell my kitties not to spill the beans on me! LOL. :)

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  4. Great interview, Tigger! Your mom should put you into her next book and your brothers could make an appearance as secondary characters ;-)

    Or maybe you could wait until Chelle is asleep and write yourself into a scene - LOL

    You and your brothers are adorbale!

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  5. I meant adorable!haha

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  6. Hilarious. From a pet's point of view. Never thought of doing that. But it makes sense. I'm outlining a suspense thriller from evil cats POV.

    Stephen Tremp

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