Sunday, December 16, 2012

Previously Posted: An Interview With Tigger


I came across this post from January 31, 2010. It appeared on Pets and Their Authors: Get the lowdown on your favorite authors... straight from their pets' mouths! and hosted by Mayra Calvani. ...found this just as Tigger started nudging me for dinner, lol.


(BTW, I am putting a cat into my current WIP)

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/Wmg8W).
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!