Kristine Kathryn Rusch

New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award.

She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com).

Dean Wesley Smith

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

At the moment he produces novels in several major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, a superhero series starring Poker Boy, a mystery series featuring the retired detectives of the Cold Poker Gang, and the Mary Jo Assassin series.

His monthly magazine, Smith's Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.

During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.

Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing, where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.

For more information about Dean's books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com.

The Year of the Cat edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

Cats find themselves in all sorts of situations, sometimes comic, sometimes scary, sometimes just plain headshaking. In fact, for some reason, cats tend to draw crazy situations to themselves like the old cliché, moths to a flame.

But nothing attracts cats like a good mystery, particularly of the cozy kind. Cats love crime; they love to solve crimes, to observe humans trying to solve crimes, and occasionally even to commit crimes, because, you know—cats.

The felines in this volume do all of the above and more. Grab a comfy chair and a purring feline, and dig in.

Includes:
"Lin Jee" by Mary A. Turzillo
"The Maltese Double Cross" by Carole Nelson Douglas
"Scrawny Pete" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"The White Cat" by W.W. Jacobs
"Uncle Philbert" by Dory Crowe
"Cat Nap" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"Mystery Cat" by Dean Wesley Smith
"The Christmas Kitten" by Ed Gorman

CURATOR'S NOTE

In 2020, Dean Wesley Smith & I did a cat-oriented Kickstarter. We thought it would be great fun to publish 100 cat stories. This, Cat of Cozy Situations, pairs well with Bonnie Elizabeth's book. You'll find two of my stories in here as well. I had a blast editing the Year of the Cat books. If you like this one, go here and pick up the volumes you've missed. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Introduction

Cats find themselves in all sorts of situations, sometimes comic, sometimes scary, sometimes just plain head-shaking. In fact, for some reason, cats tend to draw crazy situations to themselves like the old cliché, moths to a flame.

Actually, I think that is one of the many reasons humans love cats so much. They can go from boring and asleep to wild and in danger in a matter of seconds sometimes. You just never know with cats.

Cozy is a sub-genre of mystery, and cats are a staple of that area. But they are also a staple of all mystery and crime areas.

Kris thought cat stories not limited to cozy, but to all mystery or crime areas, would be fun and I agreed.

That opened up a great deal of stories that we knew about and just picking eight was a challenge.

But it was also great fun. We found many that fit in all the other books in the series, but we felt these eight fit here perfectly.

Here are titles of the twelve volumes of cat stories we are putting together.

-— Book One

A CAT OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

-— Book Two

A CAT OF PERFECT TASTE

-— Book Three

A CAT OF DISDAINFUL LOOKS

-— Book Four

A CAT OF STRANGE LANDS

-— Book Five

A CAT OF COZY SITUATIONS

-— Book Six

A CAT OF SPACE AND TIME

-— Book Seven

A CAT OF HEROIC HEART

-— Book Eight

A CAT OF ROVING NATURE

-— Book Nine

A CAT OF ARTISTIC SENSIBILITIES

-— Book Ten

A CAT OF FANTASTIC WHIMS

-— Book Eleven

A CAT OF FERAL INSTINCTS

-— Book Twelve

A CAT OF ROMANTIC SOUL

In the earlier volumes and in coming volumes, there are cats in cozy situations that involve crimes. And many stories that have cats in crimes. Seems cats and crimes go together, not only in just the cozy sub-genre. So if you liked the focus of this volume, there have been and will be more in this series. Just the nature of cat stories, after all.

We hope you'll enjoy the ones we picked for this book.

And now dive into mystery, crime, and of course, cats.

Dean Wesley Smith
Las Vegas, Nevada