Greetings!

Welcome to my new blog, “What the Cat Dragged In.” It’s been a very long time—7 years to be exact—since my last blog entry. That feels like a lifetime ago. But with the launch of this new novel, the time seemed right. Plus, there’s so much I want you to know about this story and how I came to write it. So, why not join me and the cat crew? There’s a cozy place on the sofa, just for you. And we promise not to take up too much of your time.

Ta-da!

This book took me a full three years to get it to its final incarnation, and honestly, if I had another week, I’d probably tweak it again. My editor, the wondrous Caitlyn Dlouhy, basically had to rip it out of my grubby little hands. “Kathi, seriously, we have to send it to the printer NOW!” Alas!

Some history: The first draft came fast. I got it all down in about six weeks, which is something of a record for me. I’m normally a fairly slow writer. You could say that it was the proverbial shitty first draft. There was nothing lovely or magical or enchanting about it whatsoever. What it had going for it was “possibility.” And you’re probably thinking, really? Six weeks? Okay, true confessions: there were a couple of intertwined ideas that I had been mulling over for years, and in that initial burst of writing, those two ideas just kept eating at me.

The first came to me as a question—what does it look like to have the kind of faith that you would risk everything, including your life, and the life of