I was about three books into my first series, the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, when my agent called to say a new editor at a different publishing house wanted a cat mystery. Needless to say, I was thrilled. A whole series built around cats? Sign me up.
With my first series, I’d already earned a reputation as “the cat lady.” So naturally, he thought of me. Fair enough. I’ve spent more than two decades in animal rescue, much of it with cats. I’m not going to argue with the title.
But when I asked what kind of cat series the editor had in mind, the answer was, more or less, “a cat about town.”
That gave me pause. Not because I didn’t want the series. I wanted it badly. But a cat wandering around town without an escort, slipping in and out of shops, crossing streets and dodging traffic? That’s exactly what I’ve spent my rescue life trying to prevent. And just the thought of writing it gave me extreme anxiety. In my opinion, cats don’t belong outside. That’s how they get hurt, or worse.
If my name was going on a cat series, it had to stay true to what I stand for. So the question was never whether to say yes. It was how to make it work without compromising.
We talked. A lot. My editor knew she wanted a cat and a mystery, and not much beyond that, which is both freeing and terrifying. We went through version after version until we landed on something that worked for both of us. I set it on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts, inspired by Martha’s Vineyard. I loved it. I got about three-quarters of the way through the book.
Then my editor walked into a cat café.
This was around 2014, when cat cafés were just starting to show up in the U.S. One had opened in New York, and she fell for it. Wouldn’t that make a great hook for the series?
It would. It really would. Except.
My series was set on an island. A summer island. The kind of place that’s packed with tourists from Memorial Day to Labor Day and then, come September, rolls up the sidewalks. A cat café on a busy city block makes sense. A cat café on an island where half the businesses close for the winter? That’s a business plan with some holes in it.
So I did the thing every writer dreads. I started over. Not a revision. A blank page.
Here’s what I didn’t expect: the problem made the series better. Figuring out how a cat café could survive on that island forced me to understand the place, and the people who stay when everyone else goes home, far better than I would have otherwise. And the café gave me exactly what my rescue heart wanted from the start: cats with a safe, warm place to be.
I centered the origin story of the cat café within a story about the only rescue on the island being forced to close its doors, which left the animal control function as the only rescue mechanism in place.
Underfunded and understaffed, that left the any cats on the island at a disadvantage, especially when the current kennel was built for and housed by mostly dogs—which didn’t sit well with many of the feline residents. That approach helped me anchor the purpose of the café into the fabric of the town, until it felt like something that should have always been there.
I think about that a lot now. Some of the best ideas in my career didn’t start with me. “A cat about town” was an editor’s idea. The café came from an editor’s walk through New York. My job was to say yes, then figure out how to make each one my own.
Eleven books later, the series I had to start from scratch has a life I never could have planned. PURRANORMAL ACTIVITY just launched, and the series is being reprinted in trade paperback with brand-new covers.
I still don’t think cats should be outside unsupervised, though.
About Cate Conte
Liz Mugavero/Cate Conte is a bestselling mystery author, creativity coach, and devoted believer in all things magical. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the beloved Pawsitively Organic Mysteries. As Cate Conte, she writes the Cat Café Mysteries and Full Moon Mysteries. Her 20th novel, Purranormal Activity, will be out in July 2026.
When she’s not plotting fictional murders, she helps writers find their voice and bring their books to life through her membership community, The Creativity Lab, and her podcast, Get Writing.
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