Behind the story of Oh, Olivia! by Patricia Fry

Patricia Fry has been writing for publication for over 45 years. Her nonfiction articles have appeared in numerous magazines, including Woman’s World, Entrepreneur, and Writer’s Digest. Oh! Olivia is the first in her new Calico Cat Mystery series, which was released in May 2021.

Each Calico Cat Mystery celebrates the spirit of the cat

In her efforts to keep her cozy mysteries fun, Patricia said her goal is to entertain and intrigue her readers while providing plenty of the ‘kitty-cat flavor’ her readers crave. “My purr-pose, aside from having cat-boodles of fun, is to share the spirit of the cat, their abilities and charisma and instincts/intuitiveness and uniqueness, which is mostly exaggerated and fictionalized, of course. While my stories include bad guys and gals, terrifying moments, and deception, the main characters emulate and teach good values and kindness to one another.”

Patricia added that there are many cat-facts that readers can learn from reading her stories—how to cure chin acne in cats, how many criminals own cats, and how to train cats to a leash. “I sort of preach the benefits of keeping a cat inside and I’m constantly demonstrating that cats have feelings, too. Probably the real attraction and draw for my readers is the escape into the world of feline adventure. Some fans cozy up with their own cats to read about Rags and Olivia, others read cozy mysteries with cats because they no longer have cats, and they can enjoy spending time remembering life with the meow-velous cat.”

A prolific writer with an endless supply of ideas

“I’m the author of 96 books—52 in the Klepto Cat Mystery series and 2 in the Calico Cat Mystery series. When you’re a writer, it is vital that you stay alert and pay attention to everything—your thoughts, your experiences, your surroundings. I write from my life experiences—things I’ve done, would like to do, or have read about. I seem to have a knack for taking a germ of an idea and fictionalizing it, expanding on it, creating various avenues of interest with it—all the while having fun.”

A cat Patricia adopted during the isolation period in 2020 was Patricia’s inspiration for the Calico Cat Mystery series. Patricia said, “Olivia is a unique, quirky, lovable, naughty and nice calico who first debuted in Book 51 of the Klepto Cat Mysteries.”

The writing bug struck Patricia when she was a young mother with three little girls. She wanted to write articles for magazines, but it wasn’t until her girls were in their teens that she submitted her first article. “For the next 40 years, hundreds—maybe thousands of my articles appeared in around 500 different publications. I also had over 40 books to my credit—all nonfiction.”

But at the end of that long run, the Internet changed the publishing game completely. “I realized that people were eating up the idea of reading fiction on e-readers and I decided to test those waters. I’d been editing novels for clients, after all, and found that I rather enjoyed it. I felt I had a knack for helping novelists organize their books and keep them real. Even fiction must have an element of reality.”

It didn’t take long for Patricia to find her muse. She wanted to create fun fiction that featured cats. Thus began her second writing career, this time as a novelist. “Potential readers should know that my stories are human-driven. The cats don’t talk, nor do they have a point of view. The cats are portrayed through narrative and through the dialogue of the human characters.”

First series began with a kleptomaniac cat

Choosing the theme of her cat mysteries was a bit of a challenge at first. Patricia knew she had to make the cat unique, but wasn’t sure what that characteristic would be. The answer was right before her eyes. “At the time, I had a sweet tabby named Lily. She had this habit of bringing me her stuffed toys. It all started when she stole a tiny stuffed bear I’d picked up on one of my trips. She climbed up onto a shelf and snatched it, then brought it to me. I let her have that bear as well as those she took from the grandchildren’s toy box. Then I began bringing her tiny stuffed toys from places I visited. Lily had quite a collection of stuffed animals, and every day she’d bring one of two of them into my office and drop them at my feet. In winter, she’d bring me my slipper socks. One day it occurred to me, ‘Ah-ha, my cat could be a cat burglar—a kleptomaniac cat.’”

Unfortunately, Lily wasn’t the right type of cat for what Patricia had in mind. “She lacked the confidence and stature. One day I was visiting with my mother when her cat, Smokey, walked into the room as if he was auditioning for the part. I looked at him and said, ‘YES!’ Smokey became Rags, the ordinary cat with a most unusual habit. He steals things and the things he takes are often clues in the current mystery.”

Learn more about Patricia Fry and the first Calico Cat Mystery at CalicoCatMysteries.com. Did you like this interview? If so, click here to read more Behind the Story interviews from your favorite authors.