posted on April 12, 2017 by Carolyn Haines

Bringing Back Familiar by Carolyn Haines

On a hot April day in Lower Alabama, I find myself drifting back in time to my beginning writing career. I’d been lucky enough to sell some books to Harlequin Intrigue, and my dream of being published in long form had been realized. But I also knew that I was just on the very beginning of a career. I had no idea the twists and turns this publishing life would take, but it seems I have come full circle.

FEAR FAMILIAR, the first book I published about the sleek, black cat detective with a Humphrey Bogart voice, is on sale now as a digital book for only .99 cents. I wrote 17 of the Familiar titles, and the black cat (who is so much smarter than his biped companions) became a featured character in the Harlequin Intrigue line. He traveled to Scotland, Ireland, Egypt, and even back in time, and all over the United States meeting women and men who needed his help in solving difficult crimes.

Familiar was a research animal who escaped, and when he is taken in by Eleanor Duncan and her new friend, veterinarian Peter Curry, the danger begins.

TOO FAMILIAR, the second in the series, goes on sale May 8, followed by THRICE FAMILIAR in June.

The new adventures begin with FAMILIAR TROUBLE in July. These are brand new books never before published and will feature Trouble, son of Familiar. A number of writers will join KaliOka Press and spin yarns about Trouble and his penchant for getting into a jam and also solving crimes. We’re truly creating a world where black cats rule the universe!

I hope you’ll join us for some of the adventures. Now is the perfect time to jump into Familiar’s world and met the Big Daddy black cat—and then meet Trouble, who has decided to pattern himself after Sherlock Holmes, a la Benedict Cumberbatch.

The reissued books are only $.99 and the new ones will be out in digital and print copies.

Check us out HERE and learn about the many worlds I write in at carolynhaines.com.

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Carolyn Haines

USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Haines grew up with both parents working as journalists, and she was bitten by the writing bug at a very young age. Her three ambitions were to be a cowgirl, a mystery-solving sleuth like Nancy Drew, and a writer. Today, she has basically accomplished them all. She is the author of the acclaimed Bones mystery series and in addition, she works as an advocate for humane treatment for animals and operates a small rescue on her farm (7 horses, 9 cats and 6 dogs).

Haines claims to have had “the last golden childhood of the South.” She grew up in Lucedale, Mississippi, a town of 3,000 in the Southeastern Pine Barrens. She rode her bicycle all over the county with her wonderful dog Venus and employed her imagination to create adventures with her friends.

Her first job in journalism was at the local weekly, The George County Times, when she was in high school. She went on to work as a photojournalist at the Hattiesburg American while attending the University of Southern Mississippi to earn a B.S. in journalism.

She worked for nearly a decade in the news business, covering local politics, the state legislatures in Alabama and Mississippi, spot news, writing a personal column and her favorite—writing features and using photography to illustrate the story. With her mother, she ran a statewide bureau in Mississippi for the Mobile Register and the Mississippi Press. As part of her journalistic adventures, Haines covered an armed robbery on horseback, hopped a freight train, and rescued a young, injured bald eagle from certain death. She was the first female reporter hired on the news side of the Huntsville Times.

At the same time, she began writing short fiction for personal satisfaction. Under the sway of Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Doris Betts, and Lee Smith, Haines wrote about the landscape and the people she knew. The end result was being accepted by an agent who urged her to “write a novel.”

Another huge influence was Harper Lee and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Haines’s first novel was SUMMER OF THE REDEEMERS, a coming of age story set in 1963 rural Mississippi and published in 1994. Haines was honored in 2010 with the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Writing.

In 2009, Haines was named the recipient of the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence.

From general fiction, Haines drifted into mysteries, and THEM BONES, a humorous mystery with a wise-cracking ghost, was bought at auction. The stories center around Sarah Booth Delaney and her friends. The fourteenth book in the series, BOOTY BONES, was published May 20, 2014, by St. Martin’s Minotaur.

While writing the lighter mysteries, Haines has continued to write in the darker terrain of the crime novel. PENUMBRA and FEVER MOON (both St. Martin’s Minotaur) are historical crime novels.

In May 2010, an anthology she edited, DELTA BLUES, was released to critical acclaim.

Along with writing, Haines is the fiction coordinator at the University of South Alabama where she teaches graduate and undergraduate fiction writing. And she is president of Good Fortune Farm Refuge, an organization dedicated to helping animals and to educating the public on the need to spay and neuter.

She lives on a farm with her “critters.” They are the terror of the neighborhood.

Bringing Back Familiar by Carolyn Haines

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