Cate Conte

Welcome friend! Today, I am delighted to welcome Cate Conte to Armed with A Book to chat about Purranormal Activity, the latest instalment in her Cat Café Mystery series. Set on Daybreak Island, the story brings together a mysterious disappearance from the past, a present-day murder, and, of course, some feline companions! Join us as we chat about cats, island life, writing mysteries, and keeping a beloved series fresh ten books in!

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Get to know the author: Cate Conte

Hi Cate! Welcome to Armed with A Book. It is a pleasure to chat with you. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.

Thanks for having me! I have been writing since I was very young – I have always been obsessed with stories and how people tell them. My favorite place to be as a child was inside a different world, having adventures along with the heroines I would be reading about. Today, I have three series – The Pawsitively Organic Mysteries (written as Liz Mugavero), the Full Moon Mysteries and the Cat Café Mysteries.

For my readers who have never been to one, please help us imagine a cat party. What happens when you bring a group of cats and humans together to celebrate?

Cats are so much fun, even when they’re not doing much! There’s just something about being in the presence of a cat that is so grounding and joyful. For parties, kittens are probably much more appropriate – they love to be in the mix with lots of people to play with. Although, some adult cats enjoy stealing the food that inevitably comes with a party. I had one cat who would climb up on the counter and help himself to bowls of potato chips whenever there was a gathering. 

For Maddie’s parties, it involves people fawning over cats while sharing some good coffee and sweets, playing with toys and posing for pictures with the felines. My idea of a fun Saturday night for sure. 

Cats are such unique creatures. What are some of your favorite things about them that you bring into your books?

Cats are mysterious, smart and often know things before humans do. I love to play with these ideas in my books, whether it’s Maddie’s cat JJ who is helping her figure something out just by being himself, or the Ghost Cat in Purranormal Activity. Sometimes the café cats are also helpful in finding evidence related to crimes. Their innate curiosity makes it inevitable that they are involved in these dramas on some level.

JJ is like a dog accompanying Maddie everywhere. How long has he been with Maddie? I love this different representation of cats, since they’re so often portrayed as staying at home or wandering independently outdoors. For the record, both of my cats hate car trips.

Maddie found JJ at her grandmother’s grave when she first came home to Daybreak Island a couple of years ago for the funeral. She felt he was a sign from her grandmother that she stick around, even though she had no plan to, and help her grandfather move into the next phase of his life. 

JJ is a very sociable cat – he’s like a celebrity on the island, and he loves to be out in the world getting attention (and treats). He’s definitely not the norm, but he’s so much fun to write. He’s another character whose personality has developed over the series. 

I love how you choose your titles! Do they come first, or does the plot come first?

The plot comes first for sure. And then my editor and I bat around title ideas that correspond closely to the plot, while still keeping the punny vibe that readers expect. 

Why is Maddie someone you keep returning to? What continues to surprise you about her after ten books?

Maddie is such a fun character to develop and someone I honestly wish I’d been more like as a younger person. She is very entrepreneurial, she’s basically fearless and she makes decisions based on a solid combination of logic and feelings and is not afraid to make a different decision if something doesn’t work out. I love that she was able to leave a big city lifestyle and translate that back to something lucrative and satisfying in her own hometown, and have her entire family involved (without wanting to murder any of them!).

Family is deeply rooted in Purranormal Activity. What makes family history a great setup for a mystery?

I LOVE family drama – and I am well-acquainted with it, so it’s natural for me to write about it. In this series, Maddie has a large family and on such a small island, it’s hard to not be involved in each other’s business. Getting her sisters and mother involved in the cat café, along with Grandpa Leo, offers so many opportunities for not only drama but humor, and there really are endless directions the plots can take when they get involved. 

In my other two series, the Full Moon Mysteries and the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries (written as Liz Mugavero), there is much more mother/daughter drama, which I love to explore. Maddie and her mom get along well, but it’s not quite as true for my other protagonists Stan and Violet, and that type of family drama is also ripe for story and character development. 

Additionally, the cat café is a family business of Maddie’s with Grandpa Leo who continues to use his connections and investigative skills through his PI business. What drew you about this family to bring the two professions together under one roof?

My own grandfather was a detective, and it was his profession that got me obsessed with crime in the first place. I often thought about how fun it would be if we’d had the chance to solve crimes together, and so I gave Maddie that chance. Grandpa Leo also needed something else to occupy his time, though, because he had a hard time letting go of his role as police chief and the cat café offered him a chance to focus on something new while still keeping his investigative skills sharp. Plus, since the cat café was taking over his house, it only seemed right to give him a stake (and a job!) in it. 

This book is also about island living and what it means to grow up near the water. What does Daybreak Island give you as a storyteller?

Daybreak Island is based on the real-life Martha’s Vineyard off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The cool thing about islands like this one is the population swings—in the winter months it’s desolate, with a skeleton crew of locals, and in the summer there are so many people it’s hard to get around. I find both to be fascinating for a storyteller, because there are many situations in both instances that can drive crimes and draw in community to help tell and solve the mystery. Plus, it’s such a beautiful setting and full of history and legends to use in plots!

Were you inspired by any existing legends about ghost cats when developing the supernatural elements of this mystery?

The legends I found when I did research largely portrayed the ghost cats as demonic, which I wasn’t interested in. A couple of elements did stand out to me, though. The legend of Kasha, who comes from the heavens to snatch the corpses of people who accumulated bad karma before they reach burial and the legend of the D.C. Demon Cat, a ghostly black or tabby cat that allegedly haunts the Capitol and the White House ahead of national tragedies or presidential elections, especially gave me something to think about when I created Puck. Puck is not a demon cat, but he does tend to appear before something bad happens, and his focus is on revealing lies of all sizes. 

There is something wonderfully eerie about an abandoned family house looming over an island for decades. What makes a setting feel haunted to you—even before a ghost appears?

I love anything abandoned or creepy-looking. I immediately start creating stories about that place and what may have happened in it, even if it’s (allegedly) completely innocent or benign. I am a HUGE fan of abandoned asylums and even wrote something (as yet unpublished) based on that setting. I think places like that carry energy and that energy can be transmuted into something almost physical given the right situation, and I love exploring where that can go.

This is the tenth book in the series, which means Maddie and the people around her have a long history together. What is the most challenging part of returning to the same place while also making each book accessible to new readers?

At some point you have to acknowledge that tourism is taking a hit because of all the murders! But seriously, I worked hard when I started the series to create a large cast of interesting secondary and community characters that I could dial up when I needed something or someone new to focus on. I always want to introduce new elements into each book so it never feels stale, and giving a previously-background actor a big role and their own story has been fun for me and, I hope, interesting to readers. I did it with Leopard Man, Cass the Zen master teacher, and even Maddie’s mom. It allows me to add layers to the town that all help in creating a rich tapestry of humans that make readers want to return over and over. 

If you could choose, what is one of the previous Cat Cafe Mysteries you are most proud of and would recommend to a reader discovering the series for the first time?

I love to start a series at the beginning, so for like-minded people I would say Cat About Town – it really brings Maddie’s and JJ’s origin story into focus and tells the story of how she got here. 

Aside from that, I did love writing Nine Lives and Alibis. It has all my favorite things—Halloween season, mediums, cold cases, murder and of course, cats. 

Now for my final, maybe the most controversial question, Maddie thinks that long-haired cats have the best tails. Do you agree with her?

Publicly, I’d have to plead the fifth because JJ isn’t long-haired and he would be so offended! But off the record, totally. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me! 

Thanks for having me! These were great questions!

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Thank you, reader, for joining me and Cate today!

Purranormal Activity is now available wherever books are sold! Be sure to check your local library too. Add this book on Goodreads or explore the rest of the Cat Cafe Mysteries. You can read my review here.

Many thanks to the Minotaur Books for the review copy and the interview opportunity! I appreciate every book that meets me in my mailboxes and every author who will take a few moments to chat about their book.