Publishers Marketplace: Clea Simon

I'm the author of three nonfiction books and a mystery series. The nonfiction books are "Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings" (published as a Doubleday hardcover in 1997, released as a Penguin paperback in 1998), "Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads" (Wiley, 2001) and "The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats" (St. Martin's Press, 2002).

These days I'm focusing on fiction. Theda Krakow mystery series was launched in 2005 with "Mew is for Murder" and continues with "Cattery Row" and "Cries and Whiskers," all originally published in hardcover and now available in trade paperback from Poisoned Pen. The fourth Theda book, "Probable Claws," will pub in April, 2009.

My agent is currently shopping a mystery with trace of paranormal, featuring a graduate student who is studying Gothic literature and whose dear, departed cat shows up as a helpful ghost. I am currently working on two projects: a pet psychic mystery, sort of "pet noir," about a grumpy animal behaviorist who picks up clues from what the animals around her notice. It is based on my short story, "Dumb Beasts," which will be published in November in "Deadfall: A Crime Fiction Anthology" (Level Best), and a darker rock and roll mystery.

For Barnes and Noble's Library of Essential Reading, I have written new introductions to two Agatha Christie classics, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" and "The Secret Adversary." Both pub in March 2009. My essays are included in the following anthologies: Cat Women: Female Writers on Their Feline Friends (Seal Press) and For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance (Seal Press). My writing also pops up occasionally in the the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, and the Boston Phoenix, and such magazines as American Prospect, Ms., and Salon.com. I used to do a fair amount of music criticism, but now primarily focus on my mysteries, relationships, feminism, and psychological issues.