Guest Post with author Susan Leigh Noble

Developing a well-rounded, believable character is just one challenge writers face. But you aren’t limited to just writing about human characters. Animals can play an important role in your story. Having lived and loved many cats during my life, I found developing cats as characters in my novels to be extremely easy.

Of course one of the first things you must decide when using a cat as your character is will they be able to communicate or “speak” to other animals as the animals do in Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy mysteries or are they going to be restricted to just cat-like behavior such as the cats Koko and Yum Yum from Lillian Jackson Braun’s Cat Who series.

In my novel, Summoned, one of my main characters, Tosh, is a small grey cat. Since this is a fantasy novel, I had the liberty to have the cats actually communicate telepathically. Cats with this ability are actually called STACS. (Yes, that is just CATS spelled backwards. ) However, telepathy is not the only method of communication used. A lot of what a cat says is through non-verbal behavior which provides another outlet for telling the story.

I took many of the behaviors of my own cats and incorporated them into Tosh. So you have a good mix of cat-like behavior and intelligence that I would expect a cat to possess. Here is an excerpt from Summoned:

A veil of clouds passed in front of the moon casting darkness over the street. Tosh paused a moment, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim light. The air smelled of smoke and cooked meat mixed with the woodsy scent of the nearby forest. The STAC silently crept to the edge of the porch roof and gazed into the night. His eyes passed over the closed shops, their windows dark. No one was about at this late hour except Tosh and the boy.


He had heard the boy sneak out the door a few minutes earlier. Curiosity caused him to leave his warm spot by Lina to see where he was going. Now Tosh spotted the youth as he wandered down the cobblestone street making no effort to conceal his movements. Tosh leapt from the patio roof, his paws hitting the ground soundlessly. Following the boy, he crept down the street sticking to the shadows. Coy confidently strolled down the street, never looking back, never glancing at the buildings surrounding him. As he neared the corner, he suddenly vanished. Tosh blinked. His eyes searched the street, seeking him in the shadows but the boy was gone. 

Of course working with animals you are restricted with what they are able to do physically. You have to work around the fact that they can’t open doors or pick up larger items. But you do need to develop them just like you would any other character. At the end of Summoned, I introduced more STACs in addition to Tosh. Each one of them needs its own description, quarks, problems and history. But as I said, I have many known many cats in my life and it was easy to create each one of these unique characters.

Susan will award a $15 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour and a $10 Amazon GC to the host with the most comments (excluding Susan's and the host's).

The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/04/virtual-book-tour-summoned-by-susan.html

About the Author:

Susan Leigh Noble has always loved dragons and magic so it is no wonder that she became an author of fantasy novels. As a cat lover, she also threw a telepathic cat into the mix for her The Elemental Series. The first two books, Summoned and Quietus, have already been released in e-book format. She is currently working on the third and final chapter of the trilogy.

When she isn’t writing, Susan is an active volunteer in her neighborhood and at her children’s schools. She lives with her husband, two children and three cats in Texas.

She loves to hear from readers: susannoble@satx.rr.com

Check out her Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Leigh-Noble/200225396700412

Follow her on Twitter: @SusanLeighNoble

Author website: http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/susan-leigh-noble.html