Cat and The Dreamer by Annalisa Crawford

 

One of my writing buddies, Annalisa Crawford, had her novella, Cat and The Dreamer,  published last week.  You can download it here at Vagabondage Press, here at All Romance Books or here on Amazon.

 

 

Without wanting to give too much away, Cat and The Dreamer is an absorbing novella, quirky and very readable.  I found myself really feeling for Julia in her struggle to break free of her childhood; the cloying atmosphere at home and her lack of confidence are almost painful.  Will Julia be able to leave her past behind?  It's an unusual and very touching story - definitely one that stays with you after you've finished it.

 

I have interviewed Annalisa in honour of this occasion (because who doesn't like to celebrate a fellow writer's success?)

 

What was your inspiration for Cat and The Dreamer?

There were some news stories floating around in the papers about suicide pacts, and I wondered what it would feel like to  survive a pact knowing that your friend had died. Would you feel guilt, relief, would you want to try again?

The office dynamics in the story ring very true - have you ever been the odd one out, like Julia?

At school, I felt a little bit on the outside. I had some really good friends, but I also knew I wasn't quite like them. The writing always made me different. When I got to A-Levels, I'd figured out how to make the best of being different, something Julia hasn't quite done.

Are you a daydreamer?
Oh yes. I am the inspiration for Julia, 100%!

What's your most common daydream?

There isn't a common one. I daydream all the time. My internal monologue is bascially a re-telling of the things I'm doing at the time. It's the reason I started writing. When I was little I became very afraid that my daydreams would come true - I thought I had that power, because my mum always said 'Be careful what you wish for'! A lot of my childhood daydreams involved my parents going missing and me ending up in an orphanage.

Would you say your writing falls into a particular genre?

Not at all. Contemporary is the closest I can get to a genre, and that seems like a cop-out. Almost everything I write is completely different from the last. I've often thought about a collection of short stories but none of them are similar enough to fit into the same book.

Can you describe in three words how it feels to have your novella out there in the big, wide world?

Scary, amazing, perfect.

What are you writing now?
I'm finishing off a trilogy of novellas that I'm hoping will be published as a collection. One story needs a lot of work, so I'm having to rewrite. The stories are all set in the same town, which is haunted, and some of the characters overlap a little bit. But the main link are the pub and the bridge. 

 

I'm really looking forward to reading that!  Thanks, Annalisa! 

Thanks for reading, everyone! ;-)