The Black Cat Detectives
by Kit Gray
I read Kit Gray’s The Black Cat Detectives for the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour and lapped it up.
The book might be about stage magic and “cat physics” that humans would think of as magic. But the magic of writing boils down to hard work, and Kit has written a guest post to explain her Five Self-Care Rituals to Nurture Creativity.
There is a King Sumo GIVEAWAY for this tour. Prize -One winner receives a signed Advanced Review Copy of The Black Cat Detectives with an adorable Cuteness Care Package, which is a collection of stickers, bookmarks, and other swag. 3 runners-up will win only the cuteness care package. Make sure you enter the Giveaway at the end of the post.
AUTHOR GUEST POST:
By Kit Gray
Five Self-Care Rituals to Nurture Creativity
.Five Self-Care Rituals to Nurture Creativity
Guest Blog Post by Kit Gray
I don’t know a single person who’s not stressed out by the state of the world right now. I’m not going to get into the whys and wherefores. There are plenty of brilliant blogs doing that already.
But here’s one thing I know for sure: If you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, it’ll squash your creativity flat.
So here are a few things I do when I find myself grinding through my responsibilities and struggling to access my creativity and joy.
1. Visit Nature:
Being in a place where I can breathe in the world and realize how tiny and insignificant and brief my own life is really helps me find some perspective. One of my favorite spots is the Pattaconk Reservoir at Cockaponset State Forest. This time of year, the geese bring their fuzzy gray goslings right up onto the lawn in front of the reservoir at sunset, completely unconcerned by the presence of awestruck humans. Sometimes, the lil floofs will pad right up to you while their grownups remind you with their calm gazes that they are not even the tiniest bit afraid to take you out if you disrespect their babies. https://ctparks.com/parks/cockaponset-state-forest
If life, budget, and spoons allow, going camping for a few days is an even better panacea when my soul feels all ragged and colorless. It’s just me and my daughter (age 9) and our fur family at home. Luckily, my kiddo is a nature-lover, too! Our favorite spot is the Mount Misery campground at Pachaug State Forest. I know… that name… but it’s gorgeous and quiet and utterly magical. I swear. https://ctparks.com/parks/pachaug-state-forest
2. Smash Stuff
This may seem counterintuitive to some people, but I believe that creation and destruction are part of the same cycle. Life and death are connected in an endless dance of renewal. We write, and then we “kill our darlings” as we revise. When the weight of the world feels too heavy, my kiddo (age 9) and I love to kick and stomp empty cardboard boxes before we recycle them, or fill ziplock baggies with oreo cookies and pulverize them with hammers (and then make oreo cupcakes!) or make sculptures out of peanut butter play dough and then smash them flat with our fists.
I believe that finding appropriate ways to release stress and anger and dread is just as valuable as being able to reclaim our chill. I’ve heard that there are even places called Smash Rooms where you can go and destroy stuff like old computer monitors and glassware, but we’ve never tried it.
3. Make Cookies at a Completely Inappropriate Time
Or waffles. There is something utterly delightful about warm baked goods when the whole world around you is asleep, not to mention the fun of surprising a kiddo (or an adult, or a pupper, or your own inner child) with a warm cookie at two in the morning. There is nothing that sweeps away the doldrums quite like being utterly ridiculous. My daughter has a gingerbread cookie recipe that’s warm and comforting and absolutely unforgettable. She makes them for friends at every playdate, and there is nothing quite like her sleepy joy when she’s cutting out shapes with cookie cutters, tasting the icing, and watching them puff up in the oven, all tousled and eager. We also make cookies with Cap’n Crunch cereal in them. But that’s a whole other kind of silly fun.
.4. Of Course, I’m Going to Say Hot Tea and a Good Book
I mean… I’m an author. I feel like this one is pretty obvious. But just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s any less awesome. I remember discovering the joy of reading and tea when I was maybe six. I was a precocious, avid reader, and one summer afternoon, my mom passed by my reading chair and set a big mug of Lipton Almond Pleasure tea on the table beside me, then vanished without saying a word. Friends, it was revelatory. That particular tea has been discontinued for decades now, but tea and reading have been two of my favorite self-care strategies ever since, and when you combine them? Bliss!
5. Connect with Someone who Gets You
Being a solo parent is an amazing journey most of the time, and of course my world revolves around my kiddo. But I have a Person. You know what I mean. Like a best friend, except even if you make all the letters of the word “best” capital and bold, it still doesn’t come close to conveying the depth of that bond. For some people, this is a spouse. For others, it’s not a human, but rather a dog or cat or horse. My Person is another author, April McCloud. We live 300 miles away from one another, but that doesn’t stop us from seeing one another several times a year. No matter what’s going on, no matter what time it is, I know that if I need something, I can call and April will be there, and that bond goes both ways. Driving three hundred miles is nothing if your Person needs you. We’ve both done it.
But I’m not just talking about the crisis stuff. What I’m saying is that connecting with my Person regularly grounds me. It helps me stay centered in a sense of who I am and what matters to me. It restores my faith in humanity. April and I share all of our writing with one another. We’re each other’s alpha reader, biggest fan, and best critique partner. The vast majority of the time, we connect on Discord. If I go more than a few days without spending some time connecting with April, I’ll start to struggle more. Even if I don’t realize why right away.
So, there you have it! Five things I do to care for myself and nurture my creativity. What about you? Let me know which ones resonate with you, or share your own favorite strategies in the comments below!
About The Black Cat Detectives
The Black Cat Detectives: A Mystery
Cozy Animal Mystery
Setting – Corvin’s Crossing—a small fictional island off the coast of New England
Publisher : Crooked Lane Books
Publication date : May 26, 2026
Print length : 304 pages
Hardcover
ISBN-13 : 979-8892425520
ASIN : B0FNW3NQ3C
Paperback
ISBN-13 : 979-8892425537
ASIN : B0FNVM2SHD
Digital
ISBN-13 : 979-8892425544
ASIN : B0FNW6TDN4
A charming cozy mystery with a delightful twist: The detectives are three kittens with magical powers, determined to solve a most purr-plexing case.
Precocious kittens Bippity, Boppity, and Boop are exceedingly loyal to their human, the twenty-eight-year-old up-and-coming magician Mila. She saved them from starving to death in a dingy Corvin’s Crossing alleyway and has been nothing but loving ever since, even though her own life is in shambles.
So when Mila’s sketchy boyfriend and business manager turns up dead at the end of her big magic show—she’s the prime suspect. With evidence mounting, there’s nothing stopping the sheriff from hauling away Mila to the human pound. Unless the kittens can solve the crime and clear her name.
The kittens will have to use their dubious control over the laws of physics and every whisker of know-how they’ve got to catch the real killer if they want to save their happy home with Mila. This is one meow-stery more tangled than any ball of yarn they’ve encountered yet.
Storybook Lady
Review
The Black Cat Detectives
by Kit Gray
I love cozy mysteries, and nothing is more cozy than a cat- except three of them. Elise Scott, using the appropriate nom de plume Kit Gray, has written an cute kitty cozy that cat-loving mystery fans will adore. Mila is a magician waiting for her chance to make it big, but while her magic is all an act the real magic is wielded by her three new kittens. Of course, they don’t call it magic- it is really Physics. Cats have a grasp of physics that no human can understand it is Cat Law that the kitties keep it that way. But when Mila’s boyfriend literally drops dead ( from the catwalk) during Mila’s magic act, Bippity, Boppity and Boop must use their talents to help their new person solve the murder, before she ends up in the “human pound”. The story is told from four points of view. The chapters alternate between narration by each kitten and chapters told in third person from Mila’s point of view.
The human protagonist was a bit gullible, but she is a loving friend and pet mom. The cats each have distinct fully realized characters. Bippity sees herself as the leader, a queen in the making, who can bend photons to make herself seem invisible to humans.. Boppity is a fierce protector, he is always fighting shadows. He can somehow connect items together using cat science so that he can move items without being being noticed. Boop is a nonbinary cuddle kitten who’s superpower is their purr. Their words of encouragement keep their siblings strong.
The story takes a lot of suspension of disbelief. But the writing is lively and imaginative and I found the story a delight. If you love cozy mysteries and cats, this is the purr-fect book for you.
Want to read more of my reviews?
Interested in my reviews? I also have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to Cozy Mysteries. Want to read my reviews for books in other genres? I’ve got you covered. There are almost two thousand reviews on Goodreads. Just check out Julie Ditton on Goodreads.
About Kit Gray
Kit Gray aka Elise Scott writes from their lived experiences of queerness, disability, neurodivergence, fat-positivity, and petting three cats with two hands. Their life has been an adventure, from facilitating equine therapy for trauma survivors to counseling at-risk youth with the aid of an inordinately large sub-woofer and beyond. They earned their BA from Mount Holyoke and their MS from Capella University. Their debut novel, a cozy mystery featuring three kittens with the ability to bend the laws of physics, who must solve a murder to save their rescuer from the human pound, is forthcoming from Crooked Lane in May 2026. Elise is a Not Quite Write Prize winner and Best-of-the-Net nominee. Their short work has appeared/is forthcoming in The Advocate, Choices: An Anthology of Reproductive Horror, The Not Quite Write Anthology 2025, The B’K, Five Minutes, Knee Brace, All Existing, and Quibble, among others.
Learn More about Kit Gray
Find out what they’re working on now at http://elise-scott.com.
Purchase Links – Penguin Random House Amazon B&N Bookshop.org
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
June 3 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
June 3 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 4 – Storybook Lady – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 4 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 5 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
June 5 – @bibliophile_foodie – REVIEW
June 6 – Baroness Book Trove -SPOTLIGHT
June 7 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
June 8 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows -CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 9 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
June 9 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 10 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 11 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
June 12 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 13 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 13 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
June 14 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 15 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 16 – Deal Sharing Aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
The Black Cat Detectives
Giveaway
King Sumo tour wide GIVEAWAY Grand Prize -One winner receives a signed Advanced Review Copy of The Black Cat Detectives with an adorable Cuteness Care Package, which is a collection of stickers, bookmarks, and other swag. 3 runners-up will win only the cuteness care package.
King Sumo Code:
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Thank you so much for hosting me and for this absolutely lovely review!