Dear friends and followers,

We are now one week into the campaign for "Cat’s Paw", and we’re standing at a somewhat precarious 2nd place in the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller Contest. Some of you have already got on board with that campaign, and I am grateful for your ongoing support. I hope more of you will consider doing the same. "A Gentleman’s Murder" has done quite well since its release, and I would like to think that it’s demonstrated my capabilities with a word processor; but one can’t just stop there. It doesn’t pay to be complacent.

Click here for the "Cat’s Paw" project page.

"Cat’s Paw" is somewhat darker than "A Gentleman’s Murder" was, having actually begun as an idea for a horror story. But then, I know mystery a lot better than I know horror, and so it’s classed as a mystery ... albeit one with its roots in a very dark place. But then again, some people would just call that "Noir".

In the meantime, I should like to draw your attention to a Facebook fundraiser a friend of mine started for the American Cancer Society. Cancer is a nasty business, to put it lightly, and these people are doing some very good work about it. I hope you’ll give this fundraiser some consideration.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Cat’s Paw".

The "Cat’s Paw" campaign is running in conjunction with the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller Contest. This means that, although your pre-order confirmation emails mention a 30 January 2019 deadline, our real deadline is actually 21 November 2018. It also means that, until then, we’re counting the number of readers -- that is, the individual people ordering -- not the number of books ordered as is usually the case. For this reason, I’m asking each of you to see if you can’t get at least one friend on board. I’m sure you all know at least one person who’d be interested.

We’re at a rather precarious 2nd place in the contest at the moment. I don’t mind saying that it has me feeling rather anxious, though of course we’re only a week into the contest and a lot can happen over the next two months.

I’ll discuss more about "Cat’s Paw" and the inspirations behind it in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’d like to draw your attention to this Facebook fundraiser a friend of mine has started for the American Cancer Society. Cancer is a nasty business, to put it lightly, and these people are doing some very good work.

Keep up the good fight,

- Christopher Huang