Check it out.

What do you see in all those colorful squiggles? An elephant? A unicorn. A cat…? Is that an eye? A cat’s eye? Granted, it’s still mostly squiggles at this point, but all will be revealed.

This is part of the official Cover Reveal sequence for Cat Conundrum, 7th in the Crazy Cat Lady cozy mystery series. If you’ve read others in the series, you know our hero Lynley Cannon routinely finds herself in trouble. She’d been in pickles, quandaries, jams, messes, and a whole lot of hot water, but has she ever been in a real conundrum before?

What exactly is a conundrum? According to Merriam-Webster, conundrum is one of the ten most frequently search terms on their website—not what is trending, but words that consistently rank among the top searches.

Conundrum refers to complex, difficult problems or, more informally, a mystery or puzzle (or a riddle with a punning answer). The word is, ironically, itself a mystery, with its exact origin unknown.

“What is known is that the word has been in use since the early 1600s, and that it had various spellings, such as conimbrum, quonundrum, conuncrum, and quadundrum, before the current spelling was finally established sometime in the mid-17th century. One theory of origin suggests that the word was coined as a parody of Latin by students at Oxford University, where it appears to have enjoyed particular popularity in its “word play” or “pun” sense.

While the prevalent sense in this century is that of the seemingly unanswerable question or problem, frequently applied to heady dilemmas involving ethics, sociology, or economics, the word is sometimes so loosely applied to anything enigmatic as to be synonymous with puzzle or mystery.”

—merriam-webster.com  

Contest Winner!

The winner of last week’s Cover Reveal Contest is Alice Duff! Congratulations, Alice! We hope you enjoy your Cat Lady License Plate Frame!

Another Contest!

Since I can’t get out and physically promote Cat Conundrum, I’m celebrating in different ways. This week’s contest drawing is for a Sleepyville Critters Cat Purse and wallet set. The purse is 8″ across and has a shoulder strap. Both items are new.

For a chance to win, email me at molliehuntcatwriter@gmail.com and put Contest, Cat Purse in the subject line. Tyler the cat will choose the winner at random from the entries received. Sorry, U.S. addresses only. Name will be drawn Saturday September 12th.

Stay Tuned…

Cat Conundrum is due out October 29th, 2020 in celebration of National Cat Day. There will be lots more good news between now and then!