Sometimes the best way to know a person is by asking questions, so let’s meet Colbie.

What is your name?
Colbie Summers

How old are you?
30, no biggie. I’m fine with that. Really.

What is your profession?
I’m the owner of the Meowio Batali Gourmet Cat Food Company.

Do you have a significant other?
Yikes! That’s a bit of a reach. Not that I’m commitment-phobic or anything, but Joss Delaney and I just recently started dating. He’s got beautiful blue eyes and wears tank tops. Whew! He’s an organic chicken farmer (yes, that’s a thing) who lives right down the block from me. He’s divorced with a ten year daughter named Kai. Did I mention he has blue eyes?

Do you have any sibling(s)?
No. A brother or sister would have been nice once in a while growing up. My mom left when I was very young and my father never remarried.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
Trouble is my orange tabby cat and the inspiration for my company. She’d been abandoned in an empty apartment of the building I managed and I adopted her. She’s always had digestive issues, which is why I started cooking for her. When my friends told me that their cats had problems too, I started selling my food to an ever-widening circle. Then I graduated to selling at farmers markets. Now my products are sold at a local health food store.

Trouble is my taste-tester for new products. I learned years ago that if she doesn’t like the recipe, it will never sell.

What town do you live in?
Sunnyside, California, a fictional town about twenty miles from San Diego

House or building complex?
My twelve year son Elliott and I moved back in with my dad when he was recovering from pneumonia. We had a difficult relationship ever since I dropped out of college when I got pregnant. We’re both working on that, and now he doesn’t want us to move out.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
The kitchen! I love to work on cat food recipes and make food for my dad and son.

Who is your best friend?
Lani Nakano is the best friend anyone could have. She owns the Find Your Re-Purpose company. She creates gorgeous, and adventurous, clothing designs from used clothing.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
DEFINITELY an amateur. Just ask my friend Detective Norma Chiron who tells me to stay out of her investigations ALL the time.

Whom do you work with when sleuthing?
Usually my BFF Lani, but I get lots of help from other members of the Sunnyside Power Moms, which is a network of moms who run home businesses.

Favorite meal?
Chicken burritos from Pico’s, our favorite restaurant, and a mango margarita.

Favorite dessert?
That’s a toss-up between really good coffee and anything chocolate.

Favorite hobby?
Before it became my job, cooking used to be my favorite hobby. It’s pretty hard to fit a hobby in between being a mom, volunteering for junior theater costume duty, taking care of my dad, running a small company, and dating the sexy farmer neighbor. I’m going to have to work on that.

Favorite vacation spot?
Being a single mom didn’t leave a lot of money for vacations. Elliott and I enjoyed stay-cations in San Diego.

Movies or Broadway?
Does junior theater count? My son loves musical theater but money has been too tight for tickets to touring Broadway shows. We both love action movies, but I refuse to go with him to the horror movies he loves.

Are you a morning or a night person?
I love the early morning when the air is cool and it feels like I’m the only one awake.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
Ideally, I’m up before sunrise drinking a lot of coffee and trying new cat food recipes. Trouble eventually joins me. She takes turns perching on the windowsill to watch the world wake up and twisting around my ankles demanding to taste.

I wake up my son to get him ready for school and I make breakfast for my dad and him. Then it’s fighting the school drop-off nightmare and driving to the commercial kitchen in San Diego where I work with my chefs to cook the food that gets canned and sold in stores. Afternoons are spent on the business side – marketing, accounting, following up with my suppliers – and then I head to Sunnyside to pick up Elliott from whatever activity he’s doing and head home. If he has a late night, I can usually squeeze in a date with Joss.

Of course, whenever an emergency happens, like when I stumble across a dead body, that schedule goes out the window!

Giveaway: Have you ever made your own pet food? Leave a comment below for your chance to win a digital copy (Kindle or Nook) of The Trouble with Murder. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends August 29, 2018. Good luck everyone!

You can read about Colbie in The Trouble with Truth, the second book in the “Gourmet Cat” mystery series, coming August 28, 2018. The first book in the series is The Trouble with Murder.

Things are looking up for single mom Colbie Summers. After relocating back to her California hometown with her adolescent son and taste-testing feline, Trouble, she’s ready to take her gourmet cat food company to the next level. Until helping a teenager gets Colbie mixed up in a fresh case of murder. . .

Trying to balance her hectic family life with her growing business—including a coveted contract with the local organic food store—leaves Colbie scrambling to keep all her balls in the air. But when a Sunnyside resident is found dead in his garage, she takes on a new role: harboring a suspected killer.

The eighteen-year-old murder suspect, a former foster kid and Colbie’s part-time chef, had a powerful motive to snuff out the high-profile businessman. The real question is, who didn’t? Sifting through the victim’s sordid history unearths a cat’s cradle of crimes, including money laundering and abuse. Now, to clear an innocent girl’s name, Colbie must sniff out the truth before a killer who smells trouble goes on the attack again.

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About the author
Kathy Krevat is the author of the “Gourmet Cat Mystery” series featuring cat food chef Colbie Summers and her demanding cat Trouble, the culinary muse behind her recipes. She also writes the bestselling “Chocolate Covered Mystery” series under the pen name, Kathy Aarons.

Kathy lives in San Diego with her husband of twenty-six years in the perfect location – close to Philz Coffee and the beach, and within visiting distance of her two grown daughters. When she’s not writing, she’s an advocate for youth arts education and president of Partners in Crime, the San Diego Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

You can follow Kathy on Facebook or Twitter or visit her at kathykrevat.com.

All comments are welcomed.