DRU: Laura Levine is unfortunately unable to participate in this interview, so instead we’ve managed to contact the co-star of her Jaine Austen Mysteries, Jaine’s cat Prozac.
Can you tell us what it’s like living with Jaine?

PROZAC: Co-star? Who are you calling co-star? I’m the star of that series, and don’t you forget it!

DRU: Sorry.

PROZAC: As for Jaine, the woman is impossible. The way she tells her stories, I’m a demanding cat with the appetite of a longshoreman. Nothing could be further from the truth. I happen to be a sweet, sensitive caring pet, practically Lassie with hairballs, totally unselfish, always putting the needs of others before my own—Hey, wait. Is that a pastrami sandwich you’re eating? Can I have half? And while you’re at it, how about a belly rub?

(TIME OUT FOR PASTRAMI AND BELLY RUB)

PROZAC: As I was saying (BURP), it’s been hell living with Jaine. Utter hell. She earns a mere pittance as a freelance writer, and what does she do in her spare time? Runs around solving murders! Hello. You think that puts any caviar in my food bowl? Or diamond collars around my neck? Nuh-uh. But does she care? No, it’s always about her. Doesn’t she realize that when she gets seriously injured trying to track down a killer it might make her late with one of my snacks?

DRU: That’s a problem.

PROZAC: And speaking of snack deprivation, you won’t believe the nightmare Jaine put me through last summer.

DRU: What happened?

PROZAC: You can read all about it in PAMPERED TO DEATH. Jaine told me she was taking me to a swellegant spa where I could lie around soaking up the sun all day, but instead the place turned to be a diet boot camp! And the ogre in charge had the nerve to put moi in a diet! I’ve never been so outraged in all my nine lives. And instead of whisking me back home and covering me with kitty kisses, what did Jaine do? She stuck around to solve the murder of a B-list movie star. I tell you, the woman is so darn selfish!

DRU: Do you think you and Jaine can ever work things out?

PROZAC: I’m not sure. I sometimes have daydreams of being adopted by George Clooney (hubba hubba!). Or maybe moving in with Meryl Streep (I’m sure she’d adore me; we’re so alike in temperament.) But for the time being, I guess I’ll stick with Jaine. At least until my next belly rub.

DRU: Any last words?

PROZAC: Got any more of that pastrami?

Meet the author
Laura Levine is a former sitcom writer whose credits include The Bob Newhart Show, Laverne & Shirley, The Jeffersons, The Love Boat, Three’s Company, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. As an advertising copywriter, she created Count Chocula and Frankenberry cereals for General Mills. Her work has been published in The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

In her latest (and favorite) incarnation as a mystery novelist, she has been a New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Romantic Times award for Most Humorous Mystery. She and her husband live in Los Angeles.

Books are available at retail and online booksellers.