Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter: A Guest Post from Heather Fawcett

Agnes has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats, but to save her shelter from dark magic, she’ll have to team up with a cunning magician. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Heather Fawcett on writing Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter. 

I’ve always wanted to write a book about cats. We see them often, particularly in the fantasy genre, as side characters—a couple of my favourites are the Cheshire Cat, and Mogget from Garth Nix’s Sabriel. But I wanted to write something that put cats at the centre of the story. They’ve been an important part of my life since before I can remember, and of the lives of so many people, not just as companions but as fluffy little weirdos who—against their will, it sometimes seems—enrich our lives and relationships.

I had been toying with an idea that I called my ‘magical cat shelter book’ for some time, even before I came up with the idea for the Emily Wilde series. (I would be remiss if I did not note here that the fourth book in the series, Emily Wilde’s History of Dark Faerie is coming out in January, and can be preordered through this very website.) My cat Artemis (probably sprawled across my arms as you read this, preventing me from typing) is a shelter rescue, and I’ve always had a deep respect for the work that shelters do in our communities. I’d never read a fantasy book set in an animal shelter before, and that seemed like a good reason to write one.

But the pieces didn’t really start coming together until I randomly came across a news article about the growing street cat population in Montreal—a city I’ve always loved, and had always wanted to set a story in. Coming up with the character of Agnes was perhaps the easiest part, as she’s inspired by many of the long-time volunteers I’ve known, most of whom are equally compassionate and unnervingly organized.

I’m often asked why I write fantasy, and it’s something I struggle to answer. I think this is because I’ve loved the genre since I was very young, and it’s hard to find an explanation for an interest that’s been with you so long it’s almost embedded inside you. But I think it’s because fantasy—the best fantasy, anyway—isn’t entirely or even mostly about the magic or the invented world, it’s about taking something true about us or our world and putting it into a fantastical context, allowing us to see it in a new light. Agnes Aubert is about enchanted artefacts and disreputable magicians who lurk in basements, but it’s also about finding ways to do good in a complicated and at times indifferent world, which is its own kind of magic.

I hope you enjoy Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter!