Julie Smith, the well-known creator of the dectectives Skip Langdon and Talba Wallace in her 
mystery series which includes the Edgar-winning New Orleans Mourning, is now turning her hand to a different kind of character, an 
engaging one at that, a cat. He’s named A.B., advisor to budding psychic Reeno, ace teen burglar, tough and wiley like Julie’s other female protagonists, just younger. Taking a cue from all of the resarch for her long series of mystery novels for adults, Reeno is a well drawn crime figure who describes her friend A. B. as the “mutant cat from Hell.” The book, Cursebusters, a YA paranormal adventure, was released this summer. After editing a successful anthology by New Orleans authors, New Orleans Noir, she created an e-publishing company, launched in 2010 with a book by Patty Friedmann, and will have published 11 by the end of the year. Julie, who also has been a writing coach, is author of Writing Your Way, a no-nonsense, jam-packed book on writing fiction. The book came directly out of the author’s belief that most teachers need to cut their students a little slack and help them find their own writing method. As a result of her own explorations for e-publishing, she has posted a blog dealing with The Secret i-Book Strategy. “Here’s the great thing about i-Books,” says Julie, “you can actually watch little movies in your book—right on your iPad or phone–like Harry Potter and his buddies did in the Hogwarts library. The pages turn just like real ones.” Find out more about Julie and her work at: http//www.booksBnimble.com, http://cursebustersbook.com/, and http://www.casamysterioso.com. She also blogs, Facebooks, and she, we assume, tweets up a storm, a totally modern Millie of a writer!