Guest Blogger: AJ CHASE

In my new book Cat and Mouse, available from Freya’s Bower, the hero has a little secret he’s keeping from the heroine. It’s very little. About mouse sized. See Sam Philmont happens to be a mouse sometimes. Being a were-mouse presents its own challenges. Especially when the heroine is a were-cat.

They always say write what you know. I, admittedly, have never possessed the ability to shift into a cat (though my brother and I played superhero games wherein I was always Super Kitten) and I’ve never dated a man who turns into a mouse. But I’ve dated plenty who suddenly turned into rats. So, in honor of my new release this is a list of the differences between dating a mouse and a rat.

Mice are considered to be quick and stealthy, sneaky even. Certainly if you asked Tom of “and Jerry” fame, he’d attest to all of the above. In human form, the hero Sam Philmont is intelligent and maybe even a little sneaky since he withholds a major truth from the heroine until he can’t anymore. But mostly he’s a good guy who is afraid the heroine won’t accept him for what he is.

But I once dated a guy who tried to go out with me and another girl who worked with me at the same time and tried to make us avoid each other by telling each of us that the other hated us. Because we weren’t fifteen at the time this didn’t work. We just talked to each other in the lunch room and someone was out, not one, but two, girlfriends.

That’s one difference between dating a mouse and a rat.

Having a mouse around also makes you think of things that scrabble and scurry and squirm around when you try to catch them. Being twitchy is acceptable when you’re in little rodent form but Sam spends most of his time as a human, and he, frankly, wants to be caught by the heroine.

Ladies, I think we’ve all dated the type that squirm and twitch when you try to hold on to them. I once dated someone who would repeatedly break up with me whenever we got to close to commitment and then come back again until he finally dumped me on Christmas Eve by telling me he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be with me, he just wanted someone to be nice to him. I should have just stopped myself from being such an idiot and just kept him in a cage with a big wheel to run on.

That’s a different between dating a mouse and a rat.

Mice are bright eyed and cute and run around investigating everything with their twitchy little noses. They are naturally curious and they’re pretty cute behind glass so we don’t even care. Sam uses his natural curiosity to find the heroine again and make sure they would have met up, class reunion or not.

I once dated a guy who came into my house before a date and immediately started going through my drawers without asking and didn’t seem the slightest bit upset by my obvious horror at his stalkeresque behavior. I finally had to call a male friend and remind him of “those plans we had” to get rid of that other guy.

And that my friends, is the difference between dating a mouse and a rat.

So we might never get to date a were-mouse or a were-anything, personally I think a were-vacuum or dishwasher or something of that nature might be a convenient husband, we can still avoid dating that one guy who just turns into a rat with so little warning.

And in case you’re curious what it’s like to date a mouse, you can pick up Cat and Mouse, available now at Freya’s Bower.

AND today I'm offering to give away a copy of this book to one of the commenters. The winner will be announced tonight on this blog and e-mailed so make sure we know how to contact you!

http://ajchasebooks.com/