Debbie Manber Kupfer – Author of The P.A.W.S. Saga – find out more at her website. She grew up in the UK in the East London suburb of Barking. Then she lived in Israel, New York and North Carolina and somehow ended up in St. Louis. She lives with a husband, two children and two very opinionated felines, Miri and Whiskey. Debbie believes that with enough tea and dark chocolate you can achieve anything!
- What is your book about?
P.A.W.S. is a YA urban fantasy saga set around an international organization of shapeshifters, The Partnership of Animagi, Werewolves and Shifters. The series begins when a young girl, Miri Katz receives a silver cat charm from her grandmother, Celia, the day before she dies. Little does she know but the charm holds a special magic that has been passed on through the generations. It helped save Celia’s life from the Nazis and is about to make Miri’s life a whole lot more interesting. - Every author does something different with urban fantasy, what is your twist on the genre?
P.A.W.S. is different from other urban fantasies because it is a global organization. Each book in the series travels to a different world city including (so far) St. Louis, New York, London, Vienna, and Jerusalem. I have a personal connection with each of the cities we visit in the Saga and I hope that gives my series authenticity. - What inspired you to write this book?
They say to write what you love to read. Well, on a personal level, I love urban fantasy that takes place in our world. I want to dream that the magic is out there if only we knew how to access it.
I daydream a lot (always have) and I, like Miri, was bullied as a kid, so I used fantasy stories to escape from the bullies. I’d escape into the world of the books I read and forget about the meanness for a while. Later I started writing my own stories.
The story of P.A.W.S. took shape in my head for a number of years before I wrote it down and now I need to keep writing the series, so both I and my readers can learn how it all works out. - As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Cat, of course! Nearly all my stories feature cats and I have two kitties of my own. There’s something mysterious and magical about the feline. - How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I have almost finished the first draft of P.A.W.S. 7 that I hope to have out sometime in 2021. I’ve also got several chapters already written for P.A.W.S. 8 and the first few chapters for my next series, Hell Raised (about a kid who grows up in Hell), that I’m making myself not write until I’m finished with P.A.W.S.
