About Me
My name is Cathy Vickers. Having failed spectacularly at a wide variety of entry-level jobs—pet shop assistant, telephone solicitor, waitress at a fondue restaurant—I decided there was only one career path left for me:
Writer.
*curtsies, trying to look Distinguished and Authorial and is glad you can't see her hair, because today is not a good Authorial Hair Day…*
I grew up an only child in a quiet suburban neighborhood, from which I learned an important lesson: being lonely sucks.
I love books. Books give you someone to hang out with even when there is nobody else around. But Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key are built on the principle that as fun as a book can be when you read it by yourself, it's even more fun when you do it with your friends.
Books are Gossip, Artfully Arranged
In the year 2000, according to my friend Emma, who keeps track of this sort of thing, sales of video games fell in Japan for the first time in history. Why? Because they were outcompeted by another entertainment option: the cell phone. Nothing is as much fun—certainly for a teenager—as another teenager.
And it isn't only teenagers. Think of a book club. No, not the imaginary kind where thoughtful adults tackle the searching questions of the day by the light of Great Literature. I mean real book clubs.
Woman in Her 40s: "So… The Kite Runner. What did you guys think?"
*awkward silence*
Josie from Work: "Before we start—did you get your hair done?"
Woman in Her 40s: (pleased) Do you like it?
*enthusiastic, relieved hair comments from the crowd lapsing into...*
*awkward silence*
Woman in Her 40s: So, anyway, Wanda, you were the one who suggested we should try The Kite Runner. What did you think?
Wanda: Uh. Uh. Well, it was really sad.
Everyone: "Oh, my God was it sad!" "I cried!" "I heard the movie was really depressing."
Woman in Her 40s: (resigned) How many people actually finished the book?
*awkward pause*
Wanda: *brightly* I brought snack!
My point here isn't to make fun of The Kite Runner—I hear it's great—or people in book clubs. I think this is like a lot of book clubs and that's OK. It's a GOOD thing. Books are gossip, artfully arranged. We are social creatures and we like to gossip about people we know. How many people do you truly know better than you know Elizabeth Bennett or Harry Potter or Anne of Green Gables? Twenty? Ten?
You can totally read Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key by yourself and never tell another soul. But, if you like, you are more than welcome to drop by my MySpace site or the forums where two thousand of my closest friends hang out.
Books are fun things to do with your friends.
Sharing is Looting
When I was in playschool, we had a huge sign on the wall that said Sharing is Caring. My Mom still tells the story of how she would come into the front yard, and half the time there would be some terrified kid clutching a toy or an Oreo from home or possibly it would be Bobby the asthmatic kid huddled over his adrenaline pens, and I would be bearing down on this hapless waif with a piratical gleam in my eye yelling, "Sharing Time!"
I still believe in sharing, but my understanding of the concept has gotten a little more sophisticated.
I love to read, but I also like to draw and paint, to collect stuff, to talk on the phone and write email. I want to share all that stuff with you, because my life is more than just words.
So I try to shove all of that into the books. It starts with my diary, but I doodle on my diary and you get that too. When I find things that might be clues—a forged birth certificate, a faded photograph—I'll put that in the book, too. Try calling me at 650 266-8233, or my new number, 650 266-8202. (If you call that one, from Cathy's Key, you'll find someone has stolen my phone and is trying to take over my life, but that's another story.)
PS I love to eat, too. I wanted to put a slice of French toast in the evidence packet for Cathy's Key, but Emma said it would be unsanitary. The small-minded of the world always fight against revolutionary thought.
The Cathy Show
Someone told me once that I went through life as if I was the star and everyone else was just an extra in my movie.
That hurt.
I don't want to be that girl with my friends, and I don't want to be that girl with you, either. Since you've been nice enough to invite me into your world, I want to return the favor and let you into mine.
For instance, if you leave a message on my voicemail, I might post it on www.CathysKey.com. Or send me an email: public@cathyskey.com. I post my favorite letters, too.
I have also opened an online gallery on the Cathy's Key site where readers can post their art (click the "Prestigious Gallery" link). I want to take some of the best pieces and actually publish them, either in the paperback of Cathy's Key, or in the hardcover of the next book.
A book should be something we all do together—me and my friends, you and yours.
The End Bit
Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key.
Books you can read by yourself.
Books you can live with your friends.
I hope you like them.
Love,
Cathy.
Just Kidding, THIS is Really the Final Bit.
I know a girl who named her cell phone Edward, after the guy in Twilight. If that phone RANG, and it was HIM, I think she would pass out. If you could walk into an adventure from a book, what book would it be? If you could get a phone call from any character, who would you most want to talk to?