Back when I was writing my Hidden Springs mysteries, I hadn’t had a cat for years and years. When I was a kid, cats were always around. Barn cats. Farm cats. My mother even had a cat she let in the house. When I was a kid, I was surprised at that, but Mom loved Maggie. My favorite aunt was a cat lover and let some of her favorites in the house, but I had never thought Mom would.
Those of you who read my posts here and on social media know that I’m a dog lover. I’ve had a dog of my own ever since I was about ten. Cats were okay, but a dog was necessary. Now I do have a cat. Mama Mia was a feral cat that had kittens under my deck. I found homes for her kittens, had her spayed, and made friends with her. She is now my front yard cat and seems happy to be so. She comes running every time I go out front.
Mama Mia showing up in my yard was a while after I came up with three cat characters for my Hidden Springs mystery books. so, she wasn’t inspiration for them.
The first cat was a yellow barbershop cat name Two Bits in Murder at the Courthouse. But Two Bits wasn’t the only cat in that first mystery story. Malinda Keane, Michael’s aunt, was a cat lover and had a cat that was a very one person cat. In the first scene with Grimalkin, we find that out when in an argument, the rocking chair where the cat is sleeping somehow gets kicked.
“You upset Grimalkin.” Aunt Lindy gestured toward the cat peering down from the bookshelf with an injured air. “She’s not a cat who forgives easily.”
Two Bits was an easy name to come up with for the barbershop cat, but I remember doing some searching to try to find the perfect name for Aunt Lindy’s cat. I’m not sure where I came across the name Grimalkin. While Murder at the Courthouse was published not so long ago, I first came up with the story and Aunt Lindy’s cat’s name years before that. I must have seen that the word could mean cat in a literary way somewhere. These years later, I don’t think I did enough research to discover that grimalkin could also be a derogatory term for an old woman.
If I had researched more, I might have wondered if the name was right. Here’s what I found when I looked up grimalkin this week.
A grimalkin is an archaic or literary term for a cat, specifically an old or female cat. By extension, it is also used as a derogatory term for an ill-tempered, crotchety, or shrewish old woman.
My apologies to Malinda Keane. Aunt Lindy is sixty something in the story. She’s single and has been teaching high school math for years. She’s a demanding teacher but ill-tempered and shrewish does not describe her. She is stern and expects her students to do their best. She demands the same from Michael.
Here’s more about the etymology of the name.
- Graymalkin: The word comes from combining “gray” (or gri-) with malkin, a diminutive nickname for the proper name Maud or Matilda. (Hmm, perhaps I should have named Malinda Matilda instead.)
- Malkin’s Evolution: Over time, malkin became a generic term for a lower-class woman, a scarecrow or mop, and eventually a name for a cat or hare.
- Shakespeare’s Influence: The spelling Graymalkin was famously used in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth as the name of the first witch’s familiar (a guardian spirit in animal form).
- Witchcraft and Folklore: Because of early modern associations between cats and accused witches, grimalkins frequently appeared in folklore and literature as magical or demonic familiars. In Scottish legend, a grimalkin was sometimes described as a highland faery cat that could shapeshift.
At least I knew the cat needed to be gray. You can check out Grimalkin’s picture on the mailbox in the picture at the top of this post. She was the starring cat in the second Hidden Springs mystery, Murder Comes by Mail. But Grimalkin is not a shapeshifter. She’s just an ordinary cat. Well, one with a decided attitude as many cats have.
My last cat character shows up in Murder Is No Accident. It’s a calico named Miss Marble. I asked my readers on Facebook for names and I got many great name suggestions. Some cat owners even shared pictures of their cats along with their perfect names. I went with Miss Marble since calicos do have a mixture of colors the way some marbles can and also because it was a play on the name of Agatha Christie’s character, Miss Marple. Miss Marble also had a big part in this last mystery.
Should I ever write another Hidden Springs mystery, I might let a tortoise shell cat have a role, but if that ever happens, I don’t know if Mama Mia would be the right name. But you never know.
E-Book Sale
My Hidden Springs mysteries are on e-book sale right now. If you want to read more about the starring roles of these cats, you can download their stories for 99 cents each on some internet book sites such as Amazon, Kobo, or B&N. Perhaps others too, but keep in mind that these special sales come and go quickly. So check before you hit enter to be sure you’re getting the price you expect.
Have you ever named a cat?