Author James W. Ziskin: The Prank, a Pug Named Leon & Cyanide

We often move on to talking about favorite pets, animals from literature.

And just earlier today, I was reminded of Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Do you remember Clifford the Big Red Dog? He was a lot of fun.

Do you have a favorite pet animal from literature, Jim? I don't.

I'm not sure if I do.

Maybe Asta.

from the Thin Man book.

But yeah, other than that, I'm trying to think.

Maybe I'm trying to stay in the crime fiction genre, but I should expand that thought.

Could be anything.

If

one comes to me, I'll let you know.

I was going to say, it could be anything.

We'd have people from Black Beauty to whatever.

But you told me once that you snuck a little pug dog into your stories.

So tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah.

Actually, there aren't a lot of pets in my books, except there is little Leon.

And Little Leon is in every one of the Ellie Stone books.

He is a pug, and he's one of three characters that appear in every one of the stories.

There's Ellie, there's her friend Fadge, who at least has a tiny role, at least in one or two of them, but then a more meatier role in others.

And then there's Little Leon.

And no matter if Ellie is in Italy, Los Angeles, the Adirondacks, New York City.

Leon makes some kind of a magical appearance.

He always has a different owner, but he's not important to the story.

We often move on to talking about favorite pets, animals from literature.

And just earlier today, I was reminded of Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Do you remember Clifford the Big Red Dog? He was a lot of fun.

Do you have a favorite pet animal from literature, Jim? I don't.

I'm not sure if I do.

Maybe Asta.

from the Thin Man book.

But yeah, other than that, I'm trying to think.

Maybe I'm trying to stay in the crime fiction genre, but I should expand that thought.

Could be anything.

If

one comes to me, I'll let you know.

I was going to say, it could be anything.

We'd have people from Black Beauty to whatever.

But you told me once that you snuck a little pug dog into your stories.

So tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah.

Actually, there aren't a lot of pets in my books, except there is little Leon.

And Little Leon is in every one of the Ellie Stone books.

He is a pug, and he's one of three characters that appear in every one of the stories.

There's Ellie, there's her friend Fadge, who at least has a tiny role, at least in one or two of them, but then a more meatier role in others.

And then there's Little Leon.

And no matter if Ellie is in Italy, Los Angeles, the Adirondacks, New York City.

Leon makes some kind of a magical appearance.

He always has a different owner, but he's not important to the story.