BLOG TOUR: Meet Flickertail

Author Mary Russel is interviewing Angela from Flower Child today at http://maryrussel.blogspot.com/2011/10/interview-with-angela-from-sheila.html. Meanwhile, Mary's dear friend and character, Flickertail, has kindly agreed to let me interview him here. Flickertail stars in some wonderful children's stories filled with mystery, whimsy and word-play--don't forget to look for excerpts on Mary's blog. And, in case you're wondering, Flickertail's a llama.

So, hello Flickertail--you've got to tell us, how did you get your name? I have a white tail, while the rest of me is mostly a reddish brown. When I run, my tail flicks and it’s the most outstanding part of me.

And your friend Paint? Where did Paint's name come from? She’s a Painted Horse.

Where did Paint come from? How did you meet? Paint lives in Texas. We met online through Mary, my owner and Norma, Paint’s owner. They had established an internet friendship on Gather.com.

So you started having adventures and solving mysteries together. Why? That was actually another friend’s idea. Mary had been writing mystery stories to entertain her friends and she had also posted some photos of me when William suggested that she should write stories about me as a Private Eye. Later he suggested that I team up with Paint.

What's the most interesting place you've ever been to? Well we’ve been to Scotland, Ireland, and Bolivia and I’ve loved them all but I’d have to say Bolivia because I was reunited with my llama mama there. I also met another member of my family that I didn’t even know about. I think Paint would say Scotland though. She loves ghosts and the history of Scotland.

What's the furthest you've ever traveled together? Bolivia.

What's the kindest thing Paint ever did for you? She’s done so many kind things but helping me to find my mother would have to be at the top of my list.

And what's the kindest thing you ever did for Paint? I gave up a game I used to play on Facebook, when I realized it was making her unhappy. I was consumed by it to the point where our friendship and detective business were suffering.

Can you tell us a bit about the people and animals you live with? Mary and Tom are the humans and they live in the house with two dogs that they treat like babies. But I like the dogs anyway. The barnyard animals are usually hard to find when there is any cleaning to be done. For the most part though they are helpful, cooperative, and fun to be around. They tease each other but when the chips are down they are all loyal friends. We don’t see Tom much. He works a lot. Mary spends quite a bit of time in the barn with us. She also spends a lot of her time writing about us. She’s a bit scatterbrained at times and frequently needs our help. She loves all of her animals, treats us well, and we take good care of her.

And Mary, when she writes your stories, d'you think she gets things right? She usually listens to us when we tell her what we want her to say. Paint thinks Mary should write about her more but Paint’s a bit of a diva even though she has a heart of gold. 

Does she listen to you if you tell her to change something? Of course. She recognizes who the real talent is and she knows the book wouldn’t be half as good if she didn’t listen to us. Ha ha ha. 

D'you have any other human friends besides Mary? All of the neighbors and their children. Mostly all of the people we meet.  And I hope all of our readers are our friends.

Is there anything else you really want us to know? Our philosophy. We are peace lovers and peace keepers who believe in helping our friends whenever and however we can. Since we don’t have any money, we often have to be pretty creative to do that but that’s all part of the fun of Flickertail & Paint, Barnyard Sleuths.

You can find Flickertail and Paint and other books at Mary's bookstore http://www.maryrussel.com/store.php or on Amazon, etc.

Thank you for hosting me, Mary. And thank you Flickertail for answering my questions.