Interview: Bonnie Elizabeth on Welcome to the Familiar Cafe
Waverton, Kentucky looks like an ordinary small town. The library looks like an ordinary library, and Jade’s cat café looks like an ordinary cat café, right down to the red cat-print blinds. To a witch, it’s the place you go when you need a familiar, and the cats in the old pool room are deciding whether they want you. Then one of Jade’s friends is accused of a murder with magic in it, and the most timid witch in her circle starts digging.
Welcome to the Familiar Cafe collects the first two Familiar Café novels and a short story. It’s one of fifteen exclusive books in The Light Fantasy Bundle, curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
The Interview
Waverton, Kentucky is where witches go when they need a familiar. The town has a specialty library on the subject, three vets, even a college program, and Jade’s café sits in what used to be a tavern, with the cats in the old pool room. What does a tourist who knows nothing about any of this see when they walk in?
The average tourist sees a regular town. The specialty library will just appear to have ordinary books if they explore. Jade’s cafe will look like an ordinary cat cafe. Some of the familiar cats are willing to retire and could even be adopted by an ordinary human, but the human will never know their cat is magical! Witches who don’t live there will immediately know what the town is about and can explore like a native, if they so desire.
Jade calls herself the most timid of her group of friends, and then one of those friends is accused of murder. What is she like when she’s pushed?
Jade is tenacious and loyal to her friends. She’ll keep digging until she finds out what’s really happening.
One reader review calls Mason “the most fascinating of all” the characters, and by Jade’s own account he rules the roost in the cat room. Who is actually running that café?
Jade runs the coffee part of the cafe and takes care of things that need opposable thumbs. Mason keeps the familiars that are living in the cafe in line. Jade and Mason live upstairs, so that Mason always knows what’s going on downstairs. Whether or not Jade actually runs anything or just follows Mason’s directions is the age old cat owner’s dilemma.
What does a judge at a familiar competition look for?
They have various things the witch and their familiar must do together. One test tests how well the witch and familiar can mentally communicate. The witch has a paper that she knows her familiar must do something and she must communicate that with her cat. There are other things that go on, tasks the feline familiars must perform to show off their magical abilities.
Jade’s sister’s magic comes from sewing, which is how the café ended up with blinds in red cat-print fabric, and her friend Natalie is the one to call when a memory needs erasing. Which of those would you take for yourself?
Each witch can do more than one thing—though it’s just where their natural talent is. I’d probably go with sewing for a natural talent. It seems like it would be more useful!
Before you wrote full-time you worked as a veterinary receptionist, and Jade trained as a vet tech. What did that front desk teach you about people and their animals?
I would not ever get between a person and their pet. I think that people are really devoted. I mean, not all clients were that devoted and there’s always a handful that are quite uncaring or just don’t get that pets are living creatures, but the vast majority of people that you see regularly absolutely adore their pets. Working in a veterinary clinic is a really hard job. People think that it will be fun to be handling the animals and working with the animals. But it’s high stress, highly emotional (we always get attached to the pets, too!), and often very fast paced. You see both the best and worst of people in that job.
What are you working on now—and what’s fun or exciting about it?
Right now, I’m recovering from a trip to Calgary for Bouchercon—the big mystery convention. Before that, and I will go back to working on it, I have been working on the fifth book in the Haunted Hotel series. While I loved writing about Mason in The Familiar Cafe series, Jade didn’t excite me as much as writing about Olive in the Haunted Hotel series. Olive is also a sidekick, much like Mason, however she’s a ghost. Maybe I could do a spin off of both stories with just Olive and Mason—although who would have snappier dialogue and come backs, I’m not sure. And there wouldn’t be anyone with opposable thumbs to open Mason’s food, either, unfortunately. As a ghost, Olive couldn’t do that.
About the Author
Bonnie Elizabeth writes a variety of speculative fiction. In the same way, she’s hopped around in a variety of different job fields. She’s worked as a veterinary receptionist, cemetery administrator, and as a licensed acupuncturist. Through it all, she wrote stories. Her novels include gothic novels, contemporary fantasy, paranormal police procedural, and paranormal cozy mystery. Bones of Connection is her first foray into paranormal women’s fiction.
Find Bonnie Elizabeth
Get the bundle
Welcome to the Familiar Cafe is one of fifteen exclusive books in The Light Fantasy Bundle, curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch—funny, light, and romantic fantasy for a jangled season. Pay what you want, starting at $5, and you can choose to send a share of your purchase to World Central Kitchen. Ends Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 9 PM Pacific at storybundle.com/fantasy.