The second book in my Finnigan series, Finnigan and the Lost Circus Wagon, is now LIVE on Amazon and the Barnes and Noble website!
I knew when I started the series, about a tiny "rescue kitten" who finds a happy home flying under the radar at a small town circus museum, it would be just a matter of time before I worked my fascination with circus wagons and imagery into one of these stories. I've been going to the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, for years, admiring the imagination and craftsmanship of these gorgeous wagons that brought the wider world to folks watching the extravaganza of circus parades in the days before TV and internet and even movies, when nothing was instant and the age of being jaded wasn't so young!
I even worked some sketches into the book that are drawn straight from the wagons at the museum--the pair of Swans, the King of Beasts, and the small ornamental tiger heads that are the clue to the origin of the mysterious wagon that turns up at the Farnsworth Circus Museum.
The story features Finnigan and his two "circus mice" pals, Maximillian and Leroy, as they plot to keep the family from being fleeced by a pair of swindlers who turn up just after the wagon arrives. Leroy even has to go undercover as a rat!
From the back cover... Finnigan and his "circus mice" pals Max and Leroy are puzzled when a broken-down old circus wagon mysteriously shows up at the family circus museum. Finnigan, who arrived at the museum as a "rescue kitten" smuggled in by little Lucy Farnsworth, is still flying “under the radar” because Lucy's dad is allergic to cats.
At first, nobody knows that the wagon really comes with a valuable secret. Nobody in Beechville that is. But when two shady characters come to town with plans to fleece the family and steal the treasure the wagon holds, it’s up to Finnigan the Circus Cat and his friends to find it first and then send the crooks packing!
Chock full of charming illustrations by the author and circus history from the Golden Age of circus parades, Finnigan and the Lost Circus Wagon will charm young readers and the grownups who love to read with them.