For those unfamiliar with the Klawde series—first, you really should check it out—but besides that you should know it’s about the eponymous Klawde, who is (as the first book in the series proclaims) an evil alien warlord cat, bent on total domination of the known universe. The co-authors are Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth, who each have their own writing careers but have teamed up to create a fantastic middle-grade series about a delightfully evil feline. 

            Johnny Marciano has written on a wide range of topics for various ages, including The Witches of Bevento series. He also continued the work of his grandfather (the original author/illustrator of the Madeline books) with books like Madeline at the White House. His most recent book is the middle-grade novel How Did Humans Go Extinct? (October 2021, Black Sheep), and if that sounds like something that hits a little too close to home considering current world events, that’s because the book was designed that way. “Originally, it was mostly about the environment,” Marciano says. “Then, with…escalating political tensions, it also became about how humans seemed to actually like not getting along. And once the pandemic hit, it became about us not taking care of each other. Apparently, there’s no end to the ways in which we are hurtling toward self-extincting ourselves.”

            However, there’s more to How Did Humans Go Extinct? than just reflecting current events. It’s also full of humor aimed at its middle-grade audience, something that’s very important to Marciano and is a large part of the Klawde series. “For me, humor is #1. Especially if it’s a bit dark,” he says. “In general, the publishing industry does a lousy job of producing funny books for kids, especially when it comes to middle grade. They love Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dog Man, and then there’s nothing to make them laugh.  It’s a big reason why kids stop reading at that age. Well, that plus the internet.”

            Humor was also something that drew Emily Chenoweth to the Klawde project. She had previously worked as a fiction editor for Publisher’s Weekly, which she says “was a great experience. I learned a ton about the publishing industry, and I got to read hundreds of fantastic books well before they hit the shelves.” Chenoweth’s authorial debut was the middle-grade novel Hello Goodbye, but she has also collaborated with other authors, including eight books with James Patterson under the name Emily Raymond. Her involvement with the Klawde books started when “Johnny and I had been talking about writing together for ages, actually, so when he proposed we do a series about an evil alien warlord cat, I jumped at the chance. The books were incredibly fun to write, because we basically got to spend four years trying to make each other laugh.”

            So, what’s next? Obviously, fans need more Klawde. “Emily and I are definitely brewing up a new project,” Marciano says, “but in the meantime, I’m working on a graphic novel about Madeline becoming a spy in occupied Paris during WWII. I know, it sounds so wrong, but it will answer the question of what happened to Madeline the year after she got her appendix out.” For Chenoweth, “a graphic novel I cowrote with James Patterson, The Runaway’s Diary, comes out in April*, so I’m really excited about that. And of course I can’t wait to start cowriting with Johnny again!”

            Lastly, what we really want to know is which particularly evil real-world felines inspired the Klawde series. “My cats are lovely, generous souls,” Marciano says. “[The books] are based on Emily’s cats.”

*Correction: as of this interview, the release date for the graphic novel was April 2022. It has since been postponed and is due out June 2022.