My next novel features a chicken as a hard-boiled detective in a seedy neighborhood who finds himself in the soup. The chicken’s sidekick is a pig who’s a bit of a ham, who does all the grunt work when not swilling down drinks.

Their first case is in search of a sheep gone baaaad who’s on the lam. The sheep has amnesia and his memory is wooly.

Apocalypse when?

I am going to make a movie based on Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” and cast it entirely with cats, and I shall call it “Apocalypse Meow.”

Also, I am going to stage a new version of Mary Poppins performed entirely by monkeys, to include the beloved big dance number “Chim-chimpanzee!”