'Juggling Kittens': Local author talks about his first novel (AP) — For longtime educator and fiction writer Matt Coleman, life as a teacher provided much of the inspirational nurturing for his just-published novel "Juggling Kittens." Currently serving as director of school improvement for the Texarkana, Arkansas, School District at Arkansas High School, Coleman just saw this debut novel published by small indie press Panda Moon Publishing, which is based in Austin, Texas. Mazer narrates "Juggling Kittens," which funnels elements of memoir into the mystery genre. In his first year as an English teacher in a small town that shows an unmistakable resemblance to the Texarkana area, Mazer discovers one day that a student, Spencer, has gone missing. Along the way, the connection to another disappearance, that of a little girl, becomes apparent as Mazer traverses a backwoods milieu full of intrigue and trailer parks. [...] although it may sound like "Juggling Kittens" raises serious issues, Coleman employs what he calls his dark humor in the novel. The genesis of these stories arrived when Coleman was back in undergraduate college and graduate school, actually, when he penned a few stories based on his own life. Where would he find his talents?