The idea of writing the Tales from Cat Town book series came from sitting in Cat Town watching cats. As I grew up there has always been cats in my life. Even more so with the other members of the Cat Town team. For me, it’s all a learning process when it comes to what humans get from cats also what cats get from humans.
Cats watch humans, humans watch cats. With both species not letting their guard down. Making cats a lot more like humans than we give them credit for. Hence the reason that some humans call cats selfish. But cats are doing the same as humans do look after number one. People say cats are affectionate to humans just for food. A thing you could say about many humans. But many cats on this planet fend for themselves. Watching cats getting fed by humans is just one string to their bow. They could survive in this world without humans. But life is easier to work with humans’ bit of giving there a bit of taking here. Cats do not sell their affection easily. Which makes them such fascinating creatures much the same as we humans find each other fascinating.
In Cat Town, the watch is even more fascinating. For this reason, The Garden Cats are mostly from feral backgrounds. They have learned to live with humans without abandoning their wild instincts. That includes dealing with all the feral cats that surround The Garden in Cat Town.
So, watching The Garden Cats watching us Humans but also watching the feral cats in the surrounding area. It was easy as a writer to imagine some storylines and adventures that The Garden Cats would get up to.
So, to tweak my imagination more I came up with a plan to place a wildlife camera in key positions in Cat Town.
The camera had a night-time mode to add to my imagination. The first 3 books flew out of my head very quickly.
The first book Deidre finds a home was important as a springboard to many other storylines. Watching Deidre, it was clear she had kittens somewhere in Cat Town. This explained the risks she was taking by venturing into The Garden for food. So, she could reproduce milk to feed her Kittens.
It was interesting to watch The Garden Cats giving her a bit of leeway. But still watching her every move. Especially where The Sheriff was concerned, he is a noticeably big and powerful cat. Who has mauled at least three humans from the Cat Town team enough for them to seek medical attention. So, Deidre’s story was the perfect story to tell to start the series.
So, from that storyline, five other storylines slotted into place. I started as much as I could to think like a Garden Cat Town cat. Asking myself these series of questions.
What do they think of humans?
What do they think about environmental issues?
Their territorial issues?
Is this a 50 50 relationship with humans?
Are humans the dominant force?
Are the Cats one jump ahead of the humans.
The fact that especially with the Garden Cats most of the cats they had to interact with were feral. Which brought me to think in some ways were they feral through choice. Which I am sure was not the case. But prompted me to the situation if this were true there must have been feral cats that resented the Garden cats for collusion with the humans. Which I say again this could not be true, but this added to the scenario of rich storylines. This would bring the Garden cats more in line with Humans. therefore, creating more of a division between the Garden Cats and the feral cats. Which again makes for better storylines also more rounded characters. Not getting away with the fact that all but one of the Garden Cats came from feral backgrounds.
Which they say they never forget their roots. Making them in eyes of some of the Feral Cat characters to be traitors to the Cat world. As usually, the Feral Cats would take advantage of domesticated cats, they would be easy pickings. Unlike Sherriff and the gang who have lived in both worlds. They were more than a match for the Feral Cats but had to be on their guard all the time. As the Feral cats knew every trick in the book.
So, with all this in mind, the storylines came flowing out taking them in all sorts of ways. Up to now, there are 24 storylines with 18 of them being in at a first draft stage of finished/ Published.
Following such threads as
The environment
Cruelty to Animals
Sport
Dieses
Outright Adventures
The spiritual world
Magic
Many many more.
My influences for writing the Cat Town series comes from many different sources from books films-TV people and of course the Cats themselves they include.
Books
Wind in the Willows
Piglet Bland
Moby Dick
Call of the Wild
Old Yellow
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lord of the Rings.
The Hobbit
Winnie the Pooh
Paddington Bear
The Harry Potter Books
Films
With Nail and I
The Incredible Journey
The Aristocrats
Life of Pie
Black Panther
Stuart Little
The Wrong Trousers
The Warriors
The James Bond Movies
TV
All Creatures Great and Small
Game of Thrones
Johnathan Creek
The X Files
The inbetweeners
Friday Night Dinner
Tales from the Riverbank
Scooby-Doo
Alan Partridge
To name a few
But the Cats of Cat Town are the real influences of the books.
So, after the 24 books are at the publishing stage are there more storylines?
The truth is that the minute I enter Cat Town storylines start to fly into my head. But with the pandemic, I have been unable to visit Cat Town. But with the many storylines in the bag so far it will not affect the flow of books. But the fact is that some of the books in the first draft stage could be missing a trick. So, a trip to Cat Town would help slot lumpy plot lines fit into place. But that is me splitting hairs.
I will be going to Cat Town when it is safe to and not before. There is plenty of writing to do before I get writers’ block as far as storylines are concerned. Plus, I work in a very social setting so the many characters I meet daily make the pages of Cat Town. In the feline form of course.
So, no pesky pandemic will halt the flow of Cat Town storylines.
When chatting to members of the Cat Town team I have said I passionately believe that this Covid pandemic truly is the revenge of the animals.
We treat them so poorly. But when we completely ruin this beautiful Planet we live on. The animals will find a way of surviving more than we will. We should be learning from animals more than we do. Cats are a great example of this they are true survivors. We need them as much as they need us. Many Ancient Civilisations knew this to the extent they were worshipping them as gods.
I hope this comes across in The Tales from Cat Town series of books.
I am immensely proud of the Cat Town books. Also, I have had great fun writing them making me laugh out loud on many occasions. Together with the brilliant design and amazing double-page illustrations in every book. It is a pleasure to work with such talented people.
The other two members of the team (Dawn Larder) illustrations (Bazzie Larder) book design.
What they do not know about Cats is not worth knowing most of the Garden Cats in the books are their cats as much as a cat belongs to anyone. They have all come from feral backgrounds mainly rescued as kittens. Except for Posh Frank who is purebred Siamese. They take the Cats to be spayed to keep the Feral cat population in Cat Town in check. I would like to add this is all done at their own expense. Bazzie has had veterinary training.
Also, they make sure the feral cats have shelter in the winter or bad weather. In the form of a large kid’s Wendy House that gives the feral cats much-needed warmth. They will be also blogging on the web site about all the things cat they have experienced over the years in Cat Town. So, if you have a similar experience in your Cat Town. They would love to hear from you.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my first Cat Town blog. There will be more to follow. If you want to ask any questions about writing about cats or any other animals feel free to ask. Or if you have written any Children’s books about animals. I would love to know your experiences.
I hope you enjoy the Tales from Cat Town book series.
Feel free to contribute on the web site.