Welcome to the Saturday Spotlight, a weekly feature that shines the light on Indie and Debut authors. This week I have the pleasure introducing readers to:
SCOTT ALEXANDER YOUNG
~Author of The Wild Cats of Piran ~
Notes on the origin of the Species
by Scott Young~2013
It was a few years ago now while on holiday in Piran on the border of Italy and Slovenia that the idea came to author Scott Alexander Young for a series of children’s books called The Wild Cats of Piran. It was on the second day eating lunch at one of the oceanfront cafes that inspiration struck. Or perhaps it’s truer to say he simply noticed what was going on all around him. Scott is only a very sort of unofficial spokesperson for the wild cats, after all. Anyway, Piran: Think small but perfectly formed renaissance era Venetian town with terracotta roofs and whitewashed stone walls, surrounded by cypress tree covered hills, a place of picturesque antiquity facing onto a cobalt blue sea.
As Scott was sitting down to the midday meal with an agreeable companion, and a seafood platter, he noticed not one, not two, but rather three cats "working the tables" beneath; fetching scraps of food as they fell from above. The feral cats moved swiftly underfoot from table to table, catching scraps of food in their paws. There are many more such morsels than you might think; flying from forks, falling from plates and utensils in the mess made by humanity at table. Your correspondent was alive to all of this. He saw it all happening in slow motion for a long still moment and then the idea took hold. These cats could be part of a gang (or colony as a group of feral cats are called) and they would have all kinds of adventures in the town, not least with the ghost of Giuseppe Tartini, the diabolical violinist whose statue graces the main market square. Scott was off on a roll.
The first cat – who the man Young was already calling Felicia – was a sleek black cat that just had to have come from Italy. The other, who was wild and warrior-like and earthy, must ergo have been a Slovenian cat named Dragan. The third cat, an orange tabby cat with an M pattern on his forehead, was Magyar the Magyar (Hungarian). It was all so obvious. Regal Felicia must have been the Piranese wild cats’ Queen, so Dragan must have been her loyal, battle hardened General. Magyar meanwhile was self-appointed class clown. Felicia, Dragan, Magyar: Together, with others just as colorful they would make up a gang, or strictly speaking ‘colony’ of feral cats called The Wild Cats of Piran.
Thus a series of children's books was born. The author set himself the task of writing something as wise and whimsical as The Wind in the Willows, or Oscar Wilde's stories for children, where the telling of the story is as important as the tale itself. More than one reader has commented that the book makes them feel nostalgic for the days of classic children’s literature. The pictures are doubtless a big help in that department. Our man at the drawing board is Moreno Chistè, who lives not so far from Piran in the mountainous northern Italian town of Trento. Moreno has captured the detail of Piran to the life with his really rather brilliant illustrations.
It was a few years ago now while on holiday in Piran on the border of Italy and Slovenia that the idea came to author Scott Alexander Young for a series of children’s books called The Wild Cats of Piran. It was on the second day eating lunch at one of the oceanfront cafes that inspiration struck. Or perhaps it’s truer to say he simply noticed what was going on all around him. Scott is only a very sort of unofficial spokesperson for the wild cats, after all. Anyway, Piran: Think small but perfectly formed renaissance era Venetian town with terracotta roofs and whitewashed stone walls, surrounded by cypress tree covered hills, a place of picturesque antiquity facing onto a cobalt blue sea.
As Scott was sitting down to the midday meal with an agreeable companion, and a seafood platter, he noticed not one, not two, but rather three cats "working the tables" beneath; fetching scraps of food as they fell from above. The feral cats moved swiftly underfoot from table to table, catching scraps of food in their paws. There are many more such morsels than you might think; flying from forks, falling from plates and utensils in the mess made by humanity at table. Your correspondent was alive to all of this. He saw it all happening in slow motion for a long still moment and then the idea took hold. These cats could be part of a gang (or colony as a group of feral cats are called) and they would have all kinds of adventures in the town, not least with the ghost of Giuseppe Tartini, the diabolical violinist whose statue graces the main market square. Scott was off on a roll.
The first cat – who the man Young was already calling Felicia – was a sleek black cat that just had to have come from Italy. The other, who was wild and warrior-like and earthy, must ergo have been a Slovenian cat named Dragan. The third cat, an orange tabby cat with an M pattern on his forehead, was Magyar the Magyar (Hungarian). It was all so obvious. Regal Felicia must have been the Piranese wild cats’ Queen, so Dragan must have been her loyal, battle hardened General. Magyar meanwhile was self-appointed class clown. Felicia, Dragan, Magyar: Together, with others just as colorful they would make up a gang, or strictly speaking ‘colony’ of feral cats called The Wild Cats of Piran.
Thus a series of children's books was born. The author set himself the task of writing something as wise and whimsical as The Wind in the Willows, or Oscar Wilde's stories for children, where the telling of the story is as important as the tale itself. More than one reader has commented that the book makes them feel nostalgic for the days of classic children’s literature. The pictures are doubtless a big help in that department. Our man at the drawing board is Moreno Chistè, who lives not so far from Piran in the mountainous northern Italian town of Trento. Moreno has captured the detail of Piran to the life with his really rather brilliant illustrations.
The author of The Wild Cats of Piran, Scott Alexander Young is a television scriptwriter, travel writer and actor living in Budapest, Hungary. Scott is the creator and writer of the popular TV series Max's Midnight Movies now showing on AXN in Central Europe. As an actor Scott usually plays 'heavies', such as a KGB spy in mini series The Company (2007) and a medieval lawman in World Without End (2012). He demonstrates his lighter side as the Presenter of 'historical reality' show The Medieval Trip, showing VOD across the Orange Network. Swiss/Italian artist Moreno Chistè has produced literally thousands of lively and colourful illustrations, ranging from Disney comics to entire collections of greeting cards for the main European card companies. Proving that three can be company, Publishing Advisor/Director Franz Sidney qualified as a Graphic Designer at the Polytechnic of Design in Milan.
GIVEAWAY
The Wild Cats of Piran is available FREE as an eBook until January 16.
You’ll find it on Amazon here
The first in a series of nine chronicles concerned with a colony of courageous if also rather lazy feral cats that live in a small seaside town on the Adriatic. Indeed, Piran is a kind of miniature ‘Slovenian Venice’: a forgotten place – at least in the eyes of humans. Every day, the wild cats work the tables of the restaurants along the seafront promenade, hunting for scraps; and the pickings are rich. Life is good in Piran. In the animal realm, and in the sphere of the supernatural, things are rather different. No one knows that better than Felicia, Queen of the wild cat colony. In the summer which our story begins she is presented with a perfect storm of troubles, for there are strange forces at work in this genteel town. For one thing, Piran’s rats have become mysteriously evolved lately, and are mobilizing under their leader, the sinister ‘General Rat’. As well as the newly formed rat army, there are the town’s Ghosts and worse, meddling and incompetent humans to deal with. Can Felicia hold her clan together, against all odds, or is their idyllic way of life doomed to extinction? The answers, some of them anyway, are in the first set of nine tales bound to please literary cat lovers of all ages. Filled with vibrant full colour illustrations, the chronicles are best enjoyed over a long afternoon or evening in a snug armchair.
Thanks Scott for being on the spotlight today!! The book sounds fun!
Cats in the title...you know you'll catch my attention that way! It breaks my heart to think of feral cats eeking out an existence on table scraps but at least it sounds as if the scraps are plentiful. I may check this one out while it is free...
ReplyDelete