I may write “killer sci-fi and fantasy,” but that’s not all I do. In between publishing novels, I like to put out smaller books of different types as a break. After Lost Dogs, I released a children’s picture book, Our Wild Place. Following This Wasted Land came Hand-Selling Books, a non-fiction guide for writers. And now, after Stray Cats (published this past June) is Pimmi Makes a Friend, another kids book.
The various sections of Stray Cats are presented in different genres: post-apocalyptic; modern-day magic realism; classic “swords & sorcery;” and so on. One part–“A World of Friends”–is done as a children’s picture book. Pimmi Makes a Friend reprints that piece of Stray Cats as a standalone story in full, gorgeous color.
In our tale, Pimmi, a small black cat, lives with her girl, Audrey, and their friend Sally, a Beagle. Audrey and Sally spend every day playing in the yard, but Pimmi is too fearful to join them, afraid of “monsters” that might be lurking in the bushes. It does not go well when she tells Sally her worries.
Hurt and angered by Sally’s reaction, Pimmi sets out to prove that she is no “silly little fraidy-cat,” and goes into the yard alone, at night. There, she meets someone who needs courage, too.
As with the original version in Stray Cats, the color one was done by Alyssa Scalia, an emerging artist whose family goes to the same church mine does (you can find her work here on Instagram). Her mother has read and enjoyed one of my other books, and when I mentioned to her that I needed an illustrator for Stray Cats, she suggested Alyssa.
Alyssa’s original artwork for Stray Cats perfectly captured the charm and innocence that I wanted for “A World of Friends,” and her color version absolutely knocks it out of the park for the new book. I’m working with her again to publish a print edition of “How the Kangal Got Her Mask.”
Pimmi Makes a Friend is available in softcover here. For children who are too young to read Stray Cats, it’s perfect for story time.
Kenton Kilgore writes killer SF/F for young adults and adults who are still young. Follow Kenton on Facebook for frequent posts on sci-fi, fantasy, and other speculative fiction. You can also catch him on Instagram.