Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala

Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Kitten Book that Never Happened

A group of us at WiDo had this great idea for a book. I'm going to share it with you since the book never happened and never will, because of reasons yet to be revealed.

Anyway, the idea was to have these big, glossy pictures of real kittens in costumes and backgrounds from history, a kind of entertaining, learning book for kids.

Napoleon Kitten
George Washington Kitten
Martin Luther King Kitten
Eleanor Roosevelt Kitten

There were all kinds of ideas for historical figure kittens and every one brought suggestions for costumes, for the way we'd pose the kitten, the background settings and the blurbs to go with each page.

It all brought more hilarious laughter as the ideas rolled forth, because what is cuter or funnier than a kitten?

The book never happened for these reasons:

1. We all knew it would be way more fun talking about it than actually doing the work.

2. My daughter who's into fashion design didn't want to make the tiny little costumes and fit them on to tiny little kittens. Plus, she is allergic to cats.

3. Our designer who would have had to put this all together was already behind on his work with real books that had actual authors and release dates.

4. It would have cost a fortune to do right and WiDo is a small press with an even smaller budget.

5. And there are already a zillion cute pictures of kittens out there.

Like this one, my personal favorite-- Charlie, from Old Kitty's Blog-- every day another cute picture of darling Charlie! I have such a cat crush on Charlie.




24 comments:

  1. The project might be dead, but at least y'all had the fun of planning and laughing about it. And you left out another good reason not to do it ... cats aren't overly thrilled at the prospect of having their little bodies forced into outfits, no matter how cute the outfits are. And cats have claws. Which they aren't afraid to use...

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  2. You guys are too photo-montage-oriented! I could illustrate that in the realistic illustrative tradition without making a kitten even try on a costume.
    It's still doable. You just need the right artist!

    Best wishes,
    Anna
    Anna's A-Z, the letter K

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  3. Awwwwwwwwww! It's a lovely idea!! It's adorable!! Eleanor Roosevelt kitten - I can totally see a most regal long haired kitten looking - well - regal and dignified with a nice hat! Yay!!

    Awww Charlie loved being a pirate for the day! Take care
    x

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  4. Everybody loves to look at kittens. Maybe, instead of a book, you should do a calendar. People love kitty calendars, and they are only 12 pages long.

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  5. That sounds like a fun book! Love Charlie :-)

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  6. Look at Charlie!
    Can you imagine trying to put outfits on cats? You'd need a hazard suit not to get scratched to death.

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  7. I can't imagine costuming cats much less kittens. I can understand why it remained in the conceptual stage forever. Charlie is a dashing fellow!

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  8. Hi Karen .. and Old Kitty - Charlie's a beaut .. just way too handsome to be put into a costume?!

    At least you used the process of the book - and have garnered some useful ideas .. Cheers Hilary

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  9. That would have been a lot of work. And I think your author name is really great.

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  10. ohhh, isn't Charlie just the cutest thing ever? I'd like to watch someone try to costume a cat; hah!

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  11. Such a shame the project didn't go ahead. It sounds fantastic. My wife and I own 6 cats and they have varying personalities. I sometimes think I should write a book about them.

    Thanks for sharing this and good luck with the rest of the challenge :)

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  12. I like your sharing your thought process before going ahead and marketing your ideas. Wouldn't this be perfect in Japan and the Hello Kitty idea? Think outside the country?

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  13. Great idea! But I totally understand the reasons for deciding against. I get ideas like that sometimes, too. They sound so perfect until I think them through. Love kitteh pics tho :)

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  14. Awwww. . . I wish the book happened. That's adorable!

    Konstanz Silverbow
    nothoughts2small.blogspot.com
    A to Z C-host
    www.a-to-zchallenge.com

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  15. Love the idea of this - and am now imagining Julius Caesar Kitten, Joan of Arc Kitten and ... oh, hold on, you've got me going now!

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  16. It sounds like it would have been a really fun book, though. :)

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  17. The problem with the book is you'd have to work with cats, and well, they may be more difficult than people! I love Charlie, though. Maybe he could have his own story?

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  18. That would have been a very cute book!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    Christine
    Coffee in the Garden

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  19. All good reasons, but I can see how it would be fun to talk about it. :)

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  20. These are all good reasons but it would have been cute.

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  21. Some things are lots more fun to talk about than actually do. Nothing wrong with imagination fun. Some of my most favorite conversations have been with how Friend A or Friend B would structure their government when they took over the world. ^_^

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  22. I like books about kittens. Sounds like you all had fun coming up with ideas.

    Susanne
    PUTTING WORDS DOWN ON PAPER

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  23. Oh man. My daughter would have loved those books. But someone from PETA would have gotten upset about kitten labor laws anyway, so maybe it's for the best.

    Thanks for your contribution to the A to Z challenge. It's been fun so far!

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  24. The Kitten Book would have been hysterical. Don't shelve the idea permanently! Cat lovers like me would snap it up.

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