Nala's World
by Mary Jo
Today's blog was inspired by a comment Mary M. made in the June "What We're Reading" blog, always a great source of inspiration and credit card charges. She specifically directed me toward the book Nala's World: One Man, His Rescue Cat, and a Bike Ride Around the Globe, by Dean Nicholson. (Mary M., you've earned a book from me for inspiring a blog. Post in the comments and we'll talk about what you'd like.)
Dean was a big hairy tattooed laborer in Dunbar, Scotland, by whose own admission has spent much of his 20s drinking beer and smoking pot. With 30 approaching, he decided that he wanted to bicycle around the world: "take to the road to find his road."
He set off in September 2018 with a pal. They split soon since they had different interests and Dean wanted the wild open spaces. A couple of months later he was cycling through Montenegro when he heard a plaintive meowing behind him. He stopped and found that he was being pursued by a skinny tabby cat who desperately wanted to make friends. Being a big old softy, he picked her up, fed her some pesto which she liked, and put her in his bicycle's carrier because he couldn't leave her in such a barren.
And everywhere he went, people fell in love with Nala, who sounds like one seriously great cat. He was chronicling his cycling adventures on Instagram at @1bike1world and he had several thousand followers. One day he was contacted by an editor from The Dodo animal channel who was interested in his travels, so he sent her some video clips and pictures.
Not thinking much about, Dean and Nala took a ferry from Athens to Santorini where he'd found a summer job at a kayak school because he needed to earn some money. As the ferry sailed into Santorini, his cell phone went berserk. When he got a chance to check it, he found that he now had 300,000 followers--and he and Nala had become Instagram rock stars.
He immediately started thinking about what he could do with that celebrity to help others, and he had a lot of followers who freely offered their help for different projects. He set up a youtube.com channel also called 1bike1world. (This picture and the one above are from the book's Amazon page and are copyrighted by Dean Nicholson.)
He cautiously decided to do a Nala's World calendar with a print run of 4000. It sold out immediately. Another print run the same size also sold out immediately. He ended up making something like 90,000 pounds on the calendar and immediately starting give grants to small animal rescue and environmental groups. Is this a hero's journey or what????
They ended up spending the lockdown in Hungary, and while there, Dean and Nala co-wrote their story with Garry Jenkins, an experienced writer of cat/human chronicles. The result is this charming book, so thank you, Mary M, for pointing me toward it!
Various Wenches have blogged about pets and animals before, but Nala's World inspired me to mention several of my rescue cats that I've put in books. Our sweet little gray tabby, Smokey, showed up Once a Soldier as a royal cat belonging to Her Royal Highness Princess Maria Sofia of San Gabriel. He showed up again as little Leo, a hungry barn cat who attached himself quite literally to Suzanne Duval, the heroine of Once A Spy. That's Smokey on the right.
Then there's The Spook, a part Siamese goofball who became the ship's cat in Once a Scoundrel (he was a really fine ratter.) He also made a brief appearance in my Christmas novella, One Wicked Winter Night in the holiday anthology Seduction on a Snowy Night
But the star of that story was my very dignified black and white tom, Panda the Magnificent, who was a vital character in that story. (He also appeared in Not Quite a Wife and Not Always a Saint, both times as a kitchen cat in Kirkland House called Badger because he was black and white. He's on the right.)
Last but hardly least is my one girl cat, the Princess Flufferbella, who has an important role in this year's Christmas anthology, A Yuletide Kiss. Her appearance in my story, When Strangers Meet echoes her own story, what I know of it. (Flufferbella on the left; you can see where she got her name!)
Like most animal lovers, I can happily burble on about my wonderful pets indefinitely, but I'll spare you the complete listing of all the cats in almost all of my stories and ask you if there are books that have animals you particularly loved? Personally I think critters add to a story, so tell me what you think!
Also, since I just got several advance reading copies of the Christmas Anthology mentioned above, A Yuletide Kiss, which will be out in 9/28/21. Here's the preorder link. I'll give a copy to one person who comments between now and Saturday midnight. (US only, sorry.)
So tell me about your favorite animals in books!
Mary Jo, who currently has all five cats sitting around me in my office and staring at me with gazes suggesting it's time for their midnight snack.