ESTEVAN — Maureen Ulrich's latest book is a children's story, A Home for Hairy, about a rescue cat adopted by a nurse.
It's the 11th project for the Lampman-based author, who has previously penned a children's book, and young adult and historical fiction novels. But it's the first published children's work for Brenda Blackburn, the artist who lent her talents to the 24-page project.
"It was such a pleasure to work with someone I've known for a long time," Ulrich said in an interview with SaskToday. "I'm really happy with how it turned out."
"She's very talented," Ulrich added later. "There was a time when she would have been too busy, but she's retired now, so I was able to carve out a little bit of her time to work on this, and I'm actually just stunned at how quickly she put together the initial sketches.
"At my end, it seemed like it just happened overnight, but I know that at her end, it was four months of hard work and trying different styles and different media."
Ulrich gained the inspiration for A Home for Hairy when she heard a story about a person in Calgary with a rescue cat, who took his pet out snowboarding and other adventures. The cat even has its own Instagram page. Ulrich thought it was a great story about reinventing yourself, and she started to write her own story.
"Through some conversations with some nurses, the manuscript evolved so that I looked more at the point of view of the adopter and not just the adoptee, and how a pet can change your life and improve your quality of life."
Blackburn said Ulrich approached her about providing art for the book. The two knew each other from their time teaching together.
"I told her I was definitely interested, and then we just got to work," said Blackburn. "I'm just honoured that she gave me the opportunity."
She described it as a "surreal" feeling to have her art published, because she always wanted to illustrate a book.
Blackburn used Prismacolor pencil crayons and drew the artwork by hand rather than digitally. She also used DuraLar Sheets during the process.
"I probably worked two to three hours a day for about four months, and when I first was asked to do this, I wanted to make sure I could draw cats, so I went to our public library," recalled Blackburn.
One of the library employees brought all of the library books that she could find in southeast Saskatchewan on drawing cats.
"I drew every cat in every book so that I would be prepared to do the illustrations," said Blackburn.
A series of events took place recently to celebrate the release of A Home for Hairy. There was a book launch for children at the Lampman Public Library on May 13 and another for adults in Estevan the following day.
"It went over really well. They said it was very interesting. They learned about how to go about writing and illustrating a book. And there was quite a few laughs, so we had a good time," said Blackburn.
Events were also held May 14 at Spruce Ridge and Westview Schools in Estevan for middle-years students.
Ulrich noted the kids at the Lampman reading were so cute and attentive.
So many people they have known over the years through teaching showed up and support them, particularly Blackburn, because this was her first project.
"We just walked them through the development of the manuscript, and actually … read them the story … and then Brenda took them through the development of some of the illustrations and her journey, and [we] finished with some questions and a book signing. It was tremendous."
Ulrich's previous children's book was Sam and the Big Bridge last year. She said she learned a lot from that process, and she had some friends who provided critiques of A Home for Hairy.
"The process is very similar, actually, to writing a longer work," said Ulrich. It's just that your audience is so totally different; you have to think about how many words are actually going to go on a page, and how to maintain a child's interest."
Ulirch said Blackburn did a lot to keep young readers' attention.
A Home for Hairy was published through Ulrich's company, Flatlands Press, and Travis Frank and Daralee Kittelson helped with formatting the book and the publishing. Blackburn noted she met with Kittelson a few times to get the illustrations right.
