Member Society of Children's Books Writers & illustrators (SCBW&I)

How a cat arrived in Paris

I keep a digital sketchbook of abandoned doodles. One day, I was poking through its pages and ran across an image which at first, looked like an abstract mouse head.

But, as I turned it upside down, I found a cat lurking in the shapes–so I got out my Apple Pencil and played with it.

The cat began to make its presence known.

And it seemed to cry out for a body, so I obliged.

It definitely had a “cool cat” vibe, so I dressed him in a French chapeau and scarf. But something was still missing . . .

So I added a Paris street scene, and voila!–it was done.