Local children’s book author Troy Wilson has just launched his ninth published work, Hat Cat, a story about an old man who loves his cat and enjoys feeding squirrels in a creative way. The book also features Eve Coy’s beautiful hand-painted watercolour illustrations. Wilson, a Y2K graduate of Camosun College’s Applied Communications Program, says this new book is inspired in part by his grandfather.
“There’s no way that I could capture anywhere close to all of the person in a picture book, but he definitely did feed the squirrels out of his hat like the man in the book did, and he was definitely a very gentle, kind, and welcoming soul,” says Wilson. “I was lucky enough to grow up in the same town, so I saw him a lot. I know a lot of people don’t have that luxury growing up, but it was great.”
Years later, as an adult, Wilson realized that he and his grandfather shared something unexpected: the love of spinning yarns.
“It strikes me that something we had in common, that I didn’t realize at the time, is we’re both storytellers, it’s just that we did it in different ways,” says Wilson. “He was always a spoken-word storyteller: he would tell stories about the past and really bring it to life, whereas I’m more of a written-word storyteller.”
Wilson says that while he tried his hand at many kinds of writing over his career, picture books resonated with him the most, and a large part of that is the collaborative aspect of creating them.
“If you get to write something that is as beautifully illustrated as these are and can be enjoyed by everybody from four years old to 104 years old, to me it’s almost like, what’s not to love about it?” says Wilson. “And to be able to collaborate with such talented artists, I think that’s a big part of it for me, honestly. That gives something to me that’s more interesting than if it just ended up being my words on the page alone. It makes it a more rewarding experience.”
Hat Cat is different from Wilson’s prior work in that it gently deals with the idea of loss. Wilson says that being able to present difficult concepts to children in a softer way is valuable.
“I think it’s really hard to [write about tough topics] without being too heavy-handed or too depressing,” he says. “It’s difficult to do but I don’t think it should be shied away from. You can shape those concepts in such a way that can equip [kids] to deal with those things in a way that life itself doesn’t always. I think stories sometimes can offer ways to deal with or discuss it that are maybe a step removed from the actual thing, but can kind of help to work through it.”
An unexpected effect of Hat Cat is that it has allowed Wilson to share another moment with his grandfather, many years after their final goodbye.
“My grandfather was always taking me places I otherwise never would have gone, some fishing hole he knew about that I had no idea about, or some past event that he would tell of that I would be transported to,” says Wilson. “With this book, with this story, long after his passing, he has done that again. It’s really actually sharing another moment with him at this point, which I wasn’t expecting at all. So many years after his passing, it’s kind of a delightful surprise that there’s still new connections to be made and new places to go.”