Speaker 1: This is pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2: Hello, Beeline Boons, Welcome to Coutitude. I'm your show host,
Michelle Byrne, and what a cool shall I have for
you today? So my guest is a teacher, a writer,
an author, a reader, and an agent. And she wrote
the most adorable book about cats for your kids. So
stay tuned and we're gonna have her in just a minute.
We'll be waight back.
Speaker 3: Take a bite out of your competition. Advertise your business
with an ad in pet Life Radio podcast and radio shows.
There is no other pet lated media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
pet Life Radio with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit Petlifradio dot com. Slash advertised today.
Speaker 4: Let's Talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone. I'd like to welcome Kate Bikean to Cautatude.
Welcome Kate.
Speaker 5: Hi, nice to be here, so glad to have you on.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about your book. What is the title
of your book and what inspired you to write it?
Speaker 5: The title's My book is called pay Attention to Me,
and I wrote the words and Rob Justice did the illustration.
It's a book for children. And I have to say
I was inspired by cats on the Internet. And I
have been working in books for a long time, just
about twenty years, and a long time ago I used
to I represented a book called Ken has Cheeseburger, which
had pictures of cats with funny captions on them, and
lots of people wanted to get their cat famous on
the Internet and would send their pictures in. And so
I was just reading and enjoying tons and tons and
tons of cats on the Internet, and I imagine what
it would be like for a kid to try and
get their cat to be famous on the internet. And
as I wrote the story and as I worked with
an editor, it totally changed. My editor suggested I write
this book from the point of view of a cat
who wanted to be famous, and I felt like I
could really get into the mind of a cat from
just reading and enjoying so many cats online, and I
tried to get into the head of this cat who
wanted to be famous so that his people wouldn't leave
to go places like work or soccer practice. Because he,
of course is named Edgar, was the best cat in
the world, and he just thought he should be just
enjoyed as such.
Speaker 2: Okay, got it. What a cute bug. So you wrote
a book about cats and what it's like to, you know,
for a cat to be Internet famous in all of this,
But you have a dirty little secret I do.
Speaker 5: I am allergic to cats and dogs and bunnies and
I like to say anything with hair that grows unfortunately
out me.
Speaker 2: Oh so you don't have to own a cat, own
cat personal cat.
Speaker 5: No, I don't, and my almost ten year old is
very heartbroken about it. But now we have a bearded
dragon lizard, so that is good enough for now. I
did have a cat very briefly when I was in
graduate school, and I decided to ignore the fact that
I was aware cats. But it didn't work out well
for either of us, and I was not prepared for
a kitten, and he was taken in by lovely people
who loved him to death. So my cat ownership was
short lived.
Speaker 2: You know, I still think you can understand and learn
and appreciate cats just because you're not a cat parent.
Most of our listeners are cat parents, or want to
be cat parents, or have a thing for cats. Absolutely,
and I'm allergic to cats, but I'm well aware there's different,
you know, variances of allergies. Some people can just take
over the counter and just be fine, and some people,
you know, have much more extreme effects. I have a
friend to this day that's never walked through my house.
She's at my CaTiO after we cleaned it up because
she's just so allergic.
Speaker 5: That would be me, unfortunately. I take a lot of
vology to medications just to get through the world. And
I can spend about fifteen minutes in a closed room
with a cat, and outside I could cet a cat
for as long as I want, as long as I
didn't touch my face. But I'm a big, big fan
of all of my friend's cats, which I ask after
and hear about all the time, and also of course
adorable cats on the internet. So I feel like I
get to live vicariously through my friends and the famous
cats I follow.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So let's talk about cats and the Internet, since
that's what your book is about. You know, I think
almost everybody can name at least one or two cats
that are, you know, Internet famous, like hugely Internet famous,
and in some cases I've done amazing things for the
world of cats. Why did you want Edgar to be
Internet famous?
Speaker 5: Well, I think this actually kind of happened in the
writing process about me really thinking about it, because I
was the youngest. I am the youngest child of my siblings.
There's three of us, and I did a lot of
turning to get their attention and get everybody's attention because
I was the littlest, and it was really easy for
me to slip under the rug and sometimes it was fun.
I could do whatever I wanted, but I did want
a lot of the ten. So I think I understood
where Edgar was coming from in that way, or I
gave him those feelings I had as a kid, but
also that feeling of wanting to be close to the
people that you love, and even if you're going about
it in a silly way, which is what Edgar is doing.
He's proving he's very smart by writing his name with
his claws on the back of the couch, which he
should not do. He is imagining how great it will
be to be a famous cat and have his own
personal messuse and a sunbeam director, and he is doing things.
My favorite part of the book is he says he
calls on the wisdom of his ancestors, and that wisdom
is if I fit, I sit, which is a long
time cat joke on the internet. And he goes and
fits in the middle of the family board game, which
no one is happy about, but he thinks is the greatest.
And I think that we've all seen cats or have
cats who have just made some poor choices to us,
but they think it's the best idea in the world.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny if it fits, they sit. I
want did to show that cats are like liquid because
they'll just pour themselves into anything that they think they
can fit in, which is nuts.
Speaker 5: It's adorable too.
Speaker 2: That too. So getting back to the cats. Do you
think cats are more Internet popular than say, dogs?
Speaker 5: I do. I think that dogs have made a strong comeback.
I've been kind of a semi expert about animals on
the Internet for since maybe twenty two thousand and eight,
maybe when I started working with I can as cheeseburger,
and I had these strong theories about why cats were
more popular than dogs, and I thought it was because
cats have such a range of expression on their face.
They can look mad, they can look happy, they can
look bored, they can look suspicious, they can look guilty,
and that dogs are kind of like happy or asleep.
And I think that now there are more expressive dogs
that we see, But in the beginning, I thought that
cats just had so much more personality and a variety
of faces to show that we could then ascribe their
thoughts and feelings and make jokes out of them. I
still think that I still stand by that. I think
that cats are more expressive and a lot of dogs,
not all dogs, of course, but I think that now
that we are now the internet is more populated by
video dogs being very active, which cats can be two
of course makes her pretty good little videos. So I
think maybe dogs have kind of come back up in
the Internet standings of who's winning versus cats versus dogs.
Speaker 2: Yep, I mean I was a dog person first, then
cats found me, and now just a cat household. Now
I'm thinking I could name at least two famous cats
and only one dog.
Speaker 5: So oh, gosh, I could probably name, well, my favorite
internet I had. Yeah, my favorite internet kat is Elsie
the Talking cat from Mary Robinett Cowell and Elsie uses
the buttons to talk, and I think Elsie is a genius.
Speaker 2: Now I don't even know who else he is all
I'm missing out.
Speaker 5: Oh she's the best. She reviewed the book. Actually, you
can go on Mary Robinette's Instagram feed for Elsie and
Elsie really did like the book. So we have that.
Speaker 2: Well, that says a lot. Let's talk about the diva cats.
Edgar kind of sounds like a diva. Oh, yes, absolutely,
which I think is true about most cats. I mean
I even tell mine Molly, who's the most diva? Just oh,
come on, stop ready with this attitude? You know, you
know you have conversations with them, right, I mean I
think that's normal. So what does Edgar do that makes
him a diva? I mean, as there are divas, they're
also hilarious little drama queens. So what are some of
Edgar's moves that you know portray him as mister diva?
Speaker 5: Well, first and foremost, he thinks he's right. He has
the most correct opinions of anybody in the house. And
obviously he deserves and requires this attention from everybody at
his command. He even says, you know in the book
that he deserves all this attention, but he reserves the
right to walk away from the family at any time
when he needs a little break, and that's perfectly fine
for him. But everybody else must be on call to pet,
given pets and treats. And so I think that Edgar
is a diva in how he's approaching getting this attention
from his family. But what he at heart really just
wants is their love. And he gets it. He has
all of the family member's heart. He's just kind of
going about it in a silly way.
Speaker 2: So from Edgar's point of view, as he escalates his
antics in the book to get noticed, what do you
wish that you know? And from your perspective, which is
unique because you're a cat person, but you don't have cats,
So what do you think that cats might wish humans
might pay more attention to in real life?
Speaker 5: Well, part of the book two mentions that the humans
are on their phones a lot, and I bet that
there are plenty of cats out there who will bet
a phone out of their humans' hands to get more
pets or I've seen on the internet cats will close
the laptop and so I can't imagine that a cat would.
If I had a cat, it would do that to
me for sure, just to say, hey, get off your
phone and come, let's play, or let's you know, come
scratch my head and the cat would be right. We
probably should get off our phones.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should. It's crazy. Some people are so glued
to it. They're important. Yeah, but you got to give
it a break. Yeah, speaking a break. We're going to
take a short break and we'll be right back. Talk
to the paw.
Speaker 6: Hi didn't Amy sure?
Speaker 2: Hi?
Speaker 5: I'm Jane Lynch. This is Mandy Boyne. Hi there, I'm
Kate Wallach. There's Katherine Tigle.
Speaker 6: There's only one station that gives you the scoop on
wagging tongues and tails and who's walking? Who in rent
and tencil down pet Life Radio, the tail Wagger. Let's
talk past.
Speaker 2: Let's pet Life Radio, HETLFE Radio.
Speaker 7: Pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Kate McKean. She has
written the book Pay Attention to Me, which is inspired
by cats on the Internet. So Kate, all the research
he did, I mean on the internet. I mean talk
about something fun. Watching cats on the internet for research
must have been a lot of fun. Did you get
anything that you thought? This is just I cannot believe
this cat is doing this. This is mind blowing.
Speaker 5: I actually tried to put in the book even more
ridiculous things than a cat would actually do on the Internet,
so I would see the things that they would do,
like jump on top of the highest point in the house,
or knock over things, or get the zoomies, or just
absolutely freak out and jump five feet in the air
and all these things. And I actually wanted these things
to be even more kind of bonkers in the book,
like Edgar does scratch his name in the back of
the couch, which if a cat scratched its actual name
and could write English, that would be I mean, it
would be the best cat video on the internet. But
it also says he reads the newspaper every day in
his litter box, and he goes to he sneaks into
the backpack of the little kid in the book his
name is Quinn and goes to school with Quid. And
I've never seen a video of a cat going to
school with a kid, but I bet you had's out there.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it's happened. I've heard of people packing
their cats by accident, not for waw right, because they
like to cozey in and get into your stuff and everything.
And I've had my couch scratched. But I don't think
Dennis put his.
Speaker 5: Name in it. Just no, that would be something.
Speaker 2: That would be right. He just did his own artistic expression.
So if Edgar was an influencer and had his own
social media account, what would that look like and what
kind of influencer would he be?
Speaker 5: Oh, I think he'd be a really kind of casual, happy,
go lucky he kind of influencer. He wouldn't be like
perfectly made up with this cat blowout and like perfect
makeup or clothes or whatever. I think he'd be a
real casual, friendly cat who would sit on a couch
and be like, hey, guys, what's up today. We're gonna
read the newspaper, or we're gonna sneak into Quinn's back
and go to school. And he would be somebody you'd
really you almost think you're friends with, instead of somebody
that would be like perfect that you were like, Oh,
I want to grow up and be Edgar. I think
you would say I want Edgar to be my best friend.
Speaker 2: Okay, what breed is Edgar closest too?
Speaker 5: Well, he is inspired a little bit by a cat
that is called Happy Cat for Mike and have Cheeseburger,
who's a gray Scottish fold and he in the book
is kind of blue gray and he has some stripes,
so he's not exactly that. But when I spoke to
the illustrator to give him like a little bit of
what was in my head because I'm not a visual
artist again, I had a picture of Edgar in my head,
and I was like, I want him to be goofy
and round and fluffy like Garfield in a way, but
also kind of have that happy, like dumbness, you know.
Like I was like, I want a big dumb cat,
but dumb and the most loving way. But he was
just happy and that he was just trying his best
and he might not do everything right, but you still
love them. And so he is a really cartoony happy cat.
Speaker 2: Vibe to me, Wow, I think I want Edgar.
Speaker 5: I want Edgar. I wish I could have Edgar. He
would be the best cat.
Speaker 2: I would say. He's probably a little bit main coon
because they are the coolest cats.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I don't see him as like long hair,
but he's definitely fluffy.
Speaker 2: Well, one of mine is a mix, but he is,
oh yeah, long hair, and he's lazy, so every so
often he starts looking like a lion. So I hope
your book is hugely popular with kids and parents. But
what do you hope that the kids me adults take
away from pay attention to me?
Speaker 5: I hope that everyone takes away from the book just
to sit down and look around at what's around them,
the people, the animals, and give them a big hug.
Just be like, oh hi, I've been a little distracted.
Let's sit down, let's snuggle, Let's play with a little
mousey toy, or you know, let's watch a movie, or
let's go on a walk. If you have a cat
who will go outside walk just to kind of take
a second look around and say, oh, yeah, all these
people I love are right here. I'm going to go
and appreciate them.
Speaker 2: And what would you say to some of the people listening,
that'd say, while you're telling people to go away from
their phones, but people read on their phones now they're
just reading, you know, in a book.
Speaker 5: Oh I love ebooks. Oh goodness, I love ebooks. I
love audiobooks. Those are fantastic. I'm always listening to an
audiobook and reading in an ebook.
Speaker 2: But different than just scrolling on your phone.
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, that's the part I need to not do,
is just get to fall down in the endless scroll.
Speaker 2: Because that's a huge difference some people. If you're reading
an e book, it's different, but you're still to me,
and I'm an avid reader. I love the app Libby.
I don't get paid by them or anything, but if
it wasn't for that app, I'd rather have that done
a credit card. I mean, I have credit but the
best app that works with your library card, and it's
just wonderful. I mean, there's plenty of places you could
buy books online too. I'm a big fan of libraries.
Speaker 5: You can get my book on Libby. I'm pretty sure.
I'd have to go back and look the libraries are
carrying this book, And if you have, it might not
be the best place to read it on, like say
an iPhone or something like that. But if you have
any other color tablet, you can read picture books on Libby.
I've definitely done that with my kid.
Speaker 2: One thing is cool about it is that whether you're
reading digital or you know, hardback, your imagination is working.
When when you're just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, that's
just like not so much.
Speaker 5: Imagination, Yeah, just tuning out.
Speaker 2: Tuning out, And we're doing that too much. What about
for those listeners that cats but can't have one because
of allergies, like yourself, what would you tell them?
Speaker 5: I feel your pain. I'm woming you talk to your
doctor about just how much medication you could take you
the time. I've had shots before and too, and you know, really,
it just varies so much from person to person. And
I also hear all those whenever I tell someone I'm
allergic to animals, dogs or cats or whatever, They're like, oh,
but you can get this one certain kind of dog
or cat, and I get no, I cannot. There are
so many different kinds of allergies and allergens out there
that the hairless cat, I don't think would make me
feel any better than a main coon. So I feel
your pain. And luckily there are so many cats on
the Internet that you can enjoy and check up on
and even interact with talk to their owners. They can
kind of get your fix that way too.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I'm glad again you'd brought up the fact
that there's different types of allergies, because yeah, my cat
allergy is definitely much different than yours, because I could,
I could tolerate to be around them with medicine. But
I would need that regardless because I'm alergic to other
stuff as well, like grass. What am I going to
do live in a place without grass? No? No, you
just have to take Yeah, I'm not big on Oh
you have to pop a drug for this. This this
but helps you get by. It helps you get by. Okay.
So if you speaking of all this orange business, now,
I'm gonna look one eighty. If you had one day
where your allergies were just subside for one day, you
had this like magical day and you could spend it
with any cat you wanted, what would your cat date
look like?
Speaker 5: Oh? Could I have just like a pile of kittens?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would just like for me, it's your your fantasy,
your cat fantasy.
Speaker 5: I would like to have a pile of kittens old
enough to play, you know, like baby baby baby, brand
new ones. And I would just like to lay around
with a pile of kittens and play with them and
snuggle with them, and then maybe actually have about a
morning of kittens and an afternoon of mature cats who
wanted to lay around in the sun. So playing in
the morning, watching kittens be cute and silly and play
with each other, and then in the afternoon a nice
lazy cat who let me pritch their ears and pur
a lot and snuggle.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you for sharing. That is there going to
be a sequel to pay attention to me? And we
should we expect to see Edgar again?
Speaker 5: I hope. So we start working on it, and I'm
definitely going to be writing more children's books down the
road because it's such a fun experience.
Speaker 2: So, Kate, we have a vast audience, and I know
from the emails I received, we have a few authors
out there listening. What advice would you give people if
they were writing children's books, or of course cat or
kitten children's books, what would you tell them?
Speaker 5: I would say to go to the library and sit
down in the kids section and read one hundred children's
books because they are their own little animal. And people
think they're very easy to write because they're short, but
they're actually much harder to write and say a one
hundred thousand word novel. They just take less time because
each little word in the book has to be perfect
and has to do a lot of work. And it's
worked that the illustrations are not doing because you wouldn't
say Edgar is a beautiful blue cat or gray cat
when there's a picture of a beautiful blue gray cat
on the next page. You don't have to say those words.
So it takes a long time to understand what work
in a story the pictures are doing, and what work
and story the words are doing. And then I also
tell people to avoid trying to teach a kid a lesson,
like let's remind kids that they must say please and
thank you with this cute cat. I mean, there are
lots of books out there that teach kids wonderful things.
I think that my book can teach people things. But
kids can smell homework from a mile away, and they
can smell when a grown up is trying to trick
them into something. So I think that the most effective
children's books are ones that talk to the kid on
their level in whatever language you know, high diction or
silly words, as they are just the most important person
in the room because they are, and what does a
kid want to see? What does a kid want to
enjoy instead of I have learned everything about life, and
I will teach the next generation everything they need to
know with this this funny picture book. And I think
those two things can really get you ahead in the
long process of writing and publishing children's books.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing that. That's really interesting
to hear. Where can people find Pay Attention to Me?
Speaker 5: You can learn more about it on my website at
Kate McKean dot com, and you can find it at
your local bookstore and anywhere online, especially bookshop dot org.
Speaker 2: Hiwen, thank you so much for coming on Catitude and
telling us all about pay Attention to Me.
Speaker 5: And Edgar happy to great talking to you.
Speaker 2: I hope everyone enjoyed this show. Please look for pay
Tention to Me by Kate McKean. So thank you Kate
for coming on Catitude. I want to thank my cat
crew Dennis, Charlotte and Mollie teach me all about cats
and I just do my part keeping my allergies in check.
Thank you to my Ctitude audience for your loyal listenership.
I greatly appreciate that. Thank you to my amazing producer
Mark Winter for all you do, and hey, above all,
remember lose the attitude, have catitude.
Speaker 4: Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on petlifradio
dot com