Jacqueline Taylor knew a good story when she saw it — actually, she was part of it.
How could you lose with a story of a cute, well-traveled black cat named Othello?
True story — Taylor’s daughter, Lauren, lived in California and adopted a black kitten originally named Ishkabibble, a long name for a little kitten, who became Othello instead. Othello moved several times as Lauren married (Nick), had children and moved for her husband’s job.
Taylor is selling the book herself or it’s available at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com
Taylor kept Othello while her daughter and family settled in Baltimore, then they moved to Florida and Othello stayed with her again until everything settled down. “I thought, I believe this cat has a story to tell,” and she wrote it all down.
Taylor never especially cared for cats, but after she wrote her children’s book, “here came a black stray, so I have that cat and then someone put out a gray and white cat … for a person that didn’t start out liking cats, I changed.”
Taylor said she “just felt like writing a book,” though she’d never written anything before.
Taylor started out as a first-grade teacher, then went to help her husband, Byron C “Jack” Taylor, at Taylor’s 5 and 10 in Rockwell.
Taylor asked her friend, Cathy Eller, also a children’s book author, “if she would give me some ideas and she told me about an online publisher and that’s how I had it published.
Taylor is asking just $8 for the book. She has no plans for a signing. She plays tennis twice a week, and “they all wanted a book. … Everywhere I went I told them about the book.” She’s already sold the first 100 copies and she’s ordering more. “Just an old lady’s whim,” she says.
You can contact Taylor directly at bcjacktaylor@carolina.rr.com
She was a big supporter of building the East branch of Rowan Public Library and helped to raise money. “I’m proud to have a nice library. … The kids just stream in there.”