It's been a long and arduous journey up to this point, and in that time we have since seen the release of five Ninja Kat novels, a brief Ninja Kat comic book run, and even a live action Ninja Kat short film, with much much more still to come. But today, we celebrate 10 years of progress, and begin a year long celebration that will continue to push the Ninja Kat legacy forward!
Velcro the Ninja Kat is the story of one cat's desire to save the world from a brewing evil. And as we join her on this action packed adventure in this magical world, we get to meet a wide assortment of characters and explore their various dynamics. As much as it's a story about wanting to save the world, it could be argued that it's also just as much about coming to terms with personal strife, finding peace within oneself, as within the world itself, and learning to connect with one another again.
The majority of the characters are based on actual animals, oftentimes pets of my own that I had while growing up, capturing their personalities and bringing them to life on the page, taking the various antics that the real life animals would find themselves in and expanding on those stories in a grand and fantastic way in these books.
The real life Stan, and his comic book counterpart.
Though today marks 10 years since we've officially shared this story with the world, really, this journey has been going for far longer, all the way back to my childhood. In fact, you have to go all the way back to my elementary school days to find the origins of when I first came up with the idea of the Ninja Kat.
Back then, I used to play with my friends, where we would sometimes act out the different adventures that the Ninja Kat and other assortment of characters would go on. And as I said, most of the characters were based on our pets, including my childhood cat and title character herself, Velcro.
A majority of the cast of characters was made up of my other pets that my family would get over the years, including our other cats and dogs and hamsters and rabbits and such. But even pets of long distance family members would make it into the stories, such as my family up in New York, who practically had a zoo in their house from the wide assortment of animals they had living there. And even more still, I didn't reserve it to strictly just family, but the pets of many of my friends also found their way into my novels, many of whom I'm certain still aren't even aware of it yet!
But one friend in particular is certain of his animals' inclusion, that being an old neighborhood friend, Kevin Law, who I would most frequently run off with as a child and act out our animal's fantastical adventures. In fact, a number of his pets wound up securing key roles in the story, including many of the hamsters from the original book, as well as Kip, who managed to score an entire short film about himself at that. And I know Kevin is well aware of his pets finding their way into these stories, as he's expressed his excitement and gratitude to me in regards to these callbacks.
Even beyond just the characters though, much of the world explored in these books have their origins based on real life locations. For instance, for anyone not native to Tallahassee, FL, Lake Ella is a real lake in this city, and is indeed the very lake that the one from the books drew its inspiration from. The Twin Trees are based on an area in my Mom's neighborhood where we used to play as kids, and the village of Highland itself is based on my Mom's neighborhood as well, with many of her animals residing there. And likewise, the village of Redfield is in turn based on my Dad's neighborhood, and as such, many of the characters who live in that village are in fact the same animals who lived at my Dad's house growing up.
What I also find really cool though is how even many of the original characters not actually based on any real life animals were actually characters I made up way back in my school years as well. Characters such as Vini, Buzzbee, the Devil Dog, and Bullet came about way back when I was in elementary school (I even drew pictures of them back then as well, though I have no idea where those pictures are anymore, assuming they even still exist), and then Tails Mask first came to mind sometime around middle school, with The Great Mosquito being a character who I first conjured up in high school. And ideas such as the Universal Pole saw their origins back when Kevin and I would play pretend way back as kids. And yet all of these elements, many years later, would pass the test of time and find their way into the main story once it was time to be told.
But the older I got, the more I wanted to truly pursue taking these stories of pretend and making them a reality for all to enjoy. And thus, after I graduated high school, I began looking into options to do precisely that. We actually tried the comic book route before going into novels, as I had met a few artists at work at the time who expressed interest in the project, but nothing really quite worked out back then.
Though it would eventually come together!
And so, I decided instead to just write the story out as a series of books. Which of course meant that I had to actually learn how to write a novel length work.
Though Velcro: The Ninja Kat is my first published novel, it is not the first novel that I wrote. I actually got my start with novel writing through National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, and I learned a great deal from completing that challenge two years in a row. I then took all that I learned and began work on the Ninja Kat novel itself, though I chose to take my time with this one, as opposed to rushing it onto the page in a month. And after years of outlining, and writing, and workshopping my novel, finally, I was ready to share those childhood stories of my animals with the world.
And yeah, you can certainly tell that the first Ninja Kat book is still a learning process from me. But one thing that I've learned over the years as a writer is that you learn a lot with every project completed, and I feel that certainly shows in the sequels, which I am much more proud of how they turned out (and my dedicated reviewers tend to agree with the consistent improvement of quality!).
Even so, I finally had my first novel out, Velcro: The Ninja Kat. But as it turns out, getting my work out was the easy part. Now the hard part was getting people to actually read it! And so, I started marketing my book, to varying degrees of success. I've never really found too much success online, but in person, I've been able to do a bit better for the most part. I've done book signings at local bookstores, and have even gotten quite a number of stores to stock my books on their shelves.
The Ninja Kat series on display at Books at Park Place in St. Petersburg, FL.
In addition, I also set up booths at local conventions, and I would even branch out and travel around to conventions elsewhere, trying to spread my book out as far and wide as possible. I've toured throughout most of Florida, and have spread out as far west as New Orleans, LA, and as far north as Charlotte, NC.
Pictured at MegaCon 2017 in Orlando, FL.
And throughout all of this, I would wind up meeting a number of artists who I would go on to collaborate with on future Ninja Kat projects. The cover artist for the first Ninja Kat novel, Sharon Kemmerer, is a friend who I actually met back when I was originally bringing my Ninja Kat excerpts to local writing workshop events, and it was at these events where I also met Rachel Rice and Natalia Locatelli, who helped me out quite a bit early one with a lot of the technical stuff.
Sharon is also quite the fan of Vini, as seen in this fan art of hers!
Shortly after I published the first Ninja Kat novel, one of my artist friends who I had mentioned before that I used to work with had reached out to me. That artist was Trevor Tee, who saw that I had published the book, and who was now eager to get started working on the comic. He had a pretty decent run, putting out 9 chapters in about a two year span, as well as doing the cover art for The Green Lion and The Masquerade. But eventually a change in career forced Trevor to have to step away from the gig, but I'd love to pursue another run with a comic book adaptation at some point in the future.
Trevor Tee with his copy of Velcro: The Masquerade.
One of the first conventions I ran a booth at was Alt-Con 2013 in Tallahassee, FL, and it was at this show where I met one of my biggest fans and supporters, Nikki Hall, who would go on to help me out at future shows.
Nikki Hall helping me run the table at Hamacon 2014 in Huntsville, AL.
While I was touring around to various cities selling the books at conventions, I also met many other artists who I would keep contact with, and later on down the line collaborate with. Artists such as Christine Schongar, who I met at Florida Supercon in Miami, FL back in 2013, and who did the cover art for Polluted War and The Egg Hunters, and the poster art for Kip.
Art by Christine Schongar.
And Travis Earls, who I met the following year at the 2014 Florida Supercon in Miami, FL, and who did the cover art for the upcoming Complete Edition, a reworking of a fan art piece he had originally given to me when we initially met.
Travis Earls with his fan art of Velcro the Ninja Kat, and his rework for The Complete Edition.
And I've most recently collaborated with a fellow local artist, Daniel Hooker, who I first met at a Free Comic Book Day book signing at Secret Headquarters in Tallahassee, FL in 2013, where he was promoting his new book HIT!, and whose contributions will be revealed soon enough!
Art by Daniel Hooker. Details coming soon...
And speaking of collaborations, a huge shout out to everyone who came together and worked on the Ninja Kat short film, Kip, including Kayla Badia, Andre Forbes, Jason Simmons, M.H. Smith, Outlawed Beats, and the guys at Crinsy Productions and Orora Arts. It might not be the most popular project I’ve completed, but it’s certainly one of my favorites. I think it came out incredibly cool as hell, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished.
Though we would eventually do the live action Ninja Kat short, that outing was actually not the first time we attempted to bring the Ninja Kat off the page and into the real world. In fact, we've actually been doing it since before the first book was even published!
My stepmother, Valita, and stepbrother, Jason, helped me put the costume together, with Caroline Barr providing the voice in the trailer. And since that initial teaser trailer, there have been at least four people who have donned the Ninja Kat costume at events, including Jory Burks, Phil Blaiklock, Thomas Curry, and even yours truly!
Jory Burks as the Ninja Kat.
Phil Blaiklock as the Ninja Kat.
Thomas Curry as the Ninja Kat.
Yes, I'm aware that the Ninja Kat is a female, and yet has primarily been acted out by men up to this point. Though in one of the coolest moments on my journey touring the book around at conventions, one enthusiastic female fan did come to the show cosplaying as the title character, which I suppose should count for something!
One of the most rewarding experiences along the way has been gradually growing a fanbase, and seeing some of the same people come back out to later events in order to pick up their copy of the latest releases, or sometimes to just share their enthusiasm with me in the form of fan art. I've highlighted a few pieces of fan art so far, but it's always such a cool feeling when someone is so passionate about what you're doing that they feel inspired to create a piece of art to help celebrate it with you, and right now, I'd like to share a sampling of some of the art I've received from fans over the years.
Lyrics to a Ninja Kat drinking song about the hamsters written by Rebecca Gilbert.
A balloon artist made this caricature of Vini.
It's Ninja Kat time! Made by Esclair Studios.
A fan from work, with his crossover suggestion.
So as you can see, it's been a bit of a journey up to this point! But, it wasn't always fun and games.
A little over 11 years ago, my childhood cat and best friend in the whole world, Velcro, sadly passed away. She died on August 6th of 2011. And it's because of this that I had chosen that day to always try and promote something new Ninja Kat related, so that we can take a day of loss and sadness, and instead turn it into a way of celebrating the life of my cat once more. So that's been the reason why most years I try to have some bit of news to share on this day, though it doesn't always work out that the bit of news is Ninja Kat related. But even when it's not, it's at least something to share my creative efforts with the world, to show that I'm still working, still trudging away, and trying to get my own contribution out and into the world.
A year after she passed was the first time I shared anything in regards to Velcro the Ninja Kat in a more official manner, with the release of that initial trailer. And it was later that month, 10 years ago today, in which that childhood dream became a reality, and Velcro's own legacy had been cemented with the release of Velcro: The Ninja Kat.
And that's what today is all about! But we're not relegating the celebrations to just a mere day. We'll be celebrating 10 years all year long, and it starts with the release of Velcro the Ninja Kat: The Complete Edition, a compilation of all five books, featuring updated text. It's taken longer than I would've liked to get this new edition released, but it's coming sooner rather than later, and will be followed up with even more surprise releases to come throughout the year.
And as to where Velcro the Ninja Kat will go from here? Well, without saying too much, let's just say that while the Ninja Kat's tale may be told, a legacy lives on, and there are still yet more stories to be told, in more ways to come.
I'd like to now take this opportunity to thank everyone who has joined me along the way throughout these 10 years and more. In addition to everyone I've already mentioned, I need to give a huge shout out to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Laurie, whose contributions to my novels truly cannot be measured. Thank you Mom, thank you Dad, and thank you to my family and friends who have been there for me and helped me out over the years. Thank you to everyone who's read my books, and to everyone who has continued to join us along this journey over the years.
And here's to more stories still to come. Because as far as I'm concerned, we're still only just getting started!
