The Story behind the Book: Tale of a Mission Cat (Sula)

 




Today's story behind the book tells the tale behind Tale of a Mission Cat by Sula. 

From the author -- 

The book content was the second in what has turned out to be the Sula series. It was inspired by fourth-grade students from all over Northern California who regularly visit the Mission on Thursdays for school projects. As I (Elizabeth Mahlou, amanuensis for Sula) watched them gather brochures for the school projects, I realized that there some things about the Mission that was not in those brochures or any brochure. So, I set about writing about all aspects of the Mission grounds, things that the children could see but that were not explained anywhere, including some pieces of history -- all told from the point of view of Sula, the cat, whom they all met either on the grounds, in the church, or in the gift shop. It became a sophisticated "cheat sheet" for them -- things that their teacher did not know, for the most part. Next to Surviving Cancer, Healing People, it is the most popular of the Sula books. For the cover, one of the parishioners got an early morning picture of Sula taking her orders from St. Francis.

Sula went on to "write" four more books, one in Spanish (about the Day of the Dead), chronicling her life along with the life of the Church. Sula was always a popular stop for school children on the tour of the Mission. In 2022, Sula died from her many cancers at the age of 17. The Mission held a Memorial Mass, open to the community, who brought their own pets to be blessed by the priest and monk. Sula is still on the Mission tour; she was buried on the Mission grounds where her beautiful granite headstone is showered with flowers and rosaries by parishioners who remember her and loved her -- in the shadow of the St. Francis statue where she spent so many early morning hours.


 
For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE.





For more book back stories, click HERE.



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Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.




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