Six years ago, Alysson Foti Bourque put her children to bed and read a story they had heard before. By bedtime they had gone through all their books more than once, and they were looking for something new.
Instead of making a plan to go shopping, Bourque told them she would write a story for them instead. They cheered, which unlocked something inside her.
“They believed in me, and that was the aha moment that made me believe in myself,” she said. “I always imagined stories, but I never had time to write them down when I was a lawyer.”
Born in Lafayette and a graduate of Ovey Comeaux High School, Bourque received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, taught a year in St. Martinville, and went on to study law at Southern University Law Center. She has worked as an assistant attorney general as a lawyer for about seven years.
When her children were about 6 and 4, she decided to take a year off to stay at home with them. It was only temporary, she thought. A year would turn six and a new career path, beginning with that night she decided to write her story.
“I went downstairs, grabbed a loose-leaf piece of paper and wrote down Alycat and the Thursday Dessert Day,” she said.
Become a published author
She researched ways to publish a book and surveyed more than 200 agencies and publishers. She received 88 rejections and most went unanswered.
Seven months after she wrote Alycat, she got a yes from a publisher when she thought about returning to work as a lawyer.
In the years that followed, Bourque was picked up by Pelican Publishing, a Louisiana-based imprint of the national Arcadia Publishing, and she is now in book No. 5.
The fifth book in the Alycat series – Alycat and the Cattywampus Wednesday – launched Monday and she will be celebrating locally on Saturday with a book signing at The Little Gym of Lafayette.
Meet local authors:New Children’s Book from Acadiana Natives Encourages Kids to ‘Stand Up and Shine’
From 3-6pm, visitors can enjoy face painting, gym workouts, photo ops with Bon Temps Photo Booth and Alycat the mascot, Jolie Cakes Bakery treats, adoptable appliqué cats, balloonist Rick Hessler, and Raising Cane’s. A portion of the proceeds from each sale of the new book will be donated to the Wild Cat Foundation.
“It’s important to raise community awareness about literacy and get kids involved in books,” Bourque said. “Books are such great resources that help them solve problems.”
She loves watching little readers hug Alycat the mascot, tell her their ideas for future books, and give her photos they’ve taken of her character.
And it’s important to have a party that the community and suppliers can get involved with – they’ve supported me from the start.”
For every launch party, she makes an effort to partner with new small businesses, people trying to spread the word, just like she once was.
She has also been to hundreds of schools in Louisiana and beyond, reading and interacting with children about Alycat.
“I miss parts of practicing the law, but to be able to communicate with kids about literacy, to see the joy and laughter, you can’t help but be happy,” she said.
Being an author in the midst of a pandemic
Now her own children are 13 and 11 and very proud of the Alycat series. They’ve been following her story closely from the start, so the character feels like a sibling to them, she said. Moreover, they enjoy meeting other authors now that their mother is an author herself.
Bourque, 42, launched her fourth book in the series in March 2020, when COVID-19 seemingly shut the world down. Canceling in-person events associated with the release was daunting, but she adapted with weekly live read-alouds online.
Family reading:‘Making Parents Our Partners’: Louisiana Schools Want to Engage Families, Improve Literacy
She then started a podcast with business partner and fellow author Lori Orlinsky. On ‘Ask an Author’ they interviewed authors, interviews that teachers could record in their virtual classrooms.
The podcast led the couple to start a PR firm, Foreword Publicity, to represent other writers. They have helped more than 250 authors launch books, Bourque said.
“We love books,” Bourque said. “Without the pandemic, that business would never have started.”
The pandemic also served as inspiration for this fifth book, Alycat and the Cattywampus Wednesday.
Bourque wanted to find a way to write about what she and everyone around her were experiencing to help her and others come to terms with it, especially children.
“I wanted to write about the world we were in, about a time in life when things were just crazy, retarded, cattywampus,” she said.
That’s what happens to Alycat. Her Wednesday starts with dinner (seafood gumbo) for breakfast. Words are spelled backwards. Things just don’t add up.
But Alycat goes through the day minute by minute, step by step, Bourque said. Relying on her friends and family, she finds a way to maintain a positive attitude in the midst of the chaos.
“The moral of the story is that when we have something we can’t control, we can go to what’s constant, our friends and family, and see that that attitude really makes a difference,” she said.
The Alycat series has five titles, has won more than 17 awards and has been featured in the official Grammy’s Swag Bag, Oscar’s Gift Bag and the Duchess of York’s YouTube channels, Little Red News and Storytime with Fergie and Friends, according to Bourque’s website. †
Contact Leigh Guidry, Child Issues Reporter, at [email protected] or on Twitter @LeighGGuidry†