As an associate professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), writing and publishing academic papers is a key part of Dr. John Collister's job. 

He recently published another piece of work but instead of detailing his latest research for peers, this one is focused on a different audience: children. 

Ideas for mystery and science fiction have been percolating in Collister’s head since college, but a true-life event involving a missing cat eight years ago became the inspiration for his now published children’s book, “Stanley’s Big Adventure.”

The plot follows the follies of a dad and his kids—a fictionized version of Collister’s family—as they attempt to locate Stanley the cat, who has disappeared while his wife is out of town. Stanley’s real-life counterpart is a cat of the same name who was adopted by Collister's wife, Dr. Cris Hartnett, from her spay and neuter lab during veterinary school. He disappeared while Hartnett was out of town at a veterinary conference. 

“Needless to say that was not a fun evening, discovering the cat had gone missing,” Collister recalls. 

Collister first began working on the book in 2020 and joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators to have it critiqued. He also attended the CVM Craft Club where he worked on descriptions for illustrations. 

Bringing Stanley’s story to life involved working with Misha Malik, an illustrator based in Pakistan, and shopping the book around to publishers before releasing it through Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.  

“I was giddy when it was published and said it feels good to be a published author,” Collister says. “Then a colleague of mine reminded me that I have close to 50 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals—but this was a little different type of exhilaration. Being a dad made it really rewarding to see it come to life with my kids in the story and them helping edit the final versions.”