Podcasts featuring interviews with Cat:

Yknit (episode 8): click here

Craftlit (episode 87): click here

Craftcast: click here

WEBS (show 80): click here

Videocast with Cat:

KnitAYarn: click here

Reviews of Treasury of Magical Knitting

Paulette Lane, President, West Coast Knitters' Guild, British Columbia
"I want to knit every single piece. It is so rare for me to want to actually follow a design as written, but these are perfect."

Sivia Harding, knit designer and artist, British Columbia
"I have spent the last hour going through each incredible page as if it were the most precious gift, just unwrapped. Marvelous!! I don't have words, just that you have birthed a classic, and one that continues in the tradition of Elizabeth Zimmermann and Debbie New in fostering creativity and joy in each and every reader, whether or not they know how to knit. I feel so privileged to have this peek into the wonders that await the eyes of the world."

Emma Lamprell, Magical Knitting Workshop student, California
"This is certainly magical, because I'm watching my needles and suddenly I see this amazing endless surface growing between them. And I love the way the magical knitting plays with my mind ­ it's challenging and delightful."

Rich Wagner, aerospace engineer, Colorado
"You've taken knitting one step closer to rocket science!"

Jen Conway, knit designer and artist, Washington
"Seeing your Moebius experiment that didn't work freed me to trust my own mistakes. The way your messiest mistake of all turned out to lead you to so many new discoveries and designs . . . I'm no longer afraid of making mistakes."

Eugene Bourgeois, co-author of Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified,
and co-proprietor of Philosopher's Wool, Ontario
This is beautiful. Did you know that 10 is thought to be a perfect number by Pythagoreans? It struck me that your ten steps to cast on brings in this symmetry, a perfectly beautiful book with perfectly numbered techniques.

Cathy Stonehouse, Magical Knitting Workshop student, Washington
"My whole take on knitting is completely transformed. I don't usually think of it as being this creative and playful."

Debbie New, author of Unexpected Knitting
"I was totally charmed by the snippets of your books and am thrilled to hear
that it is due to come out so soon. I love your ideas and your skill at
sweeping up your readers and engaging them in your wonder and excitement. Certainly I have seen enough of your captivating creations to have an idea of what is in store and to whet my appetite for more. I was telling my husband about your work and he wanted to know what a Moebius this approach was trying to turn the magical into the mundane, whereas you are turning the mundane into the magical. But I don't want to refer to Moebius strips as mundane. Perhaps you are turning the magical into the more than magical, or allowing us to see layers of magic that we had never suspected were hidden within the form. In spite of your bubbling enthusiasm in the making of your 3 dimensional pieces, the finished bowls I saw in the restaurant seemed to exude a sort of spiritual calm, stilling the hubbub of that noisy place. It is hard to imagine that there might be a perfectionist knitter out there who would not be tempted, at least for a moment, to venture into the world of uncharted territory you suggest with your Moth-Eaten Moebius and your Undulating Adventures, beckoning us all tantalizingly."

Linda Hull, Magical Knitting Workshop student, British Columbia
"I've fallen in love with knitting all over again."

Wilma Peers, owner of Knitter's Studio, Menlo Park, California
"It's inexplicable and magical, how it evolves ­ and makes it so intriguing that you want to do three to five in different complexities and dimensions, get one on the needles ­ see how it evolves ­ and try to catch up with figuring it out! Magical Knitting is a mathematically inclined person's dream - men could really wrap their heads around this and I would like to see more men knitting. It's an architecturally abstract form of garments/projects, yet so simple. All you need to do is start right and the rest takes care of itself."

Reviews of Treasure Forest

Meg Swansen, owner of Schoolhouse Press, leader of Knitting Camp, and author of many knitting books and articles, writes about Treasure Forest:

Treasure Forest came to my attention through knitting channels: the author is a knitter and knitting was to be involved in the story line; plus it was a "children's book". Thus two of my passions -- knitting and children's literature -- were to be combined. However, having been disappointed by new kid's books in the past, it was with slight skepticism that I opened this "adventure novel".

That uncertainty melted away after the first dozen pages and I was wholly drawn into the story.

Cat Bordhi's writing style is articulate and sure, and perhaps the best part is that young readers are not talked-down to. Reality and magic are entwined into a wonderful tale that moves along swiftly.

As the last page is turned, a slightly bereft feeling is assuaged by the fact that this is book #1 of a trilogy. Eagerly, but patiently, I await the second book ...

A review of Treasure Forest - by Elaine Pretz for The Black Sheep Review, December, 2003

Treasure Forest, a wonderfully adventurous, entertaining and spiritual novel, is Cat Bordhi's first work of children's fiction. Cat is an expert spinner, knitter, designer and the author of the popular knitting book, Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. She is also a professional educator, most recently in the middle school classroom as a Humanities teacher.

Treasure Forest, the first book of the Forest Inside trilogy, has everything: a villain, a mystical wise-woman, birds and animals who communicate with humans, a vast forest to explore and a deep kinship with nature. It even has a bit of Alice in Wonderland as the young girl, Sara, finds herself led through a magical experience, both underground and in the treetops. The story touches on a wide spectrum of emotion: loss and comfort, grief and joy, mystery and the wonder of discovery and understanding. While written for an audience of teens and older adolescents, the book is a great read for adults and a good "read-to" for younger children.

For those who love fiber, this is one of the first novels I've come across that features handspinning and knitting in an accurate, realistic way. The spinning wheel becomes a comforting device for an anxious mother as she awaits word of her missing daughter. She knits socks from the yarn she spins, hoping her daughter will return home by the time the socks are knit--the activity helps keep her sane during a terrible time. The knitted tree house is a wonder in itself and is described so well, readers will want to try their hand at making their own.

The bond between the characters and the natural world was the most fascinating aspect of this story for me. There are interesting snips of forest lore as well as an exploration of the dangers, both perceived and real, of nature and its forces.

As a parent, I laughed at the genuine portrayal of Ben and Sara, the teenaged protagonists. It was fun to observe the relationship of parents and children, notably the children's frequent and vocal impatience with their parents' caution. Exchanges between the sister and brother were real and well crafted. Moreover, the book respects the intelligence, capability and integrity of young teens.

The book is deeply spiritual. Readers familiar with the work of Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now) will recognize his teachings. There are many layers of meaning wrapped within Treasure Forest and each reader may discover something richly personal, as do the characters in the tale.

Treasure Forest will keep readers guessing as they try to solve Ben's riddle of the pond: "How can you retrieve a treasure from the bottom of a pond without disturbing the water?"

A review of Treasure Forest by Lynn Harty
American Bloodhound Club Magazine, November 2003

Treasure Forest, a story of nature's magic and mystery by Cat Bordhi, is a spell-weaving tale that will leave readers marveling at the ability of one very special mantrailing bloodhound while they re-examine their personal philosophies of life and begin waiting for the next book in what promises to become a trilogy of novels.

The story, as told through the characters of thirteen-year-old Ben Maclennon and his twelve-year-old sister, Sara, begins with the death of their beloved grandmother, Daphne, whose legacy includes a wish that they, along with their reluctant parents, Lily and Peter, live in Daphne's home in the forest for a year. Daphne has also left private letters for Ben and Sara, each message containing a riddle and premonition cloaked in a story. Ben's riddle is: how do you retrieve a treasure from the bottom of a pond without disturbing the water? Sara's letter, which describes a mysterious, long-ago journey to an underground garden, leads to the riddle: what are the true meanings of 'here,' 'there, 'and 'home'? Only time spent in the forest, learning the essential truths of one's own heart ­ "the dearest freshness deep down in things" - will provide the answers.

Ben and Sara's quest to solve their riddles begins when they move to their Grandmother Daphne's forest home. When Sara goes missing in the forest, readers will delight in the skills of Matthias, a very special search and rescue bloodhound. The author has done her homework well, and the trailing scenarios, where the bloodhound and we readers understand the nuances of the trails run while other characters in the story do not, are realistic and accurate. Does Matthias find the lost girl? Sorry - that would be telling. Suffice it to say that any bloodhound lover would be delighted to have Matthias as a family member, stretched out and snoring on the living room sofa.

While Sara's journey into the forest and the subsequent search for her assume a primary place in the novel's plot, the book is rich in many ways, not the least of which is a cast of intriguing supporting characters such as Daggett, a reclusive and seemingly sinister forest hermit; Archie, the family lawyer; Rupert, seventy-something retired detective and Matthias's owner; Thea, Rupert's favorite niece and Matthias's handler; and Esther, friend to Daphne and magic forest woman, who becomes Ben and Sara's mystical guide and teacher. Not only the characters but also a host of intriguing details draw readers deeper into the story - a secluded basement room with a secret door and passageway, hand-crafted acorns that serve as homing devices, hand-spun thread that binds loved ones together ­ to list only a few. Readers will finish the novel with questions left unanswered, for life rarely ties up all loose ends into a neat and tidy bow. Besides, such questions provide lovely avenues for the two remaining books in The Forest Inside trilogy.

Readers of all ages will find something to cherish in Treasure Forest, for its gifts are plentiful. Although the novel was been written for an audience of young adults, even those of us in the 'mature reader' category will be touched by the magic that life lived in harmony with the natural world brings, a magic that is still available to all of us who are adventurous enough to believe.

To download a review from readers around the globe (click here), and a page for lovers of Bloodhounds (click here)
If you do not have the FREE Acrobat Reader,
please click on graphic to download it from Adobe.

Interviews with Cat

Victoria Ritchie, manager of the Inner Light Bookstore in San Francisco,
interviewing Cat Bordhi on September 19, 2003, in Vancouver, BC.

Victoria: How did your novel, Treasure Forest, begin to arise in you?

Cat: I invited Eckhart Tolle to speak on the island where I live in September of 1999, where I was a schoolteacher. Later that winter, it occurred to me that Eckhart's teachings could be woven into a story for children of all ages. Connie Kellough, the publisher of The Power of Now, and Eckhart both encouraged me to write this book. Very soon, a riddle, which I immediately recognized for a Zen koan, appeared to me: "How can you retrieve a treasure from the bottom of a pond without disturbing the water?" The story has always been about that. In fact, if you can live beyond the answer to that riddle, you have it.

Victoria: The book fundamentally reflects your own very deep reverence for nature. Where did that inspiration come from?

Cat: I have been very fortunate to live closely with nature all my life, as well as feeling it alive inside myself. During the times in my childhood when I felt most alone, I still had that. So it's never been lost, and it's never been tarnished.

Victoria: I remember Eckhart saying something like this too, that when he was a child, he would go off on his bicycle into nature. That's where he found connection and presence.

Cat: Yes. And since not everyone can access nature in physical form, my book welcomes everyone to the Forest Inside. Nature continues to be my greatest spiritual teacher. Eckhart has been a profound and wonderful teacher as well, and he has handed me, as well as a million people around the globe, words to embrace life. When he stayed with me on the island, I discovered how ordinary he was, and how much more alike we were than not. That was his greatest gift to me: his simple ordinariness. I think people who know Eckhart's teachings will find them in the book, but even simpler than that, spiritual truth is so obvious in nature. Nature isn't secretive about this at all. Nature is the teacher in Treasure Forest, and nature is in alignment with Eckhart. And nature is, of course, universal, so Treasure Forest can be read in any language or culture.

Victoria: Was the mystery element part of the original conception?

Cat: Oh, yes. Children love the enchantment of intrigue and mystery. There's something in the story that changes every time you enter it, and you don't know quite what it is, but you know where it is. Even when I reread it, it changes for me every time from that place.

Victoria: As in all good stories, there's a struggle between the forces of darkness and light. Was that part of your original conception?

Cat: I'm sorry to say it was not! (Laughter) Eckhart was one of three early readers who told me, "You need a villain." I discovered my villain, Daggett, hiding in an underground home in the forest, and thought I'd be able to weave him through what I already had. But, God bless Daggett, he's a true villain. He ravaged the story, like he ravages Daphne's house in the beginning. Over and over again I had to throw out parts that I was so attached to, in order to allow Daggett to be Daggett. And I will say it's been worth every single moment. So yes, at first I avoided the light and dark, and then I had to go in and find it, and embrace it. The book has been my teacher, requiring me to do what the characters do.

Victoria: What was it about the character of Ishi, the wild man who was the last of his Native American tribe, which captured your interest and fascination?

Cat: To me Ishi is a human being who lived in form without any mistake, without any lack of spontaneous presence. To me he is pure human form. And so for my villain, Daggett, to take his deepest inspiration from Ishi, is very profound.

Victoria: There's a fascinating blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary here. The mundane and the sacred are constantly interwoven into the pages of the story. As you wrote, was it difficult or easy to slip in and out of the two worlds?

Cat: They aren't two worlds! They're absolutely bubbling in the same place. I set about to describe the ordinary with such presence, that the reader realizes there's no need to seek the extraordinary, because when you look truly at anything, it is glorious, and completely sacred.

Victoria: Do you see Treasure Forest as a book only for kids, or do you think that like Harry Potter and The Hobbit, it will appeal to adult readers of a certain kind?

Cat: I believe any adult who has a longing for something precious, something indefinable that they had more of when they were young, may find it reawakened in this book.

Victoria: Have you thought about doing an audio of the book? There are some smaller children who couldn't read it, but would love the story.

Cat: Oh, yes! As a teacher, I know that many children, for whom reading is hard, love audio books, partly because then they can hear the book, but also because they love to read along with the audio. By the time they've done that with a few books, they are much better readers. I designed this book to include some challenging vocabulary, but always in context, so that it can be absorbed and understood. I want the book to be educational in terms of literary inspiration and encouragement for children, to make them more passionate readers, give them a larger vocabulary, and to nourish them with the music of language.

Victoria: How did you know when the book was finished?

Cat: In ten years I've only seen ravens fly directly over my house once or twice. The morning I completed the book, I stepped outside. Within moments, two ravens flew into the sky above my home, and began darting back and forth, vocalizing all their wonderful sounds. They were so close that I could see them well even without my glasses. They played above me for forty-five minutes and towards the end a third raven joined them. It was the raven seal of approval.

Cat Bordhi's novel, Treasure Forest, Celebrates Island Resources

An interview with Cat Bordhi by Kim Norton first published in sanjuanislander.com

Cat Bordhi, until recently a Friday Harbor Middle School teacher, is the author of a new novel, Treasure Forest, the first of The Forest Inside Trilogy. Those of us who live here will recognize many threads of island life weaving their way through the pages of Treasure Forest.

"The book drew from all parts of my life," Cat says, "but so many details came from experiences here on the island. In fact, to recount those details is to celebrate two of our most extraordinary resources: nature, and generous islanders who are glad to share their expertise on almost anything you want to know."

Kim: There is an adage that says, "Write what you know." Did you follow this in writing Treasure Forest?

Cat: Yes and no. One of my favorite parts of writing was the research. I absolutely loved learning about my subject matter. Other parts of the book came from my imagination, yet those parts seem as real to me as what I actually experienced.

Kim: Please share some of the research you did within our island community. Were there individuals who helped you?

Cat: There were so many! It seemed that anything I needed, I could find right here. When I wanted some good raccoon home invasion stories, Megan Jones was able to tell me some mind-boggling tales, and I chose the best one to use in the book (you'll have to read to find out). Ev Tuller wove the green cloth for Esther's basket, after listening to my description of its myriad greens and blues. I set it in a basket on my writing desk, and instantly a scene with the cloth and basket blossomed almost effortlessly, attesting to its magic! Steffan Iverson, who was my student at the time, and has the mind of an inventive engineer, built me a working model of the secret door so that I could understand it better, and his sister Genevieve generously shared helpful insights about sibling quibbling.

Janet Wright and Sandy Richard both helped me track down the native plants that my character Daggett could use to make his potion, and in the end my publisher and I decided that although the correct plants were available, not to name them lest a youngster try it at home! Bill Cumming responded to my plea for information on how an official search is carried out for a missing child by grilling me as if I were the mother, in effect turning me into a character in my own book, a great gift to me as a writer. I took copious notes and used them carefully as I wrote those scenes.

When I wanted to lodge a certain deceased creature in a rusty basement furnace, Bruce Conway happened to have specialized in repairing them some years ago, and deftly sketched me an accurate drawing of the very structure where my creature should burn to a crisp. On a seventh grade field trip several years ago to Camp Firwood, Corwin Waldron startled me by folding up a nettle leaf and popping it into his mouth, chewing, and announcing that it tasted like spinach, all without getting stung. Corwin's "recipe" helped one of my characters persuade his parents to change their opinion of something important. A summer of helping Alayne Sundberg milk her goats and watching her make cheese inspired me to include goats and cheese making. Lacy Lamont, a student who heard an early partial reading of the manuscript, responded to the riddle which forms the nucleus of the book, "How can you retrieve a treasure from the bottom of a pond without disturbing the water?" by drawing me a cut-away version of the pond with a tunnel leading to the treasure. I pinned that drawing on my writing wall and months later, when my character Ben was seeking the solution, he drew a picture like Lacy's, which incidentally, almost, but not quite, solved the problem. When I needed to learn more about bee keeping, I ran into Colleen Howe at the market and gathered the information I wanted. Lenore Bayuk and I spent a few hours over tea discussing the psychological ramifications of certain family situations among my characters, making sure they were realistic. And Elaine Pretz offered to copyedit the final manuscript, and along with correcting many fine points of usage and punctuation, saved me from calling a male goat a ram (it's a buck!).

Some people contributed without ever realizing it. About eleven years ago Terry Domico came to my fifth grade class to talk about his photography, observations, and study of bears. I vividly remembered his description of returning again and again to the same spot in the forest to remain still and silent, until the bears resumed their lives around him, allowing him to observe them at close range without disturbance. This ability to be a
silent witness in the forest, allowing the surrounding life to resume its movements, became one of the favorite practices of my characters, carrying many levels of meaning. And in the early 70's I spent a winter on Waldron Island, and I believe that my reclusive character Daggett carries much of the grace, presence, and honoring of nature that I observed among the inhabitants.

Kim: Quinn Gillespie, who graduated from Friday Harbor High School a few years ago, did the pen and ink illustrations. How did you choose her as your artist?

Cat: Because of her talent! A Canadian book designer had shown my publisher and me samples of several professional artists who did similar work, and while I was looking at them, I realized that I already knew someone who, I thought, did better work, and that was Quinn. Since publication, we've had many people comment on how absolutely perfect the illustrations are for the book, and I agree. She is a very gifted artist who was a joy to collaborate with, and she read both the earlier version of the manuscript and the final one, to get the artwork just right. So often book covers or illustrations do not really suit the contents, and I am so grateful that both the cover and Quinn's artwork are true to the book.

Kim: You've mentioned some of your individual students who helped. How did your years of being among young people as a teacher help?

Cat: Every single one of the students I've had the honor of being with contributed to the novel, by daily correcting my sense of what is true and precious. In my acknowledgements at the back of the book, I wrote, "I thank the hundreds of students I've had, each one utterly original, whose untamed nature and spontaneity have delighted me more than anything I can think of, and whose honesty rigorously trained me as a writer; I hope you'll accept my final revision and not make me redo my homework." You see, I used to make my students redo their work if I didn't think it was what they were capable of, and I was rather relentless about that. I'd like them to all know that I had to redo my novel, nearly 300 pages of "homework," so many times that I think we're even now. But the truth is, every single one of those revisions helped make the book truer and truer to what it was meant to be, and I am grateful for having accepted the two and a half years of "redoing my homework".

I also learned from kids that a teacher has to follow a rhythm and pacing during a class session, alternating between pulling kids in, giving them time to digest and reflect, then enticing them back with curious elements which make them inquire into the truth and value of the subject matter, then setting them free again to mull things over. I eventually realized that I was pacing the novel much like a classroom, and that this meant I had unknowingly written a very cinematic novel.

Kim: One of your characters is a teacher, and there are several classroom scenes with Ben. Did you use any material from your own experience to develop these?

Cat: Yes, and I like to think that my former students will recognize a few details. In one scene, I have the teacher droning on and on about something I talked about a lot in seventh grade Humanities, because it intrigued me: the uniformity of the clay bricks found hundreds of miles apart along the ancient Indus River Valley, and the flooding and identical rebuilding that occurred regularly. Of course, I have Ben daydreaming, with the teacher's words only jarring his daydream now and again, which I am sure happened in my classroom quite a lot! When I taught in the elementary school, we always did lots of experiments with surface tension, and Ben tries some of these in the book. In middle school I even used to work surface tension into grammar exercises, by letting rubbing alcohol (which has a low surface tension) interact with water over the corrected sentences on the overhead, which kept everyone's attention. So I was delighted to be able to work surface tension into the novel as well. I do hope my former students will feel right at home when they come to these parts.

There is one other thing some of my long-ago students will remember. In a fifth grade class I had nearly ten years ago, we read Ishi, Last of His Tribe, wrote poetry in Yahi, and even had a visiting classroom iguana for a while who we named Kaltsuna, which means "lizard" in Yahi. Ishi was our hero that year, and Ishi is Daggett's hero too.

Kim: When I think of you working with your students, I picture a classroom of students peacefully knitting, while they discuss literature or history. Could you elaborate on the part knitting plays in your book?

Cat: The funny thing is that when I set out to write Treasure Forest, I promised myself not to put knitting in it. I had already written a knitting book, and so I thought I ought to behave myself and leave it in those pages. I have no memory of the moment when I realized I was breaking my promise, but first there was a spinning wheel which reawakened a character's sense of the sacred, and then of course she began to make yarn and along came knitting . . . and before I knew it I had an old man teaching a boy to knit a tree house right into a tree with rope. Of course, at that moment I realized that I had gone far beyond the tame pages of my knitting book, and that knitting had become vital to the novel in a way I never could have predicted. So as I worked on my many revisions, I let myself add more fiber-related details, and truly, the magic of taking almost formless fiber and giving it tensile strength and definite form by twisting it tightly has become one of the underlying metaphors of the novel, and will be carried through the trilogy.

Kim: Can you compare the writing process for Treasure Forest with that of writing Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles?

Cat: That's an interesting question, and one I pondered occasionally while writing the novel. I had compiled enough material for half of a second knitting book when I began the novel, and then, of course, the story took me over, and the second sock book is still lying dormant. Over time I realized that in many ways writing a knitting book was harder than a novel. Revisions for a knitting book must be actually knit and puzzled out and recorded and then reknit to double-check for accuracy of directions. A novel only has to be rewritten and read aloud to hear the music of the language and the authenticity of the dialogue ­ and believe me, this is a whole lot less time-consuming. In both cases, there are more revisions than you had ever planned on, so when you multiply the inevitable number of revisions by the time required to either read aloud or reknit ­ well, you can see that a novel is "faster". That said, it took me less than a year to write the knitting book and two and a half years to write the novel. One way in which the two books were alike was the joy of the creative "chase". In both books one thing led to another, which opened up a whole new horizon of choices, on and on, more delightful and more abundant each time. And with both books I learned SO MUCH. I had to literally invent much of the knitting that is in Socks Soar, which for me meant that I would occasionally leap out of bed in the middle of the night when something clicked in my head, and it was the same for Treasure Forest. I kept a digital recorder by my bed for those light bulb "ah-hah!" moments in the dark, and there was nothing I liked better than having new information to track down or synthesize into something brand new. So the joy of the writing and evolutionary processes were very much alike, and I feel very grateful to have been able to follow them twice in pursuit of a finished book.

Kim: In what ways did the island's wildlife and landscape find their way into your book?

Cat: I'd start my writing process with a morning walk, taking along the digital recorder to capture the images I saw and ideas that came to me. I might record descriptions of moss and ferns draping themselves over logs, spider webs beaded with glistening orbs of dew, or the almost bird-like way deer twirl their heads to check for safety as they graze. Then, after breakfast, I'd transcribe what I'd recorded and either use it that day or save it in a folder where I could browse for details as needed. I also recorded the early morning conversations of ravens in the woods about a mile from my home, and it was there that I got the idea of having Daggett slowly learn to think and speak in Ravenese.

Kim: The image and metaphor of a pond is central to the novel. Was there a particular pond on the island that inspired you?

Cat: I spent many mornings sitting on the dock at Egg Lake, just watching the water. Sometimes it was still and glassy, and sometimes it was choppy; sometimes giant turquoise dragonflies were darting along jagged paths in the air above the reeds, snatching insects out of the air, and sometimes a frog would plop into the water. I often went to sit on the dock to let the lake lure me towards the next mysterious twist or turn of the book. I also spent time lazily kayaking on Sportsman's Lake, lingering where the cattails open into little lagoons, peering into the underwater forests of green ropy water lily stems, and watching the insects and birds flying about. After one morning on the lake, I went home and poured it into writing the swamp scene, which is my favorite scene in the book, and one of the most powerful in terms of meaning.

Kim: Do you expect to write the next two books in the trilogy here on the island as well?

Cat: I hope so. Treasure Forest is actually the middle book of the trilogy, and the next one will be the prequel, which takes all the adult characters back to their childhoods so that I can reveal the secrets of the lifelong friendship between Archie, Daphne, and Henry, as well as invite the reader to watch Daggett struggling to grow up in an urban setting, and finally wrestle himself away to become the forest hermit of Treasure Forest. The writers of the letters may be revealed, and finally, Ben and Sara will be born and the reader will find out what their Grandma Daphne taught them before she died. The sequel, which will be the last book published, takes place mostly in a city, and I will need to live in a city for some time, probably one less beautiful and less dominated by nature than Vancouver B.C., where I have spent time already, so that I will know what I am writing about. I feel it is essential that my readers, most of whom will live in cities, see that it is possible to enter the Forest Inside even if you do not have nature nearby, so the city setting will have to be very urban and challenging. So the final book may not be able to be written here.

Kim: The cover is so beautiful, and reminds me of dawn over an island pond.

Cat: I realized that very thing, to my astonishment, only after the book had been published. I did not design the cover; it was conceptualized by a wonderful Gulf Islands graphic artist, and developed by our book designer in Vancouver, B.C. All I knew was that I loved the cover. Then one early morning this summer on my way to the redeye ferry, I stopped by Egg Lake to show the lake "our book". I stood on the dock and held the book up for the lake to see. The image on the cover was almost identical to the scene of sky, forest, and water behind the book, right down to the exact shade of rose in the lightening sky, the greenish light at the horizon of the water, and the luminous stillness. It looked like a photo on top of the same photo, blown up. My mouth hung open in surprise, and all I could finally whisper was, "I guess we got it right." And so truly, the island has given birth to this book, taking it out of my hands again and again, and for that I am infinitely grateful.

Kim: Thank you, Cat. I appreciate your sharing how the threads of your life and the wonder of this place are intricately knit into the novel. It is clear that the essence, as well as the details, of the Treasure Forest can also be found on our islands, inside each one of us. I'm looking forward to the prequel and sequel.

Cat: Thank you, Kim, for your wonderful questions, and for the wise counsel you offered me during our weekly knitting sessions while I was writing the book. I also thank our whole island community, and am so grateful for the beautiful surroundings which nourish us all.