The Adventures of Sheila and Gaston the Cat is a true story about the travels of the Tracey family and Gaston, their cat. They travel to and explore Mexico, Canada, France, and Germany from 1966 to 1967, which takes eighteen months. Both parents are artists and teachers, and the children are also artists. Their mother, Francoise M. Tanguy, is the favorite niece of her uncle, Yves Tanguy, famous French-American Surrealist painter of the 20th century and member of the Surrealist Movement.
About the Author
Sheila Tanguy Tracey's artist and writing training started at a very young age. She started painting when she was seven years old and started writing poems in junior high school. She started exhibiting paintings and ceramics with her brother in the Deyoung Museum in San Francisco, California. Both she and her brother, Brendan, entered the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade contest at ages seven and eight, in which they both won second place.
Sheila graduated from Monterey Peninsula College in 1997, took Women's Studies, and wrote three books. She was also a student senator and graduated from CSU Monterey Bay in 2000. She took Painting with muralist Johana Poethic, and Stephanie Anne Johnson, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Statistics with Ken Nashita. She has also painted five murals and written five books since then. It has been an incredible journey.
About the Author
Sheila Tanguy Tracey's artist and writing training started at a very young age. She started painting when she was seven years old and started writing poems in junior high school. She started exhibiting paintings and ceramics with her brother in the Deyoung Museum in San Francisco, California. Both she and her brother, Brendan, entered the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade contest at ages seven and eight, in which they both won second place.
Sheila graduated from Monterey Peninsula College in 1997, took Women's Studies, and wrote three books. She was also a student senator and graduated from CSU Monterey Bay in 2000. She took Painting with muralist Johana Poethic, and Stephanie Anne Johnson, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Statistics with Ken Nashita. She has also painted five murals and written five books since then. It has been an incredible journey.
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00:00This is the Speaking of Writers podcast.
00:03I'm Steve Richards.
00:04The book is The Adventures of Sheila and Gaston the Cat.
00:07It's a true story about the travels of the Tracy family and Gaston, their cat.
00:12They travel to and explore Mexico, Canada, France, and Germany
00:16from 1966 to 1967, which takes 18 months.
00:20Both parents are artists and teachers, and the children are also artists.
00:24Their mother is the favorite niece of her uncle, Yves Tangy,
00:29a famous French-American Surrealist painter of the 20th century
00:33and a member of the Surrealist movement.
00:35The author, Sheila Tangy, Tracy's artist and writing training
00:39started at a very young age.
00:41She started painting when she was seven years old
00:43and started writing poems in junior high school.
00:46She started exhibiting paintings and ceramics with her brother
00:49in the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
00:52Both she and her brother, Brendan, entered the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
00:55Parade Contest at ages seven and eight, in which they both won second place.
01:01Sheila graduated from Monterey Peninsula College in 1997,
01:07took women's studies, and wrote three books.
01:10She was also a student senator and graduated from CSU Monterey Bay in 2000.
01:15She also took painting.
01:17She's painted five murals and written five books since then,
01:20and it has been an incredible journey for Sheila,
01:23and she joins me now here on the Speaking of Writers podcast.
01:26Sheila, welcome to the program.
01:29So why this book for you?
01:31Because I wanted to share my childhood memories of my pet Gaston the cat,
01:41who was such an awesome cat,
01:44and also share my adventures in Mexico, Canada, France,
01:51and back in Canada and back to San Francisco.
01:55Yeah, there's a lot.
01:56You've been through a lot.
01:57You've experienced, too.
01:58What were some of those experiences like?
02:01Well, I was young, and I was eager to see France, Germany, Canada, and Mexico
02:15at a young age.
02:17At a very young age.
02:18You were, what, 10 years old?
02:20Yes, going on 11 years old through 12 years old.
02:26We traveled for about 18 months.
02:30And Gaston the cat traveled with you.
02:33Yes, he did with my brother and my two parents.
02:37My father was at the wheel driving.
02:40What's a memory you have from France?
02:42Let's start there.
02:44I remembered my father painting the hallways
02:49while my mother worked in the art gallery below the building,
02:53Doris's grandparents' building in Paris on the left bank,
03:02right on the St. K of the Seine River.
03:06What about Germany?
03:07We took a short trip.
03:10Five of us, the cat and the Tracy family, we went to Stuttgart, Germany,
03:16where my father had a war hero who had been in Korea with him.
03:24He was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany.
03:27So we went there to visit him and his family,
03:30and we returned abruptly back to Paris.
03:34Painting, as I mentioned during the introduction,
03:37you started painting when you were 7 years old.
03:39Were you painting in France and Germany on this trip too?
03:44No, I was busy going to parochial school and learning French.
03:51How about Mexico and Canada?
03:52What are some memories from your travels there?
03:55I was enrolled in the Bibliotheca, the library in San Miguel de Allende,
04:04in an art class, and we were painting with gouache on 11 by 8 paper,
04:13and I was selling my paintings as I was painting them
04:18to a doctor from Veracruz, Mexico, who wanted to have children's art.
04:25So when she saw my paintings, she snatched them up before they were even dry.
04:32And paid me a good sum.
04:34You also started writing poems in junior high school.
04:38Did you keep a journal during this travel year from 1966 to 1967?
04:44No, I didn't keep a journal, but I painted a Fender sticker for VW Volkswagen.
04:58The story is more or less like a journal of what happened,
05:02from my memories of when I was 10 and 11 years old.
05:09We're chatting with Sheila Tanguy-Tracy.
05:12Her new book is The Adventures of Sheila and Gaston the Cat, A True Story.
05:18It's available at Amazon.com, also BarnesandNoble.com as well,
05:23and at BookWorld.org.
05:27What would you like readers to take away from this book, Sheila?
05:30That if you have a cat or a dog that's young,
05:36and you keep him or her, the pet, with you,
05:42you can travel with them, and they can adapt to new situations easily.
05:50Yeah, pets have played a big role in your life, too.
05:53Not only Gaston, but Gus.
05:56That's my unpublished book, The Trouble with Gus, The German Shepherd Mixed Dog.
06:06He's my latest pet.
06:10He's a German Shepherd and half Malinois, which is Belgian police dog.
06:17So he's a mixture of both.
06:20He had an adventure of his own.
06:25He had heartworms in the fourth stage of heartworms,
06:31and the SPCA, where we found him, wanted to put him in the German Shepherd Refuge.
06:41He still had heartworms.
06:44They showed us the only German Shepherd dog that was him.
06:48He was three years old when we got him,
06:51and we took him to the veterinarian and to the SPCA
06:56and got shots for him and treatment medication, and he survived.
07:02He got better, and now he doesn't have heartworms.
07:06So we saved the dog's life.
07:09That's great.
07:10So you wrote, as you mentioned, another book about your dog, Gus,
07:13who you're talking about here.
07:16Writing a book about Gus and your travels with your cat, Gaston,
07:21has that helped you?
07:23Yes, it helped me to fulfill a wish that I'd wanted to do for a long time,
07:29which is to write about it and share with the world my adventures.
07:37And it's possible to travel with children and pets,
07:42even in a small car the way we did it, in a VW Bug.
07:47VW Bug looks like the insect.
07:50It's very small.
07:52Traveling with family and your pets, did it bring your family closer together?
07:57Yes, it did.
07:59But we all had a mission was to stay together
08:03and to adapt to the new lifestyles, the new language, the new culture each time.
08:12And we saw Expo 67 in 1967, the first three days when it opened.
08:20And when we came back from France almost a year later,
08:24we saw Expo 67 just before it closed again.
08:29And our cat went in with us to Expo 67.
08:34We didn't leave him in the car or leave him behind.
08:38Sheila, Tanguy, Tracy, and the book is The Adventures of Sheila and Gaston the Cat.
08:44It is a true story.
08:45It's available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and also BookWorld.org.
08:51Sheila, thank you so much for joining me.
08:53It's also available at Doran's Publishing, Bookstore Publishing.
09:00Have a great day, Steve.
09:01You too, Sheila.