Chad Duerksen Interview – Cats, Humanimals, and Heroes

Who better to write The Feral Colony than someone whose life has been deeply intertwined with cats? Chad Duerksen has shared his home and heart with cats for many years, and several of his own beloved companions—past and present—appear within the story. I invite you to read my interview with this cat-loving author and discover the inspiration behind The Feral Colony.

The Feral Colony blends post-apocalyptic survival with the emotional lives of feral cats. What first inspired you to tell this kind of story through feline characters?

I love cats. I have been involved in a lot of rescue work here in Los Angeles over the years, and I wanted to create a story that showcased cats in the distinct way I see them. They have given me years of companionship and love, so I wanted to repay the favor by creating some memorable, modern-day heroes that people could root for and fall in love with.

Charles is described as a timid cat with a missing hind paw and the heart of a reluctant hero. How did his character come to you?

He’s my real cat. 😊 And, yes, he’s actually missing his back right foot. So, I guess I cheated a little. In fact, nine of the cats in the story—Charles, Belle, Lily, Bergman, Dobbs, Miles, Olivia, Francie, and (Moon’s elder) Leia—are all cats I either have now or have had in the past. At the back of the book are photos and bios for each one. So I took aspects of each of their personalities, mixed in a little fiction, and created the characters in the story. Sometimes, the fiction and reality blur, and when I feed them every day, I have to remind myself they didn’t really battle hordes of zombies even if Belle really does act tougher than she is.

The book features Laura Swann, a resilient teenager haunted by loss. What role does she play in balancing the animal-centered perspective with the human stakes of the story?

In a way, she’s a stand-in for the reader. To be their thoughts and voice their questions from a logical and informed perspective. I also needed a human who could think and reason to help push the narrative forward so it didn’t get stuck in an endless loop of similar cats-vs-creature battles. Luckily, as her character grew on the page, she became much deeper than I originally conceived, so hopefully she’s as interesting as the cat characters are.

Your “humanimals” are a frightening twist on the infected-human/zombie concept. How did you develop them, and what did you want them to represent?

All zombie stories share some similar tropes, and I consciously played into that. While they technically aren’t zombies in the traditional sense, I didn’t try to create something radically different, because I didn’t want the creatures to distract from what I felt was most important to the story, and that was its point of view. The Walking Dead told through the eyes of an animal. We have wars, floods, wildfires, and disasters happening all over the world, but we rarely consider how wild animals deal with them, or what’s going through their minds as they fight to survive. So I purposefully kept the creatures simple, hoping the new viewpoint might help give the genre a fresh perspective.

Why cats? What do you think cats bring to an apocalyptic story that dogs, wolves, or human-only survivors would not?

Because cats are natural hunters and survivors. I think they’ve been labeled the perfect animal from an evolutionary standpoint. I was looking around, and I saw close to 100 years of dogs in stories, from Asta in The Thin Man films to Lassie, Benji, into the 80s and 90s with Turner & Hooch and Beethoven, then books (and film adaptations) of Marley & Me, A Dog’s Purpose, The Art of Racing in the Rain. Even The Secret Life of Pets was primarily about dogs (the first film, anyway). Very few people ever tried telling cat stories. Outside of The Aristocats and Felidae (a German book series with a lovely animated film adaptation), cats were usually limited to being a witch’s familiar or a jump scare in a horror film. Since a cat wouldn’t rescue Timmy from a well like a dog might do, no one seemed to know what their story could be. And yet, despite that, cat videos and memes are one of the most popular things on the Internet. When I realized they should not only be heroes but also anti-heroes, it clicked. People want to see the cute and the vicious side of cats, so it was then just about finding a story where I could show both. When I did, it opened up the potential for funny, tender moments as well as violent, epic battles.

The colony includes distinct cats such as Charles, Belle, and Lily. How did you give each cat an individual personality without making them feel too human?

By careful observation. I watched my cats over the years, how they interacted, how they approached something new. People love to say dogs have personalities and cats don’t care, but cats are very nuanced. You don’t always see their true colors until you know them for a while. But then it becomes very apparent. It’s also why I decided early on that the cats wouldn’t talk. I didn’t want to anthropomorphize them like the rabbits in Watership Down or the characters in a Disney film. Instead, I wanted to use their animal reasoning and their lack of understanding of exactly what’s happening to fuel their actions and keep them more cat-like.

What were the biggest challenges in writing action and danger from the viewpoint of smaller, more vulnerable creatures?

Surprisingly, it came fairly easily. The challenge was repetition—there’s only so many things a cat can do. But knowing each character so well, I knew how each would approach a situation and (in my imagination, anyway) how each one would fight, which made it pretty easy to crosscut between simultaneous actions. For example, Lily, being heavier, wouldn’t be able to jump like Belle, so instead she would use her head to barrel through the creature’s ankles. And Bergman was elderly and arthritic, so he couldn’t run as fast to escape. To make matters worse, he had previously been de-clawed by his humans, so he literally had no way to fight back. But cats are pretty resilient creatures. They can distort their bodies to fit into tight spaces, jump, run, etc., so I had a lot of options.

The Feral Colony has been described as a story where “even the smallest creature can rise to become a warrior.” What does heroism mean in this world?

 It means everything. It’s all that’s left. Look around at what’s happening today—the world always needs heroes. The Lord of the Rings has a famous line: “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” The cats of The Feral Colony are the same. Only they don’t understand what is happening around them, so their fight is solely for each other, with no agenda or purpose except to stay alive and stay together. It’s pure. It’s all they know. And that makes their heroism unique, since it doesn’t support an ideology or try to make a statement.

The book combines horror, adventure, and emotional storytelling. How did you decide how dark or intense to make the story while still keeping readers attached to the characters?

 I tried to let the story guide me. Knowing that including zombies would likely classify it as a horror book, I felt I needed to give that audience the gore and suspense they might expect. Personally, I always saw it more as a survival story than straight-up horror, but in my defense, it was great fun to write (and imagine) what these cats would do to those rotting creatures when provoked. The one thing I knew from the start was that it had to be serious, because life-and-death stakes create a stronger emotional response. It became a problem when I was trying to sell the book, because most agents and publishers assumed it was more of a cute children’s story rather than a dark, violent adventure. Luckily, after several years of querying and rejections, I found 21 Chieftans Press. They not only understood what I was going for but championed it. That’s also one reason the amazing cover art, done in soft pastels by the talented Abir Khalil, is so dark and brooding, almost scary. It sets the tone from the moment you see it, alerting readers that the story is intense and not some lighthearted tale about kitty cats.

The title The Feral Colony immediately suggests both wildness and community. How early did that title come to you, and what does it mean to you?

The name ‘feral colony’ is the understood terminology for a pack of stray cats, so it seemed like an obvious choice to start with. But there is a line late in the book, in describing the humanimals, which says: “For they had become a feral colony, driven only by instinct and rage.” So, maybe the feral colony of the title isn’t only describing the cats, but the creatures as well, and what society has become.

The Feral Colony series will have three books. What can readers expect from the world beyond this first novel?

It certainly gets bigger, and much, much crazier. Book 2, The Feral Experiment, explores the virus in more detail and has a much deadlier central villain. Book 3, The Feral War, is pretty much what it suggests—an all-out battle to save what’s left of humanity. Each story was influenced by movies that have inspired me over the years, with Colony channeling Watership Down and the 1979 film The Warriors (with a dash of anti-hero Snake Plisskin from Escape From New York). Experiment takes big cues from 1986’s Aliens, mixed with The Island of Dr. Moreau (and, really, all those mad-scientist characters, from Victor Frankenstein to Re-Animator’s Herbert West). And War blends elements of The Road Warrior, Terminator, and Mechagodzilla into the wildest story of them all. I’ll let your imagination run with that until those books are released.

The novel explores loyalty, loss, courage, and survival. Which of those themes felt most personal to you while writing?

There’s a passage in the story about the three things it takes to be a warrior: courage, strategy, and strength. It helps make up Charles’s overall arc, so that’s what the three books individually explore. Book 1 is about courage—not only finding his but Laura’s as well—while Book 2 tackles strategy, and Book 3 strength. Not only on our heroes’ journeys, but in the villains’ as well.

You also have a background as a photographer and film director according to your public profile. How does visual storytelling influence your writing style?

I hope it helps readers see what I want them to see. It’s often said movies are about visuals while books are about imagination. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but sometimes not. Take Jurassic Park, for example—the book itself is thrilling and wonderful but seeing such realistic dinosaurs in the film created an unparalleled experience for the audience. It did something the book couldn’t do, in my opinion, and that’s make those beasts feel real and believable, maybe for the first time in human history. In fact, The Feral Colony was written as a screenplay first as were the two sequels. And it was largely a silent film, aside from the family’s dialogue at the beginning and Laura’s character, who becomes almost like an internal monologue for the audience. So the visuals in the book were built in from that, and I hope they translate to the reader.

What do you hope readers feel when they finish The Feral Colony—fear, grief, hope, admiration for animals, or something else entirely?

I hope they enjoy it. I hope they have a newfound appreciation for cats. I never want to tell anyone what they should feel—that should come organically, if I did my job properly, fingers crossed—but I hope some aspect of the story, even in a small way, relates to their own lives or experiences. Maybe over a pet they had, or a relationship that mirrors one in the book. Anything except zombies. Nobody wants that.

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