The Little Lemur Who Spoke
The Little Lemur Who Spoke is a story about the lives of a ring-tailed lemur named Obi and me, his former caretaker. It chronicles our special moments and challenges, including my acceptance by the lemurs, my struggle with autism, the research they inspired, and the conflicts we encountered at the boundary between the lemur and human worlds.
The tale is a tragedy but offers lessons that could help save the world. Inspired by our collective experiences, the book advocates a new mindset for envisioning environmentalism, animal welfare, and social justice. It aims to help people relate with one another across political and cultural lines and embrace our differences constructively.
Official website
The book will be self-published and available for free download. I am not looking to make money from it. I will use donated funds to cover multiple levels of editing, proofreading, cover design, illustrations, book interior design, website creation, audiobook creation, and publicity. Donations far above the target may allow for its translation into foreign languages to help share with the rest of the world.
I have already written the first draft of this book, and our rich adventures filled nearly 550 pages, measuring 255,000 words. Although it will now consist of two separately published volumes, this manuscript’s combined size has significantly raised editing costs. Estimates so far have ranged from $2,500 to over $6,000 just for a developmental edit. Copy editing and proofreading will both cost only slightly less.
There are other costs as well. I have already paid for a professional cover design, website, and illustrations. I will still need to pay for publicity, the book’s interior design, audiobook creation, and translations, costing between $10,000 and $20,000 for each language.
The sooner I accumulate the funds, the sooner I can progress towards publication.
These books will be my first, and tackling them alone has proven challenging. I am a former zookeeper, so this project will quickly drain my limited savings. I will appreciate any support beyond words. Obi meant the world to me, and donations can help the whole world see that by giving our story a platform.
When Obi died on 1 May 2020, I lost everything that mattered to me. He was my best friend, and I was there for him until the end. Zoos labeled Obi a “misfit,” or an aggressive lemur, due to being raised by people when his mother abandoned him. He had a bad reputation at multiple facilities for regularly biting his keepers, which gave him an unfortunate legacy. As with many misfits, people misunderstood him. By donating to help develop this tale and tell our story, you can help me give Obi the legacy he deserves.
Obi was an intelligent and misunderstood lemur who loved people as much as he loved sunbathing and eating tamarind. He inspired my research into primate hand use, which offers exciting hints about the origins of tool use. Obi also found unique ways to “speak” to me, offering compelling insights into the nature of consciousness. But most importantly, he demonstrated how little changes in our perceptions could change the world.
The book will cover all of this and more!
Your donation will help share our heartbreakingly beautiful tale of love, discovery, and hope.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have cherished living it.
