I wrote a book with someone I’ve never met

[Speakinginsign]

and today we meet for the first time.
Incredibly nervous!

I saw him in a film. He is in the US. Over lockdown, I joined Instagram and found him. Told him I teach from his film. He kindly offered my students an online Q&A session. He asked for a 1:1 meeting. He said he was impressed by my questions & that I was the person he had been waiting for over 30 years to write his story.

Wrote book in 1 year using Instagram video calls. I submitted it to a publisher after 6 months & they offered a contract.

That was just over a year ago. I left my relationship, set up my study, and traversed time zones most nights. Now we have a book out on Amazon, more work on the way, a launch party this week, and have still never met!

He arrives this morning wife just wife. Just an hour or so later we are being interviewed on local radio.

EEEEEKKKKKK!!!!

One minute I was watching his film, and the next…

I'm so excited to see your update, and hear how amazingly this is all working out for you! Fantastic!

This is a fantastic thread. Congratulations!

What an absolutely marvellous thread 🤩

Thank you so much! Still so emotional about it all.

Link to a radio interview we gave, again, shortly after he arrived here from Oklahoma, from 1:07 and then again 3:18:44

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fhb1wg?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

My life chanted so much when I wrote that post to him. We’ve had a showing if some art done by those animals and almost every day someone writes to me to say how those stories/studies/animals changed their views.

Crazy times! I hope this work helps mums on here who are, like I was, at a bit of a standstill with their lives.

How lovely to read this! In your OP you said you contacted him initially to say that you teach from the film - can I ask what you meant by that? What was it that inspired what part of your teaching?

What an amazing thread. Well done OP!

Thank you!

I learned about these studies as an undergraduate. My PhD was on how we attach linguistic tags to objects and concepts. That was in the late 1990s. When the film came out in 2011 (2014 in the UK), I was teaching these topics on my university courses, and I used bits of the film to demonstrate various neuropsychological points. I finally contacted him on Instagram in July 2021, at the end of lockdown. Six months later we had a publishing contract and by the following July, we’d submitted our manuscript for publication, and our book was out for pre-sale in September 2022.

We wrote the book undercover since his voice has been silenced by many who continue to do these experiments. We tried to be as kind & compassionate as possible to those who were involved in the initial studies, and many individuals opened up to me with stories about their trauma. Our next boom will look at the heritage and the legacy of Nim, including a daughter who is still alive.

Thanks! Now I want to watch the film! Fascinating stuff.

It's lovely to read a positive, uplifting story. Really admire your resilience and ability to shape a fabulous life for yourself x

I would love to be a published author, so to me your story is inspiring- thank you for sharing x

What a lovely story. I’m going to look up the film now

I'm going to read this later. Sounds amazing!

Thanks for giving us an update OP! I don't know you obviously but I'm proud of you! What an amazing thing you have done and should be well pleased with any (and hopefully many!) Successes you have :)

Thank you so much for updating us OP. You are a truly admirable and accomplished woman and a thoroughly decent human being. I will be listening to all the links you have posted.

Hello!

I am resurrecting this thread to say thank you for such lovely words. I missed these posts a couple of years back. Hope people don’t mind my dredging up my thread.

I stumbled on it because tomorrow, Billy Strings comes to London and I did a search on his name & found my thread!

An update: after Book 1, Bob and I published book 2, which came out last year. It’s about trauma in sentient beings and explores further the life of Nim, his chimpanzee parents, his offspring, his “human parents”.

Sad times with the death of Jane Goodall. I was fortunate enough to meet her & give her copies of our first book. 🥲 If you know my name, there’s a picture of me with her on Instagram. She invited me to talk about working together, sadly we didn’t manage it.

I want to just remind myself of the lovely Times I’ve had writing this. Book 1 came out as an audiobook and the lady voicing “me” is wonderful! I have been awarded a contract for a 3rd book. No chimpanzees this time, though!