The cover of “NATCH!” by Tim Pfaff of Athens.

ATHENS – A novel by an author from Athens has been published by a leading Australian firm and was released last week.

“NATCH!” by Tim Pfaff is about who and what will live in Antarctica after it melts. The book centers on the climate crisis, he said.

“I started playing around with the idea,” Pfaff said.

Pfaff, a museum exhibit designer, enjoys shows about nature and the people who made them, like Jacque Cousteau years ago and the contemporary Sir David Attenborough.

“I’ve been a fan of nature documentaries all my life,” Pfaff said.

In particular, Pfaff is interested in the migration of animals and plants and how they end up in seemingly inaccessible places.

“I’ve always been fascinated about how plants and animals make their way around the planet,” Pfaff said.

Pfaff describes “NATCH!” as a whimsical fable about the climate crisis and a design team of imaginary creatures who will decide who will live in Antarctica.

“It’s something I made up as the fable,” Pfaff said. “They do research, they go out into the field and argue over who should be there.”

The Big Fever, Big Melt and Big Gasp have remade the planet and the Folks Upstairs have charged the Eco Design Team with the resettlement of the mostly melted Far South.

“A magical, inventive and ultimately hopeful look at our world and those who will populate it when our climate apocalypse penguins come home to roost,” Howard Firkin, in case of emergency press editorial director, said.

The bulk of the novel was written during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There was no work for museum designers during the lockdown. So, I invented my own design project,” Pfaff said. “I imagined an archetypal team and put them through the ups and downs of working on a big-group project. Lots of egos, lots of opinions and hidden agendas, lots of deadlines. In the process, NATCH!”! has some fun with the myriad forces that drive the ‘life boat’ on our little planet.”

Pfaff also points out the importance of working with an editor.

“Electronic media makes it easy to publish online, but traditional publishing is still important,” Pfaff said. “When you work with a sympathetic editor, particularly one who isn’t afraid to challenge your ideas, it offers you fresh eyes and imposes a discipline that improves the finished work.”

“NATCH!” is 264 pages and is available through Amazon.com, soon at local booksellers or the publisher’s website https://icoe.com.au. Cost on Amazon is $20 for the paperback and $8.99 for the Kindle version.

Pfaff’s first fiction novel was “The Pfaffenhoffen Project” published in 2018. It is about the relationships between brothers and sisters staying together as a family when the parents have passed away.

He has also written three history books: “Paths of the People: The Ojibwe in the Chippewa Valley” in 2005; “Settlement & Survival: Building Towns in the Chippewa Valley, 1850-1925” in 2005; and “Hmong in America: Journey from a Secret War” in 1994.

“Hmong in America” is the story of Hmong refugees during the Vietnam War who journeyed from Laos to America.

“Paths of the People: The Ojibwe in the Chippewa Valley” is about how 300 years of contact with Europeans and settlement by Americans have forced the tribes to adapt to survive.

“Settlement & Survival: Building Towns in the Chippewa Valley, 1850-1925” describes how yankee, Canadian and European immigrants built Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Menomonie and other towns along the rivers in West Central Wisconsin.