Welcome to my new newsletter, Novel Crows!

Hello to subscribers old and new. I’m resurrecting my blog/newsletter here and on Substack. If you’re curious about corvids and/or enjoy fiction focused on birds and animals, you’ve landedre in the right roost.

I will be sharing monthly news and insights on my author journey as I move towards the May 26 release of my second novel. Shade of Wings is a speculative novel for young adults, old adults and everyone in between. My newsletter will focus on writing, books (including my path to publication) and birds, especially crows.

A family of crows, led by the moody eldest sibling, take center stage in my story about the 1999 outbreak of West Nile virus in New York City.

Here’s the back-cover blurb:

Four-year-old Duncan needs to hurry up and find a mate—or so says his sister, Cloud. But she doesn’t know about the mistake that’s preventing him from leaving their family to start another.

Though he’s the eldest, Duncan doesn’t see himself as a leader. Yet that’s what he must become when both his parents die of the mysterious illness that’s killing crows across New York City. He devotes himself to caring for his siblings, including three fledglings—but he soon discovers he can’t protect them from the
“blind death.”

Meanwhile, a zoo pathologist’s worst fears are realized. It starts with
dead flamingos. Then critically ill New Yorkers start showing up in
hospital emergency rooms.

Some blame the crows.

I’ll answer the obvious question: Why crows? Why not ravens (the cooler corvid)? Or horses? Or rabbits? (Watership Down is one of my favorite books.)

Why not . . . humans? Yawn. When I hatched this idea, half way through Trump’s first term, I was feeling fed up with humans. That frustration might have made me more receptive to a sweet BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) story about a Seattle girl who was getting gifts from crows. Here’s the story if you want to see it for yourself.

I was so gob-smacked by this miracle of gift-giving birds, that I not only joined the corvid-lovers fan club, but I thought: Why not write my next book from their point-of-view?

My first attempts were awful. I wrote and trashed a 50,000-word NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) draft. It was BAD. Then I spent years (not saying how many. . .. Okay, seven) writing and rewriting and endless revising. I don’t think I even had my New York City setting until year two.

Everything, down to the title, was a struggle and a slog, but I didn’t give up. In my heart, I knew that Duncan and his little family had something to say to us.

I hope you will feel the same when (not going to say “if”) you read my book.

In the meantime, thanks for your interest and curiosity.