P.K. Butler's Blog

Hello again!

I'm happy to report that books one and two in the illustrated chapter book series The Bird Club are now available for pre-order (ebook format) on Amazon. View the book trailer for Ben and the Bird Girl, directly below. And look for The Owl Boy (book two) trailer soon!

Both books will be available in print and electronic formats beginning January 8, 2024.

Also now available is a FREE pdf of chapter one, "No Parakeets!" available for download from my web site . . .

https://www.pkbutler.com

Look for it under the "Author Updates" tab.

Until next time . . .

Peggy

Hi again!

I've been busy since the start of 2022 writing and illustrating the first three books in a serial chapter book series (ages 6 to 9) called
The Bird Club.

Book one, Ben and the Bird Girl. and book two, The Owl Boy, will be released on January 8, 2024. Book three, The Fickle Forest, will be released in April 2024. Subsequent books in this seven-book serial will be released every four months thereafter.

As you likely know, a serial is an ongoing story, one that concludes with the last book in the series. If you'd like to learn more about the first two books soon to be released, check out my web site at https://www.pkbutler.com

Till next time . . .

Peggy

Mother Earth is delivering us some much needed rain here in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Each year, I recognize our Earth's "Mother's Day" by planting something for her bees and butterflies, sadly at risk due to pesticides and herbicides.

Check out my Earth Day posting on my web site at . . .

https://www.pkbutler.com

Here's wishing you a lovely day, rain or sun!

Peggy

(This is a repost from my Bird Blog. Check out the original with photos at ofthewing.blogspot.com).

Birding with dogs is not easy unless, I guess, you're birding by ear. But I'd argue that my two dogs, Rosie (the lab) and Henry (part border collie, part pointer) can even distract me from birdsong. You see, my dogs assume our outings are devoted to their exercise, exploration, and fun! Meanwhile, I delude myself into believing that I can also, on occasion, raise binoculars to a bird or--if the Fates allow--even snap a photo. What a joke. Try aiming your camera on a Great Blue Heron rising from pond or lake while leashed to 140 pounds of dog (combined weights). Inevitably, the critical shutter "click" gets preempted by an important canine message: "Let's go this way!" And away I am swept.

The obvious solution is to untether myself from the dogs. And, I do, but the general public does not look favorably upon a free-roaming pack of dogs . . . okay, two dogs do not a "pack" make . . . but you understand. Even then, my radar must be scanning for unsuspecting walkers, bicyclists, or Heaven forbid--other dog walkers! While human strangers usually know protocols for passing one another on trail or path, the same cannot be said of canines. Merge unleashed dogs willy nilly and mayhem will result.

So what to do?

Go birding without the dogs. Ahhh! That's it! I'll leave the dogs at home, but . . . I'm not sure they'll let me.
Until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart even if you can't photograph them.

p.s. The image to your right is not a seal. It's a happy, wet dog.

About three years ago, I retired from my teaching career (most recently at the local community college) to invest my energies full time into independent publishing. Since then I published a trilogy of middle-grade books (though mature women also enjoy these stories).

While independent publishing is a tricky business (you wouldn't believe the minutiae involved!), more challenging still is learning how to market on a budget.

Recently, I revived an ancient YouTube channel (for instance, one video called "Meet the Dogs" is from 2010). To date, I've three book trailers and one video (most recent) intended to introduce would-be readers to the wondrous world of birds. Why not check it out?
And while you're there, I'd love if you'd subscribe.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7MQ...

Till next time . . .

P.K. Butler (Keep birds in your heart.)

At around 11:00 am a juvenile red-tailed hawk slammed into my living room window. I rushed out of the house to find it stunned, lying on the ground, with my cat Ursula warily approaching. I scooped up the raptor whose one claw grasped a twig and carried it alongside the deep yard, repeatedly saying to myself, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God! I had never held a raptor, let alone the species of Red-tailed Hawk who is a main character in my trilogy Of the Wing. To be given this experience was humbling, especially since the hawk appeared only to be stunned and not severely injured. His subdued condition lasted about two minutes before he flew from my hands and across the yard into a black locust tree.

As I write this 30 minutes later, I am still overwhelmed and feeling so blessed by the experience. I see it as a message from Spirit. The specific message is of my private concern, but the larger message is one I must share: Look not only to other people for answers to life’s questions but also to Nature and her children, for we are all one community.

Hi Again!

Beginning on September 13 through to September 17, you can download from Amazon a free eBook of The Shining Swan, book 3 in my trilogy Of the Wing.

On a side note, I discovered Monarch caterpillars on my milkweed plants today. What a happy surprise! Still, this is pretty late in the season for Monarch caterpillars since the butterflies migrate in October. I've tried for three years to grow milkweed . . . now I have Monarch caterpillars, and I don't know a thing about them! Now I must learn fast.

Peggy

Hi!

Just a quick note to say that on Sunday, August 28, 2022, my book The Hawk's Message (#2 in the trilogy Of the Wing) will be available to download on Amazon for five days. The promotion will end at midnight September 1, 2022.

The trilogy Of the Wing, published in March 21, 2021, is a re-imagined and updated version of books initially published in 2008 and 2010.

Hello! My main message for would-be readers is that my trilogy Of the Wing is suitable for young and mature readers alike. In fact, when I published the first edition of book one (then called The Legend Awakes), my most vocal supporters were women over fifty years of age. I think this is because the story focuses on nature (Claire's love for birds) and makes some people nostalgic for simpler times. That said, I also had great success placing this first edition into local school districts and libraries.

An Odd Bird, published in March 2021, is the third edition of that original story though significantly altered to better reflect the mythic themes in the trilogy's final book. The titles of the current trilogy include An Odd Bird (#1); The Hawk's Message (#2), and The Shining Swan (#3).

I hope you enjoy these stories inspired by my own adventures in Pennsylvania, in Arkansas, and, finally, in Ireland.

P.K. Butler