Lately, I’ve been spending more time with the chickens, and especially Pearl. She looks so very beautiful in everything she does. And I do wonder if she will turn out to be The Key that the songbirds of the Living Library have been waiting to appear and set things right.
As I was thinking about Pearl yesterday afternoon, I was reminded of a song that was popular years before there were any chickens in my life. I would like to be their hero in some way, a hero who is only “one call away.” At first, I thought about how neither the chickens nor I (until only very recently) owned a mobile phone and could make or receive a call.
Then, I thought about how chickens and other birds do make their own kind of calls the old-fashioned way with only their voices. Those are urgent calls my ears are always listening for whether I am inside or outside. Even when I am away from home, I am still listening for their calls. Like my fictional character, Nathaniel (Nate) Elliot, I want to be their hero who rescues them from predators or simply boredom.
Here is the video, if you have never heard it. I can say for a fact that Charlie Puth doesn’t look like me, but he might look like Nate as a teenager.
You may wonder why I am bringing this up now, and what this has to do with the story plot. Nate wants very much to be the hero that his chickens all imagine that he is, but what happens when traveling through Emily’s Garden Gate drawing and the unexpected occurs, causing everyone to be separated? Will the chickens have within themselves what they need to be their own heroes? And isn’t that what Nate needs as well—to be his own hero?
Is this series really a story of romance?
That is a question I have wondered about as well because the story of Nate and Gracie could be viewed as a romance—except she is a chicken. Here is the song that reminds me of this, a song about a love that simply will never be. (And with a stretch of imagination, is equally impossible between human and chicken as it would be between human and vampire.)
This has been just an interlude to share with you how I work and what is on my mind as I write. (Pardon me for making one additional observation about the fingers of Annie Lennox in this video: although they may have a vampiric appearance, they are oddly chicken-like as seen in Pearl’s video that we started with!)
Until Next Time
You may be wondering if I ever sing any songs to my chickens. There is one song that I will sometimes sing to my chickens when I tuck them in for the night. It is special to Emily and Amelia, and it has inspired a good deal of her journey in Volume Two: Over the Chimney. But all of the chickens enjoy this song even though I am not the best singer in the world.
If you have any comments—good or bad—please share them on Substack or you can also reach me directly at John.Spiers@yahoo.com. We are looking forward to sharing with your exactly what happens when our cast of characters (chickens and songbirds and their friends) journeys through Emily’s Parisian Garden Gate!
Our Best Advice for the Days Ahead: Remember to be your own hero. Every challenge in life is designed to help you do that. What you learn through those challenges are things you can help someone else learn.
Thank you for reading!
John, Gracie, Bessie, Blanche, Pearl, Emily, and Amelia (Yes, six names for six chickens—just as Amelia said were so important when journeying through Emily’s Garden Gate drawing.)
An older song with a similar theme that I have tried to take to heart is "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", first recorded by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell and later recorded by Diana Ross. The theme is that the singer wants to be there for who they love in spite of any physical obstacles (mountains, valleys, rivers) that may literally or metaphorically stand in their way.
It's fairly easy for my superhero characters to not let said obstacles stand in their way, but harder for me personally as I am less like them. We have no mountains or valleys where I live, but Winnipeg is built around the union of two formidable rivers...