Even though it's been years since I wrote The Book of Dead Birds, I find the characters and the story are still breathing inside me. I keep seeing articles that remind me of parts of the book, like this one about a woman facing charges after her bird died in her car (if poor Ava had been charged with her bird killings, she'd probably still be in the slammer), and this one about a rescued pelican (I have felt so maternal toward pelicans ever since writing the book.) When I saw this recent article about differences between the Korean and English languages, and learned that "in English, birds sing. In Korean, birds cry", I was beside myself. I wish I had come across that fact when I was researching the book--I could have done so much with it. Ah well.

I hope to see a lot of pelicans when I'm in Oceanside the rest of the week...