Letters from Gerald is in print

Writing a novel has as a reward finally seeing it in print. I am pleased to announce that Letters from Gerald is now available to readers at Friesens online book store and Amazon. You can find more about the synopsis, and see the book and a trailer at my web site at robbutler.ca.

For those who are thinking of writing their own novel I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the time commitment and timelines.

I began to write Letters from Gerald in early 2023. I discussed the plot and chapter storylines with my wife each morning and wrote a few thousand words through the afternoon and evening. Writing also required researching post war conditions: period clothing, cars, historical incidents, food, social customs and the scientific studies of birds. I was pleasantly surprised to find several historical events that coincided with the dates in the story.

By mid summer I had a first draft manuscript. A few friends and family members agreed to read and comment on the draft. By late summer the suggestions they made were incorporated into a manuscript ready for submission.

I approached Friesens Press who specialized in self published books because I had heard many good things about them: they were very professional, patient and helpful. I was assigned a publication specialist who guided the editing, publishing and marketing process. They were wonderful to work with. The galley proofs arrived near the new year. I prepared a draft idea of a cover which their design folks shaped into the final cover for my approval. Following a final review, the book was ready for publication. The entire project from start to finish took about one year.

Let me know what you think of the story: I like to hear from my readers. I will be speaking on the book at venues in western Canada through the summer. Check out the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea events for The Enchantment of Crows on May 8, VanDusen Gardens events for my talk on Bird Facts and Fiction on May 10 and How Gardens Inspire on June 27.

Sneak Preview of New Novel: Letters from Gerald

In a few short weeks, my new novel Letters from Gerald will go to press. Before the book goes on sale I thought I would give you a hint of what is to come. Click on the link to go to the announcement by Friesen Press.

Writing a novel was a great deal of fun but I have had to learn about how to market the book. I have begun to line up talks and interviews to coincide with the publication release. For those of you who live in Vancouver or plan to visit in the end of June, I will be speaking at the VanDusen Gardens about how gardens inspired my conservation work on birds and the writing of Letters from Gerald. You can register on line.

Another talk I will be giving that is not directly related to the novel but all about birds is Birds in Fact and Fiction. The talk will be only about half an hour about some fun and odd myths about birds. How do robins catch earthworms? Do magpies collect shiny objects? Bring your questions and I will try to answer them. The talk is part of The Greater Vancouver Bird Celebration kick off at VanDusen Gardens in Vancouver on May 10th at 6 pm. Some of you might remember a few years ago when I took calls on CBC Radio’s North by Northwest show in Vancouver about birds. I am hoping to have as much fun at VanDusen at the Bird Celebration.

A trailer and other events that are in the works will be posted soon. Suggestions from readers are always welcome.

Drawing Connections: 40 Years of Art and Hope

More than 40 years ago, I joined with seven other artists in a group art show about nature. Those same artists are joining forces once again with a show at the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea in Sidney British Columbia. The show is about conservation successes that provide hope for the future. The show opens to the public on Friday February 23 and runs until the end of the year.

First Day Feast from Globe and Mail

For over a decade, we have been holding a feast of locally grown food on January 1st. You can read about it in the story that the Globe and Mail published on January 1, 2024 in the column below. Enjoy and Happy New Year.

firs-day-gmDownload

Under the Covers: Designs for My Upcoming Novel, Letters from Gerald

Writing and publishing books is not only about the writing: there are decisions about marketing, pricing, book dimensions, hard cover, paperback, audio and e-book, and cover design. Right now, I am reviewing cover designs for my upcoming novel Letters from Gerald as it moves through the editing phase with Friesens Publishing who have been very professional.

I visited a bookstore where the clerks told me that the cover design was what drew them to many books. I also read on line about bigtime readers who like well designed books to grace their shelves. The books were like pieces of art and a reason why they wanted printed books rather than e-books.

Back home, I looked at book covers in my library. Most were bold with large font titles and author’s names. The background colour varied from blocks of colour to one solid colour. Some had stylized photos and images. I had not taken a lot of time contemplating the cover design but this exercise made me realize that some were quite poor – the font was too small, or there were too many illustrations. Others were blurry and I wondered how they were chosen. Book cover design could very well become its own art form.

Once I had an idea of what I thought was eye catching, I got out my pen and notebook and began to sketch. The first few versions were with a blocky typewriter font resembling a typewriter on a background of opened envelopes and letters. The images were bold but not particularly attractive. After a while, I thought that rather than using a standard font, a more fluid looking lettering similar to what you might write with a fountain pen would complement the story about letters. If the lettering was flowing, then so should the letters, I thought. So I settled on several envelopes twisting toward the viewer that wrap around the title Letters from Gerald. I don’t know if this is the design we will settle on, but I will post it in a later blog.

Christmas Bird Count Day

I awoke before dawn, looked out the window to see the sunrise cracking between the clouds. The forecast was for sunny or overcast skies. After a quick breakfast I was off to my area to scour for birds. Scouring is the right term here because the birds were hard to come by. At a small lake a few ducks paddled about and a flock of geese fed on a golf course. In the forest, things were very quiet. I struggled to get a few kinglets and chickadees. The day was not looking good.

Up the western slope on Burnaby Mountain things were even quieter. Walking the trails failed to turn up a single species. I stared off down the northern slope to Indian Arm where I was pleasantly surprised to see a big flock of Barrow’s goldeneyes along the seashore. Near the parking lot, things improved with an Anna’s Hummingbird, flock of bushtits and a chickadee.

I rested my hopes on a trail that ran above the seashore but my luck was not to be found there. A highlight was a Coopers Hawk perched not far from me. Despite the paucity of birds, all was not lost. I spoke with a firefighter washing his car. I told him I was looking for a scrub jay and showed him a photo. He hadn’t seen it but told me about eagles around his home. Then there was the woman walking her dog who told me about an owl she saw; “It was a big white owl” she replied. Most likely it was a grey Barred Owl but I wasn’t about to quibble. A man walking his dog told me about several eagles. “You missed them by a day” he replied. Another woman also walking her dog told me about two eagles along the trail. “By the garbage cans” she said pointing up the trail. “Look up to your right. They are perched in a tree”. Birds have become part of the fun of being outside for all kinds of people and even if the numbers on the Christmas Bird Count were slim, the knowledge of how birding has become mainstream is a fair exchange.

Christmas Bird Count is a Christmas Tradition

Tomorrow I don my boots and sling my binoculars around my neck to step out with scores of other keen birders on one of Vancouver’s oldest traditions – the annual Christmas Bird Count. The first count in North America started in 1900 when there were few bird books and binoculars. Robert Ridgway would write his magnus opus The Birds of North and Middle America the following year. Roger Tory Peterson’s first field guide would not appear until decades later. According to Sam Bryant at Glenlivet Wildlife, Morits Hensoldt invented the first prismatic binocular in 1892. Zeiss Company acquired the patent the following year. Prior to 1892, binoculars were not much different than two tiny telescopes held together so the viewer could use both eyes rather than just one. Today’s binoculars use similar technology and have taken birdwatching to a new level. Now with apps like eBird to record birds seen and Merlin to help identify their calls and songs, birdwatching has become mainstream. Millions of people birdwatch and the Christmas Bird Count has become a perennial favourite tradition.

The Vancouver Count is divided into areas assigned to teams. We will be tallying birds in suburbs, lakes, seashore, and mountain slopes. The forecast is for fine weather so there will be no excuse for not having a good day in the field. I will post some of my thoughts as the day goes by. If you haven’t been on a Christmas Bird Count, mark it down for next year. This is a tradition in North America.

A Visit to a Crow Roost in Burnaby

I have visited the crow roost at Burnaby’s Still Creek Drive on many occasions. Each time I am astounded by the number of crows and the show they put on. With 10-15,000 crows descending on a few hectares of trees just off Highway 1, this roost has got to be one of the most accessible wildlife spectacles in Metro Vancouver.

As part of the annual fund raiser of the Nature Trust of British Columbia, I agreed to take a few people on a special tour of the roost. We arrived at about 3:30 to catch a glimpse of the vanguard of crows. For about an hour the numbers swelled until soon after sunset a tsunami of crows arrived. The noise was deafening. The crows were everywhere – in the sky, on the ground, on rooftops and in trees. The noise went on for quite some time. Workers from nearby buildings walked along the road as if nothing was happening or they had seen it all before. We were too walked beneath the trees where the crows were perched only a few meters away. A few hundred stood on a grassy verge outside McDonald’s restaurant. Others perched in ornamental trees under the glare of overhead lights. They seemed uncocnerned that cars whizzed by and people strolled along the sidewalks.

It is not very often that a wildlife spectacle of this magnitude occurs in the city. So add a trip to the crow roost to your bucket list of wildlife spectacles to see in British Columbia. The best viewing times are from now until about February.

A Crow with Avian Influenza

A crow found dead in the crow roost in Burnaby, BC in late October has tested positive with Avian Influenza according to Laurie Wilson, Wildlife Biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Delta, Further testing will be needed to assess if it is the Highly Pathogenic strain. She said that updates will appear on the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative web site. The number to call if you find dead crows is 1-866-431-BIRD.

The presence of a dead crow at the Burnaby roost got me thinking about how roosts could serve as surveillance points for diseases such as Avian Influenza. The crows using the Burnaby roost arrive from about a 25-kilometer radius encompassing Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Port Moody, north Surrey and Richmond and west Coquitlam. Regular searches for dead crows at the Burnaby roost would provide an easy means to sample for the presence of Avian Influenza and possibly other bird-related disease in much of western and central Metro Vancouver. Searches of other roosts in the Fraser Valley could do the same. A research question for a graduate student might be to determine if crows are faithful to one roost or if they move about between roosts. This information is important to determine the breadth of area the roost represents.

Eleanor Meets the Avocet

Last weekend, I visited the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary south of Vancouver in search of American avocets that had been reported there over the past few months. Avocets are a treat to see because they are quite rare in British Columbia. The protagonist, Eleanor Hutchinson in my upcoming novel Letters from Gerald also goes in search of avocets in Britain, (albeit the pied avocet) at the flagship nature reserve of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere in Suffolk. My novel is historical fiction and although Eleanor and the story are fictional, the presence of avocets and establishment of Minsmere are very real.

The pied avocet seen at Minsmere is native to parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. The species was extirpated from Britain until in 1947, a few birds showed up in the wetlands near Minsmere. I visited Minsmere Nature Reserve with a friend and colleague from the RSPB in the 1980s hoping to see an avocet. I was in luck and so I decided to bring the excitement of seeing one of the rarest birds for the first time in Britain into the story. The work of the RSPB to preserve the wetlands, health, grasslands and shingle was a major step forward for the conservation organization that I wanted to showcase their work in the novel. When Eleanor goes in search of the avocets in Letters for Gerald she succeeds and the reader is introduced to two characters that play significant roles in the plot. You will have to wait for the book to find out more.

The avocet became the poster bird of Minsmere and became the RSPB logo. Minsmere Reserve was ground zero for the return of the avocets and also secured a home for many other rare birds in Britain such as bitterns, stone-curlews, marsh harriers and nightjars. There are now many pairs of avocets breeding in various parts of Britain. The decision to use the avocet as the logo of the RSPB in the 1980s in promotional material and signage cemented in the minds of the British people the important role of the RSPB in conserving birds.

My recent visit to the George C Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary had parallels to my Minsmere experience. The Sanctuary was established to preserve wetland birds and has become a premier birding location in Canada. Like Minsmere, the decision by early conservationists to preserve the wetlands and fields provided a home to North American waterfowl, bitterns, harriers, owls and avocets. Thousands of people and birds from across the hemisphere visit Minsmere and Reifel each year. In case you were wondering, Eleanor did not make an appearance at the Sanctuary but you can see the avocets for yourself. Book a visit soon.