This year's theme is...
The Good Pirate, Robert!
This is a current WIP (work in progress). It is my first shot at a fantasy-type story.
I want to give you a little background on this. Robert was the name of a bird we had. We have a few birds, including a pair of Lovebirds. They had had clutches (babies) in the past, but Mom (CJ) hadn't laid any eggs in a few years. That is until last summer.
She laid 7 eggs, 4 of which were viable. All 4 of those hatched. Unfortunately, we lost one pretty early on. The other 3, however, seemed to be thriving.
Robert was one of those babies. He had a brief encounter with one of our dogs. He survived, but there was obvious brain damage. Within hours, though, he showing us how tough and resilient he was.
One of the "symptoms" he showed was that he kept his right eye closed (he was able to open it after some time, but it seemed that he preferred to keep it closed). So I always said that he looked like a little pirate. That's where things kind of took off.
Daily, I shared pictures and videos of him and his siblings as they grew up. His siblings developed more quickly than he did. For example, when they were learning to fly, he was still learning to climb. Nothing kept him down, though. He was so determined; he seemed so bright and happy.
One night in September, I went to get him for his evening feeding, and he was dying. We're not sure what happened. We can only assume it is somehow related to the trauma and injuries. Perhaps he threw a blood clot, we don't know. It was a devastating loss.
Robert was such a happy guy, and when I announced his passing on Facebook, I was floored by the number of people who were saddened. People I had never met - people from around the globe who were touched by this little baby Lovebird. At that point, I knew his life wasn't in vain, and that there was something greater to him. That was when I began writing his story.
This book is not complete, in fact, it is very much still a rough draft. I want to use this month to honor Robert, to share his story, and to help this book improve.
So please join me in this fun and unique journey.
Trust me, you're gonna love it!
See you April 1!
