The Bird

a bird on the beach
The Bird, a not so good snapshot.

I met a bird on the beach this morning. She was all by herself. I was walking fast, crushing shells under my steps, looking inside myself to find someone that, perhaps, wasn’t there. That’s when I saw her, grey and plum at the edge of the tide, still and strong on her short feet rhythmically washed by the waves crashing ashore. Looking at me with one eye. Seizing me up.

I stopped, and we stared at each other for a while. I kept myself quiet while she took her time turning her head one way and the other, so both her eyes could see me as if she wanted to ensure they saw the same thing.

I let her study me as I, too, studied her, slowly realizing that I wasn’t just seeing a bird, but that bird. The bird.

Now, I should say I see a lot of birds on the beach.

Most of them are seagulls, flocks of seagulls. They like to congregate and usually occupy a big area of the shoreline. Seeing them from afar, they look like a white island that magically parts and closes as we humans pass through. Those seagulls… they just want food from the lady with the red scarf that comes every day, about noon, and shakes the breadcrumbs out of a plastic bag.

And there are pelicans, big, heavy, wide when spread, assertive, dropping from the sky into the water below to snap a poor fish with their humongous baggy beaks and later descending with a rough flap of their wings atop of the rotten poles of the old pier, pocking out of the water like fingers out of a Halloween grave.

Then, white as snow, with long pink legs, are the ibis birds. With their mile-long curved bills, they constantly prob the shells and wet sand, looking so busy and focused that I often feel awful disturbing them.

And there are those itsy-bitsy birds, no bigger than a tight fist, moving so fast in and out of the splashing waves that, sometimes, seem an illusion.

An accidental crow may rip through the sky, black on blue, lost, screaming for help, getting back silence and stares.

And then there are solitary birds, like this one, cruising the beach by themselves, with an inquisitive look on their separated eyes, chillaxing by the water while waiting for a fish, a better life, or just a human like me, to come their way.

The bird was staring at me, making me wonder what was on her mind. I was staring at her, too, wanting to get past the marble feathers and into her tiny body, trying to know her. It just down on me that I never get to stare at people, never try to know them, not really, having a pretty good idea of who they are.

But man! I thought, how cool it is… I never get to know a bird. Birds…, you only see them, you don’t know them.

*

Selfie on the beach

Maybe she got bored with me or wanted to show no fear when she stepped toward me. I told myself that she might come closer if I didn’t move. So, I stood still and watched. She stepped on the side and pecked at the sand, playful, then looked at me. I took it as an invitation, looking for ways to mimic her. Cheap, old movies came to mind, where explorers meet an unknown civilization and mirror their behavior in trying to gain their indulgence. So, in the absence of a brilliant idea, I took a step aside, bent slightly from my waist, and bobbed my head, careful not to be too obvious to my fellow human passing by.

The bird watched me for a while, then started to clean her feathers in deep, ecstatic strikes, her beak sliding from the joint of her wings down one long grey feather after another. I also scratched my armpits, tilting my head left and right, cautious about the strangers around me, although they never paid attention. Instead, the bird seemed to have a hint of a laugh in her left brown eye. I pulled out my phone and quickly snapped a picture as proof of my judgment. She even posed for me, then took another small step toward me and started peaking leisurely. When I looked, I saw she was going for the straw hole of a plastic lid, half buried in the sand, which she became very interested in pursuing as the object moved away, washed by the foamy waves.

By now, I was smiling my teeth off. “What are you doing, bird?” I whispered.

Close by, a group of three white ibises landed quietly and went on fishing, moving towards us. I observed them briefly from the corner of my eyes like you do when you have your attention focused. And mine was focused on the bird who kept pecking at the plastic lid. I was wondering if she’d forgotten me or had already determined that I was too massive to be explored as a food source or didn’t care for a big animal looking for companionship. She was now fighting with the lid, which she managed to hold with her beak, smashing it to the ground, maybe so she could break it into small, manageable parts, when one of the ibises jumped too close and startled her. She stepped aside as to avoid a sudden danger, then took another look at me and, opening her wings, took off.

Just like that!

I watched her flying against the burning sun of the late summer morning until she became a blur. Then I resumed my walking, puzzled by the whole story. I didn’t even notice I was bumping into people. I didn’t see them. They were just people.

But birds, well, they are something else. Now that I met one, I can tell you they are very special when you get to know them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Audiobook

Hello there,
– This is the cover –

Today, I am happy to share the first Happyland Adventure Audiobook. This is a survival story/adventure-fantasy novel for middle graders/young adult readers featuring Pepper, the homeless dog, Wizzy, the wizard mouse, Tank’s Gang of mutts, and two young corruption fighters, Hank and Alice, along with a list of malicious humans who’s names shall remain unspoken for now.

I should mention that the book is called (inspiring!) “Sniff it!” – Adventures in Happyland #1, and that is available as eBook, Print and Audiobook. The Audiobook can be found on a variety of audiobook sites including Audiobooks.com, Audible.com, and Chirp.com.

However, I have some free copies I’d like to share. The copies are available for listening inside the Authors Direct mobile apps which is available on iOS and Android (non-kindle) devices.

If you are interested to grab a copy, please send me an email at this address:

admin@ccreverie.com

with the title

free audiobook code

so I can send you the code and instruction on to get the free audiobook.

Please allow me 12 hours to respond to you.

The book is about four hours long and is narrated by Brandon P. Reinsford, a well know voice in video game production.

 

The Winter’s Claw is out

There’s been five years, give or take a few days, since my first book, Sniff it! was released on digital edition. Even though it was designed to be the first one in a series, which was later titled Adventures in Happyland, this first book remained one of its kind for too long.

by C.C. Reverie
The Winter’s Claw – Adventures in Happyland, book 2

But today, a second book has joined the series: The Winter’s ClawAdventures in Happyland, book 2.

The Winter’s Claw follows the main character, a stray dog called Pepper, in his quest to find his long-lost master. But a harsh winter, human malice and the hostility of his kind make survival almost impossible. Luckily, he has a few special friends which know that he’s in trouble; and Pepper himself is a very stubborn dog who refuses to give up without a fair fight.

Some of the characters in the first book have come along on the second one. These are mainly Pepper’s friends. But we lost one secondary character and introduced a few others, some of which I hope will make it to the next books in the series.

For now, The Winter’s Claw is available through amazon.com and smashwords.com. Smashwords will distribute it to other retailers like Barnes and Nobles, Kobo and so on, plus a handful of libraries. Click on the link and it will take you to its page. If you read it, don’t forget to give me short feedback. It will be appreciated greatly.

I would like to take the time to say a few words about the people that help me make this book better: Jon Hamblin, my editor, who help me improve the book enormously, and graphic artist Giuseppe the Iure, who design the cover and put a face to my character.

Also, for those of you who listen to audiobooks, I have ten (10) free copies of the first book, Sniff it, that I can giveaway. It will be first come first served. Please email me with the title Sniff it and I will reply with instructions on how to get it. The narrator of this book, Brandon Rainsford, mostly know in the gaming industry, has the talent to give the characters their own voices.

 

 

 

The Winter’s Claw New Deadline

Update: As April 22/19

I finally manage to get back on schedule, after a very busy end of March and beginning of April, when we sold our house and bought and move into a new one. A week and a half of camping on an empty living-room, no internet except for my phone service. These events have delayed the release of The Winter’s Claw.

But, The good news is that it is now available for preorder at Smashwords, and in a couple of days, on Amazon. The official release day is April 30th.

In the meantime, check out Sniff It! in audio format here. You’ll love the narrator.

The second book in the Adventures in Happyland series is getting ready for publishing. For the first one, Sniff it! I set up a giveaway on Amazon where you can enter to win a free ebook.

The new deadline for the second book is set for March 2019, more likely at the end of the month. The delay is due to some minor complications in my personal life. No, they have not passed yet, but I’ve learned how to deal with them.

However, in the last days when it has snowed so much that my lilac bushes have been buried under mountains of snow, I had time to work on the sequel and put the finishing touches on it.

The working title (and more likely the definitive one) is The Winter’s Claws and if you click here you will be taken to a page where you can sign up, so you get an email few days before the release date. If you’d like to read the first 2 chapters (soon to be 5 chapters) of the book you can find it on Wattpad, under my name or by clicking here. And don’t forget to let me know what you think about it. I will love to read your comments and get a chance to make the book (even) better.

So, now, back to work.

 

Seduction to Write

I have this idea of a book that explores the build-up of a desired reality inside our minds…That is to say when we convince ourselves that black is white and white is black. Because we wanted to badly and because the truth can crumble us to pieces if we accept it. This fake reality, ultimately, becomes a defense mechanism that may or may not help us cope with the bad things that happen to us.

I am just about to write this book. In few days I will start the NaNoWriMo race. That means I will be forced, once and forever, to take it out of my mind and put it on paper (electronic paper).

I hope I can get to the end of it. I’ll post updates about my progress maybe once a week. Wish me luck!

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