Because of that chicken dream the other night, I thought I would feature chickens today. And I will. But I’ll also post pictures of the swag the Southern Indiana Writers Group gave me to celebrate the publication of The Fall of Onagros, SAGE Book 1.
First, here is an article from The Smithsonian that tells you more than you probably want to know about the history of the chicken.
Me, I think chickens and eggs are gorgeous! Here’s a beautiful site with pictures of the many, MANY breeds of chicken with irresistible remarks like “the chipmunky blue-egger”.
Finally, you can’t talk about chickens without linking to Cab Calloway singing his catchy “A Chicken Ain’t Nothin’ But A Bird.”
It was a dish for old Caesar,
Also King Henry the Third,
But Columbus was smart, said “You can’t fool me,
A chicken ain’t nothin’ but a bird.”
So the SIW met last night. Joanna Foreman brought me a cake. She didn’t trust the bakery to make the dragon right, so she printed it off and stuck it on a stick. It was a great touch!
Ginny Fleming brought me flowers and a mess o’ balloons. The baby teddy bears were in honor of Book 1; she said the only balloon she could find with a 1 on it was a baby’s first birthday one.
I told the old tale over again, of how it took me 20 years or so to get from first idea to published book: between agents asking for rewritings, doing rewrites, writing other books whenever I thought this one was finished, the years passed. Then, after the version before this one had rested long enough to come back to it fresh, I realized the book had had the heart written out of it. A selection of many-colored highlighters and a stack of sorted index cards later, my vision of the story was back.
Never give up! Never surrender!
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Give a character a party.
MA
Morgan Mandel
January 11, 2013 at 9:20amWhat a nice celebration! Something you’ll remember and cherish for a long time!
About chickens – I do love to eat chicken and try not to think of what it was before getting on my plate.
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com
Marian Allen
January 11, 2013 at 1:33pmI always pretend any chicken I eat was a mean one who picked on the other chickens.
Jane
January 11, 2013 at 11:06amCongrats on your happy fun party! I am busy reading “Sage” and am LOVING it!
About chickens: Good article. I saw a documentary about a fellow who attempted to return chickens to their wildness. He was also a hawker, so in the first few seasons of the experiment, the chickens were partially protected by the hawk and partially–er–snacks. The chickens became savvy, trim, and learned to do without the hawk’s “protection.” They became wild again. And self-sustaining. Perhaps “wild” is an overstatement, but they definitely could get by without human help. They looked pretty tasty, too.
P.S., I am seriously loving this book!
Marian Allen
January 11, 2013 at 1:35pmJane, I’m so glad you like SAGE!!
I didn’t know that about chickens going back to the more-or-less wild so quickly. It raises chickens in my estimation. 🙂
Jessica Nunemaker
January 11, 2013 at 5:17pmLeave it to you to successfully combine chickens and cake in one blog post!
Congrats, congrats, CONGRATS!
(on the book, not the blog post) 😉
Marian Allen
January 11, 2013 at 6:30pmThanks, Jessica! I can generally work cake into just about anything. lol
Jessica Nunemaker
January 11, 2013 at 7:59pmThat is a gift! Ha ha ha! 🙂
Alex J. Cavanaugh
January 11, 2013 at 6:43pmHow cool! Congratulations, Marian.
Marian Allen
January 11, 2013 at 9:45pmThanks, Alex! 🙂