R J Askew ~ One Swift Summer

[Andrew]

Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull

but more amusingly...

Dick King Smith's The Fox Busters.

[David]

There's the owl postal service in Harry Potter.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

Prot's bluebird in KPAX. K-Pax

O Caledonia features a jackdaw. I must really read that again!
O Caledonia

[Kath]

Oh, I loved K-Pax!

[R.J.]

K-Pax is now on my reading list, for which thank you *bows*

The post will now be in two parts, refs in poetry, and refs in prose works. Will be fun.

[David]

Katherine Mansfield's "The Canary" from The Collected Stories

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

Edgar Allen Poe "The Raven". Nevermore!

The mockingjay in the Hunger Games

[Kath]

And of course there are ravens in Ravenfold

:)

[David]

Kath wrote: "And of course there are ravens in Ravenfold

:)"

How could that one have eluded me. Definitely worth a mention :~)

[David]

I might mention, too, that I have the metaphorical nestlings in Fuel to the Fire. Plus dragons, they're birdlike, aren't they? no…? They have wings :~)

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

Dumbledore's phoenix in the Harry Potter series?
The Owl Service was a chidhood favourite, as was The Wind on the Moon which features a silver falcon (and a golden puma)

[Kath]

The Owl Service was great. As a kid I found that very sinister.

[R.J.]

Two blogs now in prospect .. part 1 .. birds in verse .. hopefully tmr .. part 2 .. birds in fiction .. in a couple of weeks. THANKS for all contribs .. all will get a mention *bows*

[R.J.]

Ach, I nearly forgot Death and the Penguin that has to be in there.

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

There was a bird in Watership Down - Kehaar the seagull.

[David]

The stand: Crow or rook or raven, can't quite recall.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

R.J. wrote: "Ach, I nearly forgot Death and the Penguin that has to be in there."

Read that with book group. Enjoyed it a lot.

[R.J.]

phew, the first bird blog is done .. 'The nightingale, the nightingale' - birds in verse .. I'll do one about birds in prose anon. You'll find it here, should you be interested, rjaskew.com .. tell me if I've missed any obvious biggies Txs

[R.J.]

I'm down at 99p Jan 24-25 .. One Swift Summer

[R.J.]

What do you like about twitter? What do you dislike about it? How do you use it? Is it the first thing you go to when you log on, or the last? Just curious - from one who had a bad attitude towards it.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

My thoughts on Twitter, such as they are :)

I have three Twitter accounts - my own; my In Bloom group one; an Art Group one. Two of these are serious, one isn't!
The Bloom group account (@NBinBloom) has been vastly useful for our group - we have made connections with other Bloom groups all over the country. It is very useful for me when I make up the portfolio of the year's activities for judging as it's all there, in order, for reference. I give nearly early every Tweet a photo attachment and they often lead to interaction with horticultural groups. The social part has lived up to its name in this case.
My own account (@nosemanny) is just for fun and can be a bit silly, although I do tweet links to my website. It's a bit half-arsed to be honest, and I certainly tweet less from that then the Bloom one.
Twitter is my second look website after email first thing in the morning. I think it is what you make it - follow who interests you, who you find amusing/clever/informative and ignore the rest. People who just retweet get dropped pdq, I'm not interested in parrots! Also it's pretty obvious but the more people you follow, the more followers you will have (unless you're a Bieber or his ilk)
But as to using it as a marketing tool, I'm not really able to answer that. I do think however that the potential reach of Twitter, both geographically and in terms of rapidity, can't be beaten.

[R.J.]

'Short words are best' - #Churchill > http://www.rjaskew.com/default.aspx < #Reuters

[R.J.]

99 cts / 99 p, May 1-8 - myBook.to/OneSwiftSummer

Two men are at odds over a litter bin in the manicured elegance of London's Kew Gardens. Which side of the fence should it be on? Yes, quite ridiculous, utterly so.
Throw in one jaded young war photographer - Hi, Emma Saywell - one stately monkey puzzle tree and a squadron of screeching swifts and our scene is set for an escalating little drama and a bloody redemption.
On Walden Pond, The Old Man And The Sea, The Natural History of Selborne and the verses of John Keats are the inspirations behind One Swift Summer, a contemporary novella with Nature at its heart.

99 cts / 99 p, May 1-8 - myBook.to/OneSwiftSummer