It's a sell out!

Over the weekend I took part in a book signing event and was delighted to sell out of The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons. So I will be placing a new order for more copies. Please contact me at Carmencapuanoproductions@gmail.com if you would like to purchase a signed copy of any of my books.

On the 28th October, I also brought out the second edition of The Owners, Volume 2: Storm Clouds. Since most books are now bought as ebooks, I have a couple of copies of the first edition of this book left. Only 200 copies of the first edition were ever printed, so these are now a limited edition. Please contact me to purchase a signed copy.  

Feed the birds!

People ask me all the time how I get my inspiration for stories. The truth is always much less exciting than what they probably think. Stories come to me like jokes come to comedians, I would imagine. They pop up in my head, sometimes fully fleshed out and sometimes requiring a little work to join the dots together. But the ones I choose to work on are the ones which have characters who are more than three-dimensional. In my head, these are living, breathing entities in their own right and in some ways I have no more control over them than an absent mother does of her children!

Therefore I didn't set out to write The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons for any other reason than it was a fantastic story idea and I  thought the characters had something powerful to say. But at the beginning I wasn't sure what that would be. Now I do!

This book has been a painful journey for me and one which has been more personal than perhaps many of my other books. You see I was the little girl who fed the birds and I guess at heart I still am her, in all her frailties and foibles.

Life and time moves us all in different directions and sometimes that is far away from where we really ought to be. Slowly I am finding my way back to my rightful place - and will there be pigeons there? You can bet on it.

So introspection over, here is today's snippet, hot off my laptop. 

Oh and to quote Mary Poppins, "Feed the birds, tuppence a bag..."

Brighteyes’s empty box nearly broke his heart and for a moment his mind played tricks on him, making him see what wasn’t there - the little bobbing head, the iridescent sheen of feathers, the bright inquisitive eyes.

His heart held on to the image, eager not to relinquish it to the reality of the empty room, his empty life…

He flung open the window. It was just starting to get dark outside although the hour was not late. No birds flew high in the sky or overhead but he sprinkled the contents of the bag across the outside of the ledge anyway. They would be there ready for the morning and that was for the best anyway.

He ran a hand across the crumbs, evening them out and breaking the bigger chunks into more manageable bite sized pieces. Maybe the pie would attract all different types and sizes of birds, maybe only the braver ones would alight there. Time would tell. But he knew that as long as they were willing to come, he would be willing to feed them.

 

For more snippets of this or other books, take a look at my previous blog posts.

Happy Reading!

I am coming towards the end of The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons. I really feel for my character Lucas - I have been in his situation and it is hard on the heart at times. Here is the excerpt from today's chapter :-

Lucas felt a stab of guilt. Was he neglecting Brighteyes? He really didn’t intend to leave the bird alone for so long but then again was it in its best interests to make it too tame either? What would happen once it was released to the wild if it was too used to human company?

He worried about the rights and wrongs of the situation as he peddled to the park. Brighteyes seemed to be getting better, growing stronger every day. And that was a good thing – no, actually that was a great thing! But she also seemed to be becoming more accustomed to him every day, a little less afraid, a little more accepting of his sudden movements, less startled when he spoke… and sometimes recently he had noticed that she seemed to be paying more attention to him, almost as if she considered him to be part of her flock…

He was honoured by the bird’s acceptance but he was also more than a little worried. Would she pine for him when she was back in the wild? Would she feel betrayed? Abandoned? Alone? And him – how would he feel having to give her up to fate, not ever knowing if she was alright?


They say that if you love something you should let it go...I think that will be a hard lesson for Lucas. Keep your fingers crossed for me and for him.

Until my next post - Happy Reading!

Taken from The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons.

Chapter 13

 

    It was a girl.

    Long, waist-length brown hair framed a face that was impish and open. Probably no more than ten years old, he was struck by the way she held herself in the open doorway; looking out without yet venturing out, as if curious about what the day held in store for her.

    She is part of the new family that’s moved into Josh’s house, Lucas thought. Except of course that it wasn’t Josh’s house at all any more, was it? He looked away, speeding up his pace, wanting to avoid having to acknowledge that things had moved so far on; that Josh had moved so far on…

    “I know who you are,” a voice at his side said brightly.

    Without even looking down, he knew it was her, the stranger from the house. Taller than most other girls her age, she also seemed to lack their customary shyness.

    “I don’t know you and I don’t want to know you. And you don’t know me either,” he put in for good measure.

    “Well maybe not know exactly,” she acceded, “but I have seen you.”

    “Seeing isn’t knowing,” he ramped up the pace once more, an image of Hugh Grant blazing across his inner vision like an incitement to war.

    “I’m Molly. Molly Hickling. What’s your name?”

    “Go away,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

    “Well that’s a dumb name, Go Away!” She managed to make it sound as if she really thought that was his name. It was only the smallest stifled giggle on the end of her words that gave the game away.


Molly is my newest character and I think she has some important things to say...


Happy Reading,


Carmen.