Heckled By Parrots » Squawkin’

Lift: The Audiobook

rebecca — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:42:09 +0000

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I am consistently amazed by the opportunities the Internet is opening up for artists and entrepreneurs. Not to say we’re all getting rich… but the possibility for new endeavors, reaching more of an audience and sharing your dreams is so amazingly immense these days. It’s noisy out there, but I think perhaps I prefer this to the days when I was a 12 year-old girl, pouring through the Writer’s Market trying to figure out to whom I could send my poems, songs and stories. No really, that was was me, the pre-teen pushing purple prose wherever I might because I had a wonderful neighbor who taught me where the Writer’s Market was in the library and how to use it.

Now I’m an author of ten books, the Writer’s Market is online and although a letter is still a beautiful piece of correspondence, sometimes a quick but carefully composed email to an agent or a publisher is the best choice.

And I can write whatever I want for anyone to see. There is a vehicle for that and you no longer need permission. I have a few things on Amazon published without anyone’s blessing. And now I have the ability to create and distribution my own audiobook. Check out the new arm of Audible/Amazon — Audiobook Creators Exchange where creating an audiobook has just become affordable and easy.

I decided immediately that I wanted to use ACX for Lift and got Red Hen Press to agree to let me jump on the opportunity. You can set up auditions and hire voice actors on ACX and that was my initial thought. As I started asking around and really thinking about the process seriously however, I realized in this particular circumstance I might be the best person to read this book. It is a memoir, after all, and there are also a lot of falconry terms in the book which make for difficult reading for anyone not indoctrinated.

So read it myself it was! Being the lead in the plays and musicals in high school, the years on stage as a freeflight bird show presenter might actually have some real world application. I started investigating some local recording studies and figured my cost was going to be about $1100.

This makes the project a labor of love. Lift has sold about 600 copies in print form and I don’t expect it to do even that well as audiobook. (I’m hoping, but I’m always hoping.) I likely wouldn’t make my money back on this project, but I desperately want to do it anyway. If you have listened to the Tuesday’s with Ty podcasts you can probably guess I really enjoy reading to you. So to this end I set up a Kickstarter to fund the project and set a goal of $800.

Thanks to some really wonderful backers — one particularly generous– I met my goal in five days! At last look I’m at $1100

But there is more I could do! Kickstarter and Amazon will take out fees much like Paypal, credit cards and any other form of money conveyance. That will take a chunk out. And I would love to pay a voice actor to read the intro/outro to the book and commission some music for the beginning, transition and ending of the book. And you can help! All you need to do is back the project and at the $15 level you will get an advance digital download of Lift as soon as it is done. Actually, that is what I want more than anything — to know that some of you want the book! And there are many other cool perks available. Check it out!

If you read this blog and you haven’t read Lift, I would so love for you to. I realize it’s a book that hinges on falconry, a book that involves hunting with raptors and a story that has a rather difficult prologue. I promise though that it is a book about so much more than blood and conflict of the soul. It is a book about what it means to be human — to lose, to win, to learn to trust and most importantly to believe. It’s amazing what you can learn from a bird. At least, that was what it became for me in the writing. I hope you will consider supporting making it into a audiobook and I would LOVE for you to spread the word!

But do it before October 4th– that’s the Kickstarter deadline! Go check it out here!

How Many is Too Many?

rebecca — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:57:25 +0000

I answered an email the other day that I thought might be helpful to share with all. What do you think? How do you decide what too many is?

Dear Rebecca,

What is a good retort to when people say, “You just have too many animals; you need to get rid of them.” The best retort I have is, “You just have too many kids; you need to get rid of them.” And no, I don’t believe that parrots are the same as children (though they do act like them), but well-meaning friends believe any bickering between the husband and myself or ANY day-to-day problem comes as a result of having so many animals.

Thank you so much for any advice–this is really driving me crazy!

Just Right

Dear Just Right,

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to answer. I read your email and honestly did not know how to answer. I tried to think of what I would say, but the honest truth is that no one has ever said these words to me… “You have too many animals, you should get rid of them.” And then when I asked myself why no one has ever said this to me, I wasn’t sure why they hadn’t. For one single female my menagerie is pretty immense—1 dog, 3 parrots, 2 falcons, 1 hawk, 3 pheasant and 10 pigeons. Oh, and there are the six goldfish I just bought… Is this too many animals? And if not, how many more would be too many? And what do people think of me? And if someone did suggest I had a problem, what would I say? I slept on it and my answer still isn’t a simple one.

The first thing I suggest is to take a deep breath and save your retort. Forgive your friends. Humans by nature want to “fix” things. We want to produce solutions that save our friends in speedy ways that both rid them of their heartache and also make it easier for ourselves. It is very hard listening to a friend in pain and not be able to help, especially if that friend is in a bout of troubles. Your friends are compassionate, generous and they love you. –They are also self-centered and uncomfortable having to listen to your woes. I know this because I’m like that as well; it is called being human. And being a good friend can be pretty damn exhausting.

Loki

When a friend suggests your animals are too much for you, thank them for their suggestion. Then take their hand and tell them that you weren’t looking for a solution, you were looking for a friend and that you deeply appreciate their willingness to just listen.

Reward the good. Ignore the bad. That’s the animal trainer in me, speaking, but it’s also the only code that has never failed me, a practice that reminds me which lens I should be looking through.

Be grateful that you have friends wonderful enough to listen to your day-to-day hiccups and domestic shake-ups. There are people who are unable to engage with others and are too ill to figure out how to fix it. There are people who barricade themselves against the world surrounded by so many animals they can barely take care of them, but expect these animals to fill that sucking wind of silence which only another human being can fill. They collect more and more animals trying to fix something and yet have no idea what is broken. Having too many animals is the symptom, not the disease. Obviously you are not ill. You are probably not a hoarder. So you can also laugh at this image of yourself, embrace your sense of humor and tell your friend that perhaps they watch too much television or that maybe they should watch more, because removing the clutter in a hoarder’s house does not suddenly fix the problem.

Is it possible all the animals are a symptom of some issues in your life? Perhaps. I am certain that the amount of feathered and furred bodies in my home is very much in correlation with the difficulties I have committing to people, the ridiculous expectations I have of the significant others who come into my life and my fear of being hurt. The animals don’t disappoint me and they give me a safe direction for my nurturing and love. But would ridding my home of the animals fix my issues? No. Again, it is a symptom not a solution. I know this about myself and I work on it and perhaps this is why no one suggests I have gone overboard with my menagerie. Or perhaps it’s just that they are too afraid of me and my trained predators to even make such a suggestion. –I’d like to think it is actually because I seem balanced.

Rebecca & Booth

So if people are suggesting you have too many animals, perhaps you should start asking yourself if there is something else in your life that needs adjusting. Western society is so good at trying to fix symptoms that we rarely ask one another, “What’s REALLY going on with you? I know there is more to it than what you are saying. Let’s get to the bottom of this.” So finding what is actually bruised, bumped and perhaps not working as well as it should is a thing that you mainly have to do for yourself. Maybe if whatever is off kilter is put upright in your life, the number of critters you have now will be just right in everybody’s eyes. Or at least, it won’t bother you when people suggest there are too many.

Some of us could never be sane without the touch of fur, the brush of feathers and simplicity of animal adoration. But all of us need other people. The question of whether or not you have too many animals is irrelevant. So you don’t have to answer it. If you really are in over your head or you know someone who is, be compassionate enough to try to figure out the real reason why. I guess my answer boils down to being kind, to your friends and to yourself. What you should say is something patient and kind. That is the answer. In fact, I think kindness is almost always the answer to everything. It shouldn’t just extend to the animals in our lives.

xxRebecca

Have you Picked up RISE Yet?! Only $.99

rebecca — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:52:52 +0000

AVAILABLE NOW!

Some months ago I had a small melt down online about the long journey of writing and publishing Lift and considering the acclaim the little book managed to muster, dare I say, the shockingly poor sales. 411 copies it’s first year, in fact. (My expectations weren’t high, but when you consider my parrot owner’s guide, A Parrot for Life has sold about 8,000 copies, this seemed especially dismal.) I only meant to shake off a little pain and frustration and move on.

I am still utterly amazed how many hits the page gets and deeply grateful for all of the support and kindness that welled up from readers of that post. My mighty 411 are fierce and wonderful and I love you. In fact my eBook, Rise: A collection of writings imspired by Lift –is for you. Here is the description:

In celebration of the Kindle version release of LIFT, an award-winning falconry memoir, author Rebecca K. O’Connor shares a complementary collection of essays, short stories and poetry that further examines life in the shadow of a raptor’s wings.

LIFT, Rebecca K. O’Connor’s arresting memoir of love, loss, relationships and one impossible peregrine falcon is further illuminated with this collection of writings on the world of falconry. The opening short story, “A Good Falconer Lets Go,” about a teenage boy and his red-tailed hawk is a classic coming-of-age tale with a falconry twist. If you are a dog lover, “Heart to Tear” and “About a Dog”, essays which read like O’Connor’s love songs to the dogs of falconry will resonate with you, if not evoke a few tears. In short essays such as “The Knife” and “Storytelling” O’Connor explores early moments in falconry in the icy-clear voice readers grew to love in LIFT. The collection also includes a glossary on falconry and a bonus excerpt of her novel in progress, a post-apocalyptic wilderness adventure. If you have read LIFT and loved it, this short collection will add to your experience. If you’ve yet to read O’Connor’s writing, RISE may encourage you to read more.

Sound interesting? You can buy it for .99 in the US here on Amazon. Or if you’re in the UK get it for £0.70 here. And if you don’t have a Kindle you can download it in just about any format– for Nook, HTML, PDF, ePub ect. on Smashwords for .99.

But WAIT! Did you read Lift? Then Rise is my gift to you. You can download it for free on Smashwords. Email LiftandRise@gmail.com -prove you’ve read Lift and riddle me this:

What is the name of the ranch near Palm Springs where Rebecca and Anakin met and hunted with Butch, the old cowhand and where later Rebecca took her mother out to hunt? — Need a hint? It’s a color + a fluid and it’s only one word.

Please share this post. I hope you will go grab a copy. And if you haven’t read Lift and would like to join my army of 411 (Okay, there are a few more of you now, but you will always be affectionately 411, to me) you can also now officially get Lift for Kindle here and in the UK.

rebecca — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:04:20 +0000

Avaialable Now!

If things seems super quiet over here, it’s only because I’m buried. I haven’t forsaken my friends here on Heckled! I’ve been out doing lectures and workshops and prepping for writing a new parrot training book. (Now how did I train that again. Not like that. Right.)

I have been writing, though. I have video coming up for Bird Channel and article for Good Bird and Birds USA. Stand by for those! I have an eBook coming out to accompany the eBook release of LIFT. Look for that July 1st. But if you are a Kindle, Nook or iPad person and would be interested in a short read from me, check out my short story “One More Winter” on Amazon and Smashwords. It’s only $.99 and if a handful of you buy a copy, you would be buying me a beer.

Booth would love it if you read my short story too…

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Help a Friend Have an Adventure

rebecca — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:44:19 +0000

While I contemplate this year’s blog entries, goals, perhaps a few adventures of my own — go check out Quark’s “Blog Your Way to the North Pole” contest and vote for Patricia Sund, blogger and parroter of Parrot Nation fame! (Also Bird Talk Columnist owned by the infamous Parker & Pepper). There may not be parrots at the North Pole (hey, there aren’t even penguins), but she is sure to report back with her usual humor and flair. Aren’t you curious what Patricia would have to say about her polar explorations?

Up and Coming

rebecca — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:05:21 +0000

I have a few lectures coming up if any of you parrot folks are out and about Southern California:

I look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones!

Don’t We All Get Tipsy and Talk to Our Parrots?

rebecca — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:49:00 +0000

It's for You, Cockatoo!

I’m looking forward to seeing Iron Man 2 for many reasons, most of them involving Robert Downey, Jr. I have to admit though, that I’m really looking forward seeing Mickey Rourke who has always been one of my faves. Spending a couple of decades getting his face busted up boxing only endeared him to me more. (I also love boxing and didn’t quite make it in the ring either.) Mickey Rourke with a cockatoo though…that really has my interest.

It was Rourke who asked that a cockatoo be added to the movie. He felt his character needed to inspire at least a bit of empathy from the audience. And what inspires more empathy than a man who gets drunk and argues with his parrot? Hey, Mickey …you, me, a bottle of tequila and the parrots? Call me.

Rourke did more than just hire a cockatoo however, he wanted to make a difference in a parrot’s life. You may remember that Rourke was out and about the awards circuit for The Wrestler, frequently quoted thanking his dogs for the difference they have made in his life, for helping him through. Rourke gets the value of a reciprocal relationship with a pet, so he adopted Sunny, a cockatoo on his seventh home from Best Friends. You can read the whole story here. From what I understand, Sunny was actually used in the second half of the movie.

And in case your wondering about a happy ending, Rourke is frequently seen around LA, Sunny on his shoulder. I admit Sunny looks a tiny bit traumatized by the paparrazi, but who wouldn’t be? He will never be a cockatoo lacking for enrichment, that’s for sure, not while he’s exploring Los Angeles with Rourke.

What Say You?

rebecca — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:52:35 +0000

Give it a Grade!

I have often wished there was a place where a parrot lover could go to easily get opinions on what books and magazines to read, what videos to buy, what toys parrots love, who is a great avian veterinarian, what parrot rescues are dependable and all of the other bits and pieces we have to figure out the hard way. There are some great sources for natural history and book learnin’ on our critters like the World Parrot Trust site, but there’s something to be said for peer review.

The thing is– boards and lists suck for that. I don’t want to have a conversation (read: flame war) and I don’t want to search through thread after thread looking for some useful information. I want to pull up five reviews on Phoenix Landing and see what people have to say, like the reviews on Amazon.com. I want to know what real people think, not just fancy pants people like that Rebecca K. O’Connor chick. So how do you find a place like that?

Look no further– check out the Heckled by Parrots Reviews community on Lunch.com. Join! Add your thoughts and help build a resource. You can add your own topics to review, review topics already in the community or just rate them. Don’t have much time? Do a 160 character Twitter-style review. After all, your 2 cents may be priceless to someone who needs to know!

Five Parrot Books that Should be on Your Shelf

rebecca — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:27:02 +0000

These are the five books I think should be on every parrot owner’s bookshelf. Click on the titles to read a lengthier review of the books. (and to add your own review if you agree or disagree!)

Parrots of the World by Joseph M. Forshaw

Everyone should have a book to pull off the shelf when they are wondering what species of parrot that photo on the web might be or when arguing about the name of that lory species over drinks. (It’s Duyvenbodes, by the way. You win some you lose some…)

More importantly perhaps, this book is a wonderful starting point to finding out a bit of natural history about the parrot in your home. The more you know about what your parrot’s kin does in the wild, the better you will understand his needs and habits in your home!

Good Bird by Barbara Heidenreich

Barbara and I worked together for some time in the arena of free flight bird shows. She took much of what we knew and lived by and put it into this easy to understand book for the pet parrot community. It was just the start of many great tools produced by Good Bird Inc!

The Parrot Problem Solver by Barbara Heidenreich

Taking the basics of “Good Bird” to the next level, Barbara breaks down the basics of behavior and training. She gives those unindoctrinated in the world of using proven techniques and terms standardized by psychologists a great intro and many tools to put their new knowledge to work.

Brinker's All Around Grey Book

For the Love of Greys by Bobbi Brinker

The African grey parrot is unarguably one of the most popular species of pet parrot in the world. And few people are more knowledgable about this particular species than Bobbi. Introducing readers to the idea that positive reinforcement and facilitation rather than force is the best way to live with a grey, she also shares just about everything you need to know about keeping your grey healthy and happy.

A Parrot for Life by Rebecca K. O’Connor

I won’t review my own book, but of course I think it should be on your shelf! Decades of both living with parrots and training birds professionally inspired me to write the book I wish I had when I trained my first cockatiel at eight years old. I wanted it to be fun to read and full of up-to-date information. My first birds would have had better nutrition, health and my hands would have suffered a lot fewer bits. I’ll leave it to you to decide if I accomplished my goal.

What are your favorite parrot books?

Fostering! Check out the March issue of Bird Talk

rebecca — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:57:56 +0000

If you haven’t seen my article in the March issue of Bird Talk about giving back through fostering parrots, be sure to pick it up!

Here’s an excerpt explaining why parrots may not be given up for the reasons you think…

There are of course, many horrible stories of abuse and neglect. Sometimes parrots are hoarded and kept in terrible conditions, locked in rooms and fed strange diets with no nutrition or beaten and injured for screaming or biting. Severely neglected birds may injure themselves because of their living environment or even self-mutilate. Of course we all want to help victimized parrots. However, there are also many more parrots that have simply had a bit of bad luck rather than abuse and just need a friendly home.

Some foundations that work to find homes for parrots are reluctant to call their organizations “rescues.” The truth is that most parrots which find their way to parrot welfare organizations were not abused birds that had to be rescued, but rather birds for which the owners could no longer provide homes. The list of reasons a parrot might be placed with a parrot welfare organization is long. Life changes sometimes make it impossible to care for a parrot. Long-term illnesses, job loss, foreclosure and many other tragedies can simply make it impossible to give a parrot care, attention or perhaps even a home. Sometimes people even buy parrots on a whim and discover that they are in completely over their heads and have no desire to do the work to manage the monster in their home. This may seem inexcusable, but it happens just the same and generally the parrots that come from a situation like this are not abused or “broken.”