The Crow Who Was Not Asked to Stay
What’s the story about?
The narrator hates crows and tries unsuccessfully to oust a noisy bird that picks at her broom and leaves feathers on her porch. Meanwhile the robins are invited in as beloved guests with a bird feeder. One day a hawk spots a robin’s nest and the crow chases it away. The narrator loves the crow’s bravery and beauty and is happy the crow chose to stay.
Who will enjoy this book?
Although written for 3 – 7 year olds, the underlying metaphor and beautiful illustrations make this book appealing to readers of all ages. Grandparents will particularly love the book as it is written from the perspective of an older, wise woman.
About the Book
In its early stages, The Crow Who Was Not Asked to Stay, was titled “Villanelle.” The structured, 19-line poem was an assignment for a class I was taking. One day I say 3 robins and a crow fly past my car as I drove out of my driveway. The line “Three robins and a crow came to my home” popped into my head and became an inspiration. After workshopping the poem and considerable editing, I read it to my then 4 year-old grandson, Xander. He laughed at a couple lines. I was pleased with his response and had the thought, this could be a children’s book. Then the tipping point came a month later when I heard him spontaneously recite the first and last stanzas — after only hearing the poem once. The poem was destined to become a children’s book.
Many revisions later and after a long search for an illustrator, the book took form. I believe I am very lucky to have worked with Seth Saint Pierre, an extremely talented artist who understood the deep layers of the poem and with creative insight brought forth even more dimensions.
About the Illustrator
A Michigan resident, illustrator Seth Saint Pierre has been drawing ever since in diapers and has never put down the pen, paint brush, stylus or whatever element he could find to express his craft.
Seth has designed book covers for authors, sketched successful concept designs for national and international companies and has been hired to illustrate schematics for construction companies.
In 2011 he was selected as the Emerging Artist for the national art organization, Heidelberg. That year he had his first gallery exhibit.
Thanks to artist Ray Pena:
Review:The Crow Who Was Not Asked to Stay is now available in hardcover ($20) and softcover ($15) plus $4.95 shipping and handling.
A Barroom View of Love
The title of my first novel, A Barroom View of Love, comes
from the poem of that name by Hafiz, the great Sufi poet of the 14th century. Like the poem my book is about love. Not the gushy, sentimental or romantic kind, but the kind that can even spring from the dark recesses of our most rigid beliefs.
Here’s a short synopsis: Ambitious and hardworking psychology professor Katherine Sullivan’s own anxiety peaks when she learns her mother has attended an ashram and is suddenly cheerful and carefree. Katherine doesn’t trust the change and goes to the upstate Pennsylvania Vidya Shakti Center to investigate. Her mother has been conned before. Katherine gets more determined when she learns her mother plans on leaving a substantial part of her estate, and Katherine’s inheritance to the ashram. Ultimately, Katherine’s external investigation turns inward and the result is nothing she could have imagined.
“I just finished a marvelous book — A Barroom View of Love. I could not put it down. Writing with intelligence and wit, Morales does an amazing job of capturing both the inner and outer journey of Katherine’s quest for forgiveness and enlightenment. I love this book!”
Therese Stanton, Winner of the Rona Jaffee Prize for Fiction
“…A Barroom View of Love…follows Katherine, a skeptical young woman forced to confront and explore her own spirituality, as she tries to unravel the mystery of her mother’s involvement in a spiritual path that seems to have transformed her from the chronically-depressed, anxious woman Katherine has known all her life, into a genuinely happy, fulfilled person. Oh, yes, there’s also a love story here. Think a little bit Eat, Pray, Love, minus the Eat part, plus a mystery.”
San Slomovitz, reviewer, Current Magazine, Nov. 2010.
Morales’ lovely book is about more than one woman’s adventure. It is a story of love, faith, and how we learn to pay attention – mothers to daughters, daughters to mothers, and each of us to whatever surrounds and makes us who we are. Read this glistening account of how we find ourselves in the most unlikely places.
— Rachel DeWoskin, author of Foreign Babes in Beijing, Repeat After Me, and Big Girl Small
Purchase the book from Burns Park Publishers.