Parrot Nation

                                           The LIPS Expo Link: http://www.liparrotsociety.org/parrotexpo.htm

LIPS is having me come and speak on October third at their Parrot Expo on October third. This should be interesting. This year’s theme is “Parrots, The Reality Show.” I got a kick out of the fact that they want me to talk to them about the reality of living with parrots. I’m not sure what I can tell them that they don’t already know! But I think the real reason they want me to speak is because of the Memos in “BIRD TALK.” And that’s fine. People seem to like those little suckers and I love writing them.

Some of the subjects for the memos come very easily to me and I can knock out the basic draft in about a half an hour, spending more time polishing it, but the gist is there in a short period of time. Others aren’t as easy; it seems like it takes a pair of pliers, some bailing wire and long forceps to drag some of them out of the “writing tool” in my head. 

I don’t know why that is. The basic concept and gesture is there; I know what I’m writing about. It’s more about the rhythm of the piece and the way it flows that I occasionally have trouble with .

I love writing them. And I know that when I first finish one, I have to put it away for a while and let it bake. a week or two later, I go back to it. If it makes ME laugh out loud in places, I know I am on to something.

Now if I could write like Darby Conley, artist and writer of the strip, “Get Fuzzy”, I’d really have something. I love his stuff! He’s not afraid of giving his animals attitude, and Bucky, pictured above, is about as nasty a pet cat can be. 

Now that I think about it, Bucky the Siamese isn’t that far away in personality from Parker. Parker is just as destructive, but he’s a bit more upbeat than the Buckster. 

 But, I’ll do the best I can with explaining the Memos and how I write them. In the meantime, here is one more “Bucky View” from “Get Fuzzy”: