I’ve been writing a lot. Which is good, I suppose. From everything I’ve read, the more you write, the better you get. And it helps keeps me sharp, keeps me searching for the next big idea, the next adventure, the next project. Normally, when I’m on my computer, I’m at home sitting at the coffee table, hunched over and tapping away like a deranged maniac with one parrot or another on my shoulder. Time gets away from me. I tend to go in streaks, and write all damned day long if I need to get something done. Or I steal 15 or 20 minutes at a time here and there either in the terminal before a flight, or after the service is over, or sitting on the ground in Haiti while the ground crew cleans the airplane.

I don’t know if you are aware, but I write the Quizzes for “Bird Channel.” I tend to get paranoid about deadlines and in one frenzied two-week period, I wrote 52 quizzes. That’s a year’s worth. When I was finished with them, I poured myself a drink, sat down on my front porch and had a nice little sob-fest. I was that relieved. It was hard getting that many quizzes written in such a short period of time. But I got them done and I felt better once I had completed them.

This last year, aside from the Memos for BIRD TALK, I wrote for Bird E University on the Bird Channel, several features, a 2000-word article for Birds U.S.A., and a pant load of those parrot species profiles. That’s not counting the blogging I do here, and good God, let’s not forget about all of those quizzes.

Now they have me writing Parker’s agony column, so that’s another thing on my plate. I’m lucky in that I can get some writing done on my flights. One night, the Flight from Port Au Prince to Fort Lauderdale had 21 people on it in the back. This is highly unusual.  Due to the light load, it only took about 5 minutes for us to get the job done. Because of this, I had an hour to kill and managed to crank out 5 posts for this blog. I’ve also learned that the more you write, the faster you get. Ask my Editor, Jessica about “turnaround time.”

Yakking with my Editor, Jessica Pineda at the Houston Parrot Festival

l have no idea what else is coming up, but I know I have to get ready for the Midwest Bird Expo in April. I’ll be doing a “Chop” demo for the cool people who attend the Expo. If you’re in the area, make it a point to come. I think we’ll have some fun and then there’s all that free “Chop” I get to give away.

Between the flying, the writing and the blogging, I’m lucky to get time to do my laundry. But I can tell you this: I’m having a lot of fun with my writing.

Advertisement