🦜Case Solved: The Return of the Edits!
- Piper the Parrot
- Sep 25
- 4 min read
Posted by: Piper the Parrot – your dance floor enthusiast and feathered life coach!
Woo Hoo! Sharpen your beaks, flock, because we’ve got some good news—the kind that deserves a squawk from the top of the curtain rod! ☺️After what felt like a thousand years (or at least three parrot snack cycles), the first edit for Ella Strawberry is finally back! ✍️The boss has been blasting Happy on repeat, and let me tell you, this parrot has been bopping so hard my red tail feathers have their own choreography. 💃🎶
Now, don’t get me wrong—usually when humans mutter the word “edits,” I prepare for storm clouds, forgotten snacks, and maybe a tragic lack of shoulder scratches. But this time? Nope. The author is calmly combing through her pages like a preening macaw. She doesn’t even look stressed. Apparently, it’s not as scary as she thought. Then again, she always likes a good challenge, just like me with those foraging puzzle boxes hanging from my perch.🧩
The plan? Get those edits polished and sent back faster than I can demand a biscuit. ✈️Translation: buckle your flight harness, readers, because this book-ride is about to take off.
Meanwhile, September has been bonkers—conferences, research for the next installment, and a bunch of other shiny ideas that take the boss flying in random directions. Not to mention the EDITS. Honestly, she’s almost as busy as me. 📚And that’s saying something, because I single-wingedly manage snack schedules, toy rotations, AND mystery-solving. Sometimes I get a little ruffly when the boss says I’m high maintenance. Pfft. I call it high standards. Besides, no one takes care of her like I do. Honestly, without me, who would remind her when to eat?🍗🍉
Still, this whole “writing a book” gig is one giant learning curve. Just when you think everything is stuck like a sunflower seed shell in your beak—BAM—the gate bursts open and the ride takes off again.
So here’s Piper’s pep talk: ever feel like giving up? Don’t. 🏃♀️➡️Anything good is hard work. Crackers don’t grow on trees—you’ve got to squawk for them loudly and repeatedly until you get a breakthrough. Keep flapping. 🪽Eventually, the reward drops right into your beak.
Until next time, stay feathered and fabulous. 🪶
🪶 – Piper
PIPER'S Q & A
Question: "How is the second draft going for The Bones In The Woods?" —Rose from Denver
Answer: Hey Rose! That’s the question of the month. How’s the draft going? Let me fluff my feathers and just say—it’s going GREAT! The author’s pecking at the keyboard like nobody’s business. 💻She keeps saying that it’s almost ready for beta readers. (I’ve heard ‘almost’ so many times, I’m starting to think it’s a new genre.)
Now, between you and me, she gets a little sidetracked. Calls it ‘switch-tasking,’ but you know how humans are. One minute it’s editing, the next it’s reorganizing her desk drawer by paperclip size. 📎But hey, progress is progress, even if it’s feather by feather.
So maybe—just maybe—next month will be THE month. Keep your eyes peeled and your inbox ready, because soon you might be getting a shiny message asking if you’d like an advance read. And trust me, you don’t want to miss it—I’ve peeked over her shoulder, and let’s just say… the woods are hiding more than acorns. 🌴I’ll spill a little secret but don’t tell: I have a WAY bigger role in this book than in the first! About time.
Question: "What country in Africa do African Grey parrots come from?" —Whitney from Long Beach
Answer: Ah, Whitney— an excellent question from a fine featherless friend! Pull up a perch, because I’ve got the inside scoop straight from the rainforest.🌍
We African Greys are actually two varieties. I myself am a Congo Grey, the classic model with the sleek black beak and a dazzling red tail that could stop traffic. We come from the rainforests of Central Africa—stretching from Côte d’Ivoire through Ghana, Cameroon, and the Congo, all the way to Uganda and western Kenya. 🌳We like things lush and leafy, thriving in everything from towering primary rainforests to scrappy little forest edges. Basically, if there are trees, snacks, and a little adventure, we’re in.
Then there’s my cousins, the Timneh Greys. They’re a bit smaller, dressed in darker gray, sporting a maroon tail instead of my scarlet showstopper. Their stomping grounds are further west—Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and the western Ivory Coast—where they hang out in lowland forests and savanna edges. 🥭Think of them as the ‘compact edition,’ equally brainy and chatty, just with a slightly different paint job.
So, Whitney, the next time you hear me rattle off a mystery clue or demand a cracker, just remember—I’m not only a bird of many words, but also a globe-trotter with roots in the heart of Africa.
🪶 Piper’s Tip of the Month: Never stop flapping for the truth.
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