Page 51 - Sonoma County Gazette July 2020
P. 51

   Bird Without A Song
 By Diane McCurdy
The title, Bird Without A Song, metaphorically refers to the lament of a
veteran returning from Vietnam who is dealing with PTSD and is seeking his place in the universe.
When overseas, he was a Marine commissioned to pilot a Medivac. He briefly encounters a navy nurse on a hospital ship. When returning home to attend UCLA, he experiences severe anxiety/depression. Eventually he runs into that lovely, red-headed nurse again and they establish an easy relationship which ends tragically.
Jul 6- 28 ~ Story Time/music & movement with Colors of Spanish- Early Childhood classes ~ We hope to see you Live each Tuesday at 10:30a on Facebook, Instagram and now on YouTube!! Remember to invite the whole family. www.facebook.com/ ColorsofSpanish
Jul 3-31 ~ YoLeo Outside program with LandPaths ~ Childrens are books read live in Spanish and English. Every Friday, 10-10:45a will be via Zoom. Send us a message on facebook, and we will send you a link to the Zoom meeting.
Jul 18 ~ Writers Helping Writers Monthly ZOOM Meeting ~ Redwood Writers ~ Enjoy the support and camaraderie of other writers. Our activities are held in or around Santa Rosa. Due to the current pandemic, Redwood Writers monthly meetings are being held via Zoom. When it is safe to gather in large groups, these meetings will move to the FINLEY COMMUNITY CENTER in Santa Rosa on THIRD SATURDAYS from 1-2:30p, redwoodwriters.org
Thru December 2020 ~ Snoopy’s Writers ~ Every Monday, 11a-2p “I love to hear an editor beg.” OUR MEETINGS ARE ON PAUSE DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS until the Warm Puppy Café re-opens (Date to be announced) at Snoopy’s Home Ice Arena, 1667 West Steele Lane, Santa Rosa. INFO: Georgette ggdeb@sonic.net, www. snoopyswriters.com, www.snoopyswriters.blogspot.com
 Years later he travels to Costa Rica to involve himself in an inherited business venture and is tangentially caught up in the Iran/Contra scandal. There, in the tropics, he meets an attractive biologist and ultimately finds his “song”.
Author, James Kelly, a local journalist who is a member of the Redwood
Writers actually served three tours in
the Vietnamese conflict. He promised he would write about his experiences so his memories and those of his comrades would be remembered. His book, however, deals with the aftermath of conflict rather than the war itself.
 I felt, at times, as if I were reading a first
draft of a wonderful novel that could be
a best-seller or a choice option for a film
interpretation considering its visual appeal
with its more than interesting locales. But
things happen too fast without being fleshed out. When a female character dies it is a pivotal event but it is glossed over rather quickly.
Are your littles ones missing their story times at the library?
The CIA/Noriega affair is mentioned but not really integrated into the main narrative. Two men have ties to the protagonist that were not expected but seem too coincidental. The love scene feels like something lifted from one of those “bodice buster” paperback novels.
Now, the library is bringing “Storytime at Home” to your computer or mobile phone. A schedule of weekly story times, craft activities, easy science
Until one gets into the rhythm of it, it is disconcerting to travel from Laguna Beach California to Costa Rica as the chapters pair off. On the back cover summary a main character is referred to as Ramona but in the text she is referred to as Catherine. This is trivial, but again a jarring discrepancy and it adds to the feeling that one is reading a first draft that has not been edited.
https://sonomalibrary.org/storytime-at-home www.youtube.com/sonomalibrary www.facebook.com/sonomalibrary
projects and read-aloud programs for older kids are now online.
Options to quickly access the videos:
 Copperfields copperfieldsbooks.com Curbside Pickup & Inside Shopping
Jul 9 ~ The Lost Department Stores of San Francisco by Anne Hitz ~ Join author Anne Evers Hitz as she looks back at the colorful personalities that created six major stores and defined shopping in San Francisco. 7p. Reg Req’d online.
Jul 14 ~ Writers Forum with Brenda Knight ~ Talk about how to get your book or proposal into the hands of an interested editor/agent. 6:30p. Reg Req’d online.
Jul 16 ~ Sarah Kucera talks about her book The Ayurvedic Self-Care Handbook Holistic Healing Rituals for Every Day and Season. This authoritative guide to ancient healing offers more than 100 daily and seasonal Ayurvedic rituals— each taking 10 minutes or less—to reconnect you with nature’s rhythms, and to unlock better health. 5p. Reg Req’d online.
    After this critique, I will say the story was enjoyable and has great potential. The author has set his action in two fabulous locations. The Festival of the Arts that is centered in Laguna Beach and is the venue for a truly unique phenomenon which figures lightly into the plot. The Pageant of the Masters features tableaux vivant, in which human beings with the help of lighting, costumes and make up are transposed into reproductions of famous paintings. In the sleepy tropical village of Dos Pueblos in Costa Rica his description is often mesmerizing. “.....a tropical tree stands singular and strange in the filtered light seemingly summoned from a ghostly forest........ beneath its heavy branches, delicate patterns of nature’s filigree are etched into the earth from last night’s showers........a half moon, mirrored by pools
of shimmering water dances in front of us as we walk under a damask sky of diamond stars.” These lines are like lyrical poetry, like a “song.”
Sonoma County Library OPEN 24/7 Online NOW CURBSIDE PICKUP!
INFO: sonomalibrary.org
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