About

 I started writing A Bird for a Heart ten years ago in 2014. I had just finished my first science fiction novel, Duskworld (currently and likely forever to be unpublished). I wanted to take the skills I'd developed with that book and write something much better. Of course, life gets in the way and A Bird for a Heart was pushed onto the back burner along with many other projects. 

In the time since I started this story, I have raised my daughter into adulthood, gotten remarried, and received two bonus children.  

In 2022 I decided to start a horror anthology podcast called Nothing Is Wrong. Being me, I of course needed to do everything myself. Writing, recording, editing, and promotion of a podcast is usually taken on by a team of people. However, I can't afford to pay a crew and besides, I'm a control freak when it comes to creative endeavors. So, other than music and some of the promotional images (which I sourced from various creative commons artists), I did it all.

The podcast was by not metric successful. It is creatively satisfying and most people who listen to it seem to like it. But very few people are aware of its existence. I'm used to making things in obscurity, so that's ok. But after two years of that a person can get burned out. 

As I was finishing up season two of Nothing Is Wrong, I knew I wanted to work on something different so I could recharge and come back to Amon Heights with a full battery. That was when I started thinking about the struggles of Tula Petek and her stolen heart. 

I looked over the old chapters I had written. There was some good stuff in there, and also some stuff that made me cringe. I set to work on rewriting the entire story so far. The sequence with Enin after he passes through the door is the most changed. I always thought my original version of that was clunky. I also changed the names of some places and descriptions of characters to avoid some uncomfortable othering or orientalism.

Looking at the story that I have, I expect A Bird for a Heart to be about twenty podcast episodes in total. In time that might get longer, but I hope not. Endings are the hardest part to write, in my opinion. So for this story I started with an ending in mind long ago, and I hope to reach it some day. After those twenty episodes there will probably be more adventures for Tula, Kokaibel, and the Boy. We'll see. We'll see.

Michael J Patrick - December 29 - 2024

About the Author:

Michael J Patrick is a silly little man with silly little ideas.

He should be avoided if possible.