Interview with author Robert Carlson about his eBook
"More Ruminations of a Bird Brain" available at Amazon
Q: Your title includes the word "more". Does this mean that there have been other "Ruminations"?
RC When I published the Ruminations in September 2014 it consisted of 5 related stories in one volume. The question that was raised shortly afterwards was "is that all there is" echoing the lyrics of Peggy Lee. My answer was "NO, there is more." Then I finished the second batch of 8 chapters and had the issue of how to package it. I felt that anyone who had read the first Ruminations would get the second one and keep reading. I wanted to make sure that anyone who was new to the character and the book could get the first and the second set in one downloadable file. Therefore, The second book consists of "Volumes 1 and 2" together.
Q: Will there be a Volume 3?
RC I will have to talk with the Bird Brain to answer that question, but I feel strongly that it will be YES.
Q: Where does this Bird Brain com from? I mean, how has he come to be and be in Pittsburgh in particular?
RC He is not certain but feels that he was a human at one time and some weird fog or vapor came over him and his mind was pulled out of that body only to be deposited in the pigeon. He is not ready to think that he died and there will be no going back. That idea really shakes his feathers and creeps him out. He doesn't have any recollection of a transition and he fears that it just might be only his imagination.
Q: The location in your book is said to be the "Strip District". That name evokes some far ranging imagery in the mind of readers who are not familiar with Pittsburgh.
RC I suppose that you are correct in that. It would best be described by the forward of the book
"In a town located on the northern banks of the Monongahela River as it flows northward from Fairmont, West Virginia, and passes a city called Pittsburgh, it meets the Allegheny River and flows past "The Strip" to form the Ohio River that wends its way down to Cairo, Illinois, -- it is in The Strip District that we meet an audacious pigeon convinced he had been-- in a former life -- a human being. This is his story. In a way, it's a romp, but in another way, a touching tale."
The Strip is a two block wide maybe 10 block long, depending on who you ask, commerce zone where produce, fish, and sundry items are delivered by rail, truck and car for resale to the public. It is a very busy place in the early morning hours when restaraunt representatives come tobuy the making of their menu items fresh each day. In recent years it has become trendy and full of hipsters. The Bird Brain inhabits the city in a time before everything went upscale and lost much of its unique flavors.
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