The Crows cawed a warning

When I lived south of Climax, Michigan, every time I stepped out of my house the crows would start cawing. What they were saying, I’m not sure. Maybe: “She’s out, keep an eye on her.” or “That’s the weird one who tries cawing back at us.”

Our house was surrounded by woods and fields of corn and soybeans When I started writing THE CROWS, crows were always around, always “talking” to each other. Their cawing often does sound like a warning, so it seemed appropriate to start that book with the line “The crows cawed a warning,” especially since I knew the story’s main character was soon going to be hearing gunshots.

The story itself was prompted by a real-life event. On November 17, 1990, two hunters were shot and killed in the Fulton State Game area, which was roughly seven miles from where I lived. There are still questions (They even did a TV shows about it), regarding who actually killed the two hunters. https://rb.gy/meyhln However, what triggered my imagination was the idea of being shot at while walking in the woods.

I often walked in the woods with my dogs (I had more than one Rhodesian Ridgeback at the time), but never during deer hunting season. I knew that would be dangerous, which is why I put P.J. in her woods during the month of April, when no one should have been hunting.

So, who was shooting? At whom and why?

That was the start of THE CROWS, and, of course, when P.J. finds a man dying in her dining room, she wants to know what’s going on. More than that, the sheriff’s detective investigating the murder considers her his primary suspect.

For a YouTube video on what crow cawings mean, go to: https://rb.gy/j3sinp

For a copy of THE CROWS go to: https://rb.gy/nn27f2

The ebook is only .99c this month. And today (6/9/21) it is one of the featured books in The Fussy Librarian