Merilyn Simonds | Writer

Articles tagged with: Jennifer Ackerman

Birds Are Us

Birds Are Us

May 30th, 2021 Natural History, Writing
The fish thrashed madly in the heron’s bill. The bird loosened its grip and lost the fish, but a quick stab and the Great Blue had it again. The bird beat the fish against the water, flipped it in the air, caught it head-first, then tipped its bill skyward and started the laborious process of swallowing the catfish whole. The walkers on the trail that curved around the small bay let out a sotto voce cheer.

Only the fins were visible when the heron gagged and the fish was in the water again. The bird nabbed its wriggling dinner and cocked its head, considering its options.

Read more

Books UnPacked blog logo

Sign Up for Books Unpacked Blog

Want occasional news from my literary world? Advance notice of new books, samples of works-in-progress? Join the circle of book-lovers who receive LitBits.

Sign up for LitBits

Why a blog?

Because sometimes the world moves too fast for books.

Because it feels good to be part of the conversation.

As I wrote Gutenberg’s Fingerprint, I thought a lot about books, what they are, what they mean, why I love them, how they are changing and how they are becoming what they started out to be. The brain doesn’t turn off when an editor says “Stop!” so in Books UnPacked, these thoughts spool on, exploring the past and future of books, and the actual books I’m unwrapping to read.

If you subscribe, you'll be notified whenever I post a new blog. As a bonus, you'll also automatically receive LitBits.

You won't be swamped with emails - I'm too busy writing books to blog daily or even weekly, though I hope to post a couple a month. You won't hurt my feelings if you decide to unsubscribe.

I’d love to hear from you, so please join the conversation at the end of the blog.