Blacklock Family Tree

There's never a shortage of feathered beauties

Almost everyone likes the northern cardinal. Its red color is cheerful, and its happy song gives the soul a lift. A male cardinal visits my yard every few days, sits on the highest tree and calls forth, "Where's the seed? . Lady, get out here and fill this feeder!" And I do it.

The grackles are too numerous to be popular with some people. They are so happy to find the sprinkler on, and they take such pleasure in their baths, turning in and out, lifting shining black feathers, cocking well shaped heads.

The northern mockingbird is almost a family member. His song copies the other yard birds or experiments with the calls of migrants, tells us the chuck-will's-widow has been here and even throws in a little chorus of passing upland sandpiper it has heard. How lucky we are to have northern mockingbirds as residents.

Parked down by the bay, we noticed there were not many laughing gulls and the ones we saw were changing into winter plumage, losing their dark heads. We saw a few large terns with orange bills, probably feeding chicks on an off shore island. We looked for black under their wings, the field mark which distinguishes the slightly heavier Caspian tern from the royal tern. The ruddy turnstones, in harlequin plumage, are returning too.

The other day at the bayfront, I saw a favorite bird, a least tern. These little fellows used to nest among the black skimmers beside the causeway. Now they are among the skimmers nesting on the island park off Rockport. They have a very rapid wing beat and yellow bills.

I was once wrongly diagnosed with the disease lupus, and thinking I was allergic to sunlight, planted many trees in my yard for their shade. I love the trees, especially the live oaks. Fortunately, my neighbors, Karen and Bob Fancher, much neater types than I, tolerate the large tree that extends its limb above their driveway.

New Direction, New Momentum - The Smell of Books Blog for ...

Plenty of things have been happening in the world of ebooks over the past few weeks, but for the first time I’ve been too busy working on an exciting project of my own to post about them. That project is  Momentum , a new digital-only imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia, which was announced today. As a publisher for Momentum, I’ll be looking for books to publish globally, from writers who are digitally savvy, switched on to the possibilities of electronic publishing and, perhaps most importantly, know how to tell a good story.

Momentum will be launching in February 2012 with a  truly amazing stable of frontlist authors. I am honoured to get the chance to work with each of these writers, and I look forward to the opportunity to work with new and established authors alike in the future.

We also want to hear from authors who have older titles that are out of print or yet to be digitised who want to inject new life into their old books. There are potentially thousands of books out there that can no longer be accessed online or off and no longer provide an income for the authors who wrote them. Momentum will give these writers the opportunity to breathe new life into previously published work and make them accessible for a new audience of digital readers.

Accessibility is going to be the name of the game for Momentum. Momentum ebooks will be available globally and at an affordable price. The Smell of Books has provided me with a wonderful excuse to listen to digital readers, and I think there is a lot I can do to make the relationship between readers and publishers as open as possible. This is going to be a tremendously exciting time, so I hope you’ll spread the word and contribute your thoughts, ideas and hopefully your books!

As part of this new direction, I’ll be shifting the Smell of Books to a new independent location. I’ll still be blogging on all things bookish, digital and tech, but as the demands of Momentum will be a bigger drain on my time, I’d like to make room for new voices here at Booku. If you’d like to keep up with the Smell of Books, please head over to www.thesmellofbooks.com where I’ll continue to post rants, analysis and news about the digital publishing world. You can also follow me on Twitter @joelnaoum . It’s been a blast, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the people here at Booku and Boomerang Books, especially Clayton Wehner and my fellow bloggers over at Boomerang .

The tree

Tree, A Life Story

The family

Family

The Family