All things come to the Pigeon who waits...

"Picture it, Sicily, 1941..." to paraphrase Estelle Getty's character of Sophia from the television show the Golden Girls. But this story begins more recently than that.

Picture it, London, November 2021. A lovely couple have just gotten off the Eurostar from Brussels to London while transiting back to Canada from Europe.

She is still super thrilled to have gone through the famous Chunnel by train, and is bouncing off everything in sight with excitement.

He is rolling his eyes and patiently making sure they have  pulled all the bags off the train. He turns around to see his sweetheart crouched over intently watching a pigeon.

"What are you doing?" He sighs (not truly wanting to know the answer but sure that it will be a doozy...)

"I think this pigeon needs help finding his train..." she responds vacantly.

He rolls his eyes, oh so lovingly, and counts the bags while sharing some pleasantries with a nearby conductor.

But, sure enough, there is a pigeon. It is not an ordinary pigeon. It is not wandering around looking for fallen food or fluttering frantically up to the rafters as the humans pass it by. No.

THIS pigeon is strutting purposefully back on forth on the platform in St. Pancras Station. He appears to be scanning the train cars, looking at the LED screens for the correct train, and glancing up at the large clock on the wall at the end of the station in turn.

THIS pigeon then struts directly up to one of the conductors on the platform and begins to do some form of interpretive dance--pigeon sign language perhaps--before giving up and returning to anxiously scanning the clock and the train cars.

THIS pigeon is clearly planning to take a trip to Paris for the day...

All of this is observed by the woman before her husband reminds her they need to bustle off to the Tube to get to Heathrow and return to the magical land of "home".

Minutes later, comfortably seated on the Tube to Heathrow, the husband smiles tiredly and says, "Now what's this about a pigeon and a train?"

Her eyes sparkle and she recites what she KNOWS is the epic opening for a wonderful book..."There's a pigeon in St. Pancras. He wants to ride the train. He thinks he'll go to Paris, and then come home again." (This is a direct quote, unchanged since that fateful day, and is in fact part of the copyrighted work There's a Pigeon in St. Pancras {2024, Ruth Amanda})

He looks vaguely confused but lifts his eyebrows encouragingly and she describes this wonderful pigeon and its peculiar behaviour--which was clearly missed by the less observant mortals in St. Pancras, but to which she has been a keen observer. 

She begins to imagine what the pigeon might do in Paris...is it a day trip? A weekend off work? A romantic assignation?

He is grateful when they arrive at Heathrow and her more ordinary instincts kick in as she checks them in for their flight and organizes the various boarding passes and things.

Airport security goes smoothly with meticulous organization and he lets her believe she is responsible for this (while he quietly makes sure she's tucked everything safely into the tray and remembered to take off her shoes...).

Once they locate their departure gate, they retire to a cafe in the airport for some hot food knowing they have a couple of hours to unwind a bit.

Conversation returns to the pigeon, and now he is actively engaged. Is this one book or a series? Are there other birds?

Pens come out.

​Napkins are written on. 

They brainstorm together and titles like There's a Buzzard on the Balcony (2023, Friesen Press) and There's a Seagull on my Sailboat (2023, Friesen Press) are bandied about.(You've read those...I won't go into detail on those at this time.)

Conversation rolls onward and becomes increasingly sillier with funny puns and odd rhymes. 

After they finish eating, they move to a lounge area where her trusty notebook comes out and all the silliness is recorded. 

That was November 30, 2021. 

Many story ideas for this pigeon have been drafted and discarded. It has been shelved while other titles rolled off the presses and into stores and bookshelves worldwide. 

Spring of 2024, and the story is really piling up in her head. Especially since she will be travelling to Europe with some friends in the autumn. So she begins to sketch A. Pigeon.

The sketches make her think of a travel itinerary. She scribbles it down.

Silly ideas about what A. Pigeon would pack for a trip to Paris come into play.

Pencils, pens, paint and keyboard magically produce something she loves. Something she's been waiting for since that fateful day so long ago.

Anxiously she watches the calendar and clock for it's public release when her pigeon will finally embark on his epic adventure in Paris. September 2024.

But don't forget those last minute details! Passports, spare underwear...you know the drill...

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