Greetings everyone! At long last I have another novel under my belt and am thrilled to see you made it to the end. I hope you enjoyed it!

When I initially started working on dirty birds it was just going to be a very short story, twenty five regular sized chapter about two kids dealing with their two entwined cultures in silent war because of the selfish erasure of a historical event, subsequent oppression due to physical differences and perceived causes, and still finding a way to fall in love during it all. It quickly became more complicated! Here's some of those developments.

Calum, Edwin, and a lot of other deadwings suffer from a genetic predisposition due to centuries of trauma to develop when they just referred to and feather pulling. This is based off real feather pulling habits that develops in birds under stress, and the real human condition known generally as Body-Focused-Repetitive-Behaviors (BFRB), specifically as trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling), dermatillomania (compulsive skin picking) and others. Consider giving it a goog and educating yourself on these lesser known disorders. They deserve more awareness.

Speaking of mental health, it became clear to me very quickly that Calum and Edwin both dealt with trauma and in very different ways that I'd figure I'd go into here as it's hard to be exact using fantasy-speak. Calum grew up in a toxic environment and never processed what was happening to him until he was safely away from it, we saw his emotional walls fall down rather quickly in the beginning of story after the changes in his body forced him to acknowledge his past--he found he was in a safe place to do so. Sometimes things happen like it did to Calum, sometimes it happens like it did to Edwin, who wasn't as lucky. At first Edwin introduces himself as Deadwing, giving three sets of pronouns. He mainly uses he/they interchangeably (Edwin is a non-binary man in human terms) but you may have noticed he lists it/its as well, this is one of his unhealthy coping mechanisms. Calm and Edwin both used depersonalization to cope, but where Calum's identity simply faded into the ranks of carbon copy soldiers, Edwin's was destroyed, completely. Holly took Edwin under her wing because they were still stuck in the form their experience at the "school" forced them to be. Edwin insists on being called Deadwing, and being called it, because his brain wasn't ready for the responsibilities and consequences of being a real person quite yet. That last time he felt like that was when he was a child, which is why his triggers cause him to dissociate into a child-like state, and relive memories from the time his brain first got "stuck".

Edwin was in a very similar mindset as Idris when he first met Holly, still playing the "game" of the Containment Territories/Idris's school. Which leads me to one of my favorites bits about the book. The overarching theme is the juxtaposition of two concepts and the contrast and comparison between them. That's why every chapter title is structured [concept] and [concept]. The big ones are Colliste and the Colony, Calum and Edwin's family legacy, Idris and Tarif's corruption by immorality, and the downfall of human and welf culture due to the "curse". I implore you dear reader to think of more and see how many you can find. (Hint, another one is Woden and Holly's role as mother figures.)

Comments are cherished, critique is welcome, I've got a few more stories on my profile you might enjoy. Hope to see you again my next adventure!

-Jay