It’s been a while since I’ve sent out email or posted a blog because of issues with back pain and a Christmas bout of Covid. But now I’m feeling better and excited to fill you in on my newest fictional character—a crow named Luna.

Sometime in October, Luna the crow infiltrated my current work-in-progress, the second Dream Stalker novel, to the consternation of my protagonist, Lily Scott. Not that Lily disliked crows. They’d long fascinated her ever since meeting the crow companion of her Wampanoag herbal healing mentor.

Poor Luna had lived happily in a New Hampshire forest with an elderly hermit named Sally—until hermit and crow witnessed a double murder, and their peaceful life was turned upside down. Their encounter with a murderer caused Sally’s fragile mental health to collapse and Luna to take a gunshot to her wing rendering her unable to fly.

When asked by her niece Diana, Lily agrees to help Luna. She cleans and bandages Luna’s injured wing, but soon learns that Luna is an escape artist, a thief, and an all-around feathered mischief maker—a creature that tests every one of Lily’s skills—as a healer, a caretaker, and an investigator.

Lily, like her deceased mentor, believes that a visit from a crow is an omen of change. What Lily doesn’t yet know is if Luna’s arrival predicts success or failure in Lily’s efforts to protect Diana from the still-at-large murderer.

And if true-life animal stories are your thing, check out my blog post about Caleb Carr’s touching relationship with his rescued Siberian Forest Cat, Masha. https://nancygardnerauthor.com/https-nancygardnerauthor-com-review-caleb-carrs-memoir-about-life-with-his-siberian-forest-cat-masha/