The Red Bird's Song

About the Book

A young adult /adult fiction that is told from a young girl’s perspective and imagination that takes us away on an unforgettable journey. It weaves two stories, one of a family's experience with keeping a loved one in their home while moving through the dying process with the help of Hospice. It is also a story of a Grandmother and her grand-daughter’s journey into another world where birds are their twin souls who journey with them throughout life in so many subtle ways.

I am really excited about this story and feel it came from my heart with the hope it can find a place of healing for anyone going through the loss of a loved one. However, it focuses on a child's interpretation that brings an element of fantasy and adventure into their journey into life's final months.

It is also written as a resource to how Hospice Care can help a whole new way of experiencing the dying and letting go process of our beloveds with dignity. It also gives a great deal of honor to birds with both a scientific as well as symbolic information about these particular characters, who as I said before are twin souls, our reflections.

The book has been a collaborative effort by my niece, who has beautifully illustrated the story, my mother’s own enthusiasm and her great desire that we create this story, and my burning desire to put this story to page. Life and Death is our whole journey and this book intends to express the joy and the sorrow that weave together to make our lives worthy of celebration from start to finish.

About the Author

About the Author Sandy is a retired Special Education and English teacher working with pre-school through high school. She and her husband live in Western Colorado along the Colorado River valleys and canyons. They are both avid gardeners and watchers of nature be it weather patterns, bird migrations, or the various growth patterns of their many plants they tend organically. Returning to college as an older adult she was inspired by the children that she both worked with as a private school business manager, but as a blossoming writer that saw the innocence and curiosity that childhood holds for us all. First achieving her bachelors in English Secondary Education and then a Masters in Affective Special Education initiated a 15 year journey into the emotional needs of the students as well as working with both Mental Health and Human Services. Along this journey she has been a daily journal writer and on occasion felt as though there was a story she was supposed to write sometime, someday. Only after years of bookkeeping, raising children, and being a teacher has she finally found her story unfolding in retirement. About the Illustrator Tara Tippett Tara Tippett, is a Freelance Artist inspired to create Illustrations (book or other), Portraits, Murals, and concept Art. She enjoys working with people to help them shape their artistic endeavors including books, logo and web design, murals, and sculpture comes naturally to her. She has worked in various mediums, anywhere from bones and leather to oil paints, metal, and clay. Currently working in a digital medium of Photoshop and Corel painting, and playing around with animation. Tara’s diverse background of self-studies, internships and degrees all assist her as a passionate Illustrator, muralist ,designer, as well as an educator and motivator. She has worked with multiple “At Risk” youth empowerment programs, and community building programs both in collegial and grassroots settings. Tara has also sold art in Artist Alley at Denver’s, fi rst Comic Con and has also sold and showed her art in local Sci-Fi and Fantasy Cons in the Colorado area. Currently running a small Graphic Design entrepreneurship, she provides a creative variety of business advertising design. (http:// taraseren.wix.com/shine) A lover of wildlife, children, plants, exploring, history, culture, as well as storytelling, she always has a stash of folkloric and modern tales. Stories which help people identify and relate to plants, wildlife, survival, astronomy, mythology, and human relationship to nature and their living history. Tara is no stranger to having an active and full life. Having worked in various construction trades, including landscaping, Archeology Digs, and enjoyed lots of travel early in her life. She enjoys the outdoors and pockets of wilderness that she can access in any city. Tara engages in self-studies such as Art/Astronomy, Astrology, Cultural and Traditional Medicinal Practices, Shamanism, Plants as Medicine, Gardening, Wilderness Survival, Wildlife, Folklore, Dream analysis, Archaeology, Anthropology, Environmental and Self Sustainable ideas and education.