About Fly Like a Bird

Fly Like a Bird is a story about a young girl growing up in a small town in the Midwest during the 60s where everyone knows everything, discovers her family and the people in her town are keeping secrets about the night a car crash killed her parents. The truth she uncovers and her efforts to leave the town that lied to her, force her to confront betrayal, death, racism, and the meaning of family.

My love for Iowa knows no bounds.

As a child, my small Iowa town offered me the freedom and safety of riding my bike all over town, the joy of the gently rolling hills, and the colorful, musical birds; the comfort of a community that knew my name, the thrill and competition of sports, and the close knit bond of friends and family that knew what I was up to at all times. Iowa gave me a great education and an expectation to succeed, the arena of state and national politics, and the ability to accept and appreciate the uniqueness in all of us.

We all see the world from our own limited perspective, but I remember as a child trying to understand racism and beyond that, the inequities of the world, sometimes right in front of me. I’m not sure I understand it any better today.

In Fly Like A Bird, I wanted to explore the awakenings of a young girl and her struggles to make sense of the artificial unfairness placed upon many of us with the invisible bars of race,  sex, poverty, and family circumstances that frequently restrict our choices and our successes.

In this story, as in real life, it is often the cruelty of just a few that stops the freedom of all. We all shelter self doubt and insecurity within our hearts, but if we could only stand up for each other when we see injustices, we might find we end up accepting ourselves as well.

We should not shy away from differences, we should embrace them. In Iowa, if you listen, you will hear the melodious songs of so many different birds and they all belong in that glorious state that I love. Fly Like a Bird means finding your freedom to be who you are, to stand up for yourself and others, and to soar to great heights on the winds of the Iowa prairie.