On a particularly frosty morning today I was passing by the tiny bridge over the Ammer River and spotted an unexpectedly familiar sight. For standing there in the water and rocks at the edge of the river was our heron “friend” once again! He’d been absent for quite a while, and so it seemed odd that now that the weather has taken a turn for the winter he’s come back to take up his accustomed post once more.  Whatever possessed him to come back to from whatever warmer perch he may have found in the last few months to hang out today next to a frosted-over riverbank?

Now, you do have to suspend a bit of disbelief here. After all, as I pointed out the last time I wrote about herons, Chris and I have no way of knowing if we really see the same heron each time, even though we usually see one in the same spot over and over. And I don’t really know how herons react to the cold. I mean, do herons actually feel the cold like I would if my tootsies were turning to icicles while soaking in chilled waters, and while the bitter wind made the air feel like it was below freezing? Does our little heron friend stand there and dream of warmer climates, where food is easier to come by than foraging for fish in the frigid river waters?

Of course, I address questions like that in my eBook, The Heron and the Tortoise, my little fable about a heron who follows his dreams and goes on an adventure to the sea. The story is illustrated with 27 photos taken by me, with a cover photo taken by Chris, and comes in formats suitable for all eBook and Kindle readers, including pdf. Makes a great gift; how handy to know that just in time for your holiday shopping, eh? 🙂

Plus, when you buy a copy, all the profits are donated directly to Oxfam America.

The suggested price is $6.12. Of that, $1.12 goes to the publishing website, LeanPub, which is a great organization whose services are free to authors. All of the remaining $5 of the purchase price — that’s 100% of the profits on the book sale — goes directly to Oxfam America. When you purchase the eBook, you can also choose to add more $$ which then become an extra donation directly to Oxfam.

Chris and I have been supporting Oxfam for years; it’s one of our favorite charities. Thanks in advance for your ongoing support of both Oxfam and my eBook!  (Again, all profits from my book are donated directly to Oxfam; I just get the pleasure of knowing people have purchased copies of the book.)

Now that I think about it, I’m sure this is why the heron stopped by, coming at just the right moment this morning so that I could take his photo. He must have known that this little plug for my eBook — that I actually wrote up in advance last night — needed a new photo or two to go with it to help spur sales along. 😉

Enjoy.