REIGN OF THE TERROR BIRDS!

BBC illustration for one of the Terror birds of the Americas.

It's been a while since I promoted my first published novel, THE FLOCK. (You know, the one that was quickly optioned for film through Warner Brothers.)

Recently, several people have linked me to a BBC article about the Terror birds of the Americas. And so I decided it was time to push the novel again.

First of all, check out this link to the article. Great stuff, but not much there that I hadn't already researched before I wrote the novel.

The image of the Terror birds is pretty frightening stuff if you stop to imagine what it would be like to come face to face with one (or more). It's the closest thing to a theropod dinosaur that Mother Nature has tossed Earth's way since the Cretaceous saw the dinosaurs off into oblivion. And, of course, it was imagining such an encounter which set me to writing THE FLOCK.

Actually the a South American species Kelenken guillermoi, but which is closest in size to the version of the animal that appears in my novel.

Three species of Terror bird, plus the much earlier Diatryma. The largest, Kelenken, has the largest bird skull ever discovered. These were getting up to a respectable theropod predator size.

Another graphic of what it might have looked like to encounter one of these apex predators in the wild.

THE FLOCK, from Tor-Forge Books.

Kelenken guillermoi.

Kelenken guillermoi, fairly recent terror bird discovery. Easily has the largest bird skull known from the fossil record.

THE FLOCK by James Robert Smith.

THE FLOCK from Tor/Forge

Tor Books now has the first of their paperback versions of the novel officially on the schedule. You can see the initial bits of it coming to retail life here.

And here's a graphic I found recently of a newly discovered terror bird from South America. Kelenkin guillermoi is so far the largest predatory bird ever found. It's quite an amazing animal when you look at its size and symmetry. It was closing in on the size of some of the larger theropod predators:



Lost some writing time today due to the fact that I was very sick. It's probably partially allergies, but I think I got some kind of bug, too. my body fluctuated all day from being feverish to cold and clammy. It was all very miserable.


One of my favorite modern writers is Walter Mosley. I discovered him when I read that he was one of Bill Clinton's favorite writers. Clinton was right about this guy--he's brilliant, and I learned a lot about writing by reading his work and listening to his advice on creating fiction. I was pleased to read a very cool article on CNN's website by Mr. Mosley. You can read it here.