(bright music) - Hello and welcome to "The Journal."

I'm Steve Kendall.

Peregrine falcons are the fastest birds in the world, and Bowling Green is home to a very special group that's now the focus of a new children's book.

It's called "Clock Tower Falcons" by Susan Montgomery.

And we have the author here today.

Susan, thank you again for being here.

Talk a little bit about the fact, of course, these are real birds, but now they're gonna be memorialized in this book for children to get a different perspective.

- Yes, I thought the subject matter would just be perfect for a storybook and for kids to experience it through the lens of the Falcon Cam too in the story that I feature.

So it's been a fun journey to figure out the different ways I could incorporate different elements of Bowling Green into the story.

- Yeah, and obviously too there is that live camera that's up most of the time.

It's up sometimes more in the spring, and things like that, when the birds are more active.

But it attracts a lot of attention, and it is interesting.

So when you sat down to think about doing that book, obviously the falcons, probably you wrote a book about the one therapy dog, Benny, he's out and about, he's everywhere, all these different scenarios.

The birds kind of hang out in the same location, so did that sort of test your creativity to say, "Well, here they are, they have a daily routine," where his was pretty varied, theirs just probably a little more concise, a little more defined, so how did you work that and make that work for the whole book?

- Well, since I watched the Falcon Cam so much, I knew that they stayed on that ledge, especially when they're young for quite a while.

And that viewpoint from the ledge, from the Falcon Cam going out, I thought was so interesting.

So I really wanted to incorporate that in a few different scenes.

And, oh, go ahead.

- Yeah, no, go ahead.

Well, the other thing is too, you talked with folks at the university, people who are experts in birds, to get some background on that.

So you did some research about real falcons to then help you write about the ones you now have put into sort of nonfiction.

Or fiction rather, yeah.

- It actually took a lot of research to learn more about the peregrines.

I thought I knew a lot until I started researching more.

And I needed to know what their feathers look like and the different stages of their growth and what they look like, what the eggs look like, and I wanted to just learn everything I could about them inside and out.

And even through checking out children's books from the library, which is a great way to learn a topic that is not- - [Steve] Sure.

- your usual topic.

It's very condensed information and concise.

So that was fun.

But I contacted Dr. Verner Bingman at the university, who specializes in bird navigation, and I wanted to get his perspective of the peregrines and I wanted to know something I couldn't just pick up from a book or an article, something that only an expert would know and pick up on.

So that was really helpful, and went into the creativity of the book too.

- Yeah, and what were some of the things you thought you knew or things that you didn't know that he informed you about?

- Yeah, a lot of people think, oh, the falcons are back.

They're back, you know?

They're back in town.

The fact is they're always kind of around here, it's just their breeding pattern is what starts back up and, you know, the scene in the clock tower basically.

So that was interesting.

And he thought one of the most interesting parts of their life cycle is actually not when they learn to fly, which is great and amazing, but it's also when they learn how to hunt.

- Ah, which they do.

- [Susan] Which they do.

Yes, they do.

And I thought that was fascinating and it's not something I would've known otherwise.

- Yeah, well, because our, it's interesting 'cause you talk about that, that we have an image of them and sort of a perception of them in that setting in the clock tower, usually around the time that they're starting to have baby falcons.

But actually they're here year round and there's all these other things that they do, but we have that narrow vision.

So it'll be good, because that gives people a little better perspective.

Because, as you said, people, "Oh, they're back," well, they never really left.

They don't migrate to any great extent, I assume.

And so they're always here, we just don't see them in some of these settings, of this more specialized settings.

When you were talking with him too, did he give you other insights into things that you then incorporate into the book that you probably wouldn't have had you not talked to him?

- Yeah, actually that one part about them learning how to hunt.

Originally, that wasn't going to be a part of the story, but I actually included a scene where they're hunting in midair.

So I thought that was really important to include because I had them learning how to fly, but I really wanted that extra component because I thought it just made i even more special and accurate.

- Yeah, yeah.

And I guess, too, because, you know, if you walk around campus or around, you know, the city, you will see them fly, you'll see their shadows, you'll hear them on campus.

They tend to terrorize the squirrels a lot, it seems, but then that's part of what they do.

And that is an aspect because, you know, it's one thing to see them nesting and that sort of thing, and then the little ones and all that.

But they are a predatory bird, that's what they do.

So you including that aspect does kinda fill in that part of it that people need to know about.

They're cute and all of that, and they're very athletic and that sort of thing, but, you know, they hunt for survival.

That's what they do.

And so incorporating that in, so how did you incorporate in the book because obviously animals hunting other animals isn't necessarily a great topic for a kid's book to some degree.

So how did you visualize that and how did you incorporate then so that children understand without it being, you know, too graphically shocking to them?

- Yeah, there is a scene where the birds are, the falcons are eating part of a bird.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- It's nothing too graphic and it just has, you know, a feather sticking out of it essentially.

- Yeah.

- [Susan] But it's told in a very lyrical, gentle way.

And then in the scene where they're hunting, the falcon is just kind of going after a pigeon, and it's a little playful, you know, I wanted to keep it playful enough for kids.

- Sure, sure.

Yeah, and it still have that aspect in there because it is part of what they do.

- [Susan] Yeah.

- I know we talked about this when you were here for the other book, but when you were thinking about this, when you were here talking about Benny the therapy dog in that book, was this book the next one on your list or did this one sort of pop up amongst other things?

Just you've got ideas floating around all the time, right?

- I do.

I actually have an idea book.

(laughs) - Oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah.

But this was gonna be the next in the sequence.

You already had that kind of- - Yeah, I had been thinking about it.

And then when I started watching the Falcon Cam again in the spring, I just thought, "Wow, what a neat way to do another story, and something that would have local appeal but broad appeal too."

- [Steve] Sure, sure.

- So I just thought it was such an interesting topic.

And it was such a creative challenge though too, because there were so many aspects I wanted to incorporate.

So I almost had a checklist of things as I went along.

Like, okay, I want the wind of Bowling Green in the story, you know?

The courthouse has to, you know, be a central element- - Be prominent- - Yeah.

And there were so many ways I could have told the story too.

And actually I've done this with a couple books.

Sometimes I will write out the story a few different ways, from start to finish, and even do a couple illustrations just to see how it feels.

And if it doesn't feel right, then I know that's not the right story.

- Not the direction to go to, yeah.

Yeah, when we come back, we can talk about that because obviously we can see how many different versions you went through, drafts or whatever, before you got to this one, because obviously it's a creative process.

And you just said, things change as you look at things.

"Well, it seemed like a good idea," "Well, it didn't work the way I thought," we can talk about that too.

Back in just a moment with Susan Montgomery, the author of "Clock Tower Falcons."

Back in just a moment.

Thank you for staying with us on "The Journal."

Our guest is Susan Montgomery, the author of "Clock Tower Falcons," a children's book about the peregrine falcons at the Wood County Courthouse here in Bowling Green, Ohio.

The last segment we talked about, you know, you were talking about your process, where you go through a whole series of ideas, some do a completion, and then look back and say, "Well, this, this, but not that."

So talk a little bit about that.

What happens to some of the pieces that don't end up in the final version of the book?

Do you set those aside for future ideas maybe to package into some other book, or what do you do with those?

- Yes, they kind of go on the back burner for a while.

They go back into my idea book.

And I really have a whole binder full of partial stories and full stories.

And I almost wrote the story as a lullaby- - [Steve] Oh, okay.

- of when I was experimenting with a poetic, lyrical feel to the story.

But it just wasn't right and I envisioned it more as just a lullaby song itself.

So I ended up keeping that as a separate component that I revisited after I completed everything.

So... - Yeah, now do you ever have a situation, where you talk about your idea book, where you take several ideas out of that and they kind of come together in one story?

I mean, three totally, four or five different parts that were separate to begin with now come into focus as one book?

- [Susan] Sometimes.

- Sometimes.

- [Susan] Sometimes, yeah.

Sometimes that does happen.

- Yeah, now you talk about too that you were, and we'll hear a little bit of the song that goes with this, the lullaby that goes along with this, did that idea go in and out of the final version?

You talk about the fact that you started out thinking that was gonna be the focus of it, how did it work its way back in then at some point?

Because that was sort of your original idea, it's still a part of it, but how did you go through that process to say, "Yeah, the lullaby still works, but in this context versus what I thought it was gonna be?"

- Yeah, I thought it would just be a nice extra component to the story.

Something I envisioned, like a child listening to the story at bedtime and then listening to that song at the end and just drifting off to sleep, you know?

- Yeah, yeah.

- So it was just almost very whimsical to think of it that way.

And I wrote the lullaby song and knew that I'd want it, you know, I want people to be able to listen to it in some way too, so... - Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, when you sat down, and obviously the person who wrote this is Dean Rochester, and performs it, did he go through multiple, to your knowledge, multiple variations of the song?

Or did he just hit it the first time with no problem, right?

One take, done.

- Yeah, I actually wrote the lyrics, and he did the guitar and vocals.

- [Steve] Okay.

- Yeah.

He was so great.

He sent me a few different samples and just different variations, and a few were piano-based and the last one was guitar.

And when I heard the guitar version, I just knew that that was it.

The other ones were very beautiful too, but the way I had wrote it myself was on guitar.

So when I heard his version, I just thought, "Oh, that's perfect."

- Yeah, not bad.

Well, talk a little bit about the lyrics, because obviously you've written the story and now you've got a song that goes with it.

How does that process work for you?

Because obviously you're a writer, now you've taken other writing and you're gonna set it to music.

So is that process dramatically different than simply writing the book?

- A little bit.

It's like a whole another story.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- Because it follows a falcon like starting to fly at night.

So I envisioned my night scene I had included in the book.

And so it's kind of like a little window into that scene almost, so... - Yeah, yeah.

Well, let's take just a moment and they'll play a little clip of the song right now that goes with the book "Clock Tower Falcons," lyrics by Susan Montgomery, music and melody by Dean Rochester.

Let's take just a moment and listen.

("The Falcon Lullaby") (gentle guitar music) ♪ The falcon finds her ledge on high ♪ ♪ And circles through the evening sky ♪ ♪ The courthouse waits beneath the blue ♪ ♪ As winds whisper strong and true ♪ - So, yeah, that's the final version.

Now, did you have any suggestions for him about the melody or anything or is that strictly his area?

You don't delve into that part of it?

- I wrote the majority of the music, the chords to it.

He put all the finger-picking, the beautiful finger-picking to it.

He didn't really change too much with the music.

He added just a few other, you know, like a bridge and things like that.

But otherwise it stayed pretty much the same, but- - Now, how do people access that song?

Does it come with the book?

Or how do they find it?

- Yeah, I wanted it to be incorporated into the book.

So in all my books, I include a lot of supplemental material in the back.

That's why these are such heavy picture books.

But I wanted them to go not just to my website, but I wanted them to access his band camp website too so you can scan the QR code or go directly to the site and listen to it through there.

- So, yeah, wonders of new technology-making, yeah.

- [Susan] Yeah.

- Yeah.

Because back in the day it would've been like a CD inserted in the back cover or something.

Now it's available a lot of different ways.

One of the things too, when you look at this and obviously with the illustrations, how difficult a process was that to get the birds the way you wanted them to look?

Because I'm sure you went throug several iterations of those as well, and we'll probably never see the first ones, or maybe we will, but is that process, was that more difficult than the writing part or not?

- Oh, it's challenging.

It is, but it's so fun.

It's so fun.

I have an art background, so I just love sketching all the time.

And part of my process to actually get to really know the falcons was to do watercolors of them.

- Ah.

- My personal artwork is a lot of loose, flowy watercolors.

So I made peregrine falcons in very loose water colors, and then that kind of just got me in the right mindset of thinking about more what they look like, and then I could transfer that to my illustrations.

But it took a lot of experimentation, and a lot of drafts, and a lot of refining even up until the point of publishing, you know?

So there's always a little more work that can be done to them, it seems.

- Sure, and that brings up an interesting question because we know that, you know, creative people, you always think, well, there's like one more thing, you know, one more tweak, one more tweak, one more whatever.

And, you know, when it comes to editing, you know, a video or whatever, you know, there's always like, "Oh," you know, "one more frame."

Do you go through that process of like, "Oh, you know, this sentence, I did one more word," or, "This word instead of that word?"

When do you finally like say, "Okay, it's done," how do you reach that point?

You just say, is it a deadline or you just mentally know when it's finished somehow?

- You just kind of know at some point, when all the pieces have fit together, when, you know, the courthouse is looking right, the peregrines are looking right.

You know, like everything has to just all come together at the same time.

But even up until the point before I hit that publish button, you know, there's a little thing to tweak here or there, you know?

And I look through proof copies too before I actually publish the final version.

And that helps a lot, too, to see where things need a little adjustment.

- Yeah, if it really, yeah, looks the way you thought it was gonna look now that it's in basically the final package.

'cause I know that would be, it's like anything else.

Like, okay, you're finally gonna, as you said, push the button to publish it, and once you do that it's then out there.

Now, of course you can always revise it and everything.

- [Susan] Right.

- But still there's that moment of like, "Okay, we're gonna now say it's done, and here we go and see what the reaction is."

When you look at writing this, I mean, your next idea, do you have something already in mind for that now?

What's next?

- I do.

I do.

- [Steve] Okay.

- Yeah, I started publishing with ukulele picture books when I moved into picture books, so I'm kind of circling back around to that a little bit, so that's gonna be the topic of my next one.

But I still want to think of some other ways to collaborate, maybe do another locally themed book with broad appeal.

So, I don't know, I have a lot of ideas in that idea book.

(chuckles) - Yeah, now do you have, because your last couple of books have been about animals basically, and in this case birds, are some of your ideas gonna involve more people as well?

I mean, because the two books we've been exposed to have been, you know, Benny the therapy dog, and now the peregrine falcons, with the focus on them.

Is that more your theme?

Do you think you're kind of in a routine right now where it's like, "I like writing about animals.

I like writing about," are they easier to write about than people?

- Well, I always have people in with the animals, so that helps too.

In fact, that's the big part of the "Clock Tower Falcons" book, is the community aspect of how the community all gathers to watch and to wonder and to, you know, look at them through the Falcon Cam.

So yeah, people are still a big part even when I, you know, do animals.

- Yeah, yeah.

And now will you, in the future, as you're looking at things, obviously your idea book has books that are focused on people versus animals, and that's, when you look at that too, what kind of piques your interest about what will be the next thing you'll write about?

Does it sort of just come to you naturally, randomly?

Do you see something and say, "Oh, write that down in my book, that's a good idea," is that sort of how your process works?

- Yeah, and I have to think of what am I going to stick with over the next few months.

You know, long enough to hold my interest and, you know, to stick with the illustrations and the story.

I really have to be passionate about it at that time, at that point in time to finish it.

- Yeah, and that raises kind of an interesting point.

So from the idea stage, the first time you thought, "Oh, peregrine falcons made the book," what was the timeline on that?

How long did it take you to get from the idea first coming up like, "Oh yeah, those birds," and now I'm pushing the button to publish the book, what are we talking about there?

- Yeah, about four months, little over four months.

And that's working pretty fast too.

I do, I'm just naturally fast at my process and I do a lot of this as kind of an art therapy too.

I deal with a lot of chronic pain.

So just sitting and sketching is just very therapeutic for me, so...

Helps pass the time.

- Yeah, now while you're focused on this particular book, are there other things floating around, you have other sort of, you know, pots boiling on the stove kind of other ideas that are kind of percolating that, "So I'll get to them after I deal with this?"

I mean, 'cause obviously you've got this wide range of ideas to work with.

- Yeah, and I don't just think of stories too and art, but I think of my personal artwork too.

So that, and also just getting inspiration from experiences and just being out in the community and talking to people, and it all feeds into my creativity.

- Yeah, yeah, because obviously, as you said, you do have to focus on the issue at hand, but at the same time you wanna make, I'm sure you're aware that you're not gonna ignore things that are going on around you, and say, "Oh, wait a minute, that's a good idea for the next book.

But right now I'm working on this."

You know, you publish, does anybody else weigh in while you're going through this process and say, "Gee, you know, I think this is better than that," or, "When are you gonna get done," or is it sort of all your, it's under your control?

How does that work?

- I have a little group of critique partners.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- So fellow authors, illustrators.

And sometimes they're not even authors in picture book genres.

Sometimes you can get really unique perspectives from somebody who publishes in fantasy or something like that.

So it's really interesting just having author friends in different categories and genres and time zones because there's always somebody to talk to.

- Well, yeah, that's a good point because, yeah, it's sort of a 24/7 thing now.

And, yeah, you can contact somebody at any, or an idea pops up, it's like you can bounce it off 'em, whether it's three a.m. here, it's three p.m. there kind of a thing, so... - [Susan] Exactly.

- Yeah, when we come back we can talk more about the process and, you know, as you said, what you're gonna start working on next.

Back in just a moment with Susan Montgomery, the author of "Clock Tower Falcons," discover the falcons of Bowling Green, Ohio back in just a moment.

You're with us on "The Journal."

Our guest is Susan Montgomery, the author of "Clock Tower Falcons."

One of the things, and you've talked about this earlier, is the fact that part of the idea with this was to make sure that people got, and children and families in the community, got a different view of the peregrine falcons beyond what they see on the Falcon Cam that's focused on them at certain times of the year.

So talk about, a little insight into how you wanted to make sure that connection was made and how you went about incorporating that into the book.

- Yeah, I just wanted them to see the whole, the life cycle and the pattern and also what the community does in response to.

So I just wanted to kinda take a step back and, you know, see how, you know, the kids draw feathers in art class and, you know, just different components.

And I even incorporated the BGSU Falcons in a way too because there's a group of kids cheering on their team, the Falcons.

So I wanted that in there too.

- Yeah, now, you know, we were talking too about the fact that you've, you know, your last several, the two books that we've been most aware of have been about animals and their connection to community and the people involved in that sort of thing.

Do you go beyond that genre?

Did you start it out maybe not writing children's books and illustrating children's books?

So talk a little bit about where you come from, and where you are, and where you think you're gonna go with the books you write.

- Yeah, I started out during the pandemic.

I had my second hand surgery, and I had just learned how to play the ukulele not too long before that, and I wanted to share my one-handed music that I wrote for the ukulele with my friends.

And I wanted to combine it with my art, so I made music books that ended up being a four-book series in the end.

And that's how I got into self-publishing.

And I learned everything I could about self-publishing and, you know, who to listen to, who to follow, and just learned from some really great mentors along the way.

But since then I've written in the Christian book arena and I've written a memoir.

- [Steve] Okay.

- So yeah, it's fun touching on other places.

But once I got into picture books, I just, I really love- - That's where you really, yeah, that's where you feel comfortable and that's where you, yeah, feel you do your best work.

Not that the other work isn't good, but you feel, yeah, like, yeah.

Now, you mentioned too, as you talk about self-publishing, because obviously you wanna make sure you hold on to your intellectual property and all of that because the book belongs to you, you don't want people stealing your ideas, reprinting it, doing things like that.

So what was that process like, learning sort of the legal side of doing a children's book?

Because it's like, "Oh, it's a beautiful book, it's really entertaining, it's fun," but there is a business side to it.

- Yeah, it takes a while to learn everything that you need.

Everything from ISPNs to, you know, how to do your copyright page.

Yeah, it's really important now too, I think, to really have unique and original ideas.

Because right now there's a lot of AI-generated books flooding marketplaces.

So it's just so important to have some, you know, your original work out there.

And that's why I love that my work is so sketchy and, you know, sometimes irregular at times, but it's real art, you know?

- Yeah, yeah, it's unique.

It's not a formula-driven piece that comes out either visually or when you read it.

And that's a good point because, yeah, AI-generated material, okay, whatever, it's fine.

But there's still something about the actual human creativity part.

The environment, the exposure, your ideas, the things you've seen done, whatever, that filter into, that no computer can really, it can duplicate it, but not in the same way that a human can do it, it seems.

And just the process, the creative process of it versus it being an algorithm that says, "Okay, include these three things, those four things, a picture of this, and then a sentence of that."

It's a lot more than that when you sit down and do this.

Now, with the self-publishing, I mean, how many things do you have out there now?

- Over 20.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- Because I also have coloring books and activity books with some of my picture books too.

I'm working on finishing up the activity book for this one.

- [Steve] Okay.

- So that will be out soon.

And there's an activity book with Benny's book too, so yeah, that's a lot of fun.

Just another way for kids to experience the story and do some extension activities.

It's the teacher in me.

(laughs) - Yeah, yeah.

Now, and you talk about, you know, both this book and Benny, I mean, have you ever in a situation where you, because you're obviously still doing a lot of different things, where you'd revisit, like writing Benny's great adventure too, or, you know, sequels, that kinda thing?

- Possibly.

Possibly some spinoffs.

Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

- Okay, because that seems to be you know, because obviously the story continues to evolve both with the peregrine falcons and with him and whatever, but you've got all these other ideas too to work before you go back and pick that up.

- In a way, that's kind of how the falcon book started, because in Benny's book there's an image of the Wood County Courthouse and above him there's a little falcon flying.

- [Steve] Ah, so there's a little bit- - So there was a little seed right then in there that I thought, wait a minute- - Yeah, there's a story here.

- Yeah.

- Wow, wow!

Fantastic.

Well, thank you so much for coming out and talking about this.

And the books are just so, so, and just engrossing when you look at them.

And the stories are beautiful, the illustrations are beautiful.

This one has musical accompaniment to it, so, yeah, it's just a great thing.

And, again, for people to learn more about something that they probably think about or see maybe every day, they go by, this gives 'em another way of viewing it, which they wouldn't have had otherwise.

So thank you so much.

- Thank you for having me.

- Yeah, thanks.

You can check us out at wbgu.org.

You can watch us every week at eight p.m., Thursday.

We'll see you again next time on "The Journal."

Good night and good luck.

(upbeat bright music)