Delivered: My New, Expanded “Birds of Magnolia Cemetery” Book!

When UPS left this box at my door on Sept. 12 it felt like a late birthday gift or early Christmas present! 

Whoop! My books are here! 

I worked with My Book Printer of Madison Heights, Michigan on my latest publishing project. 

In 2023 My Book Printer featured my "Birds of Magnolia Cemetery" book. Click here to read the interview. 

Magnolia Cemetery is a beautiful Victorian rural cemetery on the outskirts of Charleston that opened in 1850.

In 2014 I published a book that showcases the fine monuments and landscape of this final resting place of so many prominent Charlestonians and regular folks too. 

That book is titled "In the Arms of Angels: Magnolia Cemetery- Charleston's Treasure of Mystery, History and Artistry."

And in 2022 I wrote "Stories from the Underground: The Churchyards of Charleston." 

Back to the birds...For a while, I had been thinking of doing an update to my first book, 2011’s “The Birds of Magnolia Cemetery: Charleston’s Secret Bird Sanctuary.” 

So beginning in May of this year the work began. I started laying out the pages in Adobe InDesign. This is the software I’ve used for writing and designing each of my books since the first one that I wrote in PowerPoint (a really long PowerPoint). In 2011 a local printer transformed the manuscript into a format so it could be printed and bound. 

I wanted my first book to also be set up in InDesign. And I also wanted, using Adobe Photoshop, to try to make the photographs sharper. So that’s what I did this summer, working on it, page by page, for three or more hours on most weekdays and between trips to Boston and our big Colorado-New Mexico trip in June. 

Before too long in the reformatting process, I decided this project would be a second edition “Birds of Magnolia Cemetery” book. 

I decided to keep the same image on the cover since it has so much meaning to me. Why? Buy the book and find out! 

Note the “Second Edition” on the thick branch below the Wood Stork. Under my name I mention two other cemetery books I have written. 

The new edition is 140 pages, 12 more than its predecessor. And the bird count is up by a dozen to 60 different species. 

Roseate Spoonbills have been frequenting the cemetery in 2024 and I include several recent photographs i took of this striking wading bird. 

Another addition I’m excited about is this Merlin page. A member of the fast-flying Falcon family, the Merlin was at Magnolia Cemetery in December 2012. I thought it was a Hawk when I posted these images in my blog. When looking for bird photographs I could add to my new book, I took a closer look at the old blog post and using some 2024 resources not available years ago, confirmed Merlin, a “lifer” bird for me, meaning it’s a bird I had never seen before. It counts even 12 years later!

 

I’m proud to have America’s national bird in the new book. Bald Eagles are rarely seen at the cemetery. This image dates to 2013 or 2014. I needed all the zoom in my Canon Superzoom DSLR for this long-distance photo. 

I chose to keep my author photograph from the 2011 book and place a 2024 picture next to it. In the background are the computers I use in our home office. 

A few weeks ago Alesia and I went to Magnolia Cemetery to take some publicity photos. I’m still not sure which one is my favorite. What do you think? 

More to come on my new book. Stay tuned!