The stork scratched his head with his trusty pencil and squinted at the birth announcement. He couldn’t figure it out, and he didn’t appreciate it. Baby delivering storks are somewhat endangered due to having little time to relax and lay eggs while they’re busy delivering countless babies in this over-populated world of ours. Every stork had to work, long, hard hours coming and going from the cabbage patch. They didn’t have time for tomfoolery.

His knock on my door sounded upset (and feathery). “What’s wrong?” I asked, as I opened the door.

He waved my birth announcement in the air. “What does this mean? You writers with your metaphors, choice of voice, and desire to be creative! Are you having a book or a baby?”

I could feel my eyes glaze over – a new book! My heart leapt at the idea. And with NaNoWriMo just around the corner…the baby launched a hard kick somewhere deep inside my swollen belly. “A baby, I’m sure of it. Early February.”

The stork made a few notes on the back of the picture. “February, eh? Interesting timing. Middle of winter and all that. Very inconvenient. I don’t like getting snow on my feathers, you know, makes them all clumpy.” He shook his head at my belly and flew off, his grumbles echoing through the night.