Help me bring Stop Terrorizing the Birds into the world.
I’ve been carrying this story since 1997. I wrote it first as a screenplay. I kept coming back to it. This novel is the form it finally needed to take.
Utah, 1992.
Stop Terrorizing the Birds is set in Utah in 1992 and follows twelve-year-old James Maby and his half-brother Skip as they cut school, wander their neighborhood, and navigate the unstable adults in their lives. When James finds a gun in an alley, he becomes attached to what it makes him feel: stronger, more in control, and a little less invisible. The novel centers on their friendship, James’s attempt to understand the adults in his life, and the private logic he uses to make sense of neglect, violence, loyalty, and the possibility of escape.
The final budget will be tightened as the remaining quotes come in.
I want to give the book a real release.
The next year is about taking the manuscript through professional editing, making the book, and giving it a chance to find readers.
Support is open now so I can begin paying for the work ahead. Editing starts in January 2027, when presales will also open. After the line edit, the manuscript will go through copyediting and a final proof. The book will be designed, printed, sent to reviewers and readers, and marketed through the spring. I’m planning a summer 2027 release through Woodhouse Factory.
I'm hoping for enough money behind the launch to do this seriously, and $35,000 can do that. It will pay for professional editing and design, plus review copies, publicity, travel, events, shipping, printing, and enough marketing time to keep the book alive after release week.
Editing
Line edit, revision, copyedit, and final manuscript preparation.
Book production + marketing
Design, typesetting, advance copies, review outreach, press materials, and launch preparation.
Release
Supporter copies ship and the book is released through Woodhouse Factory.
Help me get the book to the next stage.
Right now I’m accepting support for the editing and production of Stop Terrorizing the Birds. These contributions help me begin the professional edit in January and move the book toward publication.
Contribute now
Give any amount you want. There is no book, reward, or other item attached to these contributions.
If you want your name listed on the supporter page later, you’ll be able to choose that. Anonymous support is fine too.
Support the bookSigned copies will come later.
When editing begins in January, I’ll open the presale for signed and personalized copies of the book, along with a few higher supporter levels.
That is when the book-related rewards will begin. For now, support is simply support for getting the book made.
The opening.
We cut school because it’s the only decision that feels like our own. The rolled-up carpet here behind Safeway smells like smoke and urine and we didn’t see the broken spokes on the blue Sears Free Spirit bike until we were on top of it.
There’s shattered glass and a dead crow lying next to a beige penny loafer while another crow scrambles to a nearby rusty fence. TVs and Hoovers coming from people’s open windows.
Officer Shelley’s car comes in through the corner of my eye. Her window’s already down. “Hey, boys, where you headin’?”
Final text may change during editing.
Brian James McGuire
I’m a filmmaker, writer, artist, and film teacher in Milwaukee.
I’ve spent most of my life making films, teaching, and working with other artists. My films have screened in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Stop Terrorizing the Birds is my first novel.
I’m publishing the book through Woodhouse Factory, the name I’m using for the work I want to put into the world: books, films, music, and other artist-led projects.