calling the hive mind...

[holli]

I've had this weird-ass story idea percolating in the back of my head for well over a year now, and now that I've decided to really write it I find that I need to do some research if I want my main character to make any sense at all. So if anyone out there has answers to the following questions, please help.

Okay. First of all, I need to know about bone structure in birds-- I know they're hollow-boned, but that's really not enough for what I'm gonna be writing. Also, I need to find out what sort of bone structure would be needed to support a human(ish) person with wings.

If this seems like an odd thing to need to know, well, it is. Basically, my main character is a girl who turned up on a hospital's doorstep as an infant, with a very weird set of genetic abnormalities. She has wings, and birdlike bones, but she's not light enough to fly. And the story (might be a novel, who knows?) is about her trying to figure out how the hell she came to be. So I'm gonna need to know a whole damn lot about birds.

Links to web pages, or email addys of people who could help, would be good. I've already done some research about brittle bone disease, but what I've found isn't specific enough.

Comments

Link to bird research

[debg.livejournal.com]

Holli, have you checked out this site?

http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/courses/Tatner/biomedia/units/bird5.htm

Re: Link to bird research

[holli.livejournal.com]

Ooh. This is *very* helpful.

Brewster McCloud

[debg.livejournal.com]

Your story sounds like it's going to be a corking good read. Have you ever come across the subject-referenced movie? It's one of the stranger things Robert Altman ever directed, but I love it muchly. It's completely different from your idea, but a great little film, and not entirely irrelevant:

http://www.eonline.com/Facts/Movies/0,60,2488,00.html