title: Owls: An Artist's Guide to Understanding Owls
author:  Floyd Scholz 
description: A professional artist since 1983, Floyd Scholz is one of the preeminent bird carvers and painters in the world. Now in his 45th year of carving, he is also the author of five award-winning books on the art form. Floyd's in-depth knowledge of birds, especially raptors, has enabled him to inspire a whole generation of wildfowl carvers and artists. He shares his love of birds and passion for art with his students at the Vermont Raptor Academy in Bennington. He splits his time between Vermont and Florida.
zlib_text: # The Heart of Owl Abbas
  
    1. [](text/ch001.xhtml#section)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  [Cover](text/cover.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover image](../media/epub-to-image.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  #
  
  
  A composer in an unstable city-state accidentally discovers the perfect singer
  for his work—a clockwork man—and sows the seeds of revolution.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Once, before the great Empire of Else enveloped the land between the red
  mountains and the quiet sea, the city-state of Owl Abbas was a mere bird-
  haunted forest temple. But protected by treaties, suffocated by safety and
  benevolent neglect, it had swollen and grown in upon itself, roiling and
  fomenting, so slowly that only (perhaps) a few dust-dry wraiths of abbots
  hanging motionless in enclosed footings of the Palace Aster would have marked
  the change from one century to another.
  
  
  The gains and losses of its citizenry had been gradual. Its resentments and
  injustices oozed like moisture down the dank wall of a forgotten reservoir,
  unremarked by either the clustered,