Bird in Hand

I’ve always been a collector. Sometimes it’s books, pins, musical instruments. If something strikes me emotionally, I like to hold onto it. Over the past six years since my mom passed away, my interest in these treasured objects has only grown. These items remind us of different times, places, and people we’ve lost. It feels like maybe, if we can just hold onto these pieces of the past, we can hold onto everything else they represent. I began imagining a character who was compulsively taking these sorts of souvenirs from men he was hooking up with, and it got me thinking more about what makes relationships work. What attracts a thief to an object? What attracts two people to each other? How does an exciting new fling compare to a quiet, stable relationship? Bird in Hand is part mystery, part romance. On its surface, it’s a splashy drama about a small-time thief. But on a deeper level, it’s about what gay men are sometimes looking for in each other, and what they might find instead.