ADRIAN — When Darcy Gifford sat down to write a children’s book, she knew only a few things.

She wanted to try a different kind of writing. She wanted the main character to be a bird. And she thought it might be funny if that bird could not make a sound.

What she did not realize, at least not at first, was that the little bird’s story would begin to sound a lot like her own.

“The Bird Who Couldn’t Tweet,” written by Gifford and illustrated by her nephew, Drake Gifford, began as a creative experiment and became something more: a family collaboration, a lesson in self-publishing, and a gentle story about finding one’s voice in one’s own time.

“I had this just kernel of an idea,” Gifford said. “And as I started playing around and writing it, this story kind of came out of me.”

Only later, when the manuscript was finished, did she see the connection, recalling that it sounded a bit “autobiographical.”

Gifford, an Adrian resident and Adrian College graduate, is assistant vice president for marketing and communications at Eastern Michigan University, where she also serves as editor of the university’s flagship publication, Eastern Magazine. Writing is part of her professional life, but writing for children was something entirely different.

“I knew I wanted to try my hand at writing in a whole different way than I’ve ever written before,” she said.

The result was Piper, a young bird from a large, noisy family who has not yet found her tweet. For Gifford, the youngest of six children, the story came to reflect something she understood from childhood.

“The book very closely mirrors me taking a while to be comfortable speaking in front of people or speaking out,” she said. “I’m the youngest of six, so people were talking for me a lot.”

That realization was not part of the original plan.

Instead, the story emerged during a reflective time in her life, as her mother was growing older and Gifford had become her primary caregiver. Her father had died in 2011, and after that, she said, her mother became “kind of like my buddy.”

Gifford also wanted the book to be playful. She has a young great-nephew in Denver, and the two share a love of making each other laugh. So Piper’s journey includes silly moments, too — the kind meant to delight a child.

It was also a chance to collaborate with nephew Drake Gifford, a Central Michigan University graduate and art teacher at Jenison Junior High. Drake had student taught at Adrian High School under Annie Howard in 2015 and lived with his aunt during that year.

He had drawn characters before, Darcy said, but had never carried one through a full story arc. She had never written a children’s book. Together, they decided to try.

In an era when content can be generated and distributed quickly, Gifford said she is proud that the book was slowly and carefully made by two people learning as they went.

“This was really crafted by us over the course of two years,” she said.

The production side brought its own learning curve. Gifford and her nephew chose to publish the book themselves through Amazon’s self-publishing platform, KDP, and IngramSpark, which is the platform for retail and libraries. The combination, she said, gives them wider distribution. 

“One of the reasons we wanted to do it ourselves was because I wanted to learn the whole back-end of trying to produce a book,” she said.

The book has sold around 200 copies, a number Gifford said has exceeded their expectations for a self-published children’s book in a crowded market. It is available through major retailers, at Serendipity Books in Chelsea and at Sass in Adrian. Gifford hopes to add to the list of bookstores as she continues to navigate the world of metadata and promotion.

But the original goal was never bestseller status or financial success.

“It was more of the collaboration, something to do with my nephew, trying to stretch ourselves creatively, trying to put a little kindness into the world, trying to learn something new and have fun,” she said.

That kindness is at the heart of Piper the Bird’s story. No one tries to fix the little bird. Her mother does not pressure her. Her friend believes in her. The characters around her give her room to become herself. 

That was intentional, Gifford said.

“We all have agency over our own lives,” Gifford said, “and sometimes the greatest gift you can give people is the space to figure stuff out themselves. I want anyone, both kids and parents, to know they’re enough just how they are. Everyone has a voice that’s worth hearing.”