videos on You Tube and My Space

The HARLEQUIN came out in paperback yesterday. It's Anita #15. Just writing that seems odd. BLOOD NOIR will be #16, and I'm two hundred pages into #17. We are so closing in on #20. I've no idea why, but that is a magic number for me in a series. The concept that I could have twenty books in one series is entirely too cool.

I think I am so enamoured of the idea because my first series that began with NIGHTSEER died a tragic and abortive death. Because my first series never got a chance to live beyond one book, makes the success of Anita and Merry all the sweeter.

Interestingly, THE HARLEQUIN has chapters from BLOOD NOIR in the back. A little preview for those of you who don't want to wait until the new book comes out. The truly interesting part is that it's taken Jon awhile to get the tech in line, and we've only just this week gotten the video up on You Tube and My Space, of me reading the first three chapters of BLOOD NOIR. The reading was originally at the last Wolf Howl at the Wild Canid Research Center. We read inside either because it was cold, or raining. I can't remember which now, but inclement weather put us inside. Many of you have complained that you only have the first three chapters on the video, and you can't wait. Well, in the paperback of HARLEQUIN are four more chapters that you wouldn't have to wait for. Between the video of the reading and the preview in the paperback, you've got almost the first ten chapters.

Oh, and BLOOD NOIR breaks a rule that I've had for years. I put the first sex scene in a book more than sixty pages in, because most readings last about an hour. I read about a page a minute. So if the sex is more than sixty pages in, then I never have to read the scene in public. Well, it just worked out that the first sex scene is very close to the beginning of the book. Close enough that I'm reading it on the video, and you can hear the crowd reaction.

Why did I decide to break my rule after so many books? Because I realized the rule was about being embarrassed. I just realized one day that I'm not embarrassed about what I write, so why should I be embarrassed about reading it aloud? The result is the beginning of BLOOD NOIR. I hope everyone enjoys hearing, and reading the opening, as much as I enjoyed writing it. Go team.

The Harlequin

The Harlequin: Anita Blake Vampire Hunter #15 is out today in paperback.

It's my car, and I'll be scared if I want to

Sunday our daughter, Trinity, made comments about the fact that she'd never seen me actually drive the Foose. I hadn't realized that all my practice driving had been either when she was at school or with her father. I hadn't done that deliberately, or maybe I had. I mean when driving a stick shift for the first time in twenty-five years, do you really want to have your kid see the learning curve? I guess my ego was fragile enough to avoid that last humiliation. And humiliation it has been.

Yes, Charles and Jon have both told me that I've been doing well, but I didn't think I was doing well, and in my world, in the end, that's what decides how I feel about something. I had decided to feel bad about the Mustang. I mean it was impractical, and it was flashy, and it was . . . It was so not me. I found excuses not to drive the car, or to have Jon drive the car. I hadn't realized how bad it had gotten until Trinity made her remarks, and I realized she was right. She had never seen me drive the Foose.

So this weekend when we went out to see a movie with our friend Richard, I drove the Foose. Drove to lunch and drove to the theatre. Yes, I killed it a couple of times in the one parking lot of the first restaurant, that turned out to be closed until far too late to be useful, but it was okay. It's okay that I'm not perfect, other than that moment, I was fine.

We saw FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, and it was good. It was a Woo-ping Yeun, so it was great wire-fu. I mean it's a movie with Jet Li and Jackie Chan in it, so it was fun, and visually wonderfully. It was nice to see Jet Li in a movie where he got to laugh.

When we came out after the movie it was raining. The Foose, the Baby, was getting wet, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that Jon asked if I wanted him to drive home. I was insulted at first, then realized that it was what I'd trained him to do about the car. I would drive us somewhere, then he'd drive home. If it got dark; I didn't want to drive the Foose for the first time in the dark. If there was a line of traffic, I didn't want to work the clutch in stop and go traffic. If there was a chance of ice anywhere, I'd let him drive. I realized that I had found excuse after excuse not to drive the car. And given Jon excuse after excuse to drive the car. I mean what sane man is going to turn down a chance to drive the Foose?

But as we stood there in the rain, and I considered his offer, I realized it pissed me off. Both that he'd offered and that I was actually considering it. We let Richard and Trin get in the back seat out of the rain and we discussed it.

I asked, "Is it really that much more dangerous to drive this car in the rain?"

"A little, but you know how when you spin the wheels you tend to panic?"

"Yes."

"In the rain, that will be worse."

He was right, I had been panicking when the wheels spun, or I gunned the engine accidentally. I had panicked when I killed the engine. We stood in the rain, and I thought about all of it. I thought about how I'd been giving up. I thought about a lot of things as the cold spring ran came down. Finally, I made my decision. It was my car. If it was truly my car than a little rain didn't change that. Screw it, I was driving home.

And that's exactly what I did. I had no trouble, other than a bumpy moment shifting, but only once. It was no harder to drive in the rain. I'm sorry, wet or dry, the Foose hugs the road like she's got Spider powers. Admittedly, I made sure I remembered where the windshield wipers and light switches were before we started moving. The fact that I still didn't know where everything was, tells you just how much I'd been avoiding my car.

I drove home, in the rain. I drove home and didn't fear the lights as they changed, or having to shift. I'm not perfect, yet, but that's okay. I'll get better. The important thing is that, for the first time, I decided that the Foose, truly is my car. Rain or shine, day or night; it's mine. Jon will have to get his own muscle car to play with, because I've finally decided that the Foose is mine.

Too Terrible

We use the radio for our alarm. We woke to the news. I was half asleep the first time the news cast talked about the man in Austria that had kept his daughter captive for twenty-four years, and fathered seven children by her. I thought I'd dreamed it. It couldn't be real, right?

I was getting dressed when the news repeated, and Mother of God, it was real. This is one of those real life events that make me realize that nothing I write will ever be as awful as what real people are doing to each other. Researching real crime has made me know things I didn't want to know, but this case is too bizarre to be real. You couldn't have used this plot in a book or movie as fiction because it would have been too unbelievable. Surely, no one could keep their daughter captive in a basement for that long, fathering children by her, and no one notice.

The neighbors are asking themselves that in interviews. Three of the children, two of them nineteen and eighteen had never seen the light of day. The oldest girl fell gravely ill, and the man took her to the hospital, where they appealed for the mother to come forward and give them more medical information. It was supposed to be a case of a bad mother having abandoned a sick child with their long suffering grandparents. Then the man (I won't call him father or grandfather, he's just the man) brought the mother and all the other children up, and out. Then the truth came out.

Several people have asked, why he brought the girl to medical attention? Why didn't he let her die? I think I can answer that. If you listen to most molesters they don't think of themselves as bad people. They aren't evil in their own minds. If he had let the girl die, then he would have been evil even to himself. He could not bear that. So, he tried to save her. Why did he finally bring the others up? Maybe, at 73, he wondered what would happen if he died, and they were trapped down there. He didn't save them for them, never mistake that, he brought them out into the light because if he had died knowing that they would slowly starve to death, he wouldn't have been able to see himself as anything but evil. No one, even monsters, want to believe they are wrong.

This story is so overwhelming, that I had trouble settling down to work. I spoke with a couple of friends, and they, too, were having trouble not dwelling on it. It was simply too inconceivable to be real, but it was real.

But bear in mind that today the three children that have never seen sunlight, are seeing it. The woman who has been enslaved for over two decades is free today. As terrible as it all is, today is a better day. Today, there are people who truly care about all of them, taking care of them. Today there is hope. And there are moments when hope is all there is, to act as our shield against the unfathomable evil of our fellow human beings.

Don't try and understand what has happened, because most of us cannot understand it. It is so awful, so unthinkable, that our minds just can't wrap themselves around it. People are going to be trying to make sense of this for years, but I tell you now, there is no sense to be made. We are sane, and we are not evil, so we will not understand this person, or what he did. There is no set of circumstances where this sounds like a good idea to us. It is so far beyond the pale, that there is no conceiving of it. For the few people that heard about this, and thought, even for a moment, that it sounded like a good idea, don't get cute. Keep it in the realm of fantasy, and know that there are some of us who understand that, some of you, didn't react with horror. Some of you, thought, wow, I wonder. The answer is, no. You can't get away with it, because this person getting caught makes the rest of us realize that this is possible. Him getting caught makes it harder for the rest of you. Though, most of you, will be comforting yourself with the thought that you would never do it to your own daughter. Only strangers. I suppose that is some comfort, some line to draw. I suppose in the end, for the people who didn't react with outrage, that any line you can draw is safer for the rest of us.

Some of you think that last paragraph was too dark, too creepy? You don't know what's out there, and you don't want to know. Worse, you don't know what's inside the mind of the person next to you, and you don't want to know that either.

I spent the day writing about the morgue, and my own created serial killer, Olaf. This was one of the days when what I was writing, paled beside what was happening in the real world.

LKH Bit Correction

Hi! Well, I messed up the auctions. You do not have to pick it up in St. Louis. We will pay the shipping. Sorry for the mistake!

Darla

Irony

I have what amounts to an allergy hang over. My friends that drink tell me that the symptoms are surprisingly similar. Headache, body aches, sensitivity to light, sore muscles, and just an overall grumpy not feeling so well. Spring has sprung and the pollen is attacking my immune system like a well organized army, or at least a persistent one. Damn trees having sex, stop getting your pollen all over me! That sounds like something you'd protest at a bad night at a really bad club. Worst thing I ever gotten on me for real was wax from a novice performer that got overzealous and missed most of her partner and got the audience. You ever try to get wax off of silk? Another reason not to sit right next to the stage.

One of the ironies of the allergy hangover is that I don't get hangovers from drinking. All right, in my limited experience I don't. The one and only time I got drunk enough to truly be drunk was on vodka and orange juice; screwdrivers. Somewhere around the sixth or seventh tall glass there was precious little orange juice in them. I slurred my words, and things that weren't funny were very funny at the time. The next morning, my friend who had joined me had classic hang over symptoms. I woke up bright eyed and bushy-tailed, cheerful and no worse for wear. She hated me that day. She, of course, continued to be a drinker for years to come, and suffered numerous hangovers. I who did not get hangovers and could have drunk without that penalty, just didn't like it that well. Proof that the universe is both ironic and unfair.

More irony; two of my male friends that are straight and one of female friends that is gay all have absolutely no gag reflex. Now how unfair is that? The rest of us that could use this talent must struggle on, and learn to work around our deficiencies.

But as I sit here nursing my first hot cup of tea of the morning, and trying to fight off the headache that is trying to take off the back of my skull and neck, I think about the fact that my drinking friend has absolutely no allergies at all. Maybe, in the end the universe is fair, after all.

Now, if I could just figure out a polite way to ask my three friends with no gag reflex what little misery they've got instead, I'd really know if the universe was fair. But some questions are not meant to be asked even between close friends. Not unless liquor is involved, and alas, I do not drink.

LKH Bit 04/25/08

Blood Noir Charity Auctions and giveaway, Brenda Novak's Annual Juvenile Diabetes Auction, Blood Noir Tour, Spring Newsletter, Promo Banners, Conestoga Podcast, Free Stuff and Widgets, Full Moon
Sale


SIGNED BLOOD NOIR CHARITY AUCTIONS AND GIVEAWAY
----------------------------------------------------------------
The auctions are up! There are only two this time. We didn't get as many copies. :( Both auctions end May 2nd!

Item : 140227725287 Granite City APA
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140227725287



Item : 140227725779 Midwest Pug Rescue
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140227725779


GIVEAWAYS!
I only have two more arc's. So one is being given away randomly to a fan club member. But the second will be given in a random drawing.
Please follow these instructions!

One entry per person.

Email your name and adress to accounts@laurellkhamilton.org
Email Subject Line: Blood Noir Giveaway (this is so it will sort right)
Email Body: Your name and address.

Fan club members are eligible for the email contest. But must send in an email to enter.

One winner will be randomly chosen on May 2nd. Should the winning persons package be returned as undeliverable, an alternate winner will be chosen. This has happened.

Contest is open to residents of the planet Earth. (Someone always asks about their non-US country, so this should cover everyone.)


JUVENILE DIABETES AUCTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The auction starts May 1st! Be sure to go register and check out the goodies!

http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/



BLOOD NOIR TOUR
---------------------------------------------------------------
May 27, 2008 / 6:00 PM
Barnes & Noble 2722
9618 Watson Road
Crestwood, MO 63126
314-843-9480

June 3, 2008 / 6:00 PM
Borders 421
3140 Lohr Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Store Phone: 734-997-8884

June 5, 2008 / 6:30 PM
The Civic Center Library
(Poisoned Pen Bookstore)
3839 N. Drinkwater Blvd.
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
480-947-2974
Tickets available in advance from PoisonedPen.com. This is a fund raiser for the library. Please see the website for details.

June 12, 2008 / 7:00 pm
Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy
239 College Street (Lower Level)
Toronto, Canada




SPRING NEWSLETTER
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Spring Newsletter is going out this week and next in large batches.


PROMO BANNERS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Slowly but surely we are getting all the banners for every book
done. See em here:
http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x...cember/Promos/"
target="_blank">..src="http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...pseBanner2.gif"
alt="ddecember/Promos" border="0" />


CONESTOGA PODCAST
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Melissa Tatum's interview with Laurell is available:
http://www.sftulsa.org/conestoga/2008/03/10/program-37-laurel-k-
hamilton/


FREE STUFF
-------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Merchandise/LKHFreeStuff.html.
Offering right now is a A Lick Of Frost Magnet or an Anita Blake Was
Here window cling.

To get a free item, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
Laurell K Hamilton PO Box 190306 St. Louis, MO 63119.

Add one of widgets to your website or social site and include the
address so we can see it and we will send along a surprise goodie!

You can now add Laurell's blog to your website. Find the code at http://www.widgetbox.com, search for
Laurell Hamilton.



FULL MOON SALE
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Starting with May, we will be having a special sale on the Full
Moon. One item from the fan club will get a big discount for that
day only.

Okay, I won't make you keep track of the moon phases and dates.
Instead we offer a widget that will tell you exactly which day it is:
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Merchandise/Goodies.html

May 20th is the next.

That's it for this bit! Darla

I can see the end, so why am I lost?

I've had to step back from Merry for a few days. I'm lost. I just can't seem to get perspective on the plot. Either we really are going to kill one of the main villains of the piece at the end of book seven, which will cut the total number of books by several, or I'm just tired. Not a physical tiredness, but this sensation that comes over you sometimes in a series. You know so much about what's coming, and what's happened, that sometimes it all gets tangled in your head. It's like a knot in a chain. The more you pull at it, the tighter the knot gets. You have to pick at knots like that, gently easing them this way and that. All I've done for the last few days is pull tighter until the knot seems impossible. So, I'm stepping back. It breaks my rule of never stopping in the middle of a book. But I'm not in the middle. I'm at the end. I'm at most a hundred pages out, and I'm freaking stuck.

I don't think I've ever been this stuck, this close to the end before. It is an odd and uncomfortable sensation. If it were earlier in the book, I'd say that I've taken a wrong turn and need to back track. But the end is in sight, and the book that has gone before is good. There's nothing wrong, so why am I stuck?

I have written and rewritten the last fifty pages of this book, twice now. Each of those pages is different. I've thrown out and started over, and it still isn't right. So, in desperation I'm backing off and letting the end cook in my imagination, rather than trying to throw it onto paper before it seems ready. But, there will come a point of diminishing return. If my muse and I don't come up with something brilliant, or at least exciting, and true to the book, by next week, then all bets are off. The book has to be finished. A hundred pages is not a barrier I can stand to leave untouched for long.

You can have all your fine literary ideals, but I'm a working writer. I'll quote Jack London, "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

I'll wait a few days, then I'm getting a club.

Swimming With Dolphins

I promised you guys that the next vacation blog would be about dolphins. Well, here it is. We went to Dolphins Plus on Key Largo.

I’m having a little trouble choosing pictures for this part since Trinity and I were the ones that got in the water with the dolphins. Why is that a problem? Because I make it a rule not to put up pictures of her on the blog. Pedophiles and other not so nice people lurk on the web. Caution is better when it comes to the kiddo. It’s also why she’s not mentioned as much in the blog as she might be. That and what might be amusing to me, might be embarrassing to her. Again, a reason to be cautious. So, it’s been a problem, because most of the pictures have Trin in them, and it’s a full face shot. Those are not going up. See earlier reasoning. So, some of the best pictures are not going up on the blog. They’ll go in our scrap book, and the family photos, but that’s it. Sigh.

There is an orientation where you learn how to touch the dolphins in a way that they won’t find objectionable. They don’t like to be grabbed at. I guess we don’t either. You don’t get any pictures of the orientation because the kiddo is too visible in all of them. Also, it’s just a bunch of people sitting around picnic tables under a roof, listening to someone talk. Not that visually interesting. You have a chance to ask questions, and test your understanding of what you’ll be doing in the water, and what the dolphins may be doing.

Some of our first views of the dolphins:

Yes, that’s me standing in the shadows waiting to get in the water. I look so serious, don’t I. All pale and unhappy. I’m always pale, genetics being what it is. There were a lot of people from Norway, Sweden, and various Nordic areas, and I was paler than all of them. That’s just sad. Why unhappy? I had to put on a wet suit. The water was only seventy degrees, and water that is thirty degrees, or so, below body temperature will make you cold fast. So, the wet suit, but I hate wet suits. All right, I hate the way I feel and look in a wet suit. Jon says I looked cute, but he loves me, he always thinks I look cute. Trin is off looking at the sea lions. Yes, they had those, too. You can even swim with them. Trin wants us to swim with the sea lions next time. Works for me.

Here we are in the water with the dolphins. We got to swim with the alpha male, L. B., and alpha female, Dingy, and their baby Julie. The baby doesn’t do everything, but she’s learning. L. B. stands for Little Bit, which I guess he was once, but as you can see from the pictures, they had to shorten it to L. B. because there’s nothing little about him now. He weighs over seven hundred pounds. He was impressive, especially up close. Dingy stands, strangely, for Ding-a-ling, though no one explained why.
here you can see all three of them pushing against our feet, to move us around the pool. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to keep the legs stiff enough for the dolphins to push.

Here I am being towed by L. B. and Dingy. Trin got towed, too, but her smiling face is too visible, so you’ll have to be satisfied with just me. One of the things they taught us was how to hold onto the dorsal fin. It’s very delicate and could be injured, so you’ve got to hold on just so. Oh, and my hair looking so red? Not sure. I’m finding more and more when out in direct sunlight I’ve got all these red tones. The more sunlight, the more auburn. Weird.

There’s their instructor on the floaty thing. Being towed like this was very Flipper. More than anything we did with the dolphins, this was the classic thing you think of, at least for me.

Trinity and I watching our neighbors dolphin get some air.

L. B. and Dingy bringing us their hoop.
Julie, the baby, going through the hoop.
The rest of Julie going through the hoop.
Someone bigger going through the hoop.


Someone much bigger.

And now for the kiss. Trinity requested that she get her kiss on her palm, which was an option. I took it on the cheek, because when would I ever get another chance to feel a dolphin touch my face? Too weird, and too wonderful to pass up. Though, I don’t think the dolphin’s heart was in it. But, you know how hard you have to work to stay still in water when you’re treading, even in a life jacket? All right, I have trouble. The dolphins don’t. The dolphin, and forgive me L. B. and Dingy because I can’t remember whose beak was touching me, but the dolphin was almost motionless. Their skin feels not rubbery, but that’s the closest I can come. They actually feel very smooth, clean, and soft, but different. I’ll be struggling with ways to describe it better, and when I nail it, I’ll blog it.

Here we are getting presents from L. B. and Dingy. What presents? They fetch things from the bottom of their pool, and give them to you. Trin and I both got string algae. The same stuff that we’re always trying to get rid of in the pond at home. But what’s an irritation in the water garden seems cool and special when handed to you by a dolphin. Some other little girls got leaves. You can then take your presents to the photo area and they will put them in a laminated book mark. Trin and I both got it done. The two girls left their leaves in the bathroom, and when I brought it to them, because I thought they’d forgotten them, they didn’t want them. We’d just been in the water with these amazing animals. I wanted the slime we got, and they wanted nothing. I didn’t understand that, and neither did Trinity. But each to their own.

Pictures you missed because Trin was too visible, are the dolphins pushing us by our feet, our hands in front of us like Superman. Or would that be Aqua-man? Us, petting the dolphins. We got to rub their tummies. You rub in one direction and you stop before you get too far down the body.

We also got to have the dolphins do that stand on their tail thing, and we touched their flippers. I wasn’t very good at that, and lost my grip, and since we’d been told not to grab, well, I let my dolphin go rather than risk hurting it.
Me loosing my grip on the dolphin.

Not us, the people that were next. But we didn’t get to do this trick, and it was cool.

Air born dolphins. Too cool.

This is Castaway

She’s a deep sea dolphin, notice the darker gray color. She was rescued, then rehabilitated, and released, but she kept coming back in. They tried to release her again, but someone noticed that she didn’t interact with the other dolphins, at all. Someone got a bright idea and tested her further. She’s deaf. For a dolphin that is tragic, they find their food and navigate by echo location, and they are a very vocal people. So, she became a permanent resident at Dolphins Plus. She can’t do the behaviors the way the others do, because she can’t hear the whistles. But she has trainers that work with her while the other dolphins are worked with, and they do other behaviors with them.
Here’s one with more sunlight on her, so you can see herhead more.

This is one of the best views we got of the tail of one of the dolphins. I include it to talk about the souvenir that Jon, Trin, and I got. Dolphins Plus has necklaces of the dolphin’s tails. Not just generic tails, but each individual dolphin has it’s tail photographed, first because the tail can be like fingerprints, so you can recognize them. Second, so someone can sculpt and design a charm that matches each individual tail. I wanted one from the moment I knew what they were, but Jon shooed both myself and Trin away. I knew then, what he was doing, but it’s all about letting your sweetie surprise you sometimes. I distracted Trin, and let him buy the gifts for us. He got me the tail of the alpha male L. B. Trin got the Alpha female, Dingy. Jon bought Castaway for himself. We were all touched by Castaway’s story.

We also got the video of our time with the dolphins, which is extra, but was worth it. I mean how many times in your life do you get to swim with dolphins? How many times do you and your daughter get to swim together with dolphins? It was entirely too cool. Trinity declared this vacation better than Disney World, which is freaking high praise from her. I had to agree, though my heart still loves the Mouse Kingdom, it doesn’t have dolphins.

Oh, and why did just Trin and I do the dolphins? Jon and his parents didn’t want to. Mary and Art, though they thought it was very nifty, still are happy to watch if we go back. Jon though was quite taken with it all, and is willing to swim with the dolphins next time. Besides, if Mary and Jon had gotten in the water who would have taken the pictures for you to see?

Slogging

Today is one of those gloomy, rainy days. Most of the time I love days like this, but today seems unsettled. Storm is coming, you can feel it like a prickle along the back of your neck. Normally, again, I like storms, but today just feels oppressive, as if something really big is sneaking up on us here. Maybe I'm being melodramatic, I am a writer after all. We artistic types do love our drama sometimes, but it's not just me. My mother-in-law, Mary, is having the same trouble focusing as I am. You go from task to task, and don't really get anything done. You move things around, but nothing is accomplished.

The problem is, that I'm at the fight scene in SWALLOWING DARKNESS. I really need to accomplish something today. I keep staring at the words on the screen and moving them around, or deleting, or talking to myself on screen, but no real forward progress. I can't seem to "see" the scene in my head. I need to feel the seat of the car Merry is sitting in, smell the gunshots. Oh, yeah, you can smell a gun shot, if you're close enough. It's especially easy if a lot of rounds are going off. It's the CORDITE, that you smell. It's not a bad smell, or even acrid, just a smell. It does have an aftertaste of something burning, but it doesn't quite smell burnt. I've come to like the smell.

I need to feel Merry's hand around her sword hilt, and I don't. I don't "feel" it. It's just words on paper today. Crap.

Today is a slogging day. A day when you feel like you're hiking through thick mud, and you can't move any faster, and the harder you try the more tired you get. If you want to see a visual of what I mean by slogging, check out the Top Gear episode 6 of Series 10 (Episode number 88). The Review of the Alfa Romeo 159. Graham Boanas, who crosses the Humber river in a race with James May, slogs through the mud.

Maybe I'm afraid, not that we'll loose the bad guy, but that we might loose another good guy. We lost Frost last book, I don't want to loose anymore, and neither does Merry. Double crap, often my subconscious knows when something bad is coming on paper, long before I know. One of the signs that is happening, is that I begin to slow in the progress of the book, slow until I'm crawling along, or stopped all together. Is that what this is? Are we going to loose another man that Merry's loves? I hope not. There are days when being one of those writers that plans everything, and controls everything, looks pretty good. But it's never been the way I write.

Maybe it's just the weather. Maybe once the storm breaks we'll be fine. If you've got a favorite of Merry's men, then start wishing them well, because I've got that dread feeling. To give you some idea of what that means, the first time I had it was in GUILTY PLEASURES with Phillip.

Playing with my muse

Eight pages of Merry. Seven pages of the next Anita.

But yesterday my second writing session was something I hadn't done in years: a short story. I have seventeen pages of a brand new short story. Okay, novella, or is novelette? I can't remember which is shorter by SFWA rules. Oh, Science Fiction Writers of America. Whichever is shorter is the one it's going to be. I'd estimate around thirty pages. Maybe less?

The second writing session began as a way for my muse and I to play, then I started making real progress on the new Anita book. Not BLOOD NOIR, but like the newer, as in unfinished one. And you know me, once you get past fifty pages, then a hundred, I started getting goal oriented. I thought, cool, I'll have this book well in hand when SWALLOWING DARKNESS is finished. But then, a strange thing happened, my muse and I had a falling out.

"You promised I could work on anything I 'wanted' to work on in the second session," she reminded. She had a point. I'd made the second session just more work.

So Sunday, I let my muse play. I did two pages of one story, and it's a great opening, but it's not ready to be written, not quite. Then I sat down to my second short idea, and boy, was it ready to go. Seventeen pages in two hours, pretty darn good, even for me. I felt energized, and refreshed when I finished.

Sometimes work is work, but sometimes I remember a time when it was play. It's good to remind myself what it was like when it was just my wish and my hobby.

Movie in the middle of the day

One of the new things I'm trying to do is enjoy my success. Part of that is that my schedule, though arduous, is flexible. So, this week, Jon and I went to a movie in the middle of the day. Had to get home in time for him to pick the kiddo up from school, but we managed to fit the movie in.

We saw, "Superhero Movie", yes, it was stupid, but not so stupid that it wasn't funny. Though, some of the humor, as with most of these kinds of movies, was a little too over the top sometimes for me. But over all just stupid enough to be funny. I would say wait for DVD, or go to an early show rather than paying evening movie prices.

There were other movies we wanted to see, but either they didn't have earlier enough start times, or they were movies that we wanted to take Trinity to. The middle of the day, just the two of us, movie is about seeing something that wouldn't be kid-safe.

One of the things that I learned from my first marriage going under, was that you have to work at being married. Staying happy isn't accidental. One of the ways you stay happy as a couple is that you don't give up all the things that made you enjoy each other when you were dating, or back when you were both still just friends. What do I mean by that?

One of the things that began our serious friendship and would eventually lead to actual dating was that we both could go to movies in the middle of the day. We both found out, by accident, that we were going by ourselves, and we decided to combine forces. Both of us can, and have, gone to movies by ourselves, but we both agree that it's better with a friend. It was.

But in the last few years, the schedule has been rather harsh, and I just couldn't see my way clear to movies in the middle of a kid-free work day. Logical, extremely, Mr. Spock would be proud. But logic and being a happy couple, are not always the same thing.

So, I made the decision early in the morning that we would see a movie, period, whether I had my pages done for the day, or not. It ended up being, or not, but I was okay with that. My husband and I got to go out in the middle of the day, and see a movie, something we hadn't done in awhile. It was nice, and it reminded us of those early days, when you're first becoming a couple. It's so easy to get in a routine, that is mostly about the children, the job, and other very grown-up things. But sometimes, you need to remind each other what it was that brought you together. Maybe it's sports, movies, books, history, horticultural, music, cars, dancing, so many things bring us together. Whatever it is, don't loose it completely.

People say, and I say it, too, that the kiddo will never be this little again. That is true. But you know what, Mom and Dad will never be this age again, either. If you live your whole life around the kids, your twenties, your thirties, your forties, your fifties, are never coming back. It isn't just childhood that is slipping away, if you don't pay attention. Life is what's slipping away. Someday the kids will be grown and on their own, don't forget how to be yourself, or how to be a couple, because that is what remains when the children go. You, your spouse, and your sense of what it means to be a couple.

May I add for my friends that do not have children, that the same rules apply. It may be less complicated without kids to maneuver around, but work, and other duties, can still eat your life, and make you into strangers with your partner. Make a list of things you used to do, but haven't done in awhile, and see if there's any way to dust that list off and go have some fun.

Earthquake

We woke up at 4:40 this morning to an earth quake. We're all right, the side of the house wasn't shaken that hard. I lived in Los Angeles for a few years, we'd have said the quake missed us. Unless you're in a very tall building, then a little movement of the earth is a lot of movement in the building.

We actually thought it was a Tornado, because it rattled the windows and shook the wall. We scrambled into robes and looked outside. The wind was utterly still. So, not the big wind storm. Then I had a deja vu moment, I knew this sensation. I said, "Earthquake, it's an earthquake."

Jon actually argued with me, a wee bit, but in the end we could think of no other explanation. We got up to the the news saying, indeed, it was an earthquake. We had the initial shake, then a moment, or two, of quiet, then a second tremor, a little less than the first. Aftershocks. The toads that are now in high gear in the pond in back of the house never stopped singing.

The epicenter of the quake was to our east, but the shock hit the house only on the west side. It must be something to do with the ground in this area and how it conducts the energy of the movement. But it was certianly an adrenlin pumping way to wake up this morning.

No fight, afterall

Still having trouble with this scene. Not only is it not going to be the big fight scene I originally planned, but it may not be a fight scene at all. Merry has figured out a way to simply leave in safety. I finally called Jon over the intercom and whined to him about it. He said a smart thing. "Whose whining that this scene isn't the big fight scene?"

I thought about it for a moment, then said, "Me."

"Whose story is it?" he asked.

"Merry's," I said.

"How does she feel about this scene not being a big fight?"

"Relieved."

I went back to my computer and made some notes, because Jon is right. I'm impatient to get some of the major villains finished off, but for Merry it's real danger. Danger to her, to the men she loves. So, she's figured out a way to leave fairie safely, and frustrate her enemies. They'll try, but they can't touch her right now. Smart her; puzzled me. But, as my sweetie says, "Whose story is it?"

Merry just wants a safe trip out of fairie and to get back to the relative safety of Los Angeles. That's her goal. The fact that my goal is to do this one big scene, is a writer's goal, a plot-driven goal, not a character-driven goal. I find that often when I try to concentrate on plot over character that the writing slows, and the characters argue. Okay, Anita argues. Merry is more passive aggressive, she just fixes it so that my plan doesn't always work. She doesn't argue, she just doesn't cooperate.

But Jon said one thing that was comforting, and not at all frustrating, "Maybe you'll get to do the big fight scene later." He's right, again. (There are so many reasons that we work well as a couple.) Maybe this means that all those sticky notes on the wall will actually be what the final battle with this villain will actually be about. That would be cool.

But for today, I'm going with Merry's plan. It's a good plan. I've said it before, my imagination is very smart, and will often figure things out before I do. The problem comes when my conscious brain tries to fight my subconscious. The subconscious almost always trumps, because it seems to see the big picture, in a very Jungian way. Of course without the front of the head making me stick to deadlines and work schedules, the magic and mystery in my subconscious would just be dreams, wishes. There is magic both in the dream, and the dreamer; in the wish, and the work.

Not the scene I thought I'd be writing

I got no pages yesterday. God knows I tried, but nothing. I finally had to walk away from the computer, the book, all of it. I could feel my imagination thinking, rolling around, almost liquid, as if the ideas were floating on some metaphysical ocean, and I just had to find the right way to coax something out of the that warm, deep, water.

Usually when I take some time to let the thoughts percolate, by morning I’m ready. My muse has found a way around the problem, but not this morning. This morning I still didn’t want to go to the computer and work on this scene. Why?

It is the climatic fight scene of the book, SWALLOWING DARKNESS, but more than that it’s a scene I’ve had on the drawing board since almost the beginning of the first book. It’s not just a climatic fight scene for this book, but one of the climaxes for the series. Not, THE, climatic fight, but one of them.

I had it so clear in my head. I have had sticky notes on the wall so long they’ve begun to fade in color. I knew this scene. I knew what it would be, and how it would work . . . and I’m wrong.

Remember I put this scene together somewhere after A KISS OF SHADOWS was written. DARKNESS is the seventh book in this series. A lot of character development and plot has happened between book one, and this book. A lot. Some of it planned, and some of it not. This morning I realized that I had to let go of the scene I thought I would be writing at this point in the series. I had to let go of my sweeping epic battle, as planned. I had to redo, rethink, let the characters be true to themselves, rather than my ideals.

It took me about twenty-four hours to let go of the scene, that would not work, and begin the scene that would. I’ve got six pages done today, and I’ve set up what we’re doing. It’s not what I wanted to do, but it’s what works. It’s true to my magic system, my characters, and my plot that has come before. I can’t break my own rules now. Dammit.

So, six pages of progress, and tomorrow hopefully more.

Belle of the Night

Remember the cactus pictures from Crane Point in Florida? Well, a fan is pretty sure she's identified them. Hylocereus undatus in latin, but I prefer the common terms. Belle of the Night, or Dragonfruit cactus, is native to the area and most likely the one photographed.

How cool is that? What great names for a cactus; Belle of the Night, Dragonfruit. I never knew the names for cactus could be so romantic.

Thanks to Betsy for the info.

Drove the Foose to Lunch

I drove the Foose to lunch today. I drove it to the restaurant, and back home again. In the past, I've driven either to, and let Jon drive back, or let him drive out, and I drive back. Even Charles has done that, driving out, then I drove back. But today, for the first time, I drove all of it.

Oh, and for those who seem under the mistaken idea that Charles works full time over here;nope. He's got his own business, that takes up much of his time. Sorry, if I gave any other impression.

Anyway, the only way to learn to work the clutch and the gas, is practice. So, I'm driving to lunch this week, unless it hails again. It did that Sunday and the Foose, aka the Baby, is not driving out in hail.

I did pretty good today. I killed the engine in traffic only once. I had some trouble on a downward slope in a parking lot (slopes are the bane of all of us learning to drive stick shifts), but even that wasn't bad. There was that one bad moment when I had some confusion between where fourth gear and second are, but it wasn't too bad. Jon clued me that I could practice shifting with the car turned off in the driveway, so I could get the muscle memory down between shifting, steering, and the clutch.

Another first, I parked in the garage without giving the car over to Jon to park. It's a tight fit, and I'm not as tall as Jon so I don't see over the hood, as well. But today, I decided, it's my car, dammit, and I'm driving it. No more cowardly giving up.

I finally realized why cars are becoming my hobby. It's finally something that has nothing to do with my work, and the odds of it becoming a job are slim. It's not research, it's just fun. Almost everything else has turned into either work, or at least, research. The cars are an end in themselves. They're just fun. I think I'm overdue to find something that was just for the fun of it. I also suspect that I will never be brilliant at it; not at the driving part, or Goddess forbid, the mechanical part. I'll learn more, and get better, but I don't believe it will ever be my calling. Would any of you understand, if I said, that it's nice to have something I don't have to be brilliant at?

I reread that last bit and had to add that, I'm still afraid of cars. I don't like being afraid, not of anything. I don't know any other way to get over a fear than to face it. The Foose is like sweet, mechanical proof that I'm half attracted to what scares the shit out of me. I guess my writing shows that, too. But the books don't sit in the garage and shine in the light. The stories don't vibrate under my hands, or growl down the street, or die in a shaking lunge when you've fed them too much gas. Maybe someday I'll find something fun that is just fun, and has nothing to do with conquering yet another part of myself. But for now, there's the Foose, and watching Charles, and others, drift. We'll see how far I go to defeat this particular fear. We're researching driving schools.

Alligator in the House

Jon and I woke up today with a song in our heads. The song was "Alligator in the House", by S.J. Tucker. We went to a house concert of her's Friday night.

It was a blast. We now have all her albums, and having seen her in person now, I'll compare her to Voltaire. Yeah, he's the King of Perky Goth, and S.J. Tucker is new age/pagan rock. It's not their type of music that reminds me of each other. It's the live show versus the album. As good as the album is, the live show is better. More fun, more funny, and you get the little stories behind things, audience participation, and those spontaneous moments that some performers just know how to play off of. Also, both of them have songs that tell stories, or find charming ways to explore hard truths. Down right funny ways, for some of it, some is more serious, but they reminded me of each other. Though, in totally different ways. Does that even make sense? Whether it does, or not, it's still true.

There's also a little Tori Amos in some of the songs, and Darla even compared her to Janis Joplin. I can't speak to the latter, but S. J. does have that classic female rock voice, at times. With some songs you could close your eyes and feel the summer heat, and smell the grass, and believe you're at a Renaissance Fair. To say that her music is diverse is an understatement.

The Wendy (Yes, that Wendy as in Peter Pan) Trilogy of songs is worth getting the album SIRENS on their own, but it's also the album with the alligator song on it. Plus the first track, "Drowning", which is a serious subject, done in an almost gospel style. "Carousel", is simply a beautiful song, sort of melancholy, and magical, but then it's about the carnival, which is always something I've always had mixed feelings about. I had a bad experience in one of the traveling fairs as a child, and it's left me with something near a phobia of them.

This is just one album, and there's a lot to enjoy. It's an album that gets better with repeat listening, which is the best kind of album. I always hate it when I get a new album, and find that after one, or two, listenings, it just doesn't stand up. S. J. Tucker's songs stand up, and talk back. She has an amazing voice, and SIRENS doesn't show all her voice can do. You have to explore some other albums to get the beginnings of her range, and her talent. "Crystal Cave" from HAPHAZARD let's her voice soar. "City of Marrow" from SOLACE & SORROWS is beautiful and dark. Of course, "Kingdom of the Mice" is probably one of the most disturbing, and fun, songs I've heard in awhile. Anyone whose been in their kitchen in the dark and seen that quick, dark, shape blur across their floor, and get a thrill of fear from something so small, will listen to this song and go, "I knew mice weren't just cute Disney characters." BLESSINGS is as close to a religious album as my faith gets. I love "Hymn to Herne". It was my request at the end of the concert. I also love "Come to the Labyrinth" from this album.

She's about my own height, but her voice is huge.

She did a couple of songs that aren't recorded yet, and are only avaiable on YouTube right now. One was "Ravens in the Library", which was too fun.

We took some video of the concert with her permission, and will try to take some stills from it, and put up more about the concert later, but I didn't want to wait for technology to catch up with the blog. I was too impatient, and wanted to share with you guys, what a great time we had, now.

It must have been a good time because we got home about 2:30 A. M. No, she did not sing that whole time. After she finished her second set, she, and her crew, stayed and talked. The visiting was not better than the music, nope, but it was very cool, and fun. S. J. burns with her muse the way I do with mine. I don't see many performers that are as in tune with their inner voice, as I am. It's always nice to meet another light. Why the word "light", because it is a kind of glow, and people are drawn to it. Some nights you feel lost in the dark, and you will put on music, or a movie, or read a book, so that some of the light of that creation can shine on you, and you feel connected again. You know you are not alone in the dark, because there is light touching your ears, your eyes, your finger tips.

In case you want some light of your own, here's the web site: www.sjtucker.com, or, and, www.skinnywhitechick.com for music and merch. Enjoy, I know I did.

More from Crane Point

These are the last of the pictures from Crane Point Nature Center. The first few pictures are of that mystery cactus. We had a couple of fans write in and say that they needed more pictures before they could be certain what it was, so, here they are, all the cactus pics we have.

This is a picture from lands end, literally as far as we could walk without swimming. The sailboat seemed both beautiful and lonely out there on the water.

Crane Point has the oldest continuously existing house in the Keys. It’s the Adderly House, and here are some pictures from it. The first one is Jon and my favorite, an interior shot that turned out even more atmospheric than we’d planned.

Here’s a close up of the plaque inside explaining who George Adderly was.

Me striding into a shot of the bedroom. I don’t often get to see me walking alone like that. I always walk like I’ve got a purpose. I’ve had people remark on that since college, that I always seemed to be going somewhere, and always in a hurry. Put me with someone and I change my pace for the person, but on my own, well, it’s a stride.

An exterior shot showing the house and the kitchen. Without air conditioning you didn’t cook in the main house in the tropics. Here in St. Louis some of the older houses still have summer kitchens sepearte from the main house. It gets hot here, too.

This is a picture of the ocean and the far shore, but those black dots are more of the spiny orb weavers.

Turkey vulture

Here are some of the pics from the wild bird rescue. A brown pelican grooming itself. More brown pelicans and some cormorants. There was a pen of gulls, and one of song birds, and even some birds of prey. The Kestrel seemed at peace with it’s one winged status, but the female Peregrine was not a happy bird. I watched her on the floor of her cage, hunching down, spreading her wings in preparation for launching skyward, then when there was only one wing, she would stop. She seemed puzzled, then she’d fold her wings back, then unfurl them, start to launch, and stop. Puzzled again. The Osprey in the cage with her had been there long enough that he’s used in programs around at the local schools.

The birds ranged in injuries from cars, to boats, to swallowed fishing hooks. In fact, we saw a cormorant in the wild that had a huge hook in it’s mouth, and the people that were running the boat called these guys to come and help. Without this group the nearest rescue is about two hours or more away. A lot can happen to a wounded bird in two hours, so it’s good that the middle Keys has their own rescue.

Well, that’s it for Crane Point and the bird rescue. Next vacation pics will be dolphins.

Learning curve

I always see quotes, essays, and interviews as a burden. Other writers don't seem to think so, and I could never figure out why, or rather why not. Yesterday I figured it out.

I don't count the extra assignments in my daily page count. Why is that a problem?

Because I'll do four or even twenty pages on a book, then four pages on a newsletter piece, or two pages on a blog, or five pages on an interview, and none of it subtracts a page from my page count. I can do ten pages extra, and I still don't count it against the daily out put. It wasn't book pages, or short story, so, somehow, it didn't count for me.

Yesterday I got no pages done on the books, though I did call my friend Shawn and ask him some military research questions. So nice when your friends are ex-military and current cop. But I didn't actually make progress on either book, so I started to count my page count as zero for the day. Which was sort of depressing, then I had a thought.

I went back to all the other things I'd done that day, and counted. I had five pages for the day. One page over my daily minimum. I had done one page of quote, by the time I was happy with it. I had done two pages of blog. I had done two pages of interview. Add it up, and it is pages for the day.

I'm finally giving myself credit for all the writing I do in a day, not just the book pages. I could say, about time, but I'll try to be more positive. I'm learning. It's all about learning from your oversights and doing better next time.

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Drifting

Friday night we went to Gateway International Raceway. Charles was going to drive his mustang sideways, official term, drifting. But Jon and I call it driving sideways, because it’s descriptive of what the car does.

He’d been working furiously to get the car ready for it’s maiden outing. He has this great car for drifting, a Nissan Skyline. Pretty car, and with the new stuff he’s done to it the engine purrs, if something that loud can be called a purr and not a roar?

But Friday it was the Mustang’s turn. Jon calls it the "Driftstang". It’s an 88 Mustang, and Charles has been redoing it. He put it best, "I didn’t know that Auto mechanics was a full contact sport." It had been a hard week, and he got the ’Stang up and running just in time.

We drove the Foose, of course. Jon has nicknamed it, The Baby. I was thinking something a little more macho, but the nickname has stuck as such names will, so there it is, the Foose is now officially, The Baby.

The Baby got a lot of attention last Friday. It is a car that you will notice even if you know almost nothing about cars, but if you know cars, well, she’s a pretty girl. No, strike that, she’s beautiful. We’ll try to get some more pictures of her up, later, and maybe even with me in the picture.

I drove The Baby all the way to Gateway International Raceway, except for the exit we missed. Not my fault, I was driving, not navigating. Then, I just sort of lost it. Okay, I killed the engine twice, which is actually pretty darn good, but it was still stressful. (Perfectionist, who me?) We’d also seen the huge line to get into the event, and I asked Jon to take her in, because I was not up to riding the clutch in stop and go traffic to that degree. So we parked and switched drivers.

Let me say, though, that the car hugs the road like she was made for curves. Whatever speed you put her at, she stays. Shifting is getting easier, and smoother for me. I love driving this car on the highway.

Though, the Baby, is the first piece of machinery that I’ve been around that psychically projects. We got passed by a red Dodge Charger, and she thought, "Oh, hell no!" So loud that Jon jumped, and I argued out loud with the car, that if I tried to catch the Charger I might get my first ever ticket. The Baby’s reply, was not sympathetic. The car does not like to be passed. The car does not like to drive slow, but it will drive beautifully at any speed, it just wants to go faster.

We met up with Charles and friends, then off we went. The Foose had a spot behind the fence with the other pretty cars, which was pretty cool.

Here are pictures of the mustang, some before the decals went on, and some after. Jon took these pics early in the evening. Drift Pirates rule!

Late in the evening, I finally accepted Charles’s invite to do a ride along. What’s that? Well, you get strapped into the passenger seat, put a helmet on, and you get to ride along while someone drifts. The pictures of me before I did it, are thanks to Jenn, who asked permission to take pictures, which we really appreciate. That’s me getting tucked in, and that’s me with the helmet, a little wide-eyed.

I remember thinking, I trust Charles. Hell, I trust Charles with my life and the life of my husband as our security. I must say though that idling towards the entrance to the "track", with the mustang’s engine roaring, I was wondering what was I thinking? (The Skyline has a base purr, but the mustang roars.) I actually contemplated saying, no, stop, right up to the moment Charles pulled out onto the "track". Then it was too late to be chicken. But I do trust Charles, I really do, and I proved it. Crap.


The pictures here of the mustang in action are of Charles alone. Jon took them earlier, but had put our camera up for the night by then, and also you couldn’t really see me in the car, only the helmet. Good helmet.


Charles wasn’t so much trying to drift the second time out, my ride along, as get a feel for the car. The mustang drives very differently from the Skyline. So there was a lot of just seeing what the car would do, and how it handled. The windows are not in yet, so I remember clearly, thinking I could touch that orange cone. Heck, I could pick it up and carry it with us. I resisted this urge, but we saw that one cone a lot, just outside the door. One of those little urges, you get, like touching tigers, and stroking irreplaceable works of art. Mustn’t touch.

We also saw the Jersey barriers up close and personal, and the wall, and we were supposed to. Drifting is about seeming to loose control of the car, when in fact you are very in control of the car. It was exhilarating, and frightening, and like nothing I’ve ever done before. The last time I was in a car that was doing anything close to this was the time in collage when I almost hit a telephone pole after my tires found some black ice. Here I was, doing it voluntarily. Seems wrong when you put it that way. But we did it, Charles drove us back through the opening, and we were done. Safe. Wow.

Here is a picture of us afterwards. See me smiling. Thanks again to Jenn for this picture.

There was only one picture of Charles beside the car, because he’s moving so much he’s a blur. Carrie, another fan we’ve met at several signings, said, that a lot of her pictures of me are like that. I’m just a blur of movement. Sorry about that. But the car thing was Charles’s blur. Even standing still he was not really still, more vibrating? It’s always interesting to see your friends in other elements, than the norm. You always learn things about them, and sometimes about yourself.

Jon was going to do the next ride along, but it got to be too late for us pumpkins. We went home about 12:30 or 1:00 A. M. No, we were in bed by 2:00. Long night, but a very interesting one.

What lizard is that anyway?

Okay, according to a fan the lizard that I thought was a Florida Scrub, may be a gray anole. I'm pretty sure the second picture is, because I now remember seeing it do it's mating display. It flashed out it's throat patch with that brilliant orange/red color. That's a very anole thing to do. But I'm still not sure that the first lizard is an anole. But then, lizards aren't my thing. Of reptiles, I'm much better with snakes. But, in truth, I'm much better with birds, then butterflies, then other insects, in the order of what I'm looking at, and knowing what I'm looking at.

Well, okay, mammals, I'm really good at that, but we didn't see any of those while we were in Florida. Well, no wild ones. Dogs, cats, people; but no key deer, maybe next time, and if there was a Florida panther with in sight of it, it kept hidden. Big predators are amazingly good at hiding.

We'll be putting up more pictures from the vacation, but I think the next one up is going to be about completely different: cars.

Crane Point Nature Center

Okay here are some of the vacation photos, as promised. These are from Crane Point a nature center in the Florida Keys. It has some of the original plants and landscape, so you can get a glimpse of what it might have been like for early explorers and settlers.

The first picture is of an island just off the shore. The birds swirling above the trees are vultures. We saw a lot of vultures in the Keys. They soared everywhere. It must be some seriously good thermals, because the sea birds did a lot of soaring everywhere, as well.

The next picture is of a Zebra Long Wing. It was one of the more common butterflies at Crane Point. It had a very lazy flight, and you see why it’s called a long wing. The wings give the impression that they’re so long, they must wave in the middle of each flap. I know they don’t, because of the way butterfly wings are designed, but the illusion is there for the eye.

Most common lizard at Crane Point was this guy. I think he's a Flordia Scrub Lizard.

This butterfly, we saw only once here. It was near the butterfly meadow, which was strangely almost butterfly free.

The Gulf Fritillary was probably the most common butterfly we saw there, unless it was the same butterfly over and over. If so, it was stalking us. Or maybe it just enjoyed making Jon and his mother, Mary, fight for a good picture of it. The Frittarly would pose beautifully until a camera got aimed, then it would move. It did that several times. A butterfly with a sense of irony.

Isn’t this cactus cool? It was pretty abundant along the trail. It was not marked with a little plate letting us know what it was, and I can’t find it in our books. So it’s a mystery cactus. If you know what it is, let us know.

This grasshopper appeared only once, but he hung around long enough to get his picture snapped. Unsure what kind of grasshopper he is. He was good sized.

Here’s a better shot of the lizard.

I was quite taken with the morning glories that were growing along the trail. Jon took this and the next picture. Were there blue morning glories waiting for the first settlers?

This is the Bahama trail, which I highly recommend if you want that sense of wildness. We kept having Gilligan or Lost flashbacks. We were close to a small airport, so had several planes go overhead, and I kept having this urge to wave, and call out, "We’re saved!" The path gave you that feeling of isolation and tropical claustrophobia, that a really lush enviroment can have sometimes.

Trinity didn’t want to take the trail, and opted for a more open and better manicured one, but I picked the one that looked like you’d need a machete to chop your way to freedom. Of course, I did. You didn’t need the machete by the way, but it had a nice wild look to it, which is why I liked it, and Trin wasn’t too thrilled. Obviously, we did take the trail that was less traveled.

We saw quite a few spiders at the edges of the trail. This one is a spiny backed orb weaver. They were the most abundant spider, and they were so funky looking, very science fiction. They’re about the size of a woman’s finger nail, so not so big, but noticiable. Maybe it was the spines that made them stand out so much.

This beauty is a Golden Silk Orbweaver. The next picture is Jon’s hand next to it, for a size comparison. It was a big spider, but so lovely. I thought it’s name came from the golden color of it’s abdomen, but it turns out that if you get enough of it’s silk in one batch, that’s truly golden. We got a book at the Crane Point gift shop on local spiders and it had a great picture of the silk in a shinig mass. It was very Ruplestilkskin.

This picture is the underside of the Golden Orb Weaver, to show you that it’s still pretty on the bottom, but not quite so shiny.

Mangrove swamp. I can’t tell if it was black, red, or white mangrove in the picture, but we saw all three on our hike.

Okay, that’s it for the path at Crane Point.

Future pics will have the wild bird rehab at the Point, and pictures from the end of the path where you got a pretty nifty view of the ocean. Yeah, we saw a lot of nice views, but the one from the end of Crane Point was good enough that it stands out. There’s a couple of benches where you can sit and gaze out at the ocean and sky.

Blood Noir Tour Info and Cons for the rest of 2008

Below is the tour info. But first a few things for those who have never attended.

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Depending on the crowd size, there will likely be a Q&A at the start. This usually runs 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

On average the signings last 4-5 hours. Sometimes, they do run longer.

Laurell will stay and sign until everyone has been through line at least once.

Periodically, Laurell will have to stop signing for a few minutes to ice her arm. So please be patient.

A store employee will come down the line with sticky notes. We ask you to block print your name on the sticky note for Laurell. Lots of names sound alike, but are actually spelled differently.



LINE NUMBERS:

Most events will have line tickets available. Check with the hosting venue on their policy and what time they will begin handing them out.



SIGNING:

Signing is limited to two books per person. One personalized and one signed.

Children count as people and may have two books signed.

If you have more you want signed, you may get in line again or bring along a few friends to help you out.

Laurell does not require you purchase her newest book and she will sign books that are not her latest. However, the store/venue may have different rules, so please check with them directly. If we know they require a purchase, we have stated it.



PHOTOS:

You may have their photo taken with Laurell. She has no problems with that, though she needs to be told before hand if there is to be a flash.

May 27, 2008 / 6:00 PM
Barnes & Noble 2722
9618 Watson Road
Crestwood, MO 63126
314-843-9480


June 3, 2008 / 6:00 PM
Borders 421
3140 Lohr Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Store Phone: 734-997-8884


June 5, 2008 / 6:30 PM
The Civic Center Library
(Poisoned Pen Bookstore)
3839 N. Drinkwater Blvd.
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Tickets available in advance from PoisonedPen.com. This is a fund raiser for the library. Please see the website for details.


June 12, 2008 / 7:00 pm
Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy
239 College Street (Lower Level)
Toronto, Canada


Guest Of Honor - DragonCon 2008
August 29 - September 1, 2008
http://www.dragoncon.org/

Guest Of Honor - Archon 2008
October 3 - 5, 2008
http://www.archonstl.org/32/

Issue #10 of the comic, is out today!

Forgot to mention in the earlier blog, that issue #10 of the Anita Blake comic is out today. Get to your local comic shop before they're gone.

The muse knows, but I don't

It's 10:30 A. M., and I got to my desk at 8:00 this morning. I've just finished 15 pages on SWALLOWING DARKNESS. Yeah, you read that right. Fifteen pages in what, two and a half hours? Yesterday it took me about nine and a half hours to do four pages for the newsletter.

Two and half hours; fifteen pages. Nine and a half hours; four pages.

Just proof that this job is almost impossible to plan around. How can I guarantee I'll be done for the day in time to go out, or make a meeting, when I can't tell what kind of day it will be? Is it a two hour day, or a nine hour day? Only my muse knows.

No funny for April Fools

You guys will have to wait until tomorrow for the pictures and blog about the nature center, I am out of steam for the day. The thought of trying to do justice to the pictures and such is too much to contemplate right now. When I get this written I am fetching my jogging shoes from the bedroom where they were unpacked and hitting the tread mill. Maybe that will help my head clear.

I am feeling incredibly fuzzy headed, and exhausted. I've only done four pages, but it feels like it's taken everything I have to do it today. It is nearly five-thirty, and I started at nine this morning, but still . . . God, I am tired.

The four pages were not on Merry. I worked on it, but got nothing done so I began to do other business. I called my agent, one of my editors, and others, on business. It really was business and some of it was even important, but I don't usually make calls in the morning because I'm supposed to be writing. This morning, I finally realized it was a way of procrastinating, and not only was I wasting my time but I was managing to use up the time of others. Bad me.

When I realized what I was doing, I stopped. But now, at the end of the day, I have my minimum pages. I have four. It's enough. I'm done. Oh, what are the pages on? The fan club newsletter for spring. It was supposed to go out in March, but I hadn't written my piece. Today, I wrote it. It's all about BLOOD NOIR, since the book comes out on May 27th, it seemed appropriate.

Okay, that's it, I'm going to finish my hot cup of tea, then I'm getting on the treadmill. Sorry, that my April 1st blog wasn't the least bit funny, but it's all I got left today.