Adventures In the Dark

I was sitting in my great room minding my own business the other night, when I heard this noise. At first, I thought my dad had come over even though I'd said not to bother, because it sounded like he was putting the key in the lock. Only the door didn't open. It unnerved me thinking someone was out there trying to get in, so I did what any author who writes kick-butt heroines would do--I turned on the porch light from inside the laundry room and called my dad. :-)

Yes, he came over and checked it out for me. The only sign of something wrong was the small rabbit on the edge of the porch. It didn't move when my dad was out there or while we were discussing it. I thought it was dead, but it wasn't because it disappeared while my dad was going to the garage to get something to pick it up with.

After he walked around the house to make sure no one was lurking, we discussed the noise. We're guessing that some kind of night predator was after the rabbit, it raced onto my porch and they tangled there. Then I flipped on the light, scared the predator away, and the rabbit was too stunned to move for a while. Or maybe too injured, although there wasn't any blood on the concrete. I need to remember this the next time I complain about how boring my life is. Boring is good. :-)

Sunday night I watched Design Star on HGTV. They were announcing the winner. I didn't vote online, although I did actually see the final design challenge the Sunday previous. The problem was I couldn't choose between Todd and Kim--I love them both! I became a huge Todd fan when I saw his room with the giant wave and the smashed up furniture and Kim is so likable, comes across as genuine and she did the best design in Hawaii for the final challenge. I was torn, wanting both of them to win. I guessed I'd be happy and disappointed no matter which one came out on top, and sure enough, I was. BTW, the winner was Kim.

I think I have the synopsis finished for my next proposal, now I just need to rewrite one scene (I scrapped the old version entirely), polish that new scene up, and it should be ready to go back to my agent. Of course, I haven't written new stuff for a while, so buckling down and producing keepable work--especially on a story that's basically been sitting for a year--is not going to be easy.

Rabbit 3 - Patti 0

As you might recall, in the last episode of Rabbit Wars, my dad had fenced in my tree ring in an effort to save the flowers from vicious and unprovoked rabbit attacks. From the title of this post, you can guess that the attempt wasn't completely successful.

One of the lilies was near the edge of the fence--in fact, one of its little flower buds was sticking out a hole in the chicken wire--and that's the one that was eaten. I went down to water the flowers yesterday (no need on Saturday since it rained) and saw the fence didn't look right in one area. Closer examination revealed that it was pushed in and the bricks my dad had used to hold it down had been forced farther inside the ring. There was now a gap between the ground and the bottom of the fence.

I immediately examined my flowers and discovered that the one flower bud that had been poking out was gone. Eaten. Just an empty socket where there had once been the beginning of a bloom. Fortunately, nothing else appeared to be destroyed.

I fixed the fence and called my dad. We began to discuss the cayenne pepper suggestion. :-)

In better news, two of the buds look ready to flower! I will, of course, take pictures and post them. This will be a monumental occasion--especially considering I'm in rabbit hell.

Rabbit 2 Patti 0

When I watered my flowers on Friday evening, all was well. When I went out to water them on Saturday evening, the vicious killer rabbit had struck again! Adding insult to injury, he was standing less than ten feet from my tree ring when I walked out of the house and he didn't move! He just sat there even as I walked down to the flowers with the hose in my hand. Finally, as I neared firing range, he hopped away. It was only then that I saw the damage he'd caused to my sole remaining Sumatra Lily. Yes, the heartless fiend had eaten nearly every leaf off the plant!

I was enraged. I swore at the rabbit, called him all kinds of names, but none of it made me feel better. Once again, the monster had bypassed the free flowers and chomped on the ones I'd had to pay for! There was only one thing to do. When I got back to the house, I picked up the Bat Phone and called my dad.

My tree ring is now surrounded by chicken wire and my peony tree has tall plastic fencing around it. The next move is yours, evil rabbit. Let's see you bypass the fence.

In other news, I managed to cross three items off my To Do List! Hurrah! I'm feeling so much better. Of course, a couple of the items still on there will take a lot of work, but the important thing is the numbers are going lower. :-)

Rabbit One, Patti Zero

I went down to water and weed my flower bed yesterday afternoon and between Wednesday evening when I watered and Thursday afternoon, that damn rabbit returned. This time she wasn't content to merely chomp on my lily leafs. Oh, no, this time she gnawed off some of the flower buds as well. And left them on the ground!

That rabbit is so lucky I would never dream of deliberately harming any living thing, because if I wasn't such an animal lover, I would have gone hunting wabbit. :-) I was not happy.

When I finished weeding, I put out the SOS call to my dad. He came over with mothballs and strew them around the inside of the tree ring and near my peony tree. This is supposed to be better at keeping rabbits away than fencing, but if it doesn't work, he has some of that ready to go if we need to fall back to Plan B.

I swear, who would have guessed that plants were in such danger? First a cut worm, now a rabbit. It's a jungle out in suburbia and I've been oblivious.

I used my new handy, dandy garden tool and it worked fine. It's my only garden tool, so that's a good thing. :-) While I was weeding, I dug up a couple of the bulbs to see if they were mushy or okay. Both were solid, so I'm guessing the rest are fine as well and that next year they'll grown and bloom and be wonderful. If that's the case, it means there was only one fatality in my garden--a toad lily. Those weren't bulbs, so there are no second chances for them. Three are up and small, but at least that's something.

My editor emailed me yesterday asking me to provide some input for back cover copy. Despite my college training to be an advertising copywriter, I totally stink at this. I came up with something that wasn't totally horrible, but I reread it this evening (hours after I sent it) and realized I'd totally left out everything about the romance. It's all about the action and story. Picture me slapping my forehead.

I'm actually doing better at the one line to describe the book thing. I came up with something for In the Midnight Hour that I really loved and I think what I came up with for In Twilight's Shadow is pretty good too. Not as good as Midnight, but hey, lightning doesn't usually strike twice. :-)

And last bit of news, Barnes & Noble put up a link to my book video on the page for Midnight Hour. It's on the sidebar and I'm not sure how easily seen it is, although I spotted it immediately. :-)