Boom Boom

I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine.  Boom Boom is a big fox squirrel.  In a yard overrun with gray squirrels, he is still the king of the yard.  And he does not like his neighbors.  Or maybe it's just that Boom Boom - like Joey from the show Friends - doesn't share food.  He'll run off any gray squirrel that comes anywhere near where he's eating.

Yesterday, we put a big pan of squirrel food in the yard.  In no time, the gray squirrels were there and had been run off by Boom Boom.  Crouched over the plate, he let everyone know it was his food.

Enter Henrietta - our resident hen turkey.  She came strolling into the yard and headed right for the food pan - because, hey, turkeys and squirrels eat pretty much the same stuff.  And a mix of corn and sunflower seeds was on the menu.  Yummers.

As she approached the feed, we were pretty sure she was going to run Boom Boom off.  No matter how big Boom Boom is, Henrietta easily outweighs him.  But when she got close to the pan, Boom Boom lowered himself to the ground and WHAM... he jumped at her.  Scared the shit out of poor Henrietta.  Every time she got close, he attacked.  Until she got to the point where she'd tentatively take a seed and then jump away.  At one point, she wandered away and then came back.  This time we thought for sure she'd screwed on her courage and would give Boom Boom something to think about, but no.

She did get it one good karate kick, but Boom Boom wasn't deterred.  It was his food.  And BOOM BOOM DOESN'T SHARE FOOD.

Eventually, Henrietta wandered away for good - no doubt in search of easier vittles.

Here's an action pic of the bout.  Don't let the image fool you. Even though it looks like Henrietta is the aggressor, Boom Boom struck first and this was snapped in the seconds afterwards when she was trying to get the hell out of the way.

Ah, life in the Ozarks.  Every day, it's something new.

Chillin'

I think we could all use some chillin'.  These two are obviously showing us how it's done...

Memorial Weekend Editing Marathon

What's on your agenda this long weekend?  (Or if you're not in the states, what'cha up to?)

I will be spending the weekend editing.  Good thing it's raining and we didn't have any plans otherwise.  The whole weekend stretched out in front of me with nothing to do but edit this damn book...

Ack.  Can't think of it like that or I'll get all squirmy and wind up on Monday with nothing to show for these days but a whole boatload of television viewing.

And when I think of the amount of work ahead of me, a whole weekend of vegging in front of the TV doesn't sound half bad.  But no.  I told myself I would work.  I told numerous other people I would work.  Now I'm telling you I'm working, so if I get to Monday with no work done, feel free to berate me soundly.

With that, I'm off.  I will stop by throughout the next couple days to authorize comments, and maybe take little breaks now and then.  Other than that, though, I will be working.  On the recliner, but working.  With the TV on...  Because I work well that way.  (yeahyeahthat'stheticket)

Oh, and before I forget, I've got a published author scheduled for Monday's guest post at The Guide.  Make sure you stop by and see who it is.  (Bet you'll never guess.)

Picture Pause - Fairy Oak and Baby Bird

When we were in the process of buying this place, I sent some pictures of it out to friends.  Silver James wrote back and told me this was called a Fairy Oak.  (I think... she'll correct me in comments if I'm wrong). 

Anyway, here's a pic of the tree as of yesterday.  It's so nice now that it has it's leaves. 

And because I'm so happy to have seen this, I thought you'd like to see it, too:

This is the third attempt at a nest for my Eastern Phoebe couple, and the second batch of eggs.  At least with this batch, we know at least one hatched.  I think I shall call him Spike.  (Sorry the pic's a bit fuzzy, but the nest is up under the deck, so I had to use the zoom and then hold the camera at a weird angle.)

No Words

I'm without words today. 

The words I left at Killer Chicks were pre-scheduled sometime last week or they wouldn't be there either.

More Djinnocide Over at Tabula Rasa

Hello, Everyone! 

This morning I thought I'd resume posting snippets of stuff over at Tabula Rasa - just not the whole Lucky Sevens thing.  (That was fun, but kind of restrictive.)  Anyway, go over there are read some more of the beginning of the book. 

I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

There's Successful and then There's Me

There are several places on the web where you can find examples of successful queries.  Over the years, I've studied these.  I pour over them and then compare what these successful authors are writing in their queries versus what I'm writing in mine - you know to try and figure out why these people are getting agents' attention and I'm not.

Personally, I can't see any difference.

Oh sure, back when I was a wet-behind-the-ears newbie, there was a huge difference.  My early queries blew chunks in a major way.  But these days, with 9 years of working at this under my belt, my queries pretty much follow the same general course as these successful queries.  The only differences are in the subject matter.

The subject matter....

Yeah.  I thought about that, too.  This, of course, leads to comparing my writing to actual published books I'm reading.  Again, I'm not really seeing the difference.  Some of my stuff seems better than some published stuff I've read.  Some published stuff seems better.  Most of the time, my stuff is about on par with the stuff publishing houses are putting on the shelves.

Okay, so maybe my urban fantasies aren't quite as gritty or as spicy.  Maybe there's something cerebral mine have that others don't.  Maybe there's something cerebral they have that I don't.  And yeah, my suspense isn't quite 'romantic'.  I don't bill it as romantic suspense, though, so I don't think that's the problem.  Suspense with romantic elements - if the agent says they're looking for it - and straight suspense if they aren't. 

My daughter once told me that there weren't enough bodies in my urban fantasy.  I added more, but not too many more because the book isn't really meant to be a gore fest. 

Over the years, I've had an untold number of writers look at my queries and my books.  I get a few suggestions, but usually they're nothing major, and I do get kudos. 

I guess this morning I'm just running that hamster wheel in my head of why I'm not garnering interest.  True, I've only been back to querying for a short time, but it's less about what's happening now than what's been happening for years.  And yeah, I know the hamster wheel never does anyone any good.  It's just got me stymied.  I've tried to do everything the way I'm supposed to do it.

:shrug:  Maybe that's the problem.

No questions to ask here.  And not looking for suggestions.  Just blowing off some steam and getting my mental exercise running on the wheel.  If you want to blow off your own steam in the comments, feel free.

PS.  I'm not feeling down about any of this.  I'm just curious and trying to think things out.  I do this from time to time.