Current squirrel tally this week? Six to two, in favour of Boris. His M.O. is to eat the top half – chest cavity, the back of the head and the whiskers – leaving the lower half and tail, severed feet, half a head and one large organ I haven’t identified. It’s always the same, and this is what I wake up to most mornings. I’d post photos on my blog, but there’s a glitch. Probably the mushroom photos…

God, I love that cat.

Pam

…and just in case nobody told you today, we love you!

Sorry to have been unclear, I meant the situation, not the writing! I got a real kick out of that part because when I bought my house, there was an ancient bathtub behind the barn where the previous owner, a fiesty older woman, drowned the woodchucks who were digging up her yard. A kind of twisted, evil baptismal font.

–Gretchen

I hear them _better_ if I’m focused on writing, but now and then I do suddenly pick up a line out of nowhere. When I do, I use that as the “kernel” for a scene.

But no, they don’t talk at once, and by and large, don’t come into my head uninvited.

No, Cooney is the “homeowner in Bermuda shorts and a wtf? expression” that you saw in the first paragraph of the story (shown in the blog entry prior to this one).

I.e., the husband of Pamela Pratt, the feisty squirrel drowner.

I love the drowning squirrels part (and I laughed!) … but I assume anyone who drowns wild animals who are naturally feisty has GOT to be pretty damned feisty herself. Yikes. Two words: rabies shot. *g*

It’s so interesting to hear you write with a new character’s voice. Do your characters talk to you unbidden or only when you are focused on writing? Can you control which ones are talking to you or does the inside of your head sometimes sound like a loud party with many talking at once [g]?

Well, it is _meant_ to be. [g]