C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 26

Garden prowlers…

Twice now I’ve been awakened between 2-3 am by something in the garden—it’s dark out there, I had the window open, it being a nice night in both occasions, and I heard this eerie chitter-chitter-murble from close by my window.

Well, Sei was interested, but his tail wasn’t bushed; the light by the garage won’t illumine the garden, but I figured we had a four-footed problem and decided light would be a good thing, so I turned on lights in the office and bath, which shine outward and illumine part of the path.

Happened again, 2 nights later.

It had rained. I went out and renewed the anti-critter sprinkles, but it’s a rainy patch of weather. And I got on the internet and looked up ‘raccoon sounds’ with the intent to look up ‘skunk sounds’ if that wasn’t it. Bingo on the first try. Raccoon. The pond is much overgrown about the edge, which we intended as a raccoon deterrent, and the lily pads likewise are protection, but the surface water is still warm enough in this transition of the seasons that the koi lounge near the shore at night. Worrisome.

I decided, hmmn, wonder if there’s a lantern that’s also a spooklight. So I searched for same, and turned up a lantern designed as a perimeter alarm, to protect campsites against straying children outbound and straying bears inbound. I got one, set it up. It has modes for mild light, strong light, strong light on motion detector for 15 minutes, and strong light with screaming alarm. In consideration of our neighbors and because the police have better things to do, I chose the silent spooklight mode, and set it up. We shall see. It has a 35 foot range, and is moderately weatherproof. I set it in the side entry to the garage, which is somewhat sheltered by the clematis, and let it be. It continues rainy, and we did not have any incident last night.

I’m aware that they can be nippy if cornered and are a rabies hazard. Firearms in the city are a no-no for very good reasons, besides the risk to garden decor. I might risk the literal 10 foot (bamboo) pole of which we have several, but I really had rather just scare the raccoons off (I’m pretty sure there are at least two, or it’s crazy and talking to itself)… We’ve also seen tracks the size of a larger monkey’s, so I imagine mama at least is the size of a bushel basket or more. Wish me luck with the spooklight approach—they’re kind of spendy, but cheaper than buying canisters of coyote urine—those coyotes don’t work cheap! and it washes away in the rain.

Hurricane Matthew looks to be quite serious…

Hoping any and all of you in the affected zones take care and follow the advisories.

More dental work—really dumb today….

Just a little dim-witted today; way too many deadening shots. Gaah.

About bees…

bees have feelings too…

Pluto has ocean?

ocean on Pluto?

Entertaining the Night Fury, aka Shu…

…who loves to stand up and claw at the images on my telly…

Or drive me berserk wanting food, grabbing my ankle, howling at me as I get up for a cup of coffee—

I tell you, devising something to keep a half-Bengal busy is a challenge. Smart. Very.

I got this puzzlebox for kittehs, CatAmazing, from Amazon, just a cardboard box. And I put some kitty treats into it. He can fish one out, with some work. He comes in here begging for treats, he’s going to work for it.

Well, half the mouth is in great shape…

Sincerely, it feels great except for the resultant headache. Four deadening shots and a major cleanup, and I spent yesterday face down in the bean dip, and today am energy-short and headachy, but I’m actually looking forward to Oct 3, when we get the other side. THis has been overdue, since I couldn’t find a good dentist, but now have one. In January, they’re going to do, we think, an implant.

Working on a short piece right now…an Alliance-Union history.

In a bit of mental attic rearranging as I prepare to enter the Alliance-Union universe for a new book—I decided—why not do a piece for Closed Circle that encapsulates the history behind it. It’s a short story, but sort of a fictional history sort of story that some of you may like, that will at present planning not be part of the book, just a stand-alone bridge from us to there.

Emergence is finished!

Got it! Jane is now doing a continuity read.

I’m consulting notes on our next project. I have a notebook which is one of those ‘what would you grab if there were a fire?’ sort of items, which went missing—it’s my notes. Names, places, timeline—-and it was missing. Searched the trunk, found my collection of Dark Shadows dvds, in the ‘guilty pleasure’ department, and then searched the closet, various boxes, the dresser—I mean, like, oh–dear!

We have of course redone floors, moved things—I would never throw it out, but — it could be buried anywhere.

I’d lent it to Jane on some question about next project, and bless her, she had faithfully kept it right by her workstation, ready whenever I might call for it.

Whew!

You may wonder why the word count inches along and then flies toward the end…

I outline, not your typical school outline, but sometimes bits and pieces of conversation, events, notes, etc, which I erase as I move along, so the total word count both shrinks and expands unpredictibly, sometimes so that even I don’t have a real sense where I am. Stories take as many words as it takes to tell them, and while I have an idea how long a book should be, density also affects it. Now we’re down to almost no outline left, and things happening that were intended to happen, without more outline getting written. We’re getting fairly close to the end and I know what the end is, but this one has just worked out oddly, a story that’s going to answer some puzzles and give you others…