Bit of news-and a bat adventure!

Last Friday, I implied that I’d have some news for you, nothing big, but fun, and then I forgot about it in a haze of Monday morning madness until a reader prompted me.   So for all of you who have been dying to know, I heard back from my editor on INTO THE WOODS, the compilation of Hollows and new stories that I wrote last summer, and they’re going to do a special promotion in early September, releasing one of the new stories in an e-book format for a minimal cost.  (There is so much new stuff in the collection that they can do this and not compromise the value–I am tickled.) It’s kind of like buying one track to an entire album, and I’m seriously curious as to what happens.  The story they plan on releasing is very different from anything I’ve ever written.  If I can say one thing, it’s that I had a fabulous time last summer putting together a collection to show that Ms. Kim is not a one-voice writer, and that whatever comes after the Hollows will stand on its own.

But it doesn’t happen until September, which is why I was kind of downplaying it.  The real story today, which almost bumped the INTO THE WOODS news into Wednesday, is that I had a bat in the house last night.

Okay, so Guy and I sitting in our kitchen, (which has a couch in it and a TV instead of an eating nook.  Lovely set up.)  and we’re watching A Bugs Life.  This is the one where Flick the ant makes a bird, and at the end it’s swooping around, scaring the grasshoppers.  Got the picture?  Swooping thing on a string, scaring grasshoppers at night?  Just at that part, something about the size of a robin darts over us at the TV, and back again. Not really believing it, we both turn, and yeah, it’s coming back at us.  Now, I’ve seen bats before.  I even pulled one out of my hair once when it landed on me in the middle of the night when I was sleeping in my own little bed.  It was the size of a mouse, the way a bat should be.  But this thing darting through my kitchen last night was huge!  It really had to be the size of a robin, and I had a good ninety seconds to watch it.

Thing Two was with us, and I was really proud of how the both of them reacted, working with me to slowly got the bat pined into a smaller and smaller area, turning off lights and closing doors and opening others, forcing this HUGE bat back outside.  We recently had some vents put into the attic, and I think that’s how it got in.  Someone is coming out to check and plug the hole.  It was kind of fun working together to get him back outside, but I’d rather not do it again.

Oh, by the way, my so-called alpha dog is a complete chicken.  She went and hid under the bed, leaving the beta to jump at it to try and catch the bat until we got her safely out of the kitchen.