Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Roosters on the loose


I've been walking on the hike and bike trail every morning (it's what I do before I write) for almost ten years now. And for the first time, about a week ago, I thought I heard a rooster crow. When I didn't hear it again, I dismissed it as an iPod malfunction.

But then, the next day, I heard it again -- and sure enough, nestled on a branch up in the trees, there was a black-feathered rooster. Parrots, I've seen. Miniature horses, I've seen. But roosters? In downtown Austin?

Well, today, I heard it again. And would you believe it -- another one crowed back!

That's right. There are two roosters living along a fifty-foot stretch of the hike and bike trail in Austin. And despite the fact that the trail is ten miles long, they're squabbling over territory. Go figure.

When I'm not out rooster-hunting, I'm writing hard on my new project -- I outlined it this week, and am now modifying the two chapters I 'seat of pantsed' to fit into the outline. But of course, there's a scene too fun to cut, so I'm changing the outline, too! Ah, the writing life.

But I'm having fun, and that's what counts, right? :) And doing a lot of interesting reading -- you should see the variety of books in my house right now. If I have anyone from my daughter's Episcopal school over, I'm going to have to do a werewolf and magic book round-up first. I just bought a handy dandy 'spell book' the other day to equip my character's mother for her job as a psychic witch. Unfortunately, there wasn't a thing in there about enchanting your keyboard to type for you...

And in case you were wondering, I still haven't URLed my Malice post... maybe I'll get it done in time for next year's conference! ;)

2 Comments:

At 6:06 PM, May 03, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Karen! I found you via DIana Killian. :) Love the roosters in downtown Austin! I used to live there (well, actually, I lived in Pflugerville, but I loved the whole Austin area) and miss it a lot. I never saw any roosters, though. Or parrots, for that matter. Just lots of grackles and pigeons which I could have lived without. *g*

 
At 10:41 PM, May 03, 2006, Blogger Karen MacInerney said...

Tori,

Diana's great, isn't she? I need to put her blog up on my hot links section (I love her books, and I met her at Malice... she's got a wonderful sense of humor).

As far as Austin is concerned, there are still grackles, still pigeons, and a menagerie of waterfowl. The roosters, as I said, are new. And very strange!

Thanks for the note, and please drop me a line if you're ever back in this neck of the woods!

Karen

 

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