This week was a bit challenging with the writing. I don’t think it was actually anything writing related. But the Washington DC weather was kind of crazy and that in turn made it hard on sinuses and sleep. We went from rainy to dry, and then back to rainy and then back to dry. It’s also been pretty cold. It was in the 30s when I walked this morning.

The story is another sword and sorcery, with the same characters as Story 12. The story is called “Campfire Terror.” This one was the same basic idea: monsters, battle, beat monster.

I took my inspiration from a class called “Building Campfires for Women.” We went out to a local park and built campfires. One of the male writers in my writing group was unhappy because he couldn’t attend (serious grumbling). But the reason it was women only is because the guys will take over and do it for the women. One of the women attending even said she’d been camping many times when she was growing up–and her brothers always took the task the campfire.

It was really something magical and primal about building a campfire. So I used it here. And monsters.

Also, a very interesting sighting this week. Before I start work every day, I take a fifteen minute walk through a local park. The whole park is probably about a hundred feet wide and a block long. School visible on the right. Apartments visible on the left.

So I’m out walking, just around dawn, and I hear the leaves crackling. It’s still early for the squirrels and birds. I turn and there’s a doe–not more than five feet away from me.

We both look at each other. She seems not at all bothered by me and turns away to root through the leaves. After a moment, I walk on past, leaving her still looking for food.

And I’m wondering where she came from. She’s not living in the park, and there’s nothing really nearby that she could have come from. But a beautiful, amazing animal.