I think I have finally figured out the climactic scene in "Blood Practice"--the encounter with the demon. All along Claire has been both too passive and too reckless, characteristics which don't usually go together. And in the end, what does she
do? She doesn't even rescue herself. But I didn't want her strength to be fighting, and although there's plenty of bloody action in the story (at least in the last third) I didn't want the whole thing to hinge on violence. I want her courage, her curiosity, her openness, and her integrity to make the difference. And maybe, finally, after twenty revisions, I've made it to the answer.
I'm giving the second draft of the demon-zombie encounter to my SF group next Tuesday (the first draft I gave to John, who said, "this is pretty skimpy"). We'll see if it works.
and we watch the deer come out of the scrub oak on the hill above our house.
Johnathan was sad and sleepy and needed comfort from Aunt Betsy:
But wild girl Colette was up for a romp:
I remember my sibs and me being wild with my mom's brothers, climbing on them, tickling them, trying to get them to do handstands so we could steal the change that fell out of their pockets. There's nothing so cool as a motorcycle-riding uncle with a ponytail and a leather jacket. 
Yesterday leaving for church I saw a coyote running along the hill at the head of our street. We were too late to go back for the camera (this is a random photo off the internet). So far, that I recall, seen in or from our yard: quail, wild turkey, pheasants, bald eagle (in the sky), great horned owl, deer, bobcat, snakes, and now a coyote. Uncle Bob has seen a cougar on his street a couple of miles south of us. There are quite frequent black bear sightings in Rock Canyon. Mike Van O got video of one up Provo Canyon at one of the parks.
