Day 10: 10,302 (47,001 book/ 112,383 total)

For those who wondered about the bright red bird two days ago -- that's a Northern Cardinal. We get a lot of them in this area. This is the female, which we don't see nearly as often -- partly because they tend to blend into the background more than the males do. Today I got several shots of this one -- probably more shots of a female than I'd taken in all the rest of my life. I also got some great shots of a blue jay today. You can see one on my picture a day blog

http://zettepicaday.blogspot.com/

I had a much better day of writing than I expected. Things fell together this afternoon, and it really helped. I'm nearly done with story #2 and already thinking about story #3. Another 3k and I'll be at the minimum number of words for the story. I might just keep writing tonight (after at least one 'real world' job) and see how close I can get to finishing.Here's another short snippet. I know these aren't the most interesting things I've written, but that's all right. I've been experimenting with NaNo, and even if it isn't the best writing, I'm learning something about how I figure out characters. It's been fun.

And I have to say, after looking at one woman's blogged story snippets, I feel far better about mine. She knows how to write -- but her vocabulary is limited, and she uses 'shit or fuck' at least once in practically every sentence (blog and story, for that matter). And the scenes are so incredibly boring anyway, that the language is about the only thing interesting -- and that gets old real fast. She seems to think she's a genius. If that's so, I guess I'll just be happy to be a good writer -- even when I'm not writing the best I ever have. (grin)

Oh yeah. The snippet. Who knows -- by tomorrow night I might well be into another story entirely!
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It was going to be another night camp and then tomorrow they'd be to the pass and by noon -- if they got past that obstacle -- they'd be to Santa Maria. Another half a day to the ranch. Tomorrow night at this time he'd know if they were too late or not.

There was one attack -- quickly repelled before he and Storm could even get into it. Just as well. He'd already had enough of fighting. He remembered why he had gotten out of the army early; march and fight, and eat bad food, and then start it all over again.. The enemy left a lot of dead on the road, and only the few with horses got away. They were pursued, but Kent had told them not to go up into the mountains where they could have set up an ambush.

It was a long day on the trail. They could see the enemy off in the distance sometimes, probably trying to draw them out, break the group up, and make it easier to fight them. It didn't work. Storm spent most of his time riding ahead or checking the arroyo, just to make certain no one tried that trick on them. He caught a group once. They didn't try it again.

And by the time the sun was going down, Kitt was out of sorts with everyone. He did his best to keep it to himself, and he spent a lot of time walking around while the others made a quick camp and set up the guard. By the time he made it back to General Kent's tent where he threw himself into a chair -- and regretted it when he bumped his arm.

"You should have that looked at," Kent said, looking across at him. "And then you should get some sleep while you can, because we're breaking camp at midnight and marching on."

He looked up, surprised by the revelation and feeling a little bit of a lifting of his spirit again. He nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"Thought that might cheer you up, though you're a fool for it, you know. A good night's sleep would do wonders for us all."

"I know. But -- We need to get back."

He nodded. "Food is on the way. Where's Storm?"

"Out looking for trouble, I suppose," he said and tried not to fret at the question. "He'll be coming in soon."

Kent nodded and then grinned. "He makes you nervous, too."

"Of course he does."