Skunk cabbage — the first food of bears out of hibernation. It now blooms in the swamps, sticking fingers to the winter, evocative of procreation and growth. Brilliant candles of color in the season’s detritus. The bears will soon follow. And then you’ll have to bear with me as I tell tales, once again, of ursine encounters along my woodland trails. So far it feels good to have naked ground underfoot, and a taste of warmth in the wind …

But while my running shoes are planted firmly in Whistler, my mind, my imagination, is in Las Vegas as I work on the outline of my new SRS continuity. Anyone been to Vegas recently?

I’d never have known had it not been for Google Alerts. I wonder how they read in translation?

I’m still playing catch-up this weekend. I hope to find the 2008 groove when school goes back on Monday. Looking forward to something akin to routine over here, and getting back in touch with what’s happening in everyone’s writing and reading lives …

Until then

While deep in my MANHUNTER – TRUE NORTH deadline … I leave you with another point of view. Thank you to this reader for showing me my MERC chillin’ up north

WIN SIX MONTHS OF GOOD READS IN THE 2007 — SHADOW SOLDIERS – CONTEST!!!

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Pleeeze, someone tell Mother Earth it’s still only September!!!

Thank you to all who wrote to say that SEDUCING THE MERCENARY is being eagerly awaited. Watch this space for more chances to win next month, or if you want a heads-up on contests and new releases, please feel free to join my newsletter group:-

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And hang onto those copies, because you can use them to win in my November contest!!! Stay tuned …. (there will be no camera needed for this one )

Happy Sunday 

Smart bird. Let the human do the work.

But this is also the world my new heroine is intimately familiar with. Her northern spirit is much like the eagle’s … wild, and smart. A perfect match for the villain A perfect challenge for the hero.

I love this stage of a book ….

Among my personal backcountry running arsenal — bear bangers, cell phone, and pepper spray — to deal with problems such as the one in post below. Or whatever else may arise.

I tested one of these puppies yesterday, and oy  ….it makes a gal feel good to be in control of so much rocket-power Amazing what you can shoot out of a pen-size flare launcher.

But fear not friends — I’m not out to terrorize the local wildlife. My test-firing yesterday was two-fold. My hero uses these cartridges in my WIP, and I needed to know what it felt …. and sounded …  like.

Saved by a momentary sound of silence …  As the headphones plugged into my MP3 went quiet, shifting from the Pointer Sisters to Tina Turner, I heard a tell-tale crack in the brush up ahead. There was no mistaking the particular weight and resonance of that sound. I whipped off the headphones,  waited for a second, and he emerged, lumbering big and fat and black onto the trail. My first bear encounter of 2007.

Made me realize how many warning signs are drowned out by my running music. Had I kept going, I’d have been right onto the guy. It wasn’t the bear pictured above — the bruin I encountered was one of Whistler’s collared bears. The photo below shows Whistler local Lori Homstl tracking one of our collared friends through a residential neighborhood using radio telemetry.

I think I’ll be breaking out the bear bangers about now … and this is the reason we don’t hide Easter Eggs outside

Photo -National Geographic

The teensy candle of bright yellow near the base of the tree? An emerging skunk cabbage lily — the first sign of spring. This means the bears will be waking. The hardy skunk cabbage is among the first available food for the season for the bruins. Soon these wetlands will be abalze with yellow — very pretty, and pretty skunky as the plants mature.

Somehow I feel like winter happened while I was working.

Must. Pay. More. Attention.