I was going to save my next post until the 11th, which will be exactly one year until the hardcover bundle of Books 1-3 is released. (And I'm going to aim for the NYT bestseller's list!)

But, as I type this, my office smells like skunk.

Here's why:

Our backyard butts up against a field that's probably about 20 acres big and is currently fallow. There's woods and stuff on the one side, road on the other with woods on the other side of the road.

So we're in the country.

Today, as the sun was getting lower and lower, I saw this dog which looked like a coyote as we were sitting on the couch. "Coyote!" I said. I hadn't seen one in a long time and neither Mark nor Alex had seen one before. So we piled up against the window and looked at it running along the edge of the field.

"That's a dog," Mark said. And sure enough, it had a husky face, but a coyote coloration with a big bushy tail. probably a mutt.

"What's it doing?" Alex asked.

It ran away from the field about twenty yards like it was on a mission, then stopped and ran straight back to the field.

Then it jumped in the tall grass, hopping, hopping, hopping.

"It's a puppy," i said.

"What's it doing?" Alex asked.

"It's playing," I said. "Just a puppy."

After about two minutes of hopping (about three feet in the air at least) it finally chases something to the edge of the field. The three of us have been amused the entire time.

"What was that?" we all say together, spotting a rabbit-sized thing in the brush.

The white thing bolts out of the tall grass and behind a tree in our yard.

"It was definitely white," I said.
"Probably a rabbit."
"Look at the dog!"

Then the sunk ran into our open grass and turned around as if to stare down the dog. That skunk looked so frazzled, kind of fluffy.

All three of us recoiled from the window with the same exact shout of disgust. Then we laughed. That dog is going to smell for a long time!

Then we smelled the skunk through our closed windows. And since my office is over the garage... the smell is now leaking up through the floor, or through the eves or something.

And it smells bad.

I'm out.

Hopefully tomorrow it all clears up!

Cheers! Hope you smiled at my misery!
Chris