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OK, so this was funnier when it happened, but I said I’d tell you about it so here goes.

Our house (the one BH built and that I just moved to) is out in the country. That’s one of the reasons I like it. But if you live in the country, you have to deal with critters.

I am not fond of critters. In fact, I am a big scaredy-pants weenie.

So a week after I moved in, we had a Critter Incident. Here’s the scene: BH, me, and a couple of the kids (J and C) are hanging out in the living room, watching a movie. 9:30 pm. Stef calls my cell and I go into BH’s office to take the call. Then J shrieks, in a very musical way. A bat had swooped down to watch the movie, too. We’d had doors and windows open while we moved all my junk in, and he took advantage of the situation. (I bet he doesn’t have cable where he lives.)

So J continues to shriek. She shrinks herself into a tiny ball and hides under the couch cushions. C yells, but he is 13, and 13-year-olds are adventurous and bloodthirsty. He wants to be in on the hunt. BH dashes to the basement and comes up holding an ancient (at least 50 years old) tennis racket. He finally yells, “Honey, where are you?”

I was under the desk. Desks provide excellent shelter in bat emergencies. I was also still on the phone with Stef, who was amused by all the shrieking and shouting she could hear.

The bat lured the boys upstairs. C suggested that he try and shoot in with his bow and arrow. We all voted no.

Stef and I finished our conversation. I emerged from under the desk, terrified, but wicked curious. I saw the bat swoop by. I swear its wingspan was five and a half feet. The rest of the family claims it was closer to five and a half inches, but what do they know?

There was much thumping, shouting, and leaping upstairs, where the boys were trying to subdue the bat. Much shrieking and yelling, too.

At this point the bat was thinking, “All this trouble just to watch cable. I should sign up for Dish Network and be done with it. Maybe I’ll get that Tivo thing, too.”

At this point I was wearing a large wicker basket on my head. Wicker baskets are incredibly useful things. I think I shall write a poem that sings the praises of good-sized baskets. The handle looped down under my chin. It was cute.

The bat was subdued by a lovely forehand shot of the tennis racket (it almost landed on C’s head) and dispatched out of doors. Just to be sure, I kept the basket on my head for the rest of the movie. The family ignored me, but I could tell they all secretly wanted their own Anti-Bat Protection Baskets.

We haven’t had any other critters visit, but just in case I have positioned baskets at strategic intersections throughout the house. I suggested that we make tennis rackets an important part of our interior design plan and hang one in every room. The family voted me down.

That is my bat story.

Here’s another nice addition to anyone’s End of Summer List: wake up and put on a sweatshirt because the house is cold. I did that this morning.

I had a plot twist idea last night. A really good one. I think. Am chomping at the bit to see if it will actually work in the book, so today’s entry is short.

Catherine writes: … just over a year ago I read on IMDB that speak was a film, just imagine how ecstatic I was to find that out, but what im not at all happy about is there seems to be no information on a UK realise of the film! Im staying hopeful that the film will come out over here in England, but if you could give me some information, then that would really make my day!

I believe the movie has already been shown in Hungary and Australia. (Don’t ask me why. I have no flipping idea.) But I haven’t head of any UK plans. Does Showtime have a channel in the UK? If not, then I imagine the DVD will make it’s way there soon. If anyone out there has any more ideas about this, please chime in.

The boys are off to the woods today and the house is quiet. Outside is grey and quiet – perfect writing conditions. If I can reach today’s goal, I’m going to attack the file cabinet and then I’ll have more boxes emptied. (The office still looks like I just moved in.) I love days like this.

ADDED LATER – I forgot to say that the interview yesterday seemed to go well. The journalist, Mike Hughes, writes for the Lansing State Journal and his articles are syndicated through Gannett News (which means they could pop up in lots of papers across the country, I think). He said the piece should run before 9/5 (the SPEAK premiere), but he didn’t know how many papers would pick it up. If any of you guys see it, please let me know. Mike was really nice and he gets five stars because he actually read the book!!! (Not many journalists take the time to do that.)

But still, it was hard, maybe because I used to be a reporter. It is much easier asking questions than answering them.

No writing has been accomplished yet today. Sigh. It was a morning of grown-up nonsense: going to the bank, blah, blah, blah. On the bright side, one of our kids dropped in for an unexpected visit – that was awesome.

Now I’m waiting for a newspaper reporter to call for an interview and it’s hard to focus on much. Sometimes I’m my worst enemy when it comes to these things.

I’ve decided the fancy-pants organization board needs some ribbons, and I’ll be driving a fabric store later so that works out nicely. I think I might as well use the rest of the day to set up my files (currently in several boxes) and since I’ll be in organization mode, pull together my quarterly tax payments and figure out the plane reservations for the upcoming October travel.

I want to come up a list of summer things I didn’t do this summer…. things I’ll try to squeeze in before the snow flies. But I am a wee bit brain dead and need help.

So – what summer things did you forget to do?

Ah, the stupid little things that make us smile. My office is slowly coming together. Last night my BH hung the fancy-pants organization board I bought. Thing weighs a ton, but he assures me it will not rip a giant hole in the wall and cause the building to fall down. (He built the house so he should know.)

I have a lot of projects going on right now, and I start travelling again in October, so it is a relief to have the board up. I live in mortal fear of getting a phone call and the person says on the other line “Um, we’re expecting you to give the keynote speech to the Big Teacher Conference in Faraway State, ah, in ten minutes. Any chance you could make it?” Or an editor will call and say I book I had totally forgotten about is six months overdue.

My board will make sure that doesn’t happen.

The other day I stumbled across the fact that Thomas Jefferson kept a couple of organizational aids too (scroll down to the middle of the page).

I could rant for many more paragraphs about all my little organizational gadgets, but then I wouldn’t meet today’s writing goal, and my family would roll their eyes because they are all SICK AND TIRED of me and my crazy calendar lust. So I am creeping back to work now.

Wishing you all an organized and well-annotated day.

Don’t know about where you live, but up here it’s beginning to smell a little like fall, especially first thing in the morning with the fog laying loose on the cornfields. I’ve never gotten over the sense that the New Year really begins after Labor Day, not January. My stomach gets jumpy at the thought of another school year, even though I haven’t had to show up for class in a long, long time.

The trees will start turning soon.

More work on my WIP today. I barely recognize it from the little idea which originally hatched. I keep having dreams in which I am told to act fearlessly in very scary situations. Well, duh, I figured out that one.

Sandie, a cool YA librarian from Philly writes: One of my librarians just asked me if you are working on a sequel to Fever. Can’t wait to watch Speak – are there any posters?

I want to do a FEVER sequel someday, but it’s not on the table yet. Showtime is doing a lot of SPEAK publicity (commercial alert – movie premieres September 5th, 9 pm, on Showtime and Lifetime) but I haven’t seen any posters. They do have a trailer for the movie up.

Sarah writes: I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed Prom, as well as your other YA books. My friends and I are ‘normal kids’ so it’s nice to read about kids who are more like us. I was wondering what Ashley’s charges were in Prom when she got arrested. I couldn’t find an explanation (it’s still an awesome book, though).

Thank you. Nervous, petrified authors like hearing that people liked their latest book when they are trying to write a new one. The jerk vice-principal in Ashley’s school had her arrested for trespassing because she wasn’t supposed to be at the prom. Basically, the judge laughed at the charges and sent everybody home. One of my favorite reviews for the book ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the the reviewer said that PROM was not a happily ever after story, but a “happier than before” story. I liked that a lot.

Question of the day – what do you think of the movie trailer?