Along with the usual squirrels, on Saturday I also noticed something small with a long thin tail in our driveway. Turned out it was a mouse. It was kind of cute, so I had to go inside and get my camera to take pictures and a video. I didn't want to hurt it and was hoping it would leave before we took the van out. I'm glad it obliged. Here's the link to my video of the mouse -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIx6rjOKXBw
A falcon also seems to be hanging out in the neighborhood lately, which is unusual for our area. I did see a fox once a few blocks away, but that was last year, so maybe it moved its quarters.
On one of my blogs, I asked whether or not any of you've written or read novels in which insects played a part. Today, I'm asking if you've included any forms of wildlife in your novels or read any novels where non-domestic animals played a part. Or, maybe you just want to share sightings of animals in your neighborhood.
6 comments:
In both of my Geography books -- Geography of Murder and Forest of Corpses feature a lot of animals. One of the lead characters, Jason is an avid birder and this plays in books 1. In book 2 they go into the Los Padres National Forest and meet a lot of local wildlife -- deer, bears, owls, manic squirrels and Condors, which have a protected area there.
In my romance novel, Lynx Woods there are a lot of wild animals too. Again deer, wood ducks and blue herons.
I often mention birds in my books. Whatever is local to the area will be seen or heard. I like reading about them and writing about them. I've been an animal lover all my life.
Last Saturday I had debut author Bonnie Doerr as my 200th guest. Her book ISlan Sting is a wonderful novel set in the Florida Keys. The book is full of insights into the wildlife with the saving of Ket Deer as a main thread.Her next book "Stakeout" is about turtles. So there are plenty of books with nature and criters.
http://abookandachat.blogspot.com/2010/08/show-200-book-and-chat-with-bonnie.html
Barry
Not the Deputy Tempe Crabtree book that will be out in September, but the one for 2011, is all about bears. Ever so often we have bear visits, not at our house, but nearby. My house seems to attract possums, raccoons, and skunks. They all come to eat the cat food the feral cats haven't finished off. Hubby must be cautious when he goes outside at night--well, me too, though I don't go outside all that often at night.
Marilyn
As he's driving home one night, Dan Stone, the protagonist of Hemlock Lake, discovers someone has placed rattlesnake under the jacket he'd tossed on the passenger seat of his SUV. When he reaches for his seat belt, the snake rattles a warning.
Rattlesnakes are plentiful in the Catskill Mountains where Hemlock Lake is set. When I was young, my uncles used to chase them down on the ledges of Overlook Mountain, then cook and eat them. (A dish I declined.)
My books feature mystery's first zoologist sleuth so contain a fair amount of wildlife. In the forthcoming KILLER INSTINCT, zookeeper Lavender "Snake" Jones is part of a team of investigators who travel to the North Woods of Minnesota to investigate the killing of several wild gray wolves. Murder soon follows.
My veterinarian protagonist, Rachel Goddard, rehabs a hawk and releases it in my first book, The Heat of the Moon. She also cares for an injured possum. She lectures a man who brings in a red bat his cat has caught and tells her he wants to keep it as a pet. (She takes the bat away from him and hands it off to a rehabber.) My characters are aware of the natural world and its residents because I am. I have lots of birds in all my books. I can't believe how many people pay no attention to the birdsong and activity around them!
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