Nothing nefarious in my plotting, I assure you… unless it’s toward the characters I’m writing about (she says with relish). I’m in Georgia at a writing retreat with my good friend, medical romance author, Susan Carlisle. As I write this, we’re enjoying a late Sunday supper of chicken finger salads and the gentle sounds of a slow drizzle drifting in from beyond the screened porch.

Our day wasn’t all so idyllic. Earlier this afternoon, we were plotting and became aware of an odd noise coming from neither of us. A rather scratching-with-tiny-feet, frantic, animal-like noise. As disconcerting as that was, we went to investigate and determined that something–likely the squirrel that we suspected had gnawed on one of the dining chairs–was trapped in the fireplace. Rut-roh!

Yeah, our squirrel looked a lot more frightened than this little fellow.

We’re nothing if not resourceful, so we came up with a plan. Our fully loaded computer bags and backpack formed a nice barrier between the sofa and chair. That left Susan standing between the sofa and open double doors to the outer screened porch. We’d propped the outside screen door open in advance. Then I grabbed the broom, moved the fireplace screen and shooed the frightened critter out.

Bless its heart, it didn’t tarry. At lightning speed, it scrambled across the living room and porch floors and leapt to the safety of turf and trees! Whew. What a relief. I don’t know that either of us would have slept well, knowing that a squirrel might get loose in the house during the night.

All is well, we’ll be back to plotting out more obstacles for our unsuspecting characters to overcome as soon as the salads disappear. Who knows? A squirrel story might appear in our book one day. After all, we find inspiration everywhere.

So, that was my day. How was yours?