Temporary Housing

     Good news awaited me the next day at school. The FFA needed a spring project and

they could build a chicken coop for my little brood. With four chickens now flying, I

knew my problems would increase, if I kept them in the kitchen. Although the coop the

FFA boys were building wouldn’t be finished until after Spring Break, I had an idea.

Using existing chain link fencing I made a six by three foot enclosure out in the back yard.

     Although it didn’t have a roof, the new pen was not a dozen feet from the back door. I

placed a small wooden box on its side at one end of the pen in case it rained. Before

leaving for school the next morning I transferred their metal feeding container and water

jar to the penoutside.  Then after placing a towel in the bottom of my blue plastic food

carrier, I loaded all four at once and carried them to their new home outdoors.

     They huddled together in the cool morning air for a few minutes before they began

investigating. Maddie and Minnie, one foot at a time cautiously suspended, went to check

the box at the far end of the pen. Meg and Jo stayed in one spot and pecked at the grass

 around them. Since they seemed so content, I left for school satisfied that all the

chickens would enjoy their first day in the open air.

Wrong.

     When I came home at 4:00, two chickens were lying in the pen, dead. A

 neighbor would report later she had seen a hawk flying in the back yard that afternoon.

Heartsick at the sight, I reached down and gently gathered the remaining two in my arms.

I squatted down beside the pen, holding Minnie and Maddie in my lap for a long time. Tears wet my arms.

Henny Penny, the sky is not falling!

IIt's All About Action

Like the bluebonnets that dot the Texas hillsides, the books written by Lisa Wingate decorate the bookstores and bookshelves in Texas homes. She gave out a list of writing techniques you want to hear about:
Make every scene in your story a living experience.  Show Don't Tell is sometimes approached as a complicated concept, but really it is very simple.  Readers want to experience the scene personally. In any great scene your reader should be feeling and experiencing the same stress, fear, emotion, and excitement your character is feeling.
--Make a notebook of good examples to get you into the flow of writing a good scene. Divide it into sections according to the type of scene---action, romance, flashback, etc. Use this to get into the flow when you're about to write or when you're stuck.
  --Let the audience live it. A scene should be a living experience. Consider the most recent brain research on fiction. When we read good material, our brains light up just as if we were going throught he actual experience.
--No over-sharing, please! Trust the readers bring in their owon personal experiences.  Good writing is like a symphony. Your words are the melody but in each reader's brain, there is a little conductor ready to pull the reader's personal experiences and combine them with the story. Why is a scene about rejection in junior high school powerful? Because we all know how it feels. The story begins with the writer and lives with the reader. Trust the conductor in the reader's brain to add new instruments to the scene. Don't over-explain. Readers are smart.
--Create tension and conflict. How do you create tension/conflict on the page?
    1.Thoughts, felings , and gut reactions.  Get into the head of your point of view character and ask yourself what is he or she is seeing, feeling, smelling? What is he or she thinking?What are his or her prejudices or fears? How will he or she react to the situation?
  2. Use the 5 senses. Try to incorporate all of your character's senses.
  3.Live it, don't describe it. Show the audienve how it feels rather than telling how it feels.
  4. Include a setting that fits the mood. Use the setting to enhance the stress, provide contemplation, or emotion.  Storms=crisis etc.
  5. Show thoughts and feelings as a reaction to ongoing action in the story.
  6.  Body languate, body language, body language.
  7.  Show how this scene could be life or death in some way.
  8. Sentence structure--the rhythm of sentences affects mood and speed of reading.  These things give          the pros the appropriate feel for the scene.

Mistaken Identity

Yes, I see you’re getting too big for your boxes. That thought sent me to Tractor Supply to

check out possible chicken coops. They didn’t have any in their store, but they showed me some

online. After investigating all the possibilities, I chose the absolute best one--- a terraced wooden

roof, a removable metal tray positioned under the roost for easy cleaning, and four nesting boxes,

one for each hen. Only thing, in order to make an online payment, I had to go home and bring it

 up on my computer.

      What fun! I clicked on the page and there it was. On the bar panel to the right of the

 screen appeared the very same coop, but on sale. A slightly lower price and delivery in two

days! Imagine that. I clicked the one on the right and finalized the order.

     Sure enough, two days later, the coop appeared on my porch—in two boxes, that is.  I tried to

 move one but couldn’t budge it. When the handyman, Dan, came by later that day he moved it

into the garage. And Saturday a church friend, Steve and his grandsons, came to help assemble it.

 Not an easy job at all, but it was really handsome when they finished.  The roof, the metal tray

that slid in and out, and the two nesting boxes. Two? I need four.  Back online I could see the

 mistake was mine. The coop only held two.

     So, while I had the computer open, I listed it on Craig’s list. I must’uv had a dozen calls that

 evening from people wanting to raise just two chickens. The first people who called pulled up

early the next morning, in the rain, with their flatbed and bought it. Now what?

One Two Buckle Your Shoee

    When the baby fuzz disappeared, pinfeathers emerged. Personalities formed. Meg grabbed the leader position hands down. Whenever she spied a spec on the side of the cardboard, she'd peck and the others came running to see what she'd found. If she'd fly a short spurt across their box, so would they.

    Jo, meanwhile, chose to be the loner, while Minnie and Maddie acted like Bobsey Twins. As the chicks grew, the box shrunk. Good thing Karen, the church secretary, called one morning asking if I needed the big computer box they had just emptied.  Oh yes!

     I got real busy cutting wide doors in both boxes, and joining them together. When I finished I had created a fancy double wide! Changing and cleaning out shavings became a breeze, post-reconstruction. The little brood could occupy one side while I cleaned the other.

     When the time came to install my feather duster for a roost, I punched two holes in opposite sides of the box, sliding the handle in place.  Later, when darkness descended, I peeked in to find all four little angels on their perch fast asleep. All's well that ends well, so it goes.

     However, one week later, I came in from church to find Maddie sitting on the top edge of the double wide. She didn't flinch or move a feather as I closed the door behind me. Frantically, my eyes searched the room for other escapees.  None. Only Maddie, sitting very still, waiting to see if I noticed her---I noticed!