Chasing Perfection

Fio had been stuck on chapter five of her work-in-progress for two weeks. She'd gone over it again and again, tweaking bits and pieces, but the picnic in the park, which is the novella's first big turning point, still didn't work.

Enter the hero--the box of books from the romance writers' contest for which Fiorella signed up to be one of the judges. There's nothing like analyzing someone else's opus to  clear your mind about your own.  Fio, kill the picnic scene--remember, you've set the story in March, which is the last dregs of winter, and you made it rain the night before. Cold and soggy is not an an ideal setting for a romantic tryst.

Outdoorsy Snippets

Yesterday Fio grabbed her loppers and entered terra incognita, the southern woods outside the chain link fence that borders Sonia's realm, and was met by a barrage of brittle branches and biting bugs.  Fio lopped off all the branches she could, but couldn't do anything about the bugs, who polka-dotted her legs with bites. Just one of the joys of country living.
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Fio has discovered what looks like another armadillo burrow.  We're the mother lode.
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Husband and Fiorella have a number of outdoor projects going on--cleaning up the southern woods, turning the meadow next to the dry creek into a picnic area, edging the cactus garden out front with bricks, talking to their neighbors about a boundary fence--and when these are finished off, there are more coming down the pike. If you come visit,we'll put you to work.