So the good folks at Blackstone Audio have sent along a couple of copies of the audio version of my latest Tufa novel, Gather Her Round. Once again it’s read by Stefan Rudnicki, who makes my writing sound at least ten percent better. It’s a $35 value, but you can enter for a chance to win one of them FREE by posting a comment below.
Gather Her Round has, as its villain/monster/McGuffin, an enormous feral hog. It’s slightly larger than life, but not by much, and it embodies a genuine, growing and dangerous problem of wild and feral swine in the Southeast. So to enter this giveaway, tell me in the comments what the strangest animal-related thing you’ve ever seen in the woods.
Deadline will be midnight on Wednesday, June 14.
I’ll start.
I once saw a snake crawl to the edge of a stream, strike out and actually catch a fish.
Good luck!
11 Comments on “Win the audio version of Gather Her Round!”
This isn’t what was seen, but rather heard while we were camping on our property. Dead of night. Very quiet. All of a sudden we heard lots of rustling and racing through the underbrush and then a HONK like someone grabbed a Canadian goose and squeezed it like a bellows.
To this day we don’t know what it was, but someone said most likely it was raccoons having sex.
My thought was that some deer stumbled into a flock of sleeping wild turkeys and startled them.
I can’t think of anything good except hiking at red river gorge and long big rattler was across the path. We had to walk through brush to get around him and he didn’t move until I was the last one to walk through the brush and he started moving towards me! Got out pretty quick!
Same trip we had set up camp next to a skunk den and my husband scared something away in the middle of the night by passing gas in his sleep… eventful trip.
Three friends and I were camping at Presqu’ile Provincial Park in Ontario. We’d been fighting all weekend with a Mama Raccoon and two younglings (too old to still be babies) about which of us was actually using the site – humans were losing, btw. We were lounging in chairs/on blankets in the shade one afternoon each with a book in hand so it was quiet. These raccoons came sneaking out of the brush and kept edging closer to us. We saw them but waited to see how close they’d get. Mama seemed genuinely surprised when we moved and made noise when she got close enough to make us nervous.
That night, we were making smores and had the bag of marshmallows on a table between two occupied chairs by the fire. Mama managed to sneak up close enough behind the chairs to snag the whole bag and run off to the brush with them. Then the fight was on among them all. I’ve lived in wildlife populated areas my entire life but have never heard the likes of the snarling, growling, and hissing that came from those raccoons fighting over marshmallows.
We were at a church youth camp, deep in the woods, and seemingly far from civilization. All that could be heard, the strum of a guitar mixing with the sounds of the night, as stars burned brilliantly bright.
The kids had just finished what we call a Trail of Virtues, where the youth, in singles and pairs, walk a prescribed path, allowing them time to contemplate, think and pray about life. It was nearing mid-night, we were all gathered in a circle, adults on the outside, protective and vigilant. The bonfire, nothing more than flickering flames and glowing embers, had created a wavering womb of light out of darkness. Suddenly there came a giant crash in the woods around us, unseen but physically felt. An incredible stench followed this crash as something large seemed to be moving in the night, circumventing our little sphere of light and song.
I can remember all the adults standing up as one, not a word spoken, backs to the night, and praying for the safety of the children.
Then came the waiting. Time and again, ‘whatever it was’, circled our little group, probing, trying to find a way in- but to no avail. With a final crash the presence fled, the sounds of nature returning.
Afterwards we spoke to the youth, describing what the adults had felt and heard, but not seen, only to learn that they had been unaware of anything the entire time.
We still do not know what happened that night, or what the large menacing ‘unseen’ presence was that tried to approach us that night.
In the end, whatever it was that moved through the night was gone, the stench dissipated, and calm once again restored. with the crickets, night illuminating a the night and creating a bubble of
I’ve gone on walks and startled a red fox. We just stare at each other until it edges back into the woods. But I think the strangest thing happened inside my house. We have a cat door and use to have a very accomplished black cat that caught everything from rats, to moles to an owl. Yep, an owl. I was watching tv one night and saw something flop up the wall in the next room. I thought maybe it was an injured bird or bat but it was dark so I walked around and turned the light on. Sitting in the dinning room was a little barn owl looking at me like I don’t know how I got in here, but I would love to go back outside now. I quickly got a towel and carried it outside trying to give it a quick look over for injuries. I didn’t see any so I put it down in the yard expecting it to take off. It just turned it’s head around and looked at me until I picked it back up and lifted it up. It steadied itself and then pushed off my hands flying off into the night. I felt blessed for days.
Would seeing dancing lights out at my parent’s farm count? Nevermind, those weren’t animals. Kindred spirits. I would have to say probably the time me and my now ex went camping at the bottom of an overhang which is a dried up waterfall when the rain is scarce down at Hunters Bluff out at the Archery Club Road off highway 62 outside of Dawson Springs Kentucky westward bound. We were already in our tent and it was zipped up and we heard coyotes in the distance howling which we could here approach our tent and they kept circulating the tent. But they went away and we were unharmed.
not actually in the forest but i do have 100+ trees on property, one night while sitting between my creek and pond i noticed a large ring of small yellow lights glowing around me, never seen any thing like it before or since. turns out it was a ring of lightning bugs on the ground. very awesome sight.
please dont count my writing skills (or lack of) against me LOL
While camping in northern Canada, my parents and I awoke in the middle of the night to hear our uncles fat ,Dachshund, Brown Jug, barking hysterically. We all assumed the dog was barking at a bear that had shambles into camp.looking for fish scraps.
The next morning we found huge bear paw prints and a black bear had indeed brushed up against the side of my uncles tent. However Brown Jug was too terrified to bark, and had spent the night quivering on top of my uncles belly. it was Uncle Floyds bark that scared the huge bear away. Brown Jug was fired!
I just found out about your books! I’m so happy to see there is someone writing AMERICAN Mythology!! Thank you and I’m looking forward to reading all of your work!
Thank you, Isabel! I appreciate it.
One of my last camp outs as a Boy Scout, a buddy and myself stayed up to wash the last of the Memphis Molly out of the dutch oven. We cleaned up and sat around the slowly dying fire. We kept catching glints of nocturnal eyes shining just on the periphery of the firelight. We stoked the fire and threw the rest of the dry wood on. It flared up quickly and there, at what was the edge of the dying light, at least two dozen fat raccoons sat on their haunches, a silent, unblinking, stoic congregation. They sat for just a second, before scattering in a flurry of fur and shuffle. It was a sight that still haunts me on camping trips to this day.