Tenth Grade Angst Comes Out (Blog 392)

Thursday when I came home from Lord Botetourt High School where I teach, a box of books was on our stoop. My eight book overall, and second Young Adult fiction novel, Tenth Grade Angst is now out. After all these years as an outdoor writer/photgrapher, it feels weird to now also be writing fiction for high school students.

I'm half way through the third book in the series, Eleventh Grade Stress, which I hope to finish this summer and have my Creative Writing students proof in the fall, just as they did for the tenth grade book and the first in the series, Ninth Grade Blues.

Ingram on Western Virginia PBS Channels (Blog 391)

Just a little note that I will be interviewed on the western Virginia PBS series Write Around the Corner on Thursday night at 7:30. The show was originally on Tuesday night and this is a rerun. The show is about my writing career and also covers how Elaine and I met and how my students at Lord Botetourt High School helped me write and edit my first two Young Adult Fiction novels, Ninth Grade Blues and Tenth Grade Angst.

Interesting Morning on the Last Day of West Virginia's Turkey Season (Blog 391)

I didn't see or hear any turkeys, or even spot any fresh sign, on the last day of West Virginia's spring gobbler season. And both my tags for that state went unused.

Still, as always, there are always things to marvel about in the spring woods. I was hunting at over 3,200 feet in the mountains of my Monroe County land, so I was able to listen to a rose-breasted grosbeak singing for several hours. I kept scanning the tree tops to see him, but no luck for the longest time. 

Then, finally, the male materialized just 20 or so yards away and warbled his robin-like tune. The red patch on his breast was dazzling.

I had heard the distress sounds of a raven for most of the morning, so when walking out of the woods to go home, I decided to see what the bird's issue was.  I walked right under the raven's perch.  The bird was only about 10 yards from me, the closest I have ever been to a raven. The bird was struggling to remain on its perch, so something was clearly wrong. I was surprised that the avian let me come so close, again, indicating that something was wrong.

So my turkey hunting is over in Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia for the season. Next weekend, I am floating the James River.

Barred Owls Battle in West Virginia's Spring Gobbler Woods (Blog 390)

After tagging out in Virginia, I've turned to spring gobbler hunting in West Virginia. This past Sunday, I was making barred owl sounds, and four of these owls came flying in to my sounds.

They created quite a ruckus, and I saw no need to call further and decided to watch how the owls interacted. To my surprise, two of them attacked each other in mid-air and tumbled to the ground fighting. Then a third owl flew in to where the two were jousting on the ground.

I could not see which owl won the ground battle, but, to my chagrin, all of that hooting awakened nary a gobbler.  I went home empty handed, but it was a fascinating morning.