T: Tammy the Turtle #AtoZChallenge

So maybe I didn't hit post and just saved this as a draft, though it does have the 23rd as it's schedule. At any rate here is my T post:

Max swung out of his tree and made his way over to the shallows in Mirror Lake. Birds chirped their early morning melody and the crisp cool morning forest air felt fresh on his face.

The air warmed as he reach the lake shore, the sun warming the shore rocks and the trees at the forest edge. One rock near the shore had a green dot. Tammy. Max grinned and swung into the tree closest to the shore. He grabbed a low laying branch with his tail and paused a moment. Tammy had her face in the water. As she started pulling her head out Max relaxed his paws and started falling. "Eeee", he squealed in his drop. His tail held and he stopped about a foot above Tammy.

"Aaah" Tammy jumped and nearly fell off her rock. She snapped playfully at him with her beak as she crawled back onto the flat part of the rock. Max was laughing and she soon joined him.

"Find any good pebbles?" Max asked. He lowered himself out of the tree and sat on the rocky sand near the water's edge.

"Sure," Tammy reached a front leg out and pointed to a small pile of pebbles in the next rock. The rock had a slight low spot in the middle perfect for holding pebbles.

Max grinned and reached for a pebble. He rolled the cool smooth small stone around in his paws. Tammy also picked one up. On Max's count to three they tossed the pebbles into the lake in between two waves. Plunk plunk sounded as the pebbles landed then sunk.

"Mine went farther," Tammy said with a grin on her face.

"Luck my friend," Max replied.

They each picked up another pebble and tossed them again. Plunk plunk. Max's went farther this time and they both laughed. What a way to spend the morning. Chatting with a friend and tossing pebbles in the morning sunlight.

G: Geordie the Giraffe #atozchallenge

Max swung through the trees dodging various branches. He stopped briefly in one tree enjoying the view where the trees thinned out onto the plains.

"Do you mind? I was just about to eat that leaf." Two eyes peered at him through the leaves.

"Sorry," Max said and stepped over. "I'm Max."

"Geordie," the giraffe replied in between bites of the leaf.

Max chatted while Geordie ate, telling him about his favorite parts of the forest to swing through.

Geordie smiled at Max then looked up. A few large leaves on a high branch gleamed in the sunlight. "Those tall leaves are extra tasty, but they are too high even for me."

"But not for me," Max said and swung upwards then scampered up the tree. He plucked the leaves and swung back down the Geordie's head. "Here you are."

"Why thank you." Geordie took the offered leaves and started eating them. While he did Geordie told Max about his heard and some of the best places he liked to eat

F: Farley the Frog #AtoZChallenge

Max the Monkey skipped along the creek shore. The water splashed over rocks and gurgled in little gullies. He laughed seeing a leaf float along.

"Ribbit!"

Max stopped and stepped closer to the creek's edge. In the mud next to the shallows two eyes peeked out at him. The eyes were followed by a light green body as the frog landed on a rock. "Hello I'm Max," Max said. He had heard of frogs before from Tammy his turtle friend. He had even met a few before. Not this one though.

"Farley," The frog introduced himself. "Fine day we are having, no?"

"Fine fine indeed," Monkey replied. "It would be even more fun if we could play. Would you want to?"

"Sure. How about hopscotch?" Farley leaped up to the bank sitting right at Max's paws. He looked up at the monkey.

Max had to ask what that was. The frog croaked again, his call sounding through the trees around them. Farley took a large leap back into the creek. He landed on one rock, then leaped to another. In a few moments he was on the other side of the creek. He paused before returning to Max.

"Like that. Stay on the rocks and don't get wet." Farley smiled at Max.

"I am in," Max replied with a grin of his own. He jumped into the creek, paws landing on rocks. Farley followed finding other rocks to leap onto. They both laughed while jumping around.

(Today was almost F for frazzled - it's one of those days)

E: Ellora the Elephant #atozchallenge

On a fine sunny day Max the monkey wandered into the grass lands. He liked seeing different places. The air was warm here and he could see for miles. A slight breeze ruffled his fur.

Sounds filled the air, shaking rattling in rhythm. Max looked left and saw a heard of elephants standing in a circle. He grinned and scampered off in the direction.

"Hi there," said the elephant closest to him. She held a coconut by a stick which rattled as she lowered it. "My name is Ellora. Want to join in our song?"

Max introduced himself with a bounce and agreed to join in. He grabbed the offered coconut with both paws. The stick stuck out off to the side. He jumped and the coconut rattled. Oh what fun.

"Keep in time with us," Ellora said shaking her own coconut.

Max followed her lead shaking in time with her and the other elephants. He jumped, he moved his arms up and down. Why he even spun around a few times.

Ellora laughed with a trumpet sound. Max squealed along with her not missing a beat. He moved along with the group dancing with coconut held high.

D: Della the Duck #AtoZChallenge

Max sat on the soft soil on the creek bank watching the water slowly flow past. What fun could he find today?

Max jumped up and stretched his legs. "Eeee eeeee" he said and scampered along the bank.

Reaching a bend a voice called out, "What is with that racket?"

Max looked closely and noticed a duck in the reeds on the creeks edge. Her brown feathers gleamed in the afternoon light. "Sorry," Max said.

The duck laughed, quack quack quack. She swam out of the reeds into open water. "Pulling your feathers pal. That is nothing compared to a good quack. Della is my name."

"My name is Max," he grinned and jumped up and down a few times. "You are on. OOOOHHH AHHHH EEEE" Max threw his head back and chest forward in his monkey calls.

"Nice to meet you" Della replied once Max finished. She flapped her wings smacking the surface of the water. "QUACK QUACK HAAA HAAA HAAA"

Max laughed Della's quacky laugh joining in.

C: Charlene the Chipmunk #AtoZChallenge

Max had fun playing with Bianca the butterfly earlier even though she was no match for him in a race. He had waved goodbye to her and headed north into the forest. He swung through trees and landed in a clearing his paws landing on soft moss. He glanced around enjoying the cool forest air and hearing the birds.

"Chirp chirp chip chip," sounded from nearby. That's a funny bird Max the monkey thought. Wait he had heard that before. Max scratched his head while thinking. Chipmunk! That's right, it was a chipmunk.

"Hey there chipmunk," Max called. There was no response aside from the chirping quieting. He called again.

"What do you want," a little face followed the voice. He could just see it peaking out from behind a fallen log.

"I wanted to say hello," Max replied. "I'm Max."

"Charlene, but only to my mother," The chipmunk replied. "Char to everyone else." She crept up to the top of the log and looked at Max.

Max smiled at her. "Would you like to play a game?"

Char started to shake her head but paused. A soft smile spread across her face and she nodded. "Sure, how about hide and seek?"

Max agreed, and they decided that she would hide first. Max covered his eyes with his paws and turned away. He counted to twenty before turning back to the clearing. He first checked the log. Nope. He then looked up the tree next to it. Nope.

Max laughed and looked under some leaves and around the moss. The longer he looked the more determined he grew to find her. Finally he spotted a hole in the ground partially covered by moss. He peaked in and saw movement.

"Come out come out," Max said and watched Char pop up. "You didn't say anything about going underground," He said when she crawled out.

"We didn't say it was off limits," Char replied with a grin.

They both laughed and repeated the game. This time with Max getting to find a hiding spot.

B: Bianca the Butterfly #AtoZChallenge

Max sighed and swung past the empty rock. Tammy must be somewhere else this morning, silly turtle. Sometimes he had to wonder. Wanting someone to play with Max swung through the trees for awhile and soon found himself at the edge of the meadow.

The meadow. Shades of red, yellow, orange, purple, and white speckled the green grass. Monkey took a good sniff, it smelled different than his usual forest hangout. He glanced around and had to blink when a speck of orange moved. He watched it grow closer and flutter before landing on a bush near the tree he was in.

"Fine day isn't it," The butterfly spoke, looking up at Max with small eyes. "I'm Bianca."

"Max," he smiled at her. Now that she was closer he could see black lines at the edges of her wings and little yellow spots. The whole wing shimmered in the sunlight. "You have pretty wings."

"Why thank you," Bianca smiled back at him. "I did not always have them you know."

Monkey dropped out of the tree, paws softly hitting the ground. He sat next to the bush so that she was at eye level with him. "Really? Well then how did you get around?"

Bianca laughed. "I crawled. I don't remember it to much because I was young. Us butterflies start as caterpillars and crawl around before we grow our wings."

Max's eyes grew wide as Bianca described what a caterpillar looked like, all long and round and fuzzy. With no wings. Yet here she was now all pretty in the sunlight with wings to carry her to the sky. "Wow," he managed.

"I'm sure you changed to," Bianca said. "Everyone does. When we are little we don't know yet what we can grow to be." She flitted her wings to make her point. "I bet your tail wasn't as strong when you were young."

Max grinned, remembering his childhood. He was so glad now that he could swing through trees with ease. He could go where he wanted and see all sorts of places and creatures. "Ya, and it is fun to swing through the trees."

"Race you to that bush," Bianca said motioning toward one with red flowers farther along the tree line. She started off right as Max nodded and he gladly swung after her.

A: And here we go #AtoZchallenge

Yes, plenty of A animals out there but our story needs an introduction. Even though these are mini interrelated stories.

Once upon a time... because its a fun way to start a story... Once upon a time in a place far away lived a group of special animals. Normal animal rules don't apply in this place. Food chain what's that? The smallest animals can live without fear of being eaten by larger ones. A monkey can be best friends with a turtle.

That's right a monkey and a turtle. On many a fine morning Max the monkey can be found hanging from the tree branches over the shallows of mirror lake chatting away with Tammy the turtle. She likes the morning sun on her rocks don't you know.

Max is a friendly sort of monkey and likes to visit with other animals. From the forest, to the lake shore, to the grassy meadows just wait to see who Max plays with.

Blogfest Starting Now

Today starts KarenG's Labor Day Blog BBQ. I just left my comment over on her post and I'll be taking time this weekend to visit other participants. I decided to bring grilled chicken and veggies to the party, I've been eating a lot of chicken and vegetables recently.

And I also want to take this opportunity to say hello and welcome anyone visiting my blog this weekend. I did a little introduction on the blogfest post, but I can do one here as well for new visitors. I'm Claire, and this here blog in my main one. I blog about my writing, writing in general, and other things that interest me. My cats do pop in from time to time as well. My most recent novel drafts have been science fiction and fantasy. I also like to write mainstream. Heck, I just like to be creative and writing is but one way to do so.

I am thinking about other directions in which to take this blog so that it's not just a blog for other writers. The writing aspect is important, I don't want to loose that theme. I do want to make non-writers feel more welcome while giving my readers a chance to know me a little more as well. To me blogging is about community; getting to know and interact with others. In that vain I have decided to occasionally post some of my short fiction. I know I posted about my visiting local parks possibility awhile back and I'm still planning on doing that. It'll be a good break from getting ready for baby.

Yes I do have another blog. In addition to this blog I also have a blog for my beading work/jewelry. At some point I do want to open an online shop for my handcrafts; once I get set up with all the proper paperwork (sales tax and what not official stuff). I do like to post my works there either way, and I have some tutorials/tips planned as well.

And I have four cats, the ones mentioned earlier in this post. Two we went out to the local shelter to adopt while the other two found us through different situations. And I'm expecting my first child in February. It'll be interesting to see what my lap cat thinks of my expanding belly, and what they all think of baby. DH and I have fun guessing what each cat will do.

Feel free to introduce yourself here, and if you are on Twitter that would be cool to leave your @ here as well. It's fun to connect to bloggers on twitter as well. (I'm @Clairegoverts over there)

Upcoming Blogfest

Short post is short. I just wanted to give anyone who hasn't seen it yet a head's up about Karen's Blog BBQ. I participated last year and it was a blast checking out various blogs and figuring out what food I wanted to "bring" to the party (yes it's a virtual BBQ). She has the details in her blog post I linked, but pretty much it starts Friday and it's not to involved.

Games Blogfest

I signed up way back when for Alex's Games Blogfest. Here is my post with my favorite games.

Drod - I love this game. I first started playing it years ago when I bought a disk with many various games and Drod was one of them. This is part puzzle, part monster slaying and it now has more games. The first game starts in King Dugan's Dungeon (KDD) where Beethro is tasked with cleaning out said dungeon. The player controls Beethro through various rooms on various levels of the dungeon slaying all the monsters. Each type of monster has specific rules it follows, moving only when Beethro moves/"waits".

In addition to many many puzzles in all the various rooms across the three games there is also a level editor. Anyone who wants to can create their own levels to play through and can share them on the community forum. I'm still working on the official game levels so I haven't downloaded any other levels yet. I have played with the level editor though and have had fun doing so.

Sims - I've played this game for years starting with the original Sims on the PC. I even had downloaded a tool to make custom objects for the game. Right now I have Sims 2 and various expansion packs for my computer. Because I'm going to be upgrading my computer soon I'm waiting on installing everything and I miss the game. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, but my favorite way to play Sims is simply making up families/friends and seeing how they interact. I don't get into the game aspect of it as much, I don't pay much attention to getting my sims to the tops of their careers or having them make tons of money.

I do have Sims 3 for the Wii, which I've played a few times. While I like it I'm still getting used to the console controls for everything. My poor sim family has a couch facing the wrong way because I can't get it to rotate. (Then again I had cat on lap while playing and the instruction  booklet was out of reach).

Labyrinth - The game not the movie (though the movie is great to). This is something I played with my mom and brother when I was a kid. I couldn't not include a board game for this post. For the game play each player has several cards each of which have the picture of an object on them. The player's token starts at a corner of the board then has to move around the maze of the board to land on the spots with the matching object pictures. The first player to reach all their pictures wins.

The challenging part comes in with changing the maze. The board is comprised of flat pieces with pictures of the maze walls/path on them. Some pieces are permanently fixed on the board while others move. At the start of each turn a player picks up the extra maze piece and has to shift the maze once before moving their token.