Chapter Fourteen

This was another chapter that didn’t really change much in the revision process.  A large part of this chapter comes from my personal experiences camping as a child.  It’s not that I was particularly awful at it.  Just mostly.  I was never a Boy Scout, and I hiked mainly because everybody else was doing it.  When it came to putting on a backpack and trudging up a hill (basically what hiking boils down to), it seemed like something I ought to enjoy, so I did it.  And I certainly liked talking about it after it was done--kind of like a war wound I could discuss with other people.

“See that big mountain there?  I climbed it.”

But I hated climbing it while I was actually doing it.  If I had been put in Buttersby’s situation here, I’m sure I would have ended up on the wrong end of some fangs in next to no time.  I would have been just as incapable of building a shelter--and I even have opposable thumbs to help me.  There’s this show on the Discovery Channel (Man vs. Wild) where they have a man go into some remote place and rough it for a week or so.  I watch it with a sort of morbid fascination--the same feelings I watch Dirty Jobs with.  There are things in life that I honestly hope I never have to do.  I work in a library and I write books.  I like being outdoors now and then, but I don’t like the thought of being too far from civilization.  And now you know something about me that you didn’t before.

So why did I put Buttersby into this situation?  I think some of it was that I could put her in a conflict where I could think about how I would handle it.  Sometimes I like to explore vicariously--by putting my characters into situations and then seeing what happens.  That’s what happened to poor Buttersby in this scene.

In any case, that’s about all I have to say about this chapter for now.  Questions or comments?  Please email me.

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