It is just such a gorgeous fall day out there. And not only is it beautiful, but all the little animals out there seem to be having the time of their lives. They're not just foraging, or doing those life-sustaining, biological-drive thingies that they do, but they actually look joyful, gang; I'm not kidding. They leap around; they play. The one rabbit I have is actually dashing around the backyard -- not just hovering near the edges of it nibbling on leaves, as it usually does. He's running back and forth across the actual lawn. And the squirrels are chasing each other; the many birds are splashing around in the bird bath.

I bring this up, because the beauty and the freedom of it kind of take my breath away. I provide them with food and water and a fenced in yard, and the freedom they get from that is part of my great reward. It makes me feel fulfilled in some way. You know, some of my readers are in prison. And no it's not one of those "cause & effect" type things; my books had nothing to do with them being sent to prison. However, the fact remains that some of my fan mail comes from men who are in prison. I am very conscious of that, and of that difference between me and them; all the freedom that is around me on any given day compared to none of the freedom that is physically around them, whoever they are. Not that I live on some wide open savannah or something; I just have this cute little backyard. But everything is thriving here and so incredibly safe and free. The complete antithesis of prison.

I don't know that any of my incarcerated readers have access to the Internet; I have no idea if they read my blog. I only know that for some reason they get access to my books, and it seems that some of the stuff I write helps them to feel a certain mental freedom, regardless of where they are forced to live everyday for whatever they did.

Assuming you've read any of my books -- don't you find this very, very interesting indeed? I mean, consider the fact that my books are not carried in public libraries but you can find them in prisons. Unbelievable, really. What is that saying??? I don't really know.

Well. Okay. Onward to the brownies. I think I might even make a cup o' joe to go with that. Then an afternoon of editing. See ya on the chaingang, gang.