And if you need other betas, I have voracious readers of the 10 and 12 year old variety.

And I have a 10-year old niece who is also a great reader and animal lover (although she has recently decided that she wants to be an architect instead of a vet).

That's a great idea. I posed the question to JZ in natter. I hope it isn't an inappropriate request. The most I can offer is a bat named Emmett and his name in the acknowledgements.

I booked my ticket to Houston to stay with a friend and visit the Waugh bridge to see the bats (which are my species) fly out to hunt at dusk and am going to call the conservation folks today to see if I can make a bat appointment. An old Bronzer friend is married to a bat biologist, (she's a professor at A&M) and is checking to see if he'll be available to show me the lab.

I really do want to get behavioral/biological details right, even though the elements are in the realm of the fantastic.

Thank you, Allyson, from the bottom of my heart. I think that's of great importance. I know storytellers have anthropomorphized animals since the dawn of time, and I understand the reasons. But trying to re-teach a five-year-old that actual lions don't have the family dynamic of The Lion King is hard.

Not--that your story is in any way comparable to Disney travesties.

Bat caves! Such a great idea, Allyson. And echoing what everyone else said -- write the story the way you hear it, and worry about tweaking later.

Barb, that snippet is awesome. What's it for? Or is it just a seed so far?

visit the Waugh bridge to see the bats

Is that the group where they have to shut down flights at the nearby Air Force base every evening when the bats swarm out of the cave?

Thanks, Beverly. It helps the plot that bats (save a handful of species) don't mind roosting with other species of bats, And that bat mothers are single mothers that have a single pup (save a couple species that have twins, and one that I know of that has triplets).

But you know, internet research only takes one so far. I need to talk to some experts and observe bats.

Thanks dcp! I love that Hobbit snippet. Into the workshop it goes.

Allyson, if you would like my 14 and 16 yo readers to give it a try let me know. They may be on the older end of the target range.

I wouldn't let them read WtVPPLtL because of naughty words, because I'm just that way, well not that they asked to read it or anything. In fact they have shown no interest in reading the books I have on the shelf from Amy, Deb, or David either. Silly kids.

Ben would read it in a heartbeat, Allyson (he's 11) because he's fascinated with writers and writing. Reading something for one of my friends would be really cool to him.

Bats! Allyson, I really love this story.