Still writing...

Okay, so as my story had got to a sort of drag-on-side of things, I decided to take it back a step. Instead of them ending up wandering through the Tsingy, I thought, why not let the bandits get them?

So... it looks like Sneak and Aurelia have been captured by the "bad guys" (well, not THE bad guys, just a couple of OTHER bad guys. There's a lot of bad guys around here...) and Karazana and Hery have been dumped into a boat, pushed off into the river and left to starve/bleed/dehydrate to death. Or maybe not, as they may very well wash up on a sand bar and be rescued... Anyhow, their fate will be revealed later. But meanwhile things don't look so rosy for our heroic kits. Sneak is destined for the saphira mines, and Aurelia... well, it's not been specifically declared but it definitely involves some sort of slavery and may involve her becoming a "pet" to... oh I don't know... a rich sugar merchant? Or coffee, vanilla... cocoa... I wonder if any of these are actually native to the island? Does it really matter? My lemurs ride antelope, after all!

Anyhow, I cannot help but wonder if the watching of "Game of Thrones" has made my story take on a distinctly darker edge.

Daily Wordcount: 1,446
Total Wordcount: 60,179

One of their captors stared at him. “You didn't break him, did you Forovato?” He asked. “If his arm is broken he is useless to us. We might as well leave him here to rot.”

The most brutish of the group shook his head, making the bones in his fur rattle. “I only squeezed him a little,” he said. “Weakling.” He spat at Sneak, the globule striking the kit in the face. It trickled down his forehead and into his eye.

Aurelia growled. Her captor cuffed her again. “Be a good pet,” he snarled. “It'll make things easier.”

“If you hurt me,” she snapped, “then I won't be so pretty anymore.”

“That is indeed true,” her captor agreed, his voice deceptively mild. “But we can hurt your friend. He's as good as useless to us anyhow, not worth more than a flawed stone.”

“He's worth twice any of you!”

Her captor gave a slight nod to Forovato. Flashing his teeth, the large lemur seized Sneak by the scruff of his neck, lifting him off the ground. Forovato slashed him across the cheek. Pressed his claws against the injured kit's throat.

“You want me to kill him?” He asked, looking not at her captor, but straight at her.

Aurelia shook her head and dropped her eyes. “No.” She whispered.

Given my tendency to use Malagasy words for the names of the lemurs (although sifaka get French names), each of the "names" actually means something. Basically, I go through the Malagasy dictionary here malagasyworld.org and find a word that describes the personality or nature of the character. I suspect if anyone translates them back, they might be quite amused at how unflattering some of these names are.

Skunk

I have been commissioned to design a skunk bookmark. Because the first one I came up with didn't hook over the page very well, I made a second one, which hooks better but still not as well as the lemur - mainly because skunks have shorter tails.

As an additional extra, I also made a Skunk Totem card:

If your totem is the skunk - you are fearless but peaceable. You enjoy spending time by yourself, but when in the company of others you are shown respect. In turn, you too also know when to give respect and when to demand it.

Still writing...

Today I received my "Birds of Madagascar, a photographic guide" in the mail from The Book Depository. It fits nicely with my "Mammals of Madagascar: a complete guide" that arrived some time before then. OF course, given the vast amount of both birds and mammals that we didn't see when we were in Madagascar, now I want to go back and see what I can identify. I wish I'd had the bird book then, actually.

Did I mention I also have this beautiful dvd? Madagascar BBC
And over 30 toy lemurs, many of which are plushes and some of which were handmade in Madagascar?

You might say I'm a bit obsessive. In fact, go on and say it. I don't mind.

Anyhow, with all this wonderful inspiration (although the DVD made me cry and I've only watched 1/3 of it) you might think I should be writing. And you'd be right. But alas, it's been hard to be motivated and I'd come to a bit of a stalemate. But I am trucking through it.

Anyhow, today I managed 1,280 words, bringing my wordcount up to a grand total of 65,507 words.

And I drew up the lineart for a helmet vanga. Whilst watching "Game of Thrones". Now talk about dark... I've read the books, and those were bleak enough... But in the first episode there were two beheadings in the first ten minutes and another death before the end. Indeed, when we finished today's episode (#3) I turned to my husband and said "wow, that's weird, nobody died."

Anyway, suffice to say, my story is taking a bit of a darker twist. But not really - or not yet anyhow.

And Karazana and Aurelia are currently playing with fire. Literally.

“Misaotra.” Aurelia took from the collection the stick and the moss. “If we twist the moss around the stick, we can light it with your firestone,” she said. “And you can carry it. In your mouth.”

Karazana mused the suggestion for a moment. “That could work,” she said. “Let's try it.”

The first few attempts ended up with the moss falling to the ground, but on the fourth try, it stayed put. Aurelia waved it about. It didn't fall off.

“Now for the fire.” Karazana pulled out her firestone and the small lump of metal. Aurelia held the stick steady, bracing it against the ground. Crouching over the moss, it took several strikes before Karazana managed to unleash the fire in the heart of the stone. Sparks showered down onto the moss.

There was a hiss, followed by a roar as the flame devoured the moss and began licking its way along the branch. Long tendrils of fire snaked out, singing Karazana's whiskers. She yelped and it tumbled to the floor, sputtering to its death against the stony ground.

The maky rubbed her face in the dirt. The stink of singed fur hung in the air.

“Are you hurt?” Aurelia cried, hopping over to her and licking her forehad and ears.

“I... I don't think so,” Karazana muttered, looking up. Dirt and dust clung to the fur of her muzzle and chin, but she seemed unscathed. “But let's not try that again.”

I discovered the concept of "Toy Photography" thanks to the blog: Lens Addiction in which it was mentioned (although she had not done any of it herself). So I decided it was a fun project - after all, toys don't move and you can therefore take your time to line up the shots. I also have a rather large collection of toy animals called "yowies". My mother and I went mad collecting them, and I cannot help but wonder if we were the cause of their demise - ie: we stopped and therefore sales of them declined below which made them worth making. Needless to say, you can't buy Yowies off the shelf anymore, but the toys are still out there.

Please excuse the fact that I can't remember the names of most of these species.

Scorpion vs spider:

Beware! A snake lurks in the leaf litter...

A pretty moth roosts on a winter flower:

(note that the finger holding it in place is carefully cropped)

Eek! It's a Carpet Python!

A tiny treefrog seeks moisture where he can find it:

Another for Summer

And here is my second Chimera of the Day:



Lion/rat for Summer

Metafilter Mutant

My husband found this on metafilter:

Where can I find someone that I can pay to do a custom drawing of an imaginary animal for me?

It's a little silly - my girlfriend has some favourite animals (3) and I wanted to find someone who'd sort of... draw an imaginary animal that's a combination of all 3, just for s***s and giggles.

And since it's such an unusual request, any idea how much it would cost? Thanks.

Since this is exactly the sort of thing that I regularly do, he put my name forth and I received the commission. The combination turned out to be giraffe/zebra/elephant.

So, here is the results:

Interesting enough, there is a real mammal that looked a bit like this - macrauchenia

And I have another commission to work on too - for Summer, the lass I drew the lion/rabbit for. Now I'm making her a lion/rat for one of her other children.

Starfish!

For a special lass who shares my birthday. I hope she likes it.

If anyone knows what species it is, please tell me! Photoreferenced from this picture.

As you can see, I've accentuated the colours - as per always.