It is far too early to be awake. But my sleep cycle appears to be fubared. Not sure why. ‘Course it doesn’t help that Hobkin woke me up at 6:30 by walking over my head . . .
After a whirlwind weekend full of people and events, everything’s back to quiet. Hobkin was remarkably unaffected by the influx of new people into “his” territory. He stomped at Patrick a few times, but didn’t seem to mind either him or Glenn. And he didn’t seem too miffed with us for being out for a few hours on Saturday. Maybe he’s mellowing out as he ages?
Writing Stuff:
34-day rejection from Futurismic. The editor continues to really like my work and invites me to submit again, and yet no sale. Alas.
Wrote and published my review of Strange Horizons stories “Magic in a Certain Slant of Light” by Deborah Coates and “Dog” by Jenn Reese for Tangent.
I’m quite delighted with the artwork for “The Storyteller’s Wife” that Realms of Fantasy commissioned (by Heather Hudson). Can everyone find the character inspired by Hobkin? 
:
On the WIP front, writing is much like exercising. I’m finding that I need to increase my word count slowly. Having a hard time maintaining a sense of flow, although I have managed to achieve it a couple times now with this most recent work.
Words: 750
500/day
23
That’s a very sweet cover 🙂
Awesome illo! I love the colors.
Well, 6:30 beats Velvet’s habitual 4 AM wake-up call. Which consists of climbing on me, then leaping from me to Arne. Over and over, with intervals of kneading his claws in the sheets by our heads.
I’m not entirely sure what “stomping at” someone is, but it sounds cute. 🙂
Skunks engage in a ritualized display when they feel threatened (or when they want to play). They “stomp” their front paws down and drag them back, charge forward with their tail fluffed up to draw as much attention to their skunk-ness as possible, stop and stomp again, and often turn to present their butts. Not only is it utterly adorable, but that behavior has backed off predators as large as bears without having to shoot. Skunks only spray as an absolute last resort. They don’t like how it smells either, and they’ve got a limited number of “shots” before they have to reload, so they don’t want to waste ammo.
‘Course Hobkin is descented, but he still likes to tear around the house, stomping at shadows and showing his butt. Silly beastie.
That sounds excruciatingly adorable. 🙂