The origins of Sirius Black, revealed at last

No, not that Sirius Black. Sirius the Eyelashdoodle. Remember him?



If you'll recall, Sirius belongs to my friend Julie. Julie claims that he is a Goldendoodle. I used to call him an Eyelashdoodle because he has the most freakishly long eyelashes I've ever seen in my life.

That is...until I went to the San Diego Safari Park.

There, I discovered Sirius's true nature. He is a Cape Buffalodoodle. Allow me to prove it to you.

Here are Sirius's freakishly long eyelashes:



I drew that blue box around them to help you see them since, even though the suckers are two inches long, they are a little hard to distinguish with the whole black-on-black look he's sporting.

Now here is a Cape buffalo I met at the San Diego Safari Park:



CHECK OUT THEIR EYELASHES:



I mean, come on people. That's two different Cape buffalo, both with Sirius's freaktastic eyelashes. Indisputable.

This raises some serious (see what I did there?) questions. Where did Sirius come from? How did his poodle-parent get access to Cape buffalo in the first place? What was the courtship process like? Were they discriminated against for being an inter-species couple? The implications are mind boggling.

Juls, I hope for your sake that Sirius doesn't start sporting a pair of fantastically curved horns to go along with his buffalo lashes. That could get a bit unwieldy. In the meantime, I expect you to start owning up to his heritage. For the love of rhinos, it's 2011. Designer dogs are all the rage now. ;P

Dreams of change (and Mark Henry)

Last night I dreamed that Mark Henry and I were pregnant. And when I say that "we" were pregnant, I don't mean as a couple. I mean we were *each* carrying babies inside us.

I'll wait for a second, while you have the same "WTF??" moment I did.

Aaaaand we're back. To top it all off, I was having twins. I'm sure that part came from the lovely Sandy Williams, who actually is pregnant with twins.

If memory serves, dreaming that you're pregnant is supposed to be symbolic of upcoming change or transformation in your life. In my dream, Mark and I were both very excited and happy about our pregnancies, despite the fact that I don't want kids in real life*, so I'm going to assume the dream was a portent of positive change in our lives. Twins for me...an agent and editor, perhaps? (pleasepleaseplease) Or maybe something else. Who knows. I'll try not to get my hopes up. Maybe it was just the Chinese food I had last night. ;)

*Direct quote from me to my doctor this week: "I live in terror of finding out I'm pregnant."

TLOS is out in the world

Welp, I've sent TLOS out to my (wonderful! generous! brilliant!) critique partners.

It's such a strange sensation to take an entire world that you created, which is populated with people you invented--all of whom feel as real now as your own family and friends--and expose it, for the first time, to someone else. Very exciting, very nerve-wracking, all around unsettling. Early feedback has been positive. It looks like I haven't COMPLETELY messed the darn thing up, at any rate. ;)

To distract myself, I spent some time today researching YA deals on Publishers Marketplace. Damn, 2010 was a good year for YA! And for debut YA! *fingers crossed*

I also spent a bit of time looking at pictures of piglets in rain booties. O.o (What? Don't pretend like you didn't...)

Rejection

Holy shit, this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Anyone who has ever received a rejection letter will want to bookmark this. Thanks to Tricia Sullivan and Stephanie Burgis for sharing. :)

Things I am madly in love with today

A list, in no particular order:

1. Scrivener v.2.0.2
2. Gerard Butler and the exorbitant amount of man-titty in the movie 300
3. Fight scenes
4. Fire
5. Tea
6. Blankets
7. Puppies
8. Hard-working husbands
9. Lena Headey
10. The luxury of nothing on the agenda but writing

Rawr

I bought a new hat this weekend. It's my most favorite hat in all the world. I love it so much I said goodnight to it last night.



It's a mountain lion. As evidenced by this side by side comparison. (It even has a tail in the back.)



Also? It gives my shadow tiny pointed ears. <3 <3 <3