Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
yeah the wild lbams have the vim and vigor to do the deed --- and i think
may even chase off the so unvirile sterile lbams.
  

    

Susan, your blogs posts are wonderful. Could you talk about some of your
favorite blog posts?
  

    
Oh, the ones where I can just be silly.  Um, dinosaur sins:

<http://tinyurl.com/dinosin>

There's really no place to publish that.  Except on one's own blog.
  

    
The illustrations give it a delicate personal touch.  I had no idea
you were an artist, too.  I'd hang those on my fridge in a heartbeat.
  

    

Susan, that is lyrically funny and beautifully illustrated.  Thank you.
  

    
Such a delight to read.

Bookmarked the blog, downloading Becoming a Tiger.  Wanting more.
  

    
I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK.

I had to illustrate the dinosaur sins, since I couldn't
find suitable photos on Wikimedia Commons.

I also illustrated one about an eighteenth-century elephant:

<http://tinyurl.com/irephant>

l
  

    

Love your writing and the way you think, as always, sumac.

<cruella>'s illustration of the aye-aye is amazing; I didn't know she was 
an artist.

But, I am bereft!  The link to the follow-up story is broken.
  

    

Sorry.  Try this for th efollow-up:

<http://tinyurl.com/moreayeaye>

(cruella)'s an excellent artist.  I like her comic, Meen Comics, um,
at <http://www.meencomics.com/>

Here's a nice* one about dogs:

<http://www.meencomics.com/comic/breed-standards/>

(*Warning. Sometimes (cruella) is meen.  Or worse.)
  

    

Oooh!  She's good.  And meen.
  

    

Susan, for people coming in on the conversation who aren't clicking on the
urls could you describe a bit what is in these wonderful blog posts and why
they are your favs?
  

    
Oh ah, good idea.

<http://tinyurl.com/irephant> is commentary, snarky in nature, on an
old handbill advertising the appearance of an elephant in New England,
and describing its strange ways.

<http://tinyurl.com/dinosin> is fanciful commentary, snarky in nature,
on why, perhaps, dinosaurs were wiped out.

I like animals.  I'm often on their side.  But that doesn't mean I
have to be reverent about them.
  

    
Love the dinosaur post! You're right that

>There's really no place to publish that.  Except on one's own blog.

It strikes me that blogs are a great outlet that freelance writers of
yesteryear didn't have.  


The bit about rabbits crying out explains something I hadn't
understood before - the natural background for this:  

In Jamie Sams' Medicine Cards, where animals are depicted and
discussed according to the Native American understanding of their
"medicines," Rabbit is known as the "Fear Caller." In the story she
uses, Rabbit used to be a good friend of a great healer.  Rabbit has
one horrendous injury after another and the healer always fixes him up,
but Rabbit never says, "Thank you."  Finally the healer has had enough
and says, from this day forth we will no longer be friends, and you
will call all your enemies to you.
  

    

Ooh, that does make sense, doesn't it?

This url:

<http://tinyurl.com/raventoe>

is a piece in the Guardian (of Manchester, UK, not SF Bay) about
fossil footprints and whether they were thought to be from Noah's
raven.
  

    
(I will be volunteering at the International Bird Rescue Research Center
all day, hence off line.)
  

    
The Noah's Raven story is funny.  I suppose that even without a theory
of the fossil record, people knew that calling something "Noah's
raven's footprint" as as fanciful as "Devil's Postpile" and all those
other metaphorical names of the West. I'll bet people knew those were
not literal descriptions.
  

    
(That is to say, I agree with your observation!)
  

    
I want to thank Susan and Mary for a wonderful discussion these past
two weeks. It has been a true pleasure to read.  Now our attention in
Inkwell turns to a new discussion. Thank you  all for your
contributions to this conversation. As always, this topic will remain
open indefinitely into the future for more discussion. Thanks again!
  

    
Thank *you*, Julie and Mary.
  

    

And thank you, Sumac, for a wonderful conversation. We will all be awaiting
your newest blogposts and books.
  

    
The saddest moment of Becoming a Tiger was the end, when I realized
there wasn't any more.  I've been *very* interested in tales of animal
intelligence and the way the artificial barriers between 'us' and
'them' have been broken down, as things we thought were hallmarks of
our species are found in non-primates.  But voting cows and socially
savvy reef fish takes this all to a whole 'nother level.
  

    

Looking forward to more, as always, sumac.
  

    
I wish I'd had time to participate in this interview, but since I
didn't, I at least want to wedge in a note of thanks for all the
reading pleasure!
  

    
Oh, thank you very much.

Being read is the best reward.