wolf pups and cherry blossoms

I told you guys I was going to torture you with puppy pics. Enter at your own risk.

Raiden has been growing at a ridiculous rate. Even these pictures are a week or so old, and he's bulked up considerably since then. Almost at a pace of a pound a day!! He's 26 lbs now and always growing. Probably one of the best behaved puppies I've ever encountered. Sharp as a whip too. He's already learned sit, lie down, stay and howling on command.

Bounding through the yard like a wolf.

Attempted family portrait.

Playtime!

He loves playing tug of war with the hammock. 

 Other than puppies and rough drafting, I've also been lucky enough to get my hands on some Lucky13 ARCs. I just finished reading INK by my friend Amanda Sun. I'd been looking forward to this book for  quite a while. It's set in Japan, and while I've never been there, I've spent a good amount of time in Asia and loved it. The storyline involves ink drawings that come to life, and it's so vivid and lovely. There's even ink sketches inside the book (a few of them form flip drawings!).

Definitely add this one to your to-read list. I was so inspired by the descriptions of cherry blossoms inside its pages that I had to draw some myself!

I miss Asia so much at times like these...

feathering the winter nest

Greetings my friends. It seems winter has finally made itself at home (at least where I live), which means I've dedicated myself to spending as much time indoors as possible. Hopefully this means I'll have more time to keep nesting, a habit that's fallen awfully short in these past few weeks of vacationing and new-puppy! (Much like blogging. Ack.)

Wolf-pup Raiden has grown tremendously in this past week. Which means spaces he used to fit into (such as his couch/wall tunnel) are now off limits to him. Not to worry though, he's found other places to rest his fluffy head.

And when he's not blocking the path to the toilet, he tries his very best to look wolf-like and regal in our yard. He loves being out in the cold and digging holes with those humongous paws of his.

I wish my manuscripts would grow that fast. (Ha!) I'm still hard at work drafting the sequel to ALL THAT GLOWS. I'm not a particularly speedy writer, especially when it comes to drafting. 1k a day is generally my average. Sometimes it's hard not to get discouraged when it's growing so slowly. Letter by letter, inch by inch. But suddenly you look up and realize you have something resembling a book sitting in front of you. (This happened to me today, and I'm sitting pretty at 60k.)

Speaking of feathering the nest (referring to the first paragraph), I've acquired some pretty new art I want to show off! My very talented father gave me this original pencil coloring for my birthday:

And my brother bought me a print by one of my good friends who sells her stuff on Society6 (which is such an amazing website!). The pic is of a typewriter, which is perfect for writerly things. :)

I also got an iTunes giftcard for my birthday. You guys have any good music recs? I've been listening to a lot of Dark Knight Rises and Ellie Goulding and Florence and the Machine. (Random, I know). 

my newest sidekick

Husband and I just bought our new house a few months ago, and it's seemed a little empty with just the two of us. So, like any good wife, I've been nagging him about getting a puppy. More specifically, a malamute.

In truth, the pleading has been going on pretty much ever since we got married.

Me: Can we get a puppy?

Husband: We don't have a yard. Or money. Puppies cost money.

Me: Please? Please please please please?

Husband: You're going to do this until I cave don't you?

Me: Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

This Christmas I was hopeful. But we were traveling around the country for a while. But lo and behold, the day we came back, Husband went grocery shopping and asked me to help him unload the trunk. I went outside and found this:

Meet Raiden*! He's a part malamute, part wolf pup in his seventh week of life. And he's so cute. And he has eyebrows. *flail*

We've only had him for less than a week, but he's already made himself at home! One of his favorite places in the house is the space between our futon and the wall. He'll have to enjoy it while he can... his dad is apparently 120 lbs. He's going to be a beast of a dog.

He's already been a great writing buddy. He likes to snuggle up under my feet while I type in the afternoons. (And bite too).

I'm in love. And I don't care who knows it!

Brace yourself for a future barrage of puppy pictures.




*I actually stole his name from one of my character in a WIP. The character is not-so-nice, but I loved his name so much that I decided to use it. It's Japanese for "thunder and lightning." Also the name of a character from Street-fighter. Not-so-nice character has since been renamed.

being katniss (a lesson on form)

Yesterday I got to play this lovely little game called archery tag, which involves shooting opponents with large fluffy marshmallow ends. So basically I got to be Katniss for the night. But instead of running around and hiding in trees I got to fire projectiles at my in-laws for three hours.

There was lots of fun and screaming and bruises and blacklights. Along with a fog-machine.

Problem was, I never actually paid attention when my brother-in-law first instructed us how to draw the bow and shoot the arrows. It seemed self-explanatory. Draw back string. Release. Watch your (not-so) deadly weapon hurtle through the air and find it's mark.

We started playing. My arrows flew. Quite a few of them hit their marks. I was feeling pretty good about my potential Hunger Games survival skills. About an hour in we took a water break, which was when I first noticed the blister-like strip of skin on my forefinger. I ignored it.

Bad move.

When we finally finished the night I looked down and realized that the wound had only gotten worse. Not only that, but there were three other spots of raw, throbbing skin. I hadn't felt them during the game, because in the words of Sidney Bristow, "There's no drug like adrenaline." (Can you tell I'm rewatching ALIAS right now?)

But I sure felt them when my brother-in-law led me back to the first aid kit and spritzed hydrogen peroxide on them.

Him: Looks like you were shooting the arrows wrong the entire time.
Me: Ow. Ow. Ow. *hisssssss*

So yeah. Moral of the story. Next time I will pay attention to arrow shooting instructions. And I will not ignore baby blisters.