As requested, pictures of the ponies. I forgot to bring Scheherezade back to work today, but I took some shots of her with my niece’s ponies (she spent the night last night and we dyed ponies for her; we’ll have to have another session next week to paint them because we ran out of time–dying took a LOT of time because we were doing several different colors, but Kaylynn ended up with an awesome purple pony as a result). Kaylyn decided that Scheherezade was telling stories to the poor headless ponies as they dried all night.

 

And here’s Kaylyn showing off her pony work, including some great modifications on her pony’s clothes.

Now for the work gallery of ponies! That’ll be the next post. 

I forgot my camera today, so you will just have to take my word (until tomorrow, when I will NOT forget my camera) that I had the best afternoon ever yesterday, painting ponies with my coworkers. You can buy a blank My Little Pony and dye it, paint it, add wings or feathers or whatever you want. (Examples of a henna pony, which I want to do next, belly dancer pony, Borg pony, and all sorts of geektastic ponies can be found all over the internet, including instructions on materials and methods.) It was such a blast. Apparently you can do it with regular ponies, too, taking off the design on their butts with goo-be-gone and dying them another color, but I imagine it’s easier with a blank slate. 

And I’m going to do it again tonight with my niece, who I think will be adopting little Scheherezade for her own as well as the pony with the frog stickers we’re planning on for her. Not because *I* don’t want Scheherezade. No. Because Kaylyn has already fallen in love with Scheherezade…

As you can probably tell from my two-week posting absence, I had a great time on my vacation and at BYU Writing for Young Readers. Not much news to report–at least, nothing that would take the few minutes I have to post right now–so I’ll just leave you with my favorite shot from the conference. 

Background: Shannon Hale lives in Salt Lake City, an hour from where the Writing for Young Readers conference was held, and she was going to make it to the local author event they had, but ended up not being able to go. Martha Mihalick of Greenwillow, the other guest editor, and I were sorely disappointed by that. So we sent her our sad faces.

Happy ending: Shannon was able to make it later in the week to say hi. Yay for seeing an old friend!

I ac tually got out of work a day early, so I’m off to pack and do laundry and all those other fun things you have to do before a vacation. It’s unlikely I’ll have a lot of time to keep up on the internet, if I even have internet access, so it’s likely going dark here for two weeks, unless I feel like posting pictures. Which I very well might.
Bye!

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, well, I’ve been working on getting a lot of stuff done before I head out for vacation this Friday. Next week, I’ll be in Utah for BYU Writing for Young Readers. Immediately after that ends (well, okay, the next day), my friend and I are packing up her kids and driving to California, where we will spend a week at the beach, doing absolutely nothing. Okay, so we’ll see a few friends while we’re at it. But other than that! Nothing. Really.*

While I’m gone, you should watch this 24-7 live feed of a mama lion and her cubs. (via

cmpriest

 ) They were sleeping when I looked at them this afternoon, and now they seem to be eating. Cuties! 

*I have a friend who replied to that, “Stacy, you don’t know how to do nothing.” Okay, so maybe I’ll bring a few books along. But just for pleasure reading! And if I get an urge to do some writing on my own book, maybe that will happen. But other than that…!

I woke up early this morning, so I decided it was just about time to give the cats a bath. They were getting grimy and I was getting allergic. Kind of like Winchester getting washed down with a wet towel, only I actually throw them in the tub and hose them down and shampoo them and everything. And they take it. Because they have to.

Usually Mogget, at least, takes it quite stoically. He hates it but knows it’s inevitable.  Tildrum–he’s a fighter. So I just make sure that their claws are clipped beforehand, and make it as quick as possible. 

This morning, it wasn’t quick enough. I’m scrubbing Tildrum’s back, trying to get him rinsed off before he jumps out of the tub, and without any notice at all–no hunkering down, no eyeing the outside. Suddenly he’s just sailing through the air, and there’s a wet tail in my face, whipping my glasses away. That cat can jump.

Revenge is sweet, though
. He’s all clean and fluffy and smelling fresh now.

Yay! 
Finally some resolution for Penny and Desmond. At least, I think. Still have 10 minutes to go.

ETA 10 minutes later: AAAHH!!
 

Many thanks to the teachers and students at Dimmitt Middle School in Renton, WA, which hosted their 7th annual Career Day yesterday. It was an honor to be invited and I had a lot of fun showing the students how a book comes to life, from the author’s first ideas, through the writing, submitting, and working with an editor, and on to the typesetting, design, illustration, and press.

I had a great time! It was a great experience to chalk up for my first school visit.