Lawn Morals

I'm not a fan of pulling weeds. It's not about the work. It's about the emotions. I can't pull dandelions without thinking of Ray Bradbury. I can't pull a weed without appreciating that it struggled to push up through the desert rocks. I can't pull a weed without being aware that it has a name, a genus, a species and a purpose.

Is it simply unfortunate geography for weeds, to grow in this neighborhood that frowns upon them? Or more precisely, that frowns upon humans with weeds between their rocks?

I tried that explanation with Orion. That nothing was wrong with the plants, but that they grew in the wrong place. He says that makes no sense. He is right.

How does one explain lawn morals to a Poppet?

Possibly I should put up tiny tombstones with names of the plants. My neighbors would likely frown upon that too, but I would've made some sort of point, at least to myself.



Possibly ONE DAY I can live somewhere else, that is mine, where weeds can have their season.



The birthday party went extremely well. I must get permission from parents before posting more photos. But it was a long day of play and bouncing and cake. And me hoarse from pretending to be the alien haunting the bounce house. I am a child inside. I will always be willing to humiliate myself for giggles. If I'm smart.


My hand is tired. My sculpting hand is my 'main' hand, is my signing hand too. It was great to see Larry, though we were signing in completely different rooms and had not nearly enough time.

I sat for hours with Peter Beagle and we talked and listened and discovered a something that we need to make together. The something actually sort of presented itself, very much like magic.
I'm very happy to be working with him again. Of course I am.

He is Peter S. Beagle.
And it is my great honor.




Copies of Strange Light, Strange Roads and Strange Birds are available in our ebay store.

Strange Books, Strange Panels, Strange Folk

One of the panels for Strange Machines, and a close detail below so you can get a look at the texture.

Thanks to Holly, Jade, Heather and Jess, it's moving along. Jess's panel didn't make it-- postage from the UK was ridiculous. Still, she sent me this photo of her effort with Poppets and says she'll turn her panel into art. I count that as inspiration.

Book signing at Mission Hills:
Larry Niven! We went to lunch, where the food was terrible. Really. But the conversation was great. By the last half hour, we had the seed of a story idea for Strange Light and are continuing our discussion through emails.

ok. Here this woman walks up to Peter and does a little dance and says "Guess who I am!" She turned out to be a good friend he went to college with, but our expressions seem to ask for explanation. Otherwise you'd make crazy stuff up, or just assume we look goofy for no reason.

It was great spending time with Peter. I'll put the signed copies with "Spook" Poppets in the store tomorrow. And we've made some extra "Spook" Poppets for the people who've already ordered books.

Here I just look goofy for no reason. Sometimes my eyes look slightly crossed in photos. Probably because sometimes my eyes are slightly crossed.

This is Greg Ketter, of DreamHaven Books, publisher of Strange Birds, Strange Roads.

Off to the studio I go...

Home, Poppet People and Strange Light

At Balticon on Saturday, it rained. I excused myself from the conversation I was involved in and walked directly outside to relish the downpour for a few moments. I lifted my face to the rain with joyful abandon, but without the usual nostalgia.
Then last night, walking through the micro-cooled mists of downtown Palm Springs, I felt an unexpected and sudden sense of home. Am I falling in love with this desert?

sheesh



In July, perhaps I'll come to my senses.



I truly enjoyed the Poppet Planet Launch party. There were exceedingly nice people there and I heard some insightful and thought-provoking comments.

Poppets tend to keep very good company.



There are some photos of the fun, and the fabulous cake created by Heidi (faeriedusted), here http://www.poppetplanet.com/forums.html in "Spare Parts."





I enjoyed a bit of clowning around with Larry Niven, whose brilliance is complimented by a twinkling sense of humor.
I'm extremely pleased to tell you that he has agreed to adopt the "Strange Light" title in the Strange chapbook series.
The title is Larry's own suggestion, and seems to fit him perfectly. I'm looking forward to creating images for Strange Light. How cool is that? Already I'm clearing a room in my brain. Now to clear my schedule. No better motivation than a project I can't wait to dive into.

There's more...but Blogger imaging program seems to have stopped working for the moment.

In the meantime, I've put some Little Red Poppets up on Ebay, and a few of the "Little Pink" open edition casting as well.

You can find them here: Poppets