oh my cuteness!

One of my funny muses is experiencing the sublime joys of eating purple cabbage. I'd like to say she's laughing, but that would not be truthful. Lulu is merely in between chews.

Oh, my cuteness!

rough cover

Rough! Rough-rough! That's me, barking an explanation of the illustration. It's a rough sketch for the cover of Volume One of The Nik Notebooks.

But why bark? I'm at the end of H1N1 and it's all about the respiratory system. The bark has stolen my sweet voice and hidden it away somewhere. I'm sure I'll find it later.


ABOUT THE COVER:
Nik is in a cave she has just discovered within the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains in Guanajuato. Phosphorescence painted on the cave walls gives the room an eery glow.

Nik is startled when she sees a frightening image of Quetzlcoatl, an ancient feathered serpent diety who eats humans whole, painted on the cave wall. Many Mesoamericans worshiped a form of this diety, but the most famous images of Quetzlcoatl come from the Aztec Indians. This one is mostly silver.

And it's rough! Rough-rough!

color palette: bottom shelf

Outside a wind blows, ripping the last ragged colors from our trees, and inside — my refrigerator — on the bottom shelf, fall's perfect palette in the form black dinosaur kale, a green acorn squash flushed with fiery orange, the pale globe of a crisp green cabbage, and the cheery spears of carrots wait to be transformed from cold, earth knowing vegetables to a steamy, colorful meal.

birdsong

I have of late, but wherefor I know not, lost all my mirth.

Actually, I do know. Familial collapse and swine flu took all the words from my fingertips.

But witness this! Words issue forth!

There is hope yet, and mirth will return like birdsong.