Victoria Zigler's Blog: Zigler News, page 139

#Furkid Friday: Jacob The #Degu's Struggles With Lost Pals

Hi humans, rodent types, and anyone else reading this.

This is Jacob the degu.

I'm a very sad degu right now, because I was still really missing my best pal (my gerbil brother, Bilbo, who went away in April) when my degu brother, Jasper, also went away a couple of weeks ago.

Jasper and I were really close. I'd comfort him when he was upset, and make our other degu brothers, Jenks and Joshua, leave him alone if they got too rough for him. But now he's gone, and I don't understand where, or why.

First the big white Kero dog went away, and then Bilbo, and now Jasper.

I loved the big white Kero dog; we were great friends. He used to let me sit on his head, and climb all over him, and he'd come to the bars of my cage for me to talk to him. When the big white Kero dog went away, Bilbo and I became even better pals than we had been, because he was there to listen to me and give me comfort. Now, I've not only lost both my pals, but also the brother I was closest too; the brother I looked out for.

Where do they keep going? Why do they leave me behind?

Why won't they come back when I call for them? I've called and called, but they don't come. They always used to come when I called for them. Why aren't they coming now?

The human caretakers say they went to some place called "Rainbow Bridge" and I'll see them again one day, but hopefully not too soon. But this just confused me even more.

I've tried to make sense of it, but I just don't understand, and it makes me very sad.

I'm stressing out over it so much I'm losing fur. The human caretakers tell me it's OK, and I shouldn't stress over it, but I can't help it. I miss them so much, and no amount of hugs from Jenks and Joshua, or even extra attention from the human caretakers, are making me feel any better.

Apart from being really sad, and losing fur, I'm fine... I'm even eating well... Just in case you were worried. I'm just missing my friends and brother so much, and not dealing with it as well as the others are. Even Baggins - who is now on his own in the gerbil cage, and has been for a little over two months now - is coping better than me.

I'm just really struggling with this... Why did they leave me?

Squeak soon,
Jacob

#Writing Wednesday - June 29th 2016

"Jeffrey The Orange Alien" - my first attempt at a science fiction story for children - has now been pre-released, with an official release date of August 27th 2016.

Those of you who pre-order my books as eBooks via sites like Barnes & Noble, the Apple iBookstore, etc, should now be able to do so, since the book has been accepted for distribution to those retailers.

Unfortunately, those of you who prefer physical books will have to wait, since I don't appear to be able to pre-release the paperback versions. At least, not if I want the publication dates to match (which I do). There will be paperback versions though... Hopefully quite quickly after the official release dates.

So, that's "The Ocean's Lullaby And Other Poems" due for official release on July 9th 2016, and "Jeffrey The Orange Alien" due for official release on August 27th 2016. That should keep you entertained while I finish up this story about the Battle Of Hastings, and get it ready for its October release date.

***

I either do, or arrange, everything to do with my books myself. However, I know not everyone is as confident with being able to do, or arrange, everything themselves. And that's just fine.

If you're one of those people, and you feel you could benifit from a little assistance with getting your manuscript published, but still want to go down the indie publishing route, you might want to get in touch with Pplaisted Publishing, who will help you get your book out there.

They also have a great newsletter, which you can sign up for here, with an option to sign up for a screen reader friendly version if you require a screen reader friendly version of the newsletter. The newsletter contains things like interviews of indie authors, details about free and cheap books by indie authors, etc, and if you're an indie author - or, self-published author, if you prefer - you can get in touch to contribute to the content of the newsleterr by being interviewed, or getting a mention for your book(s).

Plus, they have both a Facebook group and a Facebook page, and they're on Twitter too.

***

Do you write for children? Or, are you thinking about doing so? Either way, here are some keys to success for children's authors. There's obviously more to it than what's mentioned in the post, but that's a great place to start.

If, on the other hand, you write poetry, have you ever thought about what type of poet you are? Personally, I'd say I'm a musician, with a bit of cook thrown in (you need to read the post for that to make sense).

Regardless of your chosen age group to write for, the genre you write in, and even whether it's stories or poetry you write, are you having issues with procrastination? If so, don't let it stop you from writing, but instead have fun with it. Pretty soon, the procrastination you'd soon be calling writers' block will be a thing of the past... Future you will thank you!

Anyway, if you're a science fiction writer, perhaps you can get some inspiration from NASA and Mars?

Finally, here's a post about how marketing really works.

#TV Talk And #Movie Mutterings - June 2016

OK...It's time for this month's post of new to me movies and TV shows.

As with the similar posts from the recent past, I've not written very detailed reviews, but instead just given my opinion of the movie or TV show in question, so I've included links to where you can find out more about the movie or TV show, if you want to... Just click on the title of it, and you'll go right there.

So...

Neverland (TV mini series):
This was an interesting take on where Peter Pan came from, and how he and the lost boys found themselves in Neverland. Although, it doesn't fully fit with everything I've read or seen about Peter Pan in the past (it would be difficult to explain how without spoilers, and I don't post spoilers). Despite this, I did really enjoy it, and would watch it again.

Valley Of The T-Rex (TV movie documentary):
This was a very interesting, extremely fascinating, glimpse in to the possible behaviour of the T-Rex.

I also watched a couple of other documentaries about dinosaurs. But I'm not sure what they were called. I know one was about a fish believed to be a creature that has survived since the time of the dinosaurs in its original form, which is still alive today... They were getting photos of, and putting an electronic tagging device on, the fish. I'm not sure how recent the show actually was, but it was my first time watching it. Like I said, i watched a couple of other dinosaur documentaries too.

***

I saw this really cool post a couple of weeks ago, where someone was talking about how the sounds for some of the spaceships in science fiction movies and TV shows were created. The post even includes some clips so you can hear the ones the post talks about. If you want to check it out, go here.

#Furkid Friday: Just A Few #Degu #Photos

Hi humans, rodent types, and anyone else reading this.

This is Jenks the degu.

One of my degu brothers, Jasper, has gone away. We don't understand why, or where. We're just hoping this isn't like when our gerbil brother, Bilbo, went away a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, it's starting to look like it might be, since Jasper has been gone for close to a week now.

The thing is, not only do we really miss our brother, but Jasper was supposed to be posting some recent photos of us degus today. They were taken a couple of weeks back, when Jasper was still here. But, since Jasper isn't here to post them, I guess I'll have to do it. Not that I mind really... I'm just worried about where my brother is.

Anyway...

First, here's a photo with all four of us in it:


And here are a couple where only three of the four of us were in the line of sight for the flashy thing:




(In case you can't tell, there are two degus running together on the wheel in that last photo).

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

If you see Jasper, tell him to come home... We've tried calling him, but he isn't answering. Jacob, especially, is really missing our brother, and calling for him to come home.

Squeak soon,
Jenks

#Writing Wednesday - June 22nd 2016

The following books of mine are now also available in paperback via CreateSpace and Amazon:

*Asha's Big Adventure
*The Magical Chapters Trilogy, Book 2: The Pineapple Loving Dragon
*The Magical Chapters Trilogy, Book 3: A Magical Storm
*Zeena Dragon Fae, Book 4: Zeena And The Phoenix

(Click on the book titles for the CreateSpace links).

The above mentioned four books will soon also be available in paperback from Barnes & Noble, and a few other places who accept orders of books published via CreateSpace.

So, that's every single one of my books for which the release date has been and gone, available to buy in not only multiple eBook formats - which will, one way or another, cater to your needs, regardless of your prefered method of reading eBooks; it doesn't matter if you prefer to use a Kindle, a Nook, some other kind of eReader, or your computer, because there's a format that will work for you - but also, for those who prefer a physical book, they're in paperback too!

For anyone who doesn't know, or needs reminding:

You can buy my books in multiple eBook formats via Smashwords, and the various retailers they distribute to (including Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and several others). They're also available to order through several libraries that support eBook lending. Of course, you'd have to check with your own local library to see if this includes yours.

You can also buy my books in paperback via CreateSpace, and the various places they distribute to (which includes the Amazon sites for many countries, Barnes & Noble, and The Book Depositary, among others). Also, like with my eBooks, my paperback books are available to request from many libraries. Once again, you'd have to check with your own local library to see if that includes yours.

***

Hey, fellow authors. Do you want to help encourage some young people to enjoy reading? Then donate just one book - or more, if you wish! It doesn't matter what genre you write in, as long as your books are suitable for young adult readers or younger. Basically, if the book is suitable for school children to read, then they will be very glad to get a copy.

Actually, you don't need to be an author to donate books. Know of a book - or a few of them - that would be perfect for this library project? Donate it! Yep, it's that simple.

June 2016 #Roleplaying Ramblings: #Cthulhu And #Pathfinder

The Thursday Call Of Cthulhu sessions I was playing ended with a bang. Or, more to the point, with almost every single character either insane or dead (or, as in the case of one of mine, going insane and then dying). In other words, they ended in typical Cthulhu fashion. *wink*

Around the time that game ended, things changed so that we switched the game day from Thursday to Tuesday. Also, Gareth (a family friend who had been playing the Cthulhu game with us) got a job that meant he wasn't able to play for a while. Since he wasn't going to be around. So, instead of the World Of Darkness game we had been planning to play with him (he was going to be the GM for it) Kelly, Dad, Carl (my brother) and I arranged to start up a Pathfinder game. Dad is the GM (games master), and Carl, Kelly and I are all playing two characters each, because a larger party is generally better. My characters are a pair of halflings. One is a rogue named Iby, the other is a ranger named Clover. Carl's playing a pair of gnomes (a female bard named Lorna, and a male sorcerer named Taln). Kelly is playing a female human paladin named Adrianna, and a female elf druid named Zarlera. We've also just aquired the services of a female kobold ranger named Sesserak, who is a party member now, but being played as an NPC (non-player character). Other than Sesserak, who is a third level character, we're all now level two characters, having gone up a level during this past Tuesday's gaming session.

Yeah, I know. As a general rule, you'd normally kill kobolds, not work with them. In fact, we had been doing just that with the few we ran in to previously. But after her comrades were slaughtered, Sesserak offered her services and some answers to questions we had in exchange for her life, and we decided to accept her offer. Of course, we're watching her closely right now, but the offer sounded good to us, and our sense motive checks showed she seems to genuinely want to be on our side. So... *shrugs* If she double-crosses us, we can always kill her later. I feel kind of bad saying that after we lost Jasper over the weekend. But it's the case. Plus, in my defence, I originally wrote this last Wednesday.

Anyway, in other gaming news...

For the game we started up on Saturday evenings, we decided to play Cthulhu By Gaslight, which is basically Cthulhu set in Victorian times. For that one, it's me, Carl, Tory (Carl's girlfriend), Dad, and a couple of friends called Johnny and Ollie. We only have one character each for this one, since there are enough people playing to make up a decent sized party. Carl is GM at the moment, but he's planning to do a rotation thing with Dad and Johnny, so one of them will take over soon. All three have actual characters of their own in the party, so whoever is GM just plays their character as if it was a NPC when they're the GM. Anyway, my character for this game is a Victorian taxi driver named Joseph Beechworth; he drives a growler pulled by a pair of horses named Blackjack and Ebony, and generally acts as the main mode of transportation for the party. I planned this type of character on purpose. Partially so the party was guaranteed to have transportation in a time when a large number of people had none but their own feet. Secondly, because then I could have horses. Haha! Anyway, I don't have a detailed party list like I do for the Tuesday game, but I can tell you that everyone except Carl's Tory is playing male characters, and the characters the rest are playing are: Chester Maynard (Dad), Rhys (Carl), Francesca Cattermole (Tory), Octavius (Johnny) and Samuel (Ollie).

Anyway, The Cthulhu By Gaslight game started in April, and we've already finished one adventure. Everyone survived intact and mostly sane too, so... YAY! We've just started a new adventure, so we'll see who survives this time. *wink*

The Pathfinder game started around mid May, and everybody's still alive in that one as well. So, again... YAY! Like I said, we even managed to recently level up in that one, as wel as earn enough money for some gear improvements, which is awesome!

Although, with both games there have been a few close calls when it comes to deaths, and at least one character in each has been either unconcious or close to it, with hardly any characters escaping injury completely. But, hey, that's the risk you take when you go out chasing monsters... Especially if you're doing it on a regular basis. *wink*

R.I.P. Jasper

Around 8:30pm today (Saturday, June 18th 2016) we lost one of our degus.

The degu in question was Jasper... My food loving, storm sensative little degu buddy.

I'm not entirely sure what happened. He was fine this morning. Yesterday he even gave me his customary advanced warning of the coming storm. Then, like I said, he was fine this morning... I fed him Cheerios at breakfast time. In fact, he was fine this afternoon too. But this evening we found him lying in the degus' nesting box, ignoring our attempts to offer him nibbles. On closer inspection, we realized he was struggling to breathe. We couldn't find any reason for this... His airways were clear, etc. He was just not breathing properly, and all I could do was hold him in my arms while he gasped out his last breaths.

Rest in peace little degu buddy, and know you will be missed; I'll think of you every time there's a storm.

R.I.P. Jasper
March 9th 2013 - June 18th 2016.

#Furkid Friday: #Toys for #Chinchillas and other #Rodents

Hellooo everyone! This is Maizie the chinchilla.



I absolutely love to play! My chinchilla sister, Mollie, plays some too. But she seems to enjoy watching me more than actually joining in. It's a shame, but luckily the human caretakers in this place have provided me with plenty of things I can play with by myself, including a wheel, and a bell.

Actually, I've had two different wheels. The Mummy human said we should have one like the degus have, but the lady at the petstore insisted otherwise. The human caretakers gave in, and got us a solid plastic wheel... You may have noticed it in some of our photos? Anyway, it would have been a perfect wheel for us if we were hamsters or something. But we aren't hamsters, and chinchillas are heavy enough that our weight as we move on the wheel while running is enough to make the wheel tip. I think you can guess where I'm going with this. You guessed it... Every time I tried to run on it, the wheel tipped. If I did anything other than just use it as a seat, it tipped. So, the human caretakers got us a metal one with tight mesh like the degus have after all, and it works much better; I can run on it now!

Here I am standing on the new wheel:


The human caretakers were trying to get a shot of me running on it. But every time I realized they were pointing the flashy thing in my direction, I refused to run, and sometimes even got off the wheel and went to play with something else. The moment they lowered the flashy thing, or turned it off all together, I was back on the wheel. I was having a great time teasing the human caretakers. Luckily, they also found it funny.

Anyway...

The human caretakers have also provided Mollie and me with lots of options for things to chew on, since we chinchillas just adore chewing on things. We've got an actual gnawing block, a constant supply of cardboard tubes, and a selection of wooden things to chew on. The wooden things are our favourites. Luckily, the human caretakers seem to realize this, because they keep us supplied with wooden things to gnaw on, including a wooden ring, willow sticks, a hanging toy made up of bits of wood, and these really cool wooden dinosaurs:



Of course, none of the wooden things stays in one piece for long in our cage... The human caretakers say we're worse than our degu brothers for chewing up our toys quickly. But, hey, we have to keep our teeth from getting too long, don't we?

From what we can tell, the other rodents in this place have similar toys. Although, with a few minor adjustments because of availability of certain toys when our stuff needs replacing, differences in our sizes, and our preferences.

Plus, I happen to think that simply jumping and climbing all over the place in general is great fun too, and spend a lot of time just doing that... Because I can!

Oh, yeah... I almost forgot... Like our degu brothers, we chinchillas also have our sandbath, which we both love. Our ratty sisters were offered one, but wouldn't go in it, and got upset whenever the human caretakers tried to make them do so, and so the human caretakers stopped bothering with one for them. Our gerbil brother doesn't have one either, but spends a lot of time digging in the really deep layer of sawdust he has instead. We chinchillas, and our degu brothers, think our sandbaths are awesome though! We make a lot of mess when we go in the sandbath... Sand goes everywhere... But we don't care. Having someone to clean up after us is one of the reasons we have human caretakers, after all, isn't it?

Squeak soon,
Maizie

#Writing Wednesday - June 15th 2016 (FD)

As a general rule, my stories fall in to one of three catagories: animal stories, fairy tales, or fantasy stories.

I did stray away from that with my "Toby's Tales" series (which, if you don't know, is a series about a little boy adjusting to life after sight loss) and with both "Vinnie The Vegetarian Zombie" (which, if you can't figure it out by the title, is a zombie story) and "The Forgotten Angel" (which, if you don't know, is a story where inanimate objects come to life; an angel ornament, a bear, and a toy soldier). But, as a general rule, if I'm not writing poetry, I'm writing in one of the three above mentioned catagories; often with an overlap, since animals feature in some of the other stories too. I mean, out of the 46 titles I've published, six are poetry collections, seven are the ones I just mentioned in this paragraph (there are five "Toby's Tales" books) and the other 33 - that's 33 including the story I published as part of an anthology, by the way - fall in to one or more of those three catagories.

However, this year I'm straying from my usual catagories again, since I've written my first ever science fiction story, as well as my first ever piece of historical fiction.

The science fiction story is the story I mentioned having first created as a pece of flash fiction back in February (if you don't remember, don't worry about it). It's called "Jeffrey The Orange Alien" and is about an alien who thinks it will be great to visit Earth, except his visit doesn't go quite as he planned. Jacob did the cover for me a couple of weeks ago, so I'll pre-release it as soon as it's been through the proofreading stage, and the file is formatted ready for uploading.

The historical fiction piece I mentioned having written is called "Eadweard - A Story Of 1066" and is a story about the Battle Of Hastings. This year marks its 950th anniversary, so I've written a story in honour of that, which I plan to publish on the actual anniversary of the battle, this coming October. It's in the revision stage at the moment, having just been read by a beta reader who is generally reliable when it comes to historical facts (something I know from knowing him as a person) and is a writer himself. So once that's done, and it gets its edits and such, I'll be able to pre-release it for the date that is the actual 950th anniversary of the battle, since I already have a cover ready for it, thanks to Iggy, who created the cover for me earlier this month.

I'm also in the very early stages with the first drafts of a couple of other stories. But they aren't far enough along for me to be talking about them just yet. After all, at this stage, I don't know the whole story myself.


How about you? If you're a writer too, how's your writing going?

On a similar theme to my update on my own writing, here's a great post about not allowing fear to stop you growing as a writer.

Regardless of your chosen age level or genre, are there barbarians in your story? If so, here are 7 tips for writing about barbarians, which will help you bring your barbarian characters to life.

Also, if you're putting together - or contributing to - an anthology of stories or poems, here's a post that gives a little advice on making sure the anthology flows well.

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Check out these tips many authors may practice, but won't admit to doing. I'm not ashamed to admit it... I do number one every chance I get. I'd love to do number four more often too... There are plenty of cafes nearby I could go sit in, including a few that look out over the ocean. But I don't do more than make a few notes when I'm out and about, because it's more difficult when technology or bulky braillers are required. Sure, I could use the notes function on my iPhone or Kindle (preferably iPhone, since it's easier to use, in my opinion). But they're only good for short pieces, since the touch-screen keyboard slows me down, and makes writing more than a short message frustrating. If I didn't have that problem, you can bet I'd make it a regular thing to go sit at one of the nearby cafes to write, and probably spend hours there with something to drink and my writing supplies... Plus the odd cookie, cake, or other kind of snack, of course! In fact, just last week I was tweeting about how I wished I could be sat down on the beach doing my writing, because the weather was so beautiful I wanted to be out there, enjoying it while I wrote. I did have the sun - and the breeze from the ocean - coming in from my open window right beside my computer. But I still would have liked to be out on the beach, or at one of the seafront cafes, instead.

Anyway... On the subject of your writing taking you somewhere other than your home.... If you ever find yourself lucky enough to be doing a temporary author/artist residency, here are some great tips to help things run smoothly.

On the subject of tips... Before I end today's post, I'll leave you with some tips for using Twitter, which are mostly aimed at authors using Twitter, but most of which can actually apply to anyone who uses Twitter.

Of #Birthdays And #Holidays

June 7th was my Grandma's birthday, June 9th was Kelly's Mom's birthday, and today (June 13th) is my Dad's birthday. I don't know if any of them will see this, but... Happy birthday, Grandma, Mom, and Dad!

Also, as you probably know, Fathers' Day is coming up. It's this coming Sunday (June 19th 2016). Unlike with Mothers' Day, that date is the same for both the UK and Canada. Why they don't just make Mothers' Day the same too, I have no idea. But, there you go. I'm not the one in charge of these things, so it's not up to me how it's done. I do happen to think it would be less confusing if the dates were the same though. But, anyway... Again, I don't know if they'll see this, but... An early "happy Fathers' Day" to Kelly's Dad in Canada, and my Dad in Wales.

Fairy Day is coming up too... It's June 24th. I think it's cool that there's a day called "Fairy Day" at all. Mind you, there's a holiday for quite a few things; some cool, some just stupid. Another one I thought was great was Love A Tree Day (which was on May 16th, if you're interested, and didn't know). But, anyway, if you want to do something fun to celebrate Fairy Day, you could read some of the fairy themed posts linked to here, and maybe try some of the crafty ideas mentioned among them.

OK, before I end this short post, I just want to say... "Happy birthday" to you if I missed your birthday, or if you have a birthday coming up soon. Plus, "happy Fathers' Day" to all the Dad's out there for this coming Sunday. Not forgetting.. "Happy fairy day" to everyone for June 24th!