Book Review: Way of the Wolf

I just finished reading Way of the Wolf by E. E. Knight.


The story follows the life of David Valentine in the year 2065. Earth has been taken over by a vampiric alien race (they're actually a lot cooler then that sounds). While there are some who have simply given up and accepted their new lives as workers/food, there are some that resist the Kurians. David is one of those people. He has been trained to be a Wolf, a group of guerrilla fighters that patrol the borderlands.

Truth be told I wasn't all that into the story until I was nearly two hundred pages in, but Knight's beautiful way with description kept drawing me in. And considering I have the attention span of a gnat, that's saying a lot. Way of the Wolf is a dark Fantasy/Sci fi, so there is a good bit of blood and death, but I didn't find it excessive. I think some of the darkness is offset by the good ending (and that's all I'll say about that ;-) ). Over all I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Choice of the Cat.

I would highly recommend this book, especially for writers who struggle with writing good description. Really pay attention to how Knight uses words and you can learn a lot.

Don't call the Feds on me, it really is legal

As a Taxidermist we do get some pretty interesting things that people bring in wanting us to mount, but I've never gotten anything like this in before. A Bald Eagle.

Many years ago (before I started working with The Boss), he tells me he got a few calls from people who said they "found an eagle on the side of the road" said they "didn't want to waist it". The Boss' response? I don't want to know who you are. You didn't call here. Whatever it is that we didn't talk about I would suggest that you get rid of it and never mention it to anyone ever again. (For those who don't know, Eagles are highly illegal to kill or poses. You can't even keep a feather if you find one.)

Flash forward ten or twelve years, the phone rings and I pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I was wondering if you could mount something for me."

"Ok, what do you have?"

"It's legal. I have all the paper work."

"... umm, ok. What is it?"

"It's a bald eagle." then he adds quickly. "It really is legal. I'm a Native American and I have all the federal paperwork and everything."

I found out later talking to him that he had called a couple other Taxidermists and they had hung up on him as soon as he said "Bald Eagle".

Of course I was excited to mount an Eagle. Seriously, how many chances do you have to do that? Luckily I had my Federal Bird permit up to date and all the Eagle Guy's paper work checked out. So he brought me a frozen Eagle.

I have to say, even though the mount came out well and it looks good, eagles are a pain in the %#!@ to mount. They have a deep V shaped chest/caller that I had to recreate. That stumped me for a little while before I invented a fix for it.

Still, it came out cool:




(If you're wondering what that yellow tag hanging from his toe is, that's his Federal Tag. You have to keep that within three feet of the bird at all times until the owner picks it up *rolls eyes*)

3 things that get tossed under the bus in November/December

1) Blog posting.

2) Washing the dishes (*sigh* I miss the days when I had a working dishwasher)

3) Anything else that isn't writing related (for November) or present making related (for December).

On the plus side I've got all my Jelly and plates of cookies done. I even got the knit scarf for my cousin done. All I have to do is finish up the last of the Christmas cards and I'll be done! (For now at least).