Mutterings of a Mad Woman

From a grand Halloween display in my office, I moved directly into tackling Christmas decorations in the living and dining rooms.

With the exception of one gift, I am done Christmas shopping.

I have one or two gifts to make, and then I'm free to create. This is important. It will be the first time in months that I will be able to create in an organized space, without distractions of other things I should be doing.

Not only do I look forward to the simple act of getting messy while making some monsters, but it's the last thing on my 'to do' list. In fact, I've been rushing like a mad woman to get the rest of the things done so I can get to creating.

Because you see, I have some news.

It's 99% confirmed. And being a pessimist sometimes, I generally like to keep news to myself until I know the good is going to happen. But I don't think I can keep it a secret any longer, and I don't think I can wait until January.

So here it is.

I'm going to be in the January/February issue of Rue Morgue Magazine.

Well, my Plague Doctors will, in their Needful Things section.

Even with her reptilian-like skin, Agatha is arguably the darling of all my little minions.

She's sweet and gentle. Agatha enjoys strolling along and enjoying the world as a quiet observer. She rarely speaks and never raises her voice. She melodically hums while bending to examine flowers, or while ogling fish in a pond, or just simply listening to the hush of the wind.

Her wide-eyes express the wonder she feels, and I think it also gives us a sense of her kind spirit.

I almost kept her for my personal collection.

And of course, she's on Etsy too.

I have one more minion that could go in the store. He has a pumpkin for a head. Let's see if I have it in me to do another post.

Harriet mumbles. Partly because she normally speaks with a light lisp, but mainly because she likes the sound of her words when they aren't coherent.

Her speech often deteriorates into gibberish, which leads to boisterous laughter on Harriet's part. She's so entertained by her own garbles and nonsense noises that she's prone to walk away in mid-conversation, chuckling to herself, completely unaware of the people she was chatting with.

Harriet is 5.5" tall.

She too is on Etsy.

There's a few little minions you never got to meet before they were taken home to a new family. Marjory is one of them.

Shy and self conscious, despite her mighty horns, Marjory spends most of her time unsure of herself, making her even more socially awkward.

While she hasn't the ability to discuss complex, philosophical ideas, she does knows the important things in life: how to make the perfect gooseberry pie; how to touch her nose with her tongue; three marshmallows are the exact number to make her hot cocoa delicious; be kind to others (and bring pie to social functions as an ice breaker...or an excuse to hover around the refreshment table and not have to talk to anyone).