Wednesday Weird

Back to some crazy animal stuff today. Specifically dogs and their relationship with the Overtoun Bridge in Scotland.

pretty, right?

What relationship you ask?

Oh, just the little fact that it causes dogs to kill themselves.

Seriously, it's a dog suicide bridge.

For decades dogs have been jumping off the bridge to their deaths. Records, since the early 60s, show dogs have been jumping off the bridge at the rate of one per month, for a total of around 600 dogs.

And it's not just accidental, either. There have been witnesses who have seen dogs jump off the bridge, survive the 50 foot fall, walk back up to the top of the bridge and jump off again.

I find this both horribly tragic (as a dog lover) but also ridiculously fascinating.

What could be driving these dogs to kill themselves using this particular bridge? There's been no scientific conclusion as to the cause.


UPDATE:

I found a short video related to the Overtoun Bridge dogs.

I don't know how believable I find it. I typically have problems with a scientist doing one experiment of one possible explanation, getting favorable results, and crying "Case closed!"

I mean, the scent of mink might get a dog up onto the bridge, but I have a hard time believing the scent caused 600 dogs to jump to their death. Hell, George won't even stick a whisker or a toenail in an inch of water to try and snag a hotdog. We know, we've tried more than once.

Also, if this were the case, I'd think we'd see high dog death rates in other areas that have large mink populations as well. Just my two cents, though.

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In Which Break Free...er...Breaks Free...

So the other day I got second place on a blog contest, over at the awesome Lisa Amowitz and Heidi Ayarbe blogs. Second place won some awesome books, which, as stated, is awesome! Because seriously, I could always use more books. Right? Right.

The grand prize was  a blog banner design and a partial request from Lisa's sweeeet agent Victoria Marini. It was originally just going to be a 5 page crit from Victoria, but she was all, pshaaa, I'll read a partial. Because she's cool like that.

Anyway, Sandra, the chick who won the grand prize had some exciting news. Victoria was already reading her full MS, so that meant I got to have the partial request!

Super awesome great news for a Friday!





BUT! And it was a big but, Victoria had already seen my Glimpse of Another Shore during my first query rounds AND during a Secret Agent contest I participated in last year.

I sat down and thought about it really hard. Yes, I'm still revising Break Free, but also, I'm on the last legs of the revisions. And almost everything that needs to change is from the middle to the end. The first 50 pages only brought me to chapter four, I think, and those first couple chapters had been revised TONS, both by myself and critiqued by no less than 7 other people.

So after spending close to 8 hours on Friday giving those 50 pages a microscopic line edit, I made the decision to send Break Free out into the world.

I'm kind of freaking out a bit.

Here's the thing. I don't usually worry about my MSs once I'm querying them. Because if I've reached that point, I've also reached the point where I feel like I can't do anything more with them. I can feel confident in their query and their sample pages.

And though I'm confident about Break Free (I LOVE that MS) I'm also worried about it because I haven't reached the "there's nothing more I can do" stage. At least not with the stuff past those first 50-75 pages.

Sigh.

Anyway, really what it comes down to is I'm nervous for Break Free's baby steps into the big wide world, but also excited. Because this part of the writing business is always very exciting to me. I love querying and the accompanying roller coaster.

So, there you have it. That's a microcosm of what's been going on in my world.
How about you? What's been shaking?

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Friday Fun

Here it is again! The end of the week, just like we hoped.
Which means time for sleeping in and tummy rubs.

those tummy rubs better be epic...

All right! Onto the fun!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Insecure Writer's Support Group

It's that time again!

I had a nice post all planned out, but then I ran out of time due to work stuff and other things. So then I had some nice motivational pictures to get you all happy and writing but then EFFING Blogger wouldn't let me upload them.

Seriously, Blogger is on my shitlist right now.

Sigh. I'll try again in a bit, on a different PC to see if that makes a difference. Because this is one sad looking post with no pics to spruce it up.

So I guess what this post is getting at is, please check back later for some writerly support.

OR, just remember that you can do it. And I believe in you.

Teenage Heartthrob Blogfest

Today is the day!

The day of the Teenage Heartthrob Blogfest hosted by me, Vic Caswell and Emily White.

As a referesher, we want to see a list of 7 celebs who tantalized teenage you. There's still time to join so feel free to add your name to Mr. Linky below.

Onto my list!

Christian Bale in Newsies

Newsies is an awesome movie. And Christian Bale dances and sings in it. Do I even need to say more?
To this day I still love Christian Bale. I don't even care that he's an ass. That's how much I love him...


Keanu Reeves in Speed

Yeah. I mean, what's not to like about Speed? And Keanu Reeves in Speed? That's some good shit. His arms are really buff and you get to look at them for almost the whole movie. Win.



Heath Ledger in Roar

Did you guys watch Roar back when it was on TV? It kinda started Heath Ledger's career. It was a great show. Man. I really miss Heath Ledger


Julian Sands in A Room With A View

The kiss! The nudity! THE AMAZING KISS! Seriously, this movie is amazing. We liked it so much that we had a club devoted to Julian Sand - LOJS (lovers of Julian Sands). Our AP english teachers was a member. Seriously.


Spike in Buffy

Pushing aside the fact that in real life he was actually closer to my Mom's age than mine, Spike was awesome. Blonde? Check. Vampire? Check. Bit of a tortured past? Check. What's not to like about Spike? Man... I miss Buffy.


Robe Lowe in The Stand

I mean, what's not to like about the Nick Andross character in The Stand? Nothing except (spoiler having to do with something hidden in a closet at a turning point in the novel).


Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet

As shakespeare plays go, R+J is not one of my favs. Mostly because it's so overdone and you have to read it like a bajillion times. And also all the tragdey could've been easily avoided if people just calmed the eff down and thought things through for like 5 seconds. But I love this version. And I definitely love Leo in it, which came out when I was in highschool. MMM.



And that's it! The last two were hard for me to choose, and I had two other guys waiting in the wings that just didn't quite make it, but this is a pretty comprehensive list for me.

What about you? Who's on your list? Do you agree or disagree with any of my choices?

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Friday Fun

Yay! It's Friday! Finally! Which means it is also time for some super awesome Internet fun. Provided, of course, by moi. The lovely, perfect, awesome, splendiferous Yvie, frenchie-extraordinaire.

True Story.

First thing's first - Don't forget to sign up for the Teenage Heartthrob Blogfest! It's live on Monday!

Now, what you've all been waiting for! Onto the fun!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

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Wednesday Weird

How fitting, that the third installment of Wednesday Weird should fall on Leap Year day!Also, happy birthday to all those people who were born on this day and really only get a birthday once every four years.

Onto the weird! Today, we're going to talk about an unsolved death. And not a normal unsolved murder like over at Slam Dunks's blog.

Nope, it needs to be weirder.

Like the Taman Shud Case.

The victim was found dead at 6:30 am, December 1, 1948, under a street lamp at Somerton Beach in Australia, which is why this is also called The Mystery of the Somerton Man. And that's pretty much all we know about this guy.

Of course, there's tons of crap we don't know, which is what makes this case so mysterious and weird.

All the identifying tags on his clothing had been removed and his fingerprints and dental records didn't match anyone. And not just in Australia, either. They looked almost everywhere for the identification of this man.

The autopsy came back with some congestion in his brain that would be consistent with poisoning, except there wasn't a trace of poison found on or in him.

They found a brown suitcase that belonged to the man, but it only held more clothing with the tags ripped off.

But, the best part, in my opinion, was the secret pocket in the man's pants which contained a scrap of paper with the words "Taman Shud" printed on it. The words mean "finished" or "ended".

The text was cut from a book, a collection of poems called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Which isn't that crazy, but it turns out this scrap was from a specific, and extremely rare first edition, translation. So, you know, not just from the local library.

In the back of the book, the cops found a handwritten code:

And no, the letters aren't just random scribbles. They actually are some mysterious cipher. Just one that NO ONE has been able to solve. Ever. And people have been trying to solve it for over 60 years.

And that's pretty much it!

So we have an unidentifiable dead man, who may have been poisoned, with secret pockets in his altered clothing that leads to an, as of yet, uncrackable cipher in a rare, first edition, book of poems.

Yeah. Weird.

But it would make a great novel.

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