The Chinese New Year is upon us! Welcome Year of the Water Dragon! As a rat sign, I look forward to the blessings of a compatible animal year.

So I didn't win the contest, but I'm back to work on The Bestiary. Yay!

Since SoFurry is out of Beta, I'm going to be posting The Bestiary there and do my part to help sus out the bugs. I'm really excited about the site. I've been using it since Toumal gave the go ahead to switch over, and now that it's the main site, it's exciting to see the re-lauch a reality.

Just because I'm posting on SoFurry doesn't mean I won't post here. I'm just mirroring things. I also feel it gives you, the reader, the option of choosing how you want to read my stories. Decide for yourselves what you like.

In order to not bog SoFurry down with the 23 stories I wrote last year, I'll be posting The Bestiary once a week until it is caught up with FA. Until then, FA will have the most recent weekly story, but eventually the two sites will catch up with each other.

My decision to post once a week is so I don't get overwhelmed. One day, I'd like to be able to do one entry a day, but I'm not there yet. With luck, perseverance and a butt-ton of practice, I will reach that goal.

This week is a rewrite of Aardvark. Link here! The first time I wrote it I was in a very 'human' head space, and since SoFurry has rules about human only stories I decided to bring out the furry in it. I probably could have posted the original, but I really wanted to give it a try. Word to the wise -- it's complicated. I wanted to maintain the same feel of the original, but have it make sense in an animal-centric universe. I decided to go with hybrids, because I haven't written much about them and thought it would be an interesting exercise. It required a bit of world building, but it's something I'm sure I can use for future stories.

I took a queue from the English concept of degeneration which suggests that a person's value can go up or down depending on who and how they marry. For my world, a creature's status is determined by the types of species they display. Birds are the genetically untrustworthy ones, because, if you've ever worked or been around lots of birds, you know they can be tricky SOB's. I'm sure many have a story of the bird that always knows when your car's just been washed -- so they can shit on it. Birds are crafty, and self serving. There are even lots of dastardly birds in most myths.

As many of you know I own two parrots -- I love birds. Heck, Kuarri, my Quaker, insisted on sitting with me while I wrote most of it. His input (screams) probably fueled some bird hate. But just because I love them doesn't mean I see past their . . . quirks -- or put them on a pedestal like they can do no wrong. That and I wanted to try writing about baddies that weren't blanketed carnivores. It was fun finding all the ways birds are bad. I can see how some people could really hate birds.

Many thanks to orange04's awesome hybrid artwork, which was a huge inspiration in visualizing characters. That girl does some absolutely lovely hybrids. Browse her gallery -- they are full of awesome!

Also a big thanks to all my new watchers! I really appreciate your interest in my stories. I'm so behind in my thank you's, it's become daunting. But know that I'm so glad you're here. Your support is part of the fuel that keeps these projects alive.