Platypus of Truth

concept art from an unfinished novel ( The Place of the Skull: Volume II in The Strange Life of Ronald Fairfax ) done in Clip Art Mr. Hunter looked at the clock and dropped his lecture voice. “Ok.  So it’s Halloween season, right?  Do you know Huntington has its own history of ghost stories?” “Like Mellonheads?”  Horrowitz ventured. “That’s a rather newer one, but ok, so you’ve heard of the Mellonheads.”  Mr. Hunter leaned back against the wall.  “Anyone else?” “Hannah Cranna?”  One of the boys in the back piped up. “Yep,” Mr. Hunter nodded, “ that’s one from Monroe.  Now, how many of you know about Sigismund Chesterville?” To his surprise, Ronald found that his hand was in the air.  “Fairfax?”  Mr. Hunter turned to face him.  “Evidently, we’ve got a connoisseur of local history.” Ronald’s mouth felt dry and his mind went curiously blank.  He had a sudden sense of panic at the thought that he might be asked to say...

So... I have Clip Art now. I am learning how to use it and getting another reminder that my creative abilities lag behind that of many 14-year-olds. Sigh... Anyhow, as a preliminary test of these new tools, I decided to sketch my version of The Hunger Games  heroine, Katniss. I made sure to get the rough composition down before seeing the movie in an effort to record what I saw while reading the book. So, here we go. And yes, the jacket is from L.L Bean.

We're never on the cutting edge of anything over here at Platypus of Truth. So, today's confession is that we have only just finished reading The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins. The movie is in our Netflix queue. We intended to read this book when it first became popular, as we did Stephanie Myers' Twilight . Business got in the way as it usually does and the years rolled on. When I finally snagged a copy from the school library, I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd heard so much about the novels and the films at this point and yet I remained fairly spoiler free and couldn't form any real conception except "it's sort of like Battle Royal , but not". I was pleasantly surprised. The Hunger Games  packed Hemingway's terse prose with Orwell's conscience to deliver a world peopled by incredibly well-drawn teenagers forced to grow up way to fast. The pacing is perfect, and the Games, when they finally appear, were not at all what I was expecting...