This Is Not a Unicorn

There are several excellent reasons why I didn't update more recently:

• Health
• Las Vegas
• Work, unfortunately
• Staring at empty blog post window with finger in nose and drool tailing down chin

But the big one is that I haven't written anything, so I can't follow up on my previous post to let you know if I'm still a wishy-washy idiot or not. Maybe that will come in a few days, but for the moment, I'll just talk about another one of the images on my little pinboard next to my desk.

This is R.A. Salvatore standing next to a statue of Drizzt Do'Urden and his companion Astral Plane panther, Guenhwyvar. The statue was created for GenCon some years ago, I think, although I don't know what its fate has been. I happened upon this picture shortly after finishing Homeland, to date the only Salvatore book I've read, and I stared at it on my screen for minutes on end, fascinated.

See, Drizzt isn't real. Salvatore made him up. Invented him from nothing. Conjured him from the ether. He's fictional. And yet there he is, plain as day, with his scimitars and white hair and magical panther, a real, life-size statue of a not-real drow created by the person standing next to the statue.

So, put yourself in Salvatore's shoes. Can you imagine how goddamned cool it would be to stand next to the statue of a character that you invented?! Yes, interrobang, because it's so cool that it blows my tiny mind how cool it would be.

This is a goal picture. I look at it and get all grinding-jealous and then inspired-jealous and then just inspired. Because I want to make a character who's that enduring, that interesting, that people want to create a statue out of her. Maybe I'll have the humility to just smile when there's a picture of me taken next to her, but I think I'll be pointing with my jaw dropped, kind of like that college student who met the President.