…dog fighting really does exist and at all levels of our society.  If you haven’t been following the story of Falcon’s quarterback Michael Vick and his involvement in dog fighting, it won’t take long for you to catch up with a quick google.  Or you can read this article over at Sports Illustrated.  On the second page, you’ll find a picture of the big white house…with the grouping of black houses tucked in the woods behind the house, surrounded by a black fence.  If that’s not creepy looking, I don’t know what is… 

I’m glad that SI printed this article and did such a thorough job of talking to people who have investigated dog fighting.  The article talks about the prevalence of dog fighting among celebrities (who some people probably consider role models) and the different types of fights from street fights to highly organized matches.  They interview one guy who went undercover to some fights and mentions how there were all sorts of people there – girlfriends, children, etc.

Dog fighting is one of those things that doesn’t generally take place in the open.  There are hints of it in rap videos, but no one takes that seriously.  So people tend to think that it doesn’t really exist; that it’s a big urban legend.

But it’s real.  Very real.  And all sorts of people participate in it, across the country, and lots of dogs suffer from it.  Not to mention the kids whose sense of compassion suffers from exposure to this culture.

 HSUS has setup an action page on the Vick case.  There’s a video there about dog fighting (warning: it includes some graphic, very sad images) and info on telling the NFL to pursue this case.  If Vick is allowed to get away with this, it will only further glorify dog fighting and boost the culture.  If only it were an eye for an eye…

Time to hug my pit bulls.

I was accepted into the Algonkian Pitch and Shop Conference in New York.  At this conference, I’ll be working on the pitch for my novel, then I’ll get the chance to try it out on four real live acquisitions editors from major publishing houses. 

In the best case scenario, they’ll love it and want to see more and maybe even want to buy the book.  In the worst case scenario, I’ll get good feedback that will give me a better shot at pitching my book to other agents and editors.  Either way, it promises to be well worth the trip.

I finally came across the site that came up with the ingenious “slushpile” demotivator that I posted a couple of posts ago.  It’s from the fantastic blog 101 Reasons to Stop Writing, which has a whole page of demotivators!

 101 Reasons does a great job of compiling advice from writing and publishing related sites all over the web.  I recommend you check it out.  But don’t stop writing.

Miss Snark has retired.

For anyone who wasn’t already a fan, Miss Snark (and Killer Yapp, her canine sidekick…or was the sidekick status the other way around?) was a literary agent who anonymously blogged about all (or most) things publishing, stirred with a twist of snarkiness.  She was my intro to agent blogs and has provided tons of useful information to tons of aspiring writers.

If you haven’t already been reading along, you can still visit the site and search the Snarkives for the info you need on queries, genres, agent life, and common sense.

 If you’ve never looked at Despair.com, go now.  It’s a company that sells motivational poster spoofs, and it’s hilarious.

They have gems such as…

Change: When the winds of change blow hard enough, the most trivial of things can become deadly projectiles.

and…

Idiocy: Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

You can also find great writing-related demotivators at 101 Reasons to Stop Writing, such as this gem:

Slushpile: You spent two years writing the novel, three months rewriting the opening chapters, and four seconds reading the submission guidelines.

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I’m addicted to Lost.  I didn’t really start watching until this season, after I had checked out the first two seasons on DVD from the library…and had to keep watching to see what happened.  I’m sure I could name a lot of reasons why I’ve become hooked, but one of them is that I love the way the show is written.  I think there’s a lot to be learned from this show about how to write plot, characters, and action.

Here are a few of the ways Lost continues to impress me:  

1) They know how to write a cliffhanger.  If the episodes were manuscript chapters, they’d have no problem getting an impressive book deal and landing on the best seller list.  Granted, it can get frustrating when questions are not answered, but they do know how to leave you wanting to know the answers, leading you from one episode into the next.

2) The characters are well developed.  Everyone has a backstory.  The backstories relate back to what’s happening on the island and why/how someone is reacting to their current situation.  The backstories are revealed piece by piece in a way that enhances the story line and are often inter-connected, but also stand alone as an interesting anecdote.

3) It uses lots of cultural references.  Even though they’re on an island where a lot of weird, inexplicable stuff happens, the characters are constantly throwing out literary and pop culture references.  It’s done in a way that makes the dialogue believable and trusts the viewer to know what they’re talking about without dumbing it down.

 There is more…perhaps I’ll continue the list next week. 

If you’re not already a Lost fan, a quick search (simply on the word “lost”) will reveal more information than you ever wanted to know about the show…including character connections, conspiracy theories, and someone who actually came up with a recipe for the fish biscuits.

I just came across FlexPetz, a service which allows people to pretend they own pets.  This is wrong on so many levels.

Pet ownership is not about being flexible.  It’s about making a commitment to another living thing.  We have enough of a problem with people thinking that animals are disposable as it is – just take a look at any shelter or check out Petfinder and you’ll see how many pets are thrown away every day.  The last thing we need are services that encourage people to put pets in the same category as video and car rentals.

Not to mention how hard this is on the dogs.  It’s stressful on dogs to not have someone they can bond with, to be shuffled around.  My dogs hate when I’m gone and they do respond differently to petsitters and friends than they do to me.  Dogs not only need someone to trust, but they thrive on routine.  Having a new “owner” for a couple hours or a couple days is just a recipe for a dog with issues.  I’ve seen dogs that started out as wonderful pets, but after being abandoned two, three, four times at the shelter, they became very neurotic.  What will FlexPetz do when the dogs they have can’t hack the lifestyle anymore?

If you really need some time with a dog, but know that your schedule or lifestyle won’t work for the real deal, then there are lots of ways you can get interactions in a way that’s beneficial for the dogs involved.  Volunteer at your local shelter as a dog walker or foster home.  Take a neighbor or friend’s dog for walks.  Become a petsitter.  Get a part-time gig at a pet store, groomer, or training facility.

Dogs have always been known for their loyalty, the least we can do is value them a little more than Netflix.

Dogs are finally healthy again.  Namaste is holding steady (still on borrowed time, but hasn’t caused any further trouble) and now that it’s finally springtime and he’s able to spend time in the yard, the cats are venturing out into the house more.

Dusted off my keyboard and started writing again.  I think I have a new and improved direction for my second novel.

Might be too much to hope for, but maybe I’ll even start getting caught up at work…perhaps start blogging more regularly?  Find a solution to global warming while I’m on a roll?

I’m not talking about the figurative circus in my house right now with all of the dog issues, etc., but about the real circus.  I don’t recall ever going to a traditional big top circus, although I may have at some point in my childhood.  I don’t care to go to the real circus, because their animal practices tend to be sketchy, but I find circus stories fascinating and Cirque du Soleil amazing.

I just got back from Las Vegas where I saw “O” and Love.  Love is set to Beatles music.  It’s a great show, but it didn’t seem to me to be up to Cirque standards (I had also seen Cirque’s La Nouba in Florida a year or so ago).  They did some cool acrobatics, but a lot of it was about the music and dancing.  “O”, on the other hand, was unbelievable.  The stage is a giant swimming pool, so there’s a lot of diving and stuff on top of the trapeze, contortionist, and other acts.  It was amazing.  If you’re going to Vegas, go see it.

I also saw Le Reve, which is not a Cirque show, but in the same spirit.  It also takes place in water (and the air), but has more of an artistic twist.  So rather than just being entertaining, there were parts of it that were darker and more infused with emotion.  But the music was good and there were lots of incredible acrobatics, too.  The strength and concentration involved in these shows is breath-taking.

For a great circus story, I recommend that you read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  It’s just an all-around wonderful book about an old man remembering when he ran away with the circus and served as their veterinarian.  Everything about this book worked so well – the story, the characters, the setting, even the flashback aspect of it.

Another entertaining, though far stranger, book is Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.  This is a book about a family of circus freaks.  Hard to describe in a way that captures the strangeness of it, but definitely worth reading.