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rathacat

Clare Bell
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Artist // Hobbyist // Traditional Art
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Albino Llama: Llamas are awesome! (82)
Smith’s valedictory address: As we leave high school we need to make our voices heard. I was going to get up here and talk to you about TV and content and media because those are things that are very important to me. However, in light of recent events, it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state. Recently the heartbeat bill was passed in Texas. Starting in September, there will be a ban on abortions that take place after 6 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. 6 weeks. Most women don’t even realize they’re pregnant by then. And so, before they have the time to decide if they are emotionally, physically, and financially stable enough to carry out a full-term pregnancy, before they have the chance to decide if they can take on the responsibility of bringing another human into the world, the decision has been made for them by a stranger. A decision that
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Beginning on March 14, 2009, a new experiment in Y/A fantasy fiction appeared on Twitter. “Ratha's Island”, a novelette designed specifically for the micro-blogging service's 140 character format, ran twice daily in blocks of 6-10 sequential “tweets” or short posts (Twitter's logo is a little bluebird, so it's messages are called “tweets”). Twitter's designers imposed the 140 character limit to enable cellphones and other wireless devices to receive the messages.) Ratha's Island ran faithfully every day, with the exception of a one-weekend break, and drew over 1000 followers to my @rathacat Twitter stream. Ratha Attacking the Condor-Eagle, art and photo 2009 by Clare Bell The main intent was to entertain people on Twitter, get them interested in the Ratha series, publicize the the new short story, "Bonechewer's Legacy" in Firebirds Soaring anthology, edited by Sharyn November, and to celebrate the newest novel, Ratha's Courage, published by Sheila Ruth of Imaginator
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8/16/09 From close above Ratha came a terrific crack. She wondered dimly if a chunk of the cliff had come loose and would fall on her. Something or someone hit Ratha, knocking her sideways, spinning her. It grabbed her hindquarters, making a sling around her lower belly, halting her descent. Jaws grabbed her nape, pulling her up and away from the frothing, steaming sea. She heard flapping, hard and heavy. A second set of wing-beats joined the first; slower, but stronger. Another set of jaws tried to take Click from her, but her own teeth were clenched on the cub and wouldn't loosen. The pull ceased. Ratha then felt a gentle tongue licking her forehead. A trilling purr sounded in her ear. The scent around Ratha, although dulled by smoke and her own draining awareness, was exotic, but cat-like, and female. A slight tinge of milkiness in the odor told her that her rescuer was a nursing mother. No, not just any nursing female of this flying creature's species. Click's
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Im really excited the graphic novel is moving along, I wish there were more updates. But as long as we get it!

Thank you for the watch mate!! Loved your Ratha's Creature novel from start to finish, can't wait to read the exciting graphic novel!! :)

Thanks for the good wishes. Still moving ahead with it, and encouragement helps.

:wave: Thank you for the:llama: !=D I had the pleasure of reading your novel “The People of The Sky” back in the ‘90s, right after graduating from college!=D Please pardon my fangirIing, but I still can’t believe that an author who wrote such a kickass book, is right here on dA!:excited:

I had a lot of fun doing People of the Sky, especially creating the aronans as workable flying creatures. They are somewhat based on the huge dragonflies of the Carboniferous, with six to eight feet wingspans, which show that the insect-type of flight package would work if scaled up. A flying horse would not work because a horse doesn't have the muscle or bone structure to support bird-like wings. Heinlein actually discussed this in his story "Jerry Was a Man",

pointing out that a genetically created Pegasus equipped with wings would be decorative only. So I built the aronans out of insect parts, because insect flight is much more efficient.

The only thing I didn't like about the insect idea was the head, so I modeled it on the elegant head of a sea-horse. And I had fun with the Pai Yinaya's partership with these critters.

That’s why the aronans seemed so believable—I thought their design was based on those giant dragonflies!:excited: The prophecy of the Blue Star Kachina...I have to find your novel and re-read it again, I lost my copy between moving from my sister’s, to my friend‘s house.:doh: Planet Oneway—so called because people going there don’t come back, for one reason or another...usually from the world’s beguiling beauty.:aww: Please let me know if I’m remembering your work correctly.^^;

Yes, you are definitely remembering the book accurately. I also had a lot of fun with Goony Berg, the DC3/C47 that Kesbe rescued from a Greenland glacier. This is also based on true events. In the decades after After WW II, many planes that had been ditched in the Arctic, including C47s, sank into glaciers. The movement of ice carried the aircraft to the front of the glacier, and they emerged relatively undamaged. In some cases they could be gassed up and flown back to home base. DC3's are amazingly tough and resilient. They are my favorite aircraft.

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