Mariah Walker's Blog

Last month, I finally got around to uploading my dinosaur books to Kobo. I was really excited when I saw their language section, because their defaults include Chinese and Japanese. Awesome! None of the other major sites I use have those. But wait. Where’s Italian? And Portuguese?

Instead of those, they have… Abkhazian? According to Wikipedia, there are only about 117,000 native speakers. Why is that a default?

But wait. You see that purple dot? That’s a scroll bar. Kobo lets you post books in absolutely tons of languages, including Arabic, Romanian, and yes, Abkhazian. So now the dinosaur has been unleashed in ebook form in multiple languages.

I’m in love with Kobo right now. They’re getting my books out to places like Canada (did I mention that it’s my favorite neighbor to the north?), Australia, and Singapore. I’m actually a little bit jealous that my books are going to awesome places that I haven’t gotten to visit yet.

If you’d like to see all the languages I offer on Kobo, you can find them here. I have a bunch, including Traditional Chinese and Arabic. I need to share the Arabic cover, because the script is so pretty.

(If you want a pretty Arabic paperback, you can find it here.)

Thankfully, there is no other exciting news to share. (Though I did just finish a Milka Bar about the length of my arm that my dad brought back from Spain. It was quite the undertaking.) I hope that any more hurricanes that even think about forming this season decide to stay at sea and knit instead of going on senseless rampages. When will they learn that hurricaning is not the answer?

The worst has passed for us, and all we had were a few power flickers. I was prepared to lose power for a week or so, so I’m amazed. I hope everyone who went through the storm is okay. Stay safe if you’re still in the path!

I was really looking forward to the part of no electricity where you get bored and have to play board games, so I made Ryan play Settlers of Catan with me even though we still had internet. AND I WON. Barely.

Pretty much everyone I know was in the path of this storm (except for my friend smart enough to move to California). The eye of the storm passed within miles of Ryan’s house in New Jersey. They got some water yesterday. Here are two firefighters standing in front of the store where Ryan worked for seven years.

(He worked in the surf shop. Not the jewelry and accessories store. Just to clarify.) To the left is a store that makes delicious dark chocolate gelato, noooo! Ryan’s house is fairly high off the ground, so hopefully it’s okay. We’ll have to see.

And this is a picture from my parents, of their neighbor’s yard. And in next-door neighbor. As in, this tree could have squished them if it had fallen differently.

Instead it got two cars, and part of the house to the left (not my parent’s).

So yeah, nature brought it.

Guess who’s coming to visit?

Pretty swirling clouds!

Luckily, I’m ready. I BAKED A CAKE. Whatchu gonna do now, hurricane?

I actually did prepare though. Ryan and I started reading doomsday predictions of the storm on Friday night, so we relaxed with an IMMEDIATE MIDNIGHT GROCERY RUN. Hoard all the bottled water! The four drunk dudes ahead of us in line were also taking every precaution. Their purchase: A 64 ounce jug of orange juice and cigarettes. Yeah! They’re going to have a fun storm.

If our power goes out tomorrow, this is what we’ll be eating:

Mmm, delicious non-perishables…

I may have to go dark for a while, but I’ll be fine. At least until the cake runs out. BRING IT, NATURE.

Sickness has come to Joaquin’s town of Los Huesos. It makes people forget who they are. They call for water in raspy voices. They’re so thirsty they no longer care what they drink.

Now Joaquin has to run.

Here’s a little story I dusted off in time for Halloween. It’s about 12 pages long. You can find it on Amazon, B&N, and Kobo.

I got the lovely cover image from Rachel Young. Go check her out, she makes amaaazing sculptures.

If you have any thoughts about the cover, blurb, or anything else, I’d love to hear them!

Four days left to enter The Most Ferocious Dinosaur giveaway! The three copies for the winners are ready to go. I’m so excited to send these out into the world. Show them, Walrus!

Good Walrus! Extra clams for you tonight.

(Sorry, Walrus not included. Please do your research before acquiring your own walrus. He needs 100 pounds of shellfish daily and a very large swimming pool.)

There’s a reason why there’s only one photo of a panda in my deviantART gallery. They annoy me a little bit. If you visit the gift shop at the National Zoo, you’ll be confronted by a solid wall of panda merchandise. Oh, you want a tiger toy? How about a monkey, or a naked mole rat? Too bad. You get a panda. Yeah, okay, there are benefits to helping pandas, but not all conservationists agree that all the money spent on conserving pandas is worth it. In summary, some think that the focus should be on habitat conservation; spending millions on captive breeding is a waste when there’s no wild left to release them into.

Pandas are a symbol for conservation. They’re cute, and many people love them. I do hope that pandas can convince people that conservation is important, and maybe they’ll go on to consider some of the lesser-known, less cute species. Like frogs. Okay, I’m probably biased. But check out this long list of why it’s important to save the frogs. From their website: “Amphibian populations have been rapidly disappearing worldwide and nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are on the verge of extinction. Up to 200 species have completely disappeared since 1979.” Frogs are integral parts of their ecosystems, and bioindicators that show the overall health of the planet. I worry that frogs, among other species, get overshadowed by pandas.

When I heard the news a week ago that Mei Xiang and Tian Tian had given birth at the National Zoo, I had mixed feelings. The odds of their success were less than 10 percent, which makes a resulting baby awesome regardless of the species. And I kind of love how absurdly excited people get about panda cubs. Yeah, they’ll crowd into the zoo and block my views and accidentally shove me while I’m trying to hold my camera steady, but maybe after they see the pandas they’ll venture into a part of the zoo they’ve never been to before. Maybe they’ll watch in awe as the giant octopus gets fed. Maybe they’ll see that there’s more to the zoo than pandas.

And today I heard that the cub was found dead this morning. “There were no external signs of trauma, no signs of clinical illness or disease, nor had we seen anything that in the last few days or the past 24 hours to indicate that anything was wrong.” I may be conflicted about the resources that go into panda conservation and the huge presence they have at the zoo and in environmentalism, but I wish this cub had had a chance at life. I would have liked to meet him or her.

Good night, little panda. Sleep well.

I recently received a package (from myself). What could it be?

What could it beee?

It’s a real book!

In fact, it’s 150% real, because sometimes the dinosaur bursts from the page and tries to gnaw your fingers. I’m trying to get that fixed…

Here’s a closeup of the first page (dem fibers):

The best part?

All you have to do (if you don’t already have an account) is sign up for goodreads (also free!). It’s a website that’s all about books. You can make friends with other people who like books, rate and review books, and get free books, like mine. And did I mention the books?

If you’re already on goodreads and want to add me as a friend, I am here.

If you’d like to enter to win a copy of my book, go HERE and click “Enter to win.” The giveaway ends on October 1st. (Sorry, but this is limited to the US. For now, food > postage.)

Don’t want to wait for October? It’s also on Amazon in paperback.

If you end up with a dinosaur, please take good care of him. He likes claw massages and long hunts on the beach. He also knows some tricks, including “sit,” “stay,” and “devour.” Great fun for the whole family!

Ryan and I just got back from an extended weekend in New Jersey. It was a great weekend for photos. I shot some birds at the one nice sunset of the trip, and got in and out of the zoo to see the newest snow leopard cubs. They’re brother and sister, born April 10th, 2012. I was only there for an hour, which must be some sort of record for me. There was a crazy long line to enter as we were leaving, so I’m glad we got there early. I can’t stand huge summer crowds. It was worth it, though. Here’s the one picture I got of the whole family together:

(Here’s a video of the cublets being deliriously snuggly.)

Here’s one of the siblings, looking a little bit tired for 10 a.m.:

Last year, there was only one cub. Here’s his mommy:

And here he is:

Keep the cubs coming, Cape May!

I’m so tired, but I had to stay awake to see if Curiosity made it through the “seven minutes of terror.” SPOILER ALERT: She totally did!

Here are some highlights if you missed the live broadcast:

Happy nerds!

First image back from Mars. You can see one of Curiosity’s wheels and the horizon. WE’RE ON MARS.

Second image, from the other side of the rover. Curiosity’s shadow. JUST LOOK AT THAT SPECTACULAR DUST.

Here’s a sweet, dramatic video from NASA about what landing was like: Click!

You can also follow Curiosity on twitter if you’re into that kind of thing: Click!

YOU GUYS. I’M SO EXCITED. THERE’S GOING TO BE SO MUCH SCIENCE ALL UP IN THIS SOLAR SYSTEM.

Dinosaurio chuta y:

¡Gol, gol, gol, gol, gol, goooooooooooooooooooooool, golgolgolgolgolgolgol!

It’s true. The dinosaur is a beast at soccer and fútbol. He has never committed a handball (though he has been called for a clawball, and for devouring a goal post). He’s been training for five hours everyday so that he can play in the next World Cup. If you own a team, you should really consider drafting him. He promises to only eat opposing players.

If you’re interested, you can read his résumé, where you’ll find evidence of his ferocity, bulking up, and running abilities.

No deberías meterte con este dinosaurio. Es grande y es malo. Es un lagarto atronador. ¡Una máquina de comer!

O eso dice él…

Sigue sus aventuras mientras el va pisoteando todo el Jurásico.

(22 páginas ilustradas. Optimizado para modo apaisado.)

Léela en Español (Read it in Spanish) on:

Amazon

Amazon ES

Léela en Español y Ingles (Read it in Spanish and English) on:

Amazon

Amazon ES