The Chinchilla of Hope

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is mostly an update state-of-the-writer post, but there’s also a reference to the kind of linguistic misunderstanding I love and which my fandom excels at, and which actually helped through a dark/difficult time. And is still helping.

So, first the state of the writer: I’m trying to finish Witch’s Daughter to send to my editor while I’m away, so it can go to my copyeditor next week, so I can bring it out on my birthday. As soon as it goes to the copyeditor, the earcs will go to substack subscribers, and go up for pre-order. I also intend to put the prequel, Witchfinder on 99c sale when Witch’s Daughter comes out. (I’m planning on taking everything off KU and going wide, so this is probably last hurray of 99c sales starting on my birthday and extending to Christmas.)

I am objectively 10k words from the end of WD, but my troubles never come singly, and these last two months have been extra special, so… our oldest cat, our beloved, fuzzy Havelock Vetinari (worst named cat ever! He’s sweet and brainless) is now in pain all the time, and peeing on things four or five times a day, which has kept me distracted and busy.

Havelock (Havey) cat in his fuzzy glory

It is likely we’re approaching that awful, inevitable last visit to the vet. Certainly if he keeps acting like he’s in severe pain. And I can’t keep washing the protective covers on the leather sofas 4 times a day. But we’re leaving it till we return from SD. And maybe a week, to make sure it’s not just the upheaval of these last two months.

But– The visit is Thursday through Monday, because of driving time. The rest of the family will be home, so he’ll be cared for an maybe he won’t notice my absence? Sigh. We’ll see.

Anyway, wait till the fifth or sixth for me to be regular and coherent. While I’m gone, Holly will make sure you don’t have dead air, here, but I’ll try to check in. Likely to be busy at event 10 hours a day, so mornings and evenings, maybe?

Oh, yeah IF YOU WANT TO SEND A BOOK FOR PROMO, DO SO TODAY, AS I’M LEAVING THE PROMO POST SETUP TOMORROW. IF YOU DON’T HAVE IT TO ME BY TOMORROW, IT WILL BE NEXT WEEK, SO SORRY. Also if people freak at my absence (more likely spottiness) at insty, reassure them. Okay, just super-busy.

Now, the Chinchilla of Hope: if you guys read the acknowledgements of NML (right? Who does that?) I thank my chapter by chapter cheerers on and readers for the Chinchilla of hope.

How this came about: the Portuguese word for Chancla is Chinelo. I often threaten the chilluns (some older than I) with my Chinelo. But one of them is special-gifted on typos. And keep in mind this is me speaking.

So she started threatening people with the Chinchilla. This was so amusing it took off. So now the Chinchilla of Hope is a thing, coming out when the black dog has me by the heels and chasing that dread beast into its cave again.

While I’m intermittently absent from this blog till the fourth, may the Chinchilla of Hope be with you and keep you going.

Because we all need more fantasy animals in our lives.

63 thoughts on “The Chinchilla of Hope”

      1. “Wri-Tor and the Black Dog… prepare for battle!”

        “epic bass solo”

        “I cast Vorpal Chinchilla of Hope!”

        “yipe…”

        (very high pitched) “OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM…. snrf….”

        drum solo extrodinaire

        guitar riffs

        “Wri-tor… is victorious! The tales of otherworld, are saved again!…”

        Liked by 3 people

  2. Chinchilla of Hope. :) That’s a great one. Nice clanker too.

    I will take your warning on book promo under advisement. I’m trying to get The Demon Slayers up on Amazon and the universe isn’t cooperating with me at the moment. When I finally get all the ducks lined up I’ll send up a flare. ~:D

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    1. I now have a Latin T-shirt which says, ” I have no ducks, much less in a row. I have squirrels, going every direction.”

      Liked by 4 people

      1. …and I’m not sure that they are all squirrels (insert picture of a racoon holding a crowbar with a goose standing to the side here)

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  5. Love the picture. I especially enjoy the Rod of Correction and the Stylish Backpack of Necessities. I’m sure the pack contains many tasty and exotic snacks and probably a towel.

    You never want to be caught out and about without your towel. Or without a nice Rod with which to gently enquire “Just what do you think you are doing?!” “THWACK”

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  12. Alright, that’s setup to hold things up, as if for some of toothache or such. What’sit all about?

    It holds ice at the bottom the mouth area.

    You mean?

    Yes, it’s a chin-chiller!

    Does it help?

    Not enough!

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    1. Sirius is playing The William Tell Overture. as played by a trio of cello, flute and violin. That’s almost as warped as your pun.

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  13. So, I didn’t remember what Chancia was, so I looked it up. Bloody wimpy, woke liberals. “Corporal punishment is gonna scar your children, both physically and mentally!!” (What sort of sandals do you wear ?!? Darth Vader light saber sandals??) Good grief, I had to go out to the woodshed and pick out the instrument of discipline, and Lord help me if I picked out something too wimpy. I got no scars on my backside, and if I did, it would have been from a particular school principle, who kept HIS discipline paddle leaning on the wall, and it had been CRAFTED to that specific purpose. Now, I have had some psychological issues throughout my life, but I don’t think they were caused by paddling. [My Dad may have preferred wood, but due to lesser upper body strength, MY mother preferred a flyswattter that had a heavy wire handle. It was able to get the message through heavy denim farm jeans.] And it was equally applied to my sister as well as my brothers and me. Dad would pick out lesser scrap wood to apply to my sister, and I am sure applied less vigor.

    Ever-sensitive liberal writer person (must assume of indeterminant gender), young children are often not as fully developed, verbally, as you seem to imagine. A detailed discussion of why their actions might lead to negative consequences in their future will generally bore or confuse them. We wouldn’t be having all these safety talks at work about watching out for children running into the street if they were capable of foreseeing future consequences of their actions. A lecture or earnest discussion will not improve this. A sharp swat on the butt accompanied by a simultaneous description of the foolish behavior to be avoided WILL create an aversive action in even a simple mind. Now, granted, positive reinforcement can be equally effective, IF the subject lives long enough for that method to take effect. Most parents want their children to start avoiding death NOW, not in a couple of weeks. THIS is the reason corporal punishment is so widespread in so many societies that have survived difficult and dangerous times. It keeps the kids alive NOW. In our amazingly swaddled and protective civilization we enjoy today, yes, you may be able to apply positive reinforcement effectively to your children. And that is very nice. But if some of you get your way, that civilization could deteriorate rapidly, and you may not be ready for that. The rest of us choose to remain prepared.

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    1. All great apes use physical discipline. And yes, humans have a brain and sense, but not so much before 4.
      Most of the spanking we did was before 4 and it consisted of a swat to the backside. When they were diapered this was more noise than pain, but enough to stop them.
      “Weirdly” never really needed harsh discipline by the time they were in school, and they often got complimented on how well behaved they were.
      They have scars aplenty. Mostly from the schools which were already going bad. But not from diapered-butt swats.
      I think S & M and spanking for sex wouldn’t a thing to the extent it is if parents swatted behinds.

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    2. There’s an old, free-floating factoid: “The only instinctive human fears are falls and loud noises.”

      The word “only” may be quibbleworthy, but both those scary stimuli take the Acoustic nerve fast track to the brain. The sensation of falling–which, for some reason, we feel in our stomach–originates in the inner ear; we react to falls in the first few inches. A predator’s leap from ambush make a sudden noise; you’d better jump too, instantly.

      It’s also a truism that punishment “works best”–is internalized fastest, and guides future behavior most reliably–when it’s immediate. An instant swat on the rump* interrupts the formation, and prevents the reinforcement, of neural pathways involved in the misbehavior.

      You see where I’m going.

      I fully support beating kids, but I find I’m unable to 1) get off the couch, 2) find a blunt instrument, 3) run the kid to ground, and 4) administer enough beating to justify all that effort… anything like “instantly”. The delay allows the errant neurology to set. This does give occasion for more beatings, true, but it’s just more work than I want to put into childcare.

      But when misbehavior causes the parental Cosmic Muffin to instantly transform to Hairy Thunderer–with a sharp, jump-scare thunderclap attack and Drill Sergeant sustain; a Boanerges screed about the offense as informative as the kid can grok–that too inhibits its repetition. With content and duration suitably age-adjusted, it’s effective from infancy onward. (Not recommended for neonates.)

      Once the kid learns–say, by playing, just once, the Selective Hearing card in front of peers–that the instant, white-hot, wild, awakened Tempest is predictable and avoidable, the faintest minatory rumble usually stops the kid’s rain dance.

      Which is a shame. I’d rather hit ’em.

      * The Gravitation Model of Disciplinary Punishment: Predictable, Invariable, Immediate. Every time you break Gravity’s rules, she immediately hits you, as hard as circumstance permits, with a planet. There’s an ever-lengthening list of common childhood experiences deemed lucratively traumatic by the psychoquacktors, but notice: they don’t make a dime off that one.

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      1. Honestly, the “hit” on the diaper was more noise and fury than real “beating”.
        Also for the record, never raise hand while furious. You can play furious. But furious leads to lack of control.
        The two times I was genuinely and justifiably mad at toddler, apparently I terrified him by speaking with extreme control and telling him to go to his room and not remind me he existed, or I didn’t answer for my actions. (Both times he’d endangered other people. Stupidly, granted, he was a toddler, but both times by breaking so many rules he knew d*mn well he was doing wrong.)

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        1. Yes, I’d meant to be explicit: Hairy Thunderer is Art. A performance, meant to evoke emotion and impart a lesson. “Less is more” seems like a general principle in art. (“Always leave ’em wanting more” is another, but H.T. never seems to manage that.)

          Little single-digit kids want to be good. Their instincts guide them to act as if they knew how totally they depend on the grownups’ good will. That sharp sonic shock-collar is H.T.’s instrument; the role is Angry Adult Setting You Straight, Regardless Of Who’s Watching. (Again, less is more; the kid will attend to every millisecond, guaranteed.) If you were Truly Pissed Off and Not Even Acting, you bet your toddler took it seriously!

          Of course the main point is not the brutality of the beating–satisfying as that may be–but that it be immediate (near as can) and consistent: never Thunder just because you’re having a bad day, and never indulge obnoxiousness, even when it’s cute. (Because it’s sure to be. The little parasites are adorable on purpose!)

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          1. I should also emphasize specifically: Hairy Thunderer bursts onstage, performs the piece, and exits. Cosmic Muffin then retakes the stage and makes no reference to the show’s brief interruption. Cosmic Muffin and Hairy Thunderer are pros.

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      2. Was reminded of something that happened when I was 7. (Ex neighbor had died. Story told at memorial, by mom. They’d been friends for 62 years.)

        We’d just moved into this new house. The 3 older of us were playing, 7, 5, and 8. Younger two were merrily coloring on the brand new cream white hearth. Dad caught us. Younger two got yelled at to stop. Crayons taken away. Two of us, 7 & 5, sisters, got turned over knee and swatted (spanked) for not watching younger two and preventing coloring. One younger one got swatted (she was 2). The other two got told “Go. Home. Now.” Very firmly. Their house did not believe in corporal punishment of any kind as mom & dad got told firmly later. As dad pointed out, their two weren’t touched. But apparently seeing us paddled was traumatizing. Our folks take? Oh well.

        Did not effect the eventual lifetime friendship of the adults. The kids friendship, initially, no. But at least the older three, didn’t last past before HS as they moved before my junior year. (Actually we were well into neighborhood acquaintance friends, not exactly buddies, by then.) Not sure about youngest two.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. The neighbor girl and I, both about 3yo, got hold of something or other–part of a curtain rod, ISTR–and merrily poked dozens of holes in the external human-door to the garage. I don’t remember what punishment followed–traumatic amnesia is not impossible here–but I never did that again. I do remember “helping” my dad use newspaper and paint to hide the damage from the landlord.

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          1. Saw much of this ‘late’ last night (shortly before PC shutdown time) and ended up contemplating it while taking a shower.

            Brought up memories of what happened if WE tried ‘dropping on the floor and screaming to get our way’. Not a suggested methodology against my Dad. Immediate, non-lethal response to insure negative association with this terrible strategy. I think my brother tried to re-initiate immediately ONCE. We all got trooped outside to the car, and a PROPER administration of negative reinforcement was applied. Mistake was NOT made again.

            And noting that some ‘parents’ [not sure these people qualify in a true sense, but…] these days think leaving insane toddler (of WHATEVER age) screaming on the floor and kicking until they ‘tire themselves out’ is a good strategy, as ‘talking to’ and ‘timeout’ are not effective options in the public environment, and physical action is so strenuously “looked down upon” (but screaming maniac on the floor is approved?? By WHOM ?!?). It would seem the sort of “protests” we see at ‘NoKings’ rallies and ICE ‘interventions’ are a potentially LEARNED behavior, since falling on the floor, screaming and kicking were so often an effective tactic when they were in those ‘formative years’. And since no clear and immediate connection was made between their actions and the REAL world, they continue in the fantasy that they can get what they want if they just yell, scream and flail about with their body ENOUGH. I can’t think of a way to verify this, and haven’t seen Jordan Peterson address such a theory, but what do YOU folks say to this theory?

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            3. Depending on how the parent is handling the tantrum, my response is to either step over and ignore, or step over and tell the parent “you are losing an argument with a toddler”.

              My method was to state “Swatting you will put mommy in jail” (threat). “What you want is to leave now” (tantrums *usually was a tired child). Wait it out. Not that there weren’t other tantrums, but if I am remembering correctly there was exactly one in a public shopping venue. Children are not stupid. Either a tactic works for them to get what they want, or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t they won’t use that tactic. If tactic is inconsistent but occasionally works they will keep using it.

              (*) There were some “I don’t want to leave” tantrums. In those cases, we left. Key is tantrums do not garner parental/adult-in-control compliance. No compliance, ever = no tantrums.

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              1. If tactic is inconsistent but occasionally works they will keep using it.

                a.k.a. Random Reinforcement; aka “how slot machines hook gamblers.”

                “Your tantrum will work, eventually, but you’ll have to stick with it” is a lesson too many mommies teach their kids; suspect this if you see a >4yo* throwing a fit.

                *…regardless of chronological age.

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                1. 100%

                  Thus our child informing others “Do not. Do not. Test my parents.” Both his peers and their parents. When we never laid a hand on him. Heck, I we never even put him on time out or grounding. We used other consequences.

                  What could other parents “test us”? Hmmmmm How about kid not showing up for practices, campouts, or group fund raising, just because the parent(s) were too lazy/couldn’t-be-bothered? There were rules. There were consequences.

                  Okay, campouts depended on the child’s ability to pick things up with or without practice. In general most were not in that category. Not there to practice, to get something signed off? Show up.

                  Group fund raising or service hours? No credit. (New rules have put the kibosh on the account earnings, which is just wrong on so many levels. I understand that this has also decreased earnings. Gee, wonder why. But I digress.)

                  Sports? At the level we were participating, everyone got “equal time”. How we handled consequences was a fixed line up that was rotated through. Easy to line them up. Same spot every time, just the beginning changed based off of who was last “in the field/on the floor” at the end of the last game. If you missed a practice, or a game, without an excuse. Someone better be sick or in hospital, or worse. Vacation or other youth groups were not excuse (including scouts. Please note, their coach was a scoutmaster, guarantied no conflicts.) Most it was because parents couldn’t be bothered to get their kid to practice. You’d would not be surprised on how often we got “Our kid should not have to suffer the consequences!” Usually to me (since I ran the lines while hubby coached). Did not work. After the first couple of years, didn’t have to bother after initial line up (new parents, sure). Truthfully most parents appreciated the constancy. The kids definitely did.

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    3. “Most parents want their children to start avoiding death NOW, not in a couple of weeks.”

      LOL!

      Seems to me more-or-less gentle corporal punishment of children is a male thing; like ‘friendly fights’, it’s an event, and then it’s over, and we’re all friends again.

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      1. Um…. male children or male parents?
        Because both my dad and Dan if they raised hand to a kid would afterwards be too ill to function.
        Meanwhile my heedless self would smack diapered butts with abandon, and get in their faces and threaten that next time I’d a) get them abducted by aliens. b) sell themt o the mob. c) hold them by the ankles out the window and if they were good I wouldn’t let go.
        For some reason #2 son remembered my actually doing C when he was 14. Guys, he was over six feet. I’m not a weight lifting champion, and I couldn’t hold him by his ankles, let alone make him dangle from the window. I think he dreamed it. BUT it shows the power of persuasion. They were terrified of me, even though both were taller, bigger and stronger than me by 12.
        “But Sarah, do you want your kids to be terrified of you?” Eh. NOT most of the time. They joked and talked to me all the time. BUT when I said “Is the homework done?” terror set in. When I said “What were you doing outside after dark with so and so who is a bad seed?” Terror set in.
        These episodes of terror are probably why they’re still alive and fairly successful. So, you know….

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        1. Male parents.

          A couple swats to the well-padded seating zone, up to perhaps 8 years old, ‘settle’ things. But this item, expressed in martial arts circles as “If your hand goes forth, withhold your anger. If your anger goes forth, withhold your hand.” needs to be a hard limit.

          Failed that a couple times; not proud of those memories.

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                1. The infant Grokipedia recognizes Sarah A. Hoyt as the author of No Man’s Land, (on the disambiguation page for the title phrase) but has no author page. Yet.

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            2. As a woman I tend to use my words when I get too angry. Trust me that can be just as damaging. I try not to do that. Get angry. Grit teeth. Say nothing.

              Cringe worth. Which I still regret. Is one scout at camp was ready to run away. My first response when I caught him was “I’d call your parents, but they won’t come anyway …” Yea. That … (That was the threat if scouts acted out.

              OTOH the next thing I said was “Can you at least wait? Because I have to pack something so I can follow you. You don’t think I’ll let you go by yourself do you?” And meant it. What he ultimately remembered, even at the end of that week, and years later, was the latter.

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        2. I remember a discussion with peer group as an adult. Asked if I’d ever thwarted either of my parents. My answer was “OH. Hell. No. I was not stupid or suicidal.” Yes, we were spanked. Never, ever, not once beaten. But the threats of being forced to walk 5 miles if I missed the bus. Mom, or either grandmother, following me around in school should I cut classes, were taken as gospel. They would 100% taken turns. Bad enough they’d all 3 of been there. That was the tame stuff.

          Our son. Never spanked him. Didn’t have too. OTOH we made a believer of him to the point that with sports teams or scouts. His attitude toward his peers was “No. Don’t. My parents do not threaten. They follow through.” Only had to follow through once with a parent. Started getting the “Not my …”, interrupted with qualifier … “Did not catch him doing (whatever). Did catch him with the group who did. Take that however you will.” (Whatever) stopped cold. Knowing her, she put the fear of G O D into him who passed it on.

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  14. A red-light/NIR light Phototherapy pad or “box” might do wonders for Havey. We had a middle-aged cat that seemed to be on death’s door last year/early this year. We have a box that hangs on the wall beside the bed (got it for me and my inflammation), but started leaving it on for a couple of hours each day with her laying on the bed about a foot or so away from it. She is a new cat now. They have hand held ones, but something that hangs, or you can drape over them is better. They have ones for animals specifically, but they are doing the same things. Also PEMF can be helpful, especially for pain and anxiety, the Resona VIBE is the one I’ve been using. YMMV.

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  15. As I kid, I was going to raise chinchillas for fur until the anti-furs killed that industry. Seems people have this thing about not using cute fluffy animals for renewable resources. /sigh

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  16. So did some of the anti-furs manage to redirect their energy into anti-fa? And was this, at least for some, an exercise in self-preservation? I seem to recall that some of the pantifa crew are furries . . .

    That chinchilla gives me a scintilla of hope.

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  17. Focus where you must, Sarah. Selfishly, it might give me the opportunity to catch up on a few weeks of posts here. (It finally turned cool here – note, definition of “cool” here in SAz is “not much over 90 degrees” – so the outside projects have been in high gear, not the bouncing around the net that is the norm for most of the summer days.)

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  18. So, the Fed (spit!) just cut their rate another 1/4%. It occurs to me that what they’re doing to the economy is like trying to control a sailboat by slamming other boats into it. “Knock it a quarter-point to the left! Now half a point to the right!”
    ———————————
    Today, every child in America is born $140,000 in debt.

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  19. When someone says “no one reads the acknowledgements”, I always think about how a room-mate said that to me when I recounted one night I failed to go to bed.

    That night, I joined some friends who were watching all six episodes of the A&E “Pride and Prejudice” in one of the basements of our dorms. I watched the second and third episodes, saw that it was midnight, and told everyone “I want to stay, but I need to go to sleep” and left for my dorm room.

    As I got ready for bed, I picked up a book I recently checked out from the library, “The Cookoo’s Egg”, opened it, and told myself “I’ll just read the acknowledgements” (this is where my room-mate said “no one reads the acknowledgements-“) — and before I knew it, I had to tell myself “I know I only have 50 or so pages left, but it’s 5am, and I really need to go to sleep“.

    When I was done explaining this, my room-mate said “I wish I had the self discipline to read like that!” to which I responded “What discipline? I was trying to go to sleep!”

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    1. The Cliff Stoll book? I found it fascinating. Went to hear him talk once – he also does neat things with Klein bottles.

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