In between my writing, parenting and software development, one of my biggest hobbies is self-sufficiency or at least making steps towards it. Work in the veg patch, around the animals or doing the latest DIY project gives me time to contemplate and think about the next chapter when I’m stuck on where to take the story.
We’ve had our pig, Bacon, for four years now, joining the family as a small ginger kune kune and now a huge beast that eagerly scoffs down her food. I’ve kept pigs for a long time, at one time having 60 on my uncle’s farm, and they’re interesting animals. They watch you intently, investigate with colossal curiosity and love to explore. They’ve been great fun to have, even when I’ve had to walk slip sliding across ice in the pitch black to feed them. Even more amusing was when I had to drive them over the slippery surface and chaos ensued.
The sty I have built has been extremely sturdy and is one of my greatest achievements. The best part of five years down the line the walls are still standing strong and the gate (though now tied in place) stands firm. However, the routing of our animals has turned it into a quagmire and I finally built them a new home this summer (with a cemented floor this time) that will be even harder to destroy.
Pigs are escape artists. Houdini has nothing on them. The runs I have built have been broken out of on numerous occasions. The village around us has been fantastic when they’ve seen one of our animals trotting down the road, though the new sty seems to have solved the issue for the moment. There’s nothing quite like waving your hands at a porcine escapee in the middle of the night whilst a car patiently waits behind you!
Maybe I should base one of my supernatural creatures on our pigs? Certainly, an interesting angle to shoot for. Though the world I’ve created isn’t overrun by the supernatural (the beasts are more in the shadows rather than exposed to the everyday civilian), I do have plenty of them. In the first book the strigoi play an important role (the original name for vampires) and it was interesting bringing them into the book as humans slowly transforming. The sequel brings in the world of Elves, shape shifters and even a doppelganger. It’s all go. Perhaps a shape-shifter pig would be an interesting and amusing direction to take the story. Beware adventurer, bacon strikes back!
I hope you’ve found this porcine post interesting. If you know someone else who enjoys blogs make sure you share so they can enjoy too! Thanks! You can read tit-bits from my novel Demon Rising and the background of its world at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HywelGriffithsAuthor
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