Meet Blanco, owner of children's author Kai Strand

Today we have an unusual gust on Pets & Their Authors... a dragon!

I hope you'll enjoy his guest post.

See my spikes? I’m fierce. Ask any cricket! My name is Blanco. I’m a bearded dragon. Kai Strand is my author. Kai and I go way back to the Christmas of 2008 when I joined the family. I was just a little tyke then, hadn’t fully grown into my fierceness. I’m what they call a pale dragon. My color is lighter than many others, hence the name Blanco (meaning white). I’m actually named after a villain from one of Kai’s middle grade novels (this one hasn’t sold…yet). Yep, the creepy villain of the story sends shivers up your spine like I do when I spread myself wide and hiss.

Kai has a laptop, so she will sometimes tuck her feet up under her on the couch next to my vivarium (cage) and write. I like it when she does that because the clicking sound of the keys sounds like a murder of crickets climbing over each other to get away from my razor sharp teeth. It often lulls me to sleep.

As a matter of fact, I ended up going into an extended state of hibernation (what we refer to in my beardie world as brumation) last winter when she was working on final edits of her tween book, The Weaver. The Weaver is about a young girl, Mary, who lives in a town of storytellers. Mary’s mother is the most revered story weaver around, but poor Mary is suffering through her third year of novice word weaving. Mary meets a strange little gnome-elf who grants her one wish, but instead of weaving a better story, she suddenly is weaving strange little yarn charms to accompany her still pathetic tales. Because of my state of brumation, I never did hear if Mary resolved her problem. Maybe one of you can let me know. Feel free to contact me through Kai. You can read more about her and her writing at www.kaistrand.com. Or stay up-to-date on book info on her Facebook page.