So, before I get into this blog post, I have a question.
Do you have fond childhood memories of Moomins?
Yes? No? WTF are Moomins?
My first Moominland book was The Exploits of Moominpappa, and I read the poor paperback almost threadbare. After that was Tales of Moominvalley, which I didn’t read half as much, for some reason. I lost track of which books came when after that, but I loved the series enough to want some keepsakes.
So one day, at Toy Tokyo in the East Village, I found these two:
and snapped them up.
For those of you who don’t know, the blue guy on the left is Moomintroll, and the brown cutie on the right is Sniff.
They weren’t supposed to be Stuffies of Writingness. But somehow, because they’re both well-loved characters but have VERY opposite interests (for instance, Moomintroll loves seashells, Sniff loves get-rich-quick schemes) they have become my guideposts for certain characters when I’m not sure how they would act. Not in the sense that I use them as models, but in the sense that I have conversations with them and ask them what THEY think this character would do.
Oddly enough, it works.
Next up – an unexpected cheering section.
killer puppy tails 