This is going to give you power over determining my age! Ah well :)

I am the illustrious Wood Rat!

I’m the sneaky, intelligent rodent who rode the Ox and jumped off to steal the coveted first place in the zodiac. I admit that I’m not that sneaky in real life though. The last time I remember consciously deciding to sneak something and actually made an attempt to hide it was when I was drinking chocolate sprinkles directly out of the bottle when I was a small child. I had one on my upper lip the whole time I denied it.

Some of the other aspects of the Rat I do adhere to, such as hoarding, saving money, being creative, being kind, though struggling with social communication. My hoarding is mild–I like having those chocolate cookies in the freezer, saved for a particularly depressing day. Similarly with money–I like having something in the kitty so I’m prepared for that rainy day. I’m generally kind, but struggle with shyness and social anxieties that can come off as me being aloof.

The Wood aspect of being a Rat is supposedly to do with me starting and finishing projects. At first, I thought this wasn’t me. After all, I have about a million projects I want to do. But then, when I began to look at the things I have completed, I realized, that wait a minute, I do complete things. I’ve got stories out on submission for my other pen name, I’ve got a novel finished for March and a ton of other stories available either here on my blog or for sale that proves I finish a lot of stuff. It might take me a little while to get 100k+ novels done, I admit, but every year my kids get older and I get more time.

My given name – Emily – stands for industrious and hard-working, so it goes along with me being a Wood Rat too :)

As for elemental association, I have a soft spot for enchanted woods and forest mazes, so…

~Emmi