One Ton Rat -- A Gift From My Muse

Once I start to focus on a writing project, bits and pieces of needed research sometimes fall into my lap. My current work, a whimsically ironic apocalytic novel (at least that's what I hope it is, for all I know, it could be just plain silly) proved to be no different. I tried to find odd prehistoric creatures to inhabit my world, but the books I read were either too technical (and lacked pictures) or the animals were too well-known. I figured I'd just have to create some interesting specimens, and then, in the course of a month, several interesting articles appeared on MSN Today in my inbox.

One article mentioned that Uruguayan scientists found the fossil of a two thousand pound rodent that had been as big as a bull. If the secret to writing is to be sadistic and to make awful things happen to your characters, then having my hero contend with such a creature should be wonderfully entertaining. Or at least show what my hero is made of. So what if the rodent has been extinct for two million years? It's my world. I can do what I want. And let my hero suffer the consequences.

(Photo from Msn)