More Things That Give Astrid Nightmares

These are real:

You can buy them (or ones very much like them) and put them in your house:

For what it’s worth, the ones above don’t look like any unicorns in my book (kirins, which the shape most resembles, are dark in color), but the second one is a zhi with an oddly shaped horn.

Unicorn taxidermy. Who knew?

Of course, I studied a lot of taxidermy (and even cryptotaxidermy, which is what we’re looking at here) when writing Rampant, because of the Bucephalus tableau in the cloisters rotunda. I know a lot of people are into taxidermy these days, though it is not my personal aesthetic. Though I am a bit swayed by things like this:

Note to family and friends: do not, under any circumstances, get me this for Christmas. I’m already a little nervous that my house has begun to look like this:

One of these days I shall photograph my unicorn collection for you all. But not today, as I’m behind on my NaNo goals.