Happy Friday! Hope you are all having a great day! As of right now (11:15 am on Thursday) my word count sits at 13,633 words in Camp Nano. My goal is 30,000 so I’m actually a day or so ahead, which is good. I’ve had a few days when I’ve not been able to write at all, but in general I’m making my word count or higher every day.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care! IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!Monday
Crimson Quillfeather alternate with
Tuesday ejoanna
Wednesday Pam from Calif
Thursday art ah zen
Friday FloridaSNMOM
Saturday ?
Sunday loggersbrat
My project this year is a series of short stories all based in the same fantasy universe, with a central story line running through it. One part of the central story line is that there is a rift between the worlds, our Earth and a magical world of fantasy, and creatures and people are crossing the barrier, some willingly, some accidentally. There are factions on both sides trying to keep the rift open and/or enlarge it, and others trying to close it and preserve the independent identities of the two worlds.
So here is one of the short stories that make up my book. It’s not the first one, it’s more in the middle, but being a short story it stands on its own. It has not been edited, other than basic spell check, because one does not edit as one writes for Nano, so please excuse errors, I’ll take care of those next month! Also for some reason somewhere between the original document and DKOS it’s melded some words together and messed with spacing, as well as erased all my indents. I’ve checked the original, those errors are NOT there. I’m going through to try to catch them for you, but again, I apologize if any are missed. They are something crossing wires in the scripting from the document to DKOS
4. A Fairy Tale
“We really should give that dollhouse to your cousin, Holly, you're getting too old to be playing with it. Soon you'll be a teenager and you'll be interested in boys instead of dolls.”
Her mother was standing at the doorway, watching as Holly carefully dressed the tiny doll and set it at the kitchen table in the dollhouse. The girl barely looked up at at her mother as she spoke, focused on her task,on her play.
“I like my dollhouse. I don't want to give it to Jane. Grandpa made it for me.”
Her father came up behind her mother, his strong arms wrapping around her waist. “Come on Kathy, leave the girl alone. Dad made that for her, there's no reason to make her give it away. Even when she's older and loses interest in it as a dollhouse, it's a reminder of her grandfather.”
“You just want her to stay a little girl forever, dear. You don't want her to grow up and date, and go to dances, and become a teenager.”
“God forbid! Still, I'm not the one being unreasonable here. Jane has lots of her own toys, and she is your sister's kid. The dollhouse will hold no special meaning for her. Leave Holly be, please.”
“OK, fine, at least for another year.” Kathy turns and kisses her husband lightly. “I thought you were going to clean out the garage today.”
“Yes, I will, come on now, let Holly play.” He shut the door to his daughters room and lead his wife away.
Holly was used to this argument between her parents. Every few weeks her mother started pressuring her to give away the doll house. It seemed every time she talked to Holly's Aunt. Jane had always liked the dollhouse, but last time she'd come over, Holly had given in and let her play with it,and that was why she was now short a chair for her little doll family.
She moved the piano stool in to fit in the fourth place, and settled the father doll on it, since he was the tallest. Humming beneath her breath, she continued to play with her beloved doll house, as afternoon dimmed to evening, pinks and yellows and oranges tinting the sky behind her,making the dollhouse seem to glow in the fading light.
Holly turned and walked to her window, pushing the panes apart and letting in the evening breeze full of sea and salt, as she watched the sun sink beneath the horizon, the colors playing over the waves as they crashed on the shore. Her room filled with that magical glow that only sunsets can bring, the colors seeming brighter while the shadows seemed darker. But somehow the glow tonight seemed.. different. She turned towards the other side of room to find her doll house glowing, but from within, not without. She ran to peer through one of the tiny windows.
Inside, along with her dolls sitting around the table, there sat tiny little people with wings shaped like a butterfly. They fluttered around the little kitchen, a spattering of shiny dust like glitter covered the floors, the counter, the little stove, sat in the tiny pots as if ready to make some kind of unicorn sparkle stew. Holly watched with awe as they explored the little house. One of the tiny people, they were all girls she noticed, picked up the father doll and started to dance around the living room with him. She recognized the dance from the class her parents had taken the year before, it was a waltz. Holly ran to grab her iPod and hooked up the speakers, finding the song she wanted, she hit play. It wasn't a waltz, but it seemed appropriate as “The Sugar Plum Fairy”started playing. All of the tiny fairies stopped and looked towards her, shocked for a moment, finally spotting the Big Person watching them.
“No, it's ok,” Holly said, staying a bit back from them because she didn't want to frighten the creatures. “I won't hurt you.You're all so beautiful.”
One of the fairies, a tiny girl in a long shimmery purple gown with delicate looking wings with pink and purple swirls dancing across them, took a couple steps forward until she was standing just at the window of one of the tiny windows. She took a step out onto the small Juliette balcony that her grandfather had built on the Master bedroom, her wings dipping as she stepped through on long graceful legs, well long for a fairy.
“I am Pervinca,” the fairy girl said, “my sisters and I were flitting across a field in the forest, and then, we were here. This little house seemed made for us, so we came to explore.”
“My name is Holly Lane, and the little house is my doll house, my Grandpa made it for me before he died. But you're welcome to stay init for a while.” She glanced towards the door, “just don't let my mom see you, she already wants me to give it away and she'd be afraid of creatures like you.”
“It is nice to meet you Holly Lane. But we need to get back home.This is not our world, our world is across the rift. We got sucked through to this side when magic made it bigger. I worry that we were not the only thing that came across, nor the most vicious.”
Holly laughed at that thought. “You don't seem vicious at all to me. You are beautiful and friendly and kind.”
“We are to you, yes, but we can also defend ourselves,” Pervinca grinned. “Would you like to see our world? I know there are others from here who've traveled to our side and back. It's ok so long as you come home again, otherwise the rift will continue to grow and bigger things will come over.”
Holly considered this for a moment, but she could not pass up the chance to see a world where fairies were real creatures and magic was commonplace. She nodded, blonde braids bobbing as she did.
Pervinca called out to her sisters and they all rose up together,circling the world and sprinkling it with that glittery dust that fell from them as they moved. One was all pale peaches and yellow,another was greens and reds, a third was every shade of blue found in the sky and ocean. She saw one all in bright pinks and roses, and a fifth spread glitter the color of the earth and sand, and the sixth and last fairy was blacks, grays and blood red. This one frightened her a little, she had small pointed teeth and carried a small glimmering sword in one hand, a shield over the other arm.
“Ow!” Holly exclaimed as that sword pierced her arm and a drop of blood welled up.
“Sorry!” Came the high voice of the black and red fairy. “Need a bit of you to finish the spell, so you can come with us,” and she giggled a cruel little giggle.
“You could have asked!” Holly exclaimed, rubbing her arm where she'd been pierced by that needle sized blade.
“No fun in that! I'm Pepper by the way, I protect my sisters from things that like to eat us, like birds and snakes and Orcs.”
Holly just shook her head a moment, but, she had asked to go, she couldn't object to giving what was required for that to happen. “It's ok Pepper, pleased to meet you.”
“Now stand in the middle of our circle.”
Indeed they had made a circle of glitter on her floor, it fell in even lines, forming the pattern. Holly stepped over the ring carefully and stood in the precise middle. Above and around her the fairies swooped and danced and sang. With each pass her room changed a bit more.
Grass sprung up along the floor, deep and green in the shadows of the evening. Her table faded into a leafy bush with big red flowers and trees grew where the posts of her bed stood. Somewhere nearby a spring burbled as it flowed along over rocks. The only thing that didn't change was her. She was still dressed in jeans and a purple t-shirt, luckily she had been wearing her canvas sneakers as well. The sun was setting behind the trees and the forest was darkening around her, lit only by the fairies that still danced and glittered around her until her world had faded completely and their world had formed in its place.
Holly looked around in awe, though it didn't look that different from a forest in her own world. At least it didn't until she considered the animals and creatures that lived here. There were the fairies of course, but also fireflies. Fireflies, but unlike any fireflies from home. These breathed real flames, lighting up their spot of the forest then dimming again. And their wings were closer to dragonfly wings, long and shimmery. One of the fireflies flew right at her face spewing its bout of flame almost on her nose until suddenly Pepper was between them, the little blade slashing at the creature.
“You leave Holly alone fire face!” she exclaimed. “She's a big person from the mundane world, and she'll squish you if you don't!”
“I..”
“Do you want to get flamed Holly?” Pepper whispered, “Not every creature here is nice. Fireflies are a pain, literally if they can fry you.”
“I will! I'll squish you if you flame me or my friends!” Holly exclaimed, using the voice her mother did when she came into the house with muddy feet.
Pervinca flew over to land on her shoulder.
“Come on Holly, you can come sleep in our grove. You'll be safe there. Then tomorrow we can go exploring a bit.” she grinned at the bigger girl, “We don't usually stray far from our grove because it's too dangerous, but with a Big person along, well, we are looking forward to seeing more of the forest!”
Holly let the fairies lead her off to their grove, passing the burbling spring and slipping between the wide trunks of trees until they came to a soft mound of dirt in the center of a ring of trees.The fairies bedded their new friend down curled around the mound and they disappeared beneath it. Luckily it was a warm night, and Holly fell asleep looking up at foreign stars that made strange pictures above her and listening to the rustle of the wind, and animals, in the forest beyond. Pepper alone stayed out, fluttering above her. Her reassuring presence allowing the young girl to finally drift off into sleep.
Just as the last of the glow faded from the bedroom in the compact yellow house, the door creaked open.
“Holly? Are you still awake? You really should come down and see this. It has to be some kind of a hoax, but they're showing a unicorn on the news!” Her father's voice was soft and quiet, if his daughter had actually gone to sleep he didn't want to disturb her.
The breeze shifted the ring of glitter so it spread out over the floor, but the man didn't notice that. His gaze fell on the bed,neatly made, the stuffed unicorn sitting in its perch on the purple pillow. Everything was quiet and dim in his daughter's room, odd shadows and silence.
“Holly?”
He left the door open, a wedge of light from the hall falling over the floor, shimmering on the glitter coating the doll house. He frowned and went down the hall to peek in the bathroom. No, no one there.
“Meg? Do you know where Holly is?”
Hope you enjoyed this excerpt from my book :). Maybe next week I can convince Bit to share a chapter of hers.
Update: as of now (Thursday afternoon) I’ve hit 15,029 words, so I’m at the halfway point a couple of days early! Woohoo! Now if I can keep this up I’ll be done before the month is out. But at least I have some buffer in case I have another bad few days.