Whew….

I didn’t think I was going to be able to post this week. See, on Sunday my company took down the website and our programs and we switched over to the new system – so I was up until 3am in the morning on Monday testing everything before it went live to make sure everything was working as it should. It was. Everything was beautiful.

And then we went live at 6am on Sunday…

And then it stopped working.

So the past two days I and the rest of the company have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to figure out what exactly is going on. It seems like we get one issued solved, only to have another pop up – which is the nature of system launches, but, sheesh!

There are not enough energy drinks in the world right now.

Because of all this, I haven’t been able to get much writing done the past few days even though my mind has been overflowing with ideas. Thankfully none of them are nearly as demanding as the fanfic rewrite, so they’re fine with hanging out inside of my brain for right now.

Anywho, on to the good stuff!

Last week I shared a snippet from the fanfic rewrite idea that I had. This week I’m going to share the next snippet from that story. Marcus has located the book he hid from his grandmother and has managed recreate the spell inside it. The question is, will it work, or will he end up with a new pet that wants to eat him?

There was a loud crack, and then a little spark appeared above the circle. It floated there, a thin stream of smoke floating upwards towards the ceiling from it, and then it began to grow rapidly in diameter until it was roughly the same circumference as the circle. As it grew it became brighter and brighter until Marcus had to close his eyes and throw his arms over his face to block it out.

It faded just as quickly as it appeared, but Marcus continued to keep his eyes closed. What if he had done the spell wrong? What if he had summoned some warg-demon on accident?

Well, if he had, it surely would have attacked him by now. Based on the stories Gareth had told, those things were vicious.

He slowly lowered his arms and opened his eyes, and discovered that a man had replaced the glowing light inside the ring. Dressed in simple breeches and a tunic, he studied the symbols carved in the floor beneath his feet in confusion. “Where the hell am I?”

“Gareth?”

The Wizard King turned to face him, his eyebrows drawing together as he frowned. “Marcus?”

Marcus flung himself at him, throwing his arms around his waist and hugging him tight. The tears he had been holding back all day finally spilled over, but he didn’t care. Gareth was alive, and he was here. Now he could get his mom back and they could be a happy family again.

Gareth hugged him back, rubbing his head comfortingly as he studied the symbols Marcus had carved into the floor around them. “You did this?”

“Yeah.”

“But I only taught you the basics! This is very advanced, master level, beyond master level really, work. How did you…?” Gareth was impressed – even a little frightened. After the battle he had closed off the borders between his world and Norah’s, he had woven several wards around it, locking it so tightly that not even he, the creator of the spells, could break through their enchantments. However, Marcus was Maccoon’s grandson, and Maccoon had been the most powerful Mage in all of the nine kingdoms. He had always known that a little of his power flowed through the child’s veins, but he had assumed it was a little stream, not a full blown rapid.

“It was in the book. Well most of it really.” Marcus sniffed and dried his nose on his sleeve.

“Clever boy.” He ruffled his hair. “Where’s your mother?”

“They took her.”

“Who?”

“Grandmother and Aunt Lavinia. They said that she was crazy, so they called the cops and had her locked up in a mental institution.”

“They what?”
“After Pembroke burned down, we had to move in with Grandmother because there wasn’t enough room at Mud’s house. Mom was crying a lot because she thought you had died in the fire. I told her that you were smarter than that, but she wouldn’t believe me.”

“Go on.”

“She was upset and yelled at me, and Grandmother overheard us and called the cops. They took her away and now she’s locked up in a hospital. If you don’t do something they’re going to electrocute her because they think she’s schitzo or something.”

Gareth shuddered at the thought of Norah being strapped down to a bed somewhere like what had happened to him during his first trip to their world. “Where is this hospital?”

A lot of people mentioned that electro shock therapy is kinda extreme, and I agree – I doubt its something that would be used to treat Norah and her supposed ‘delusions’. It’s something I just threw in there until I have a chance to focus on this project properly. I should have mentioned that last week, but I was just so excited and wanted to share it with everybody that I totally forgot about it until comments about it started popping up.

Oooops.

And now for the proper WIPpet. Unfortunately this isn’t the scene that I wanted to share this week – I haven’t had a chance to write that yet because of all the launch week chaos. This is 12 sentences from chapter 2 of The Descendants (3X4=12) showing that Felicity’s friends are just as lovely as she is.

[The Woman] held out her hand. “It’s lovely to meet you. Felicity has told us about you.”

“She has?” Vivian stared at the woman in shock.

“Oh, yes, she sings nothing but praises about you! It’s good to see that you’re doing so well despite losing your mother at such a young age – and in such a brutal manner too!”

“Well… um…” Now it was Vivian’s turn to flush and stammer. Had Felicity told everybody about her mother’s murder? She glanced around the room, noticing several guests were staring at her in curiosity. Great.

“And I imagine it was hard to have your first stepmother just abandon you like she did.” The first woman added once she had recovered from her embarrassment.

“Bree didn’t abandon us. Her and Dad weren’t getting along.” Sometimes things didn’t work out and people got divorced – it was hardly an unusual story. Granted, it had been rather sudden. Everything had been going so well, Adam and Bree had been so happy, until one day they weren’t, and Bree had moved out and taken Andrew with her.

“Right. I heard she had been cheating on him.”

Vivian snapped, “Bree would never!” at the same time the woman’s friend said, “Hayley, don’t..”

“Well, think about it, that boy doesn’t look anything like his dad. Come to think of it, you don’t really favor your father either – maybe your mom wasn’t exactly faithful either. Maybe her bit on the side was the one who….”

“Hayley, stop!”

The woman finally listened to her friend and stopped talking. She took a sip of her drink instead, watching Vivian over the rim of her glass as if she expected her to snap and slap her.

Vivian wanted to. She wanted to pound the woman’s pretty little head into the ground and shove her cocktail glass down her throat. Instead she just clenched her hands at her sides and forced herself to smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both – now if you’ll excuse me.”

To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here!