The Modern Magic Thief - A NaNoWriMo project

[Talanic]

I'll be honest.  I'm not 100% sure where it may lead now.  Sometimes the plan is boiling in my subconscious and I'm surprised when it comes forth.

 

Sophie does not, in my current design, have any mystical or otherworldly aspects.  Instead, she's one of Sam's tethers to the mortal realm; someone she's reluctant to leave behind to heed the call to adventure.  She's also likely to play a role in a longer series, being the friend who will be around when those adventures bring Sam home from time to time, who helps her reconnect with the world she's missing.

 

Also, there should be a second half of the chapter up tomorrow, which will link what's happened here into the other events of the novel.

[Talanic]

Okay.  I figured some things out.  I still think I need to rename her, as I keep slipping into patterns.  In my previous book, almost every male wound up with a name starting with J until I caught myself and made a conscious effort to avoid it.  In this book, I have Sam, Sherry and Sophie...

 

 

She pinged me back with a ‘Hi, you watched?’ and a ‘bunch of wusses’.  I grinned and invited her to a party.

“Four teenage boys and I had the most balls,” she elaborated.  “Up for a game?”

I stopped halfway through agreeing with her, sudden shock coursing through me.  I had an obligation here.  Sophie had been my friend since forever, and we’d made an agreement long ago.

“Not yet.  We need to talk.”

“You’re pregnant?  I’m not ready to be an auntie!  And I’m not babysitting.”

“Har har,” I typed.  “Are you alone?”

“Terry’s down for a nap.”

I hesitated before writing back.  “Either I’ve had a weekend-long psychotic break, or I have to invoke...The Deal.”

A few moments passed before she responded with a flat “wut.”

“Seriously,” I replied.

My phone rang.  It was her.

“You’re kidding me, right?” she whispered in a rush, balancing her excitement with her need not to wake the baby - well, toddler.  “You got your Hogwarts letter?  Or was it Narnia?”

I knew her too well.  She didn’t believe, yet, but she was willing to play along for the fun of it.  I could just leave things at that, be ambiguous and let her believe this was all an elaborate fantasy, but…

No.  I couldn’t.  “You know where I was this weekend.  Pull up a weather map.”  I walked her through what proof I had and recounted the events of the weekend to her.  It was all as we had worked out in The Deal in a sleepover half a lifetime ago: If one of us got the Hogwarts letter, the other got to tour the castle.  If Gandalf showed up for her, well, my name was already Sam.  I was bound by my word to share the fantastic with her - and honestly, there was nobody else I trusted more.

I finished off the tale.  “So here I am.  Immortal, apparently.  Magic, but nothing I can do with it yet.  Overwhelmed - and I still have to go back to work tomorrow.  So life’s probably not going to change anytime soon.  Not until my Dumbledore shows up, and I have no idea who she is.”

“Ooh!  I bet it’s Mulan!”  She’d - okay, we’d - loved that movie.

“Mulan didn’t have any magic.  I don’t think the little dragon was in the original story.”  

“Okay then, it’ll be Morgan le Fay.”

I grunted.  It was possible.  “Look, I told you this in confidence.  But nothing’s going to happen this week.  Maybe next weekend you can come to town and if I can get permission I can take you into the house.  I think Shamasun could probably use some help modernizing.”

“Dammit, Sam, I’m an engineer, not an electrician.”  I could sense the gears already turning.  “A pocket dimension of some sort...Was there wind?  Sunlight?  Oh, the things I could do…”

“For now, let’s just shut up and game, okay?”

 

 

My wife is putting me to shame.  She's been managing over a thousand words a day in her novel.  Won't let me look at it until she's done a round of editing.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Since you are rewriting this book, I decided to reread it for fun. It is still incredibly enjoyable Talanic.

On 17/11/2014 at 6:40 PM, Talanic said:

So I forced myself to at least behave calmly. I gave the wolf a slight bow and offered my hand.

“Hi. I'm Sam,” I said.

It returned the shake, opened its mouth and spoke. “Bonjour, mademoiselle. Mon nom est Remy.”

Reynardine! I know who that is now.

On 20/11/2014 at 1:46 PM, Talanic said:

“rust,” he said. “That just means they're smart enough to bluff. Zombies spread quickly if they're not stopped fast, but they shouldn't be a threat to you if you're aware of them. Engage at will, inflict injuries that would kill them if they were alive, and prevent moving ones from reaching downed ones; they're not infectious but they can raise other corpses with a touch. Remy should know the countercharm to make sure they stay dead but he'll have to be in his true form. Keep your eyes open and be ready to run – this isn't the real attack. The real creature is just playing games.”

Oh hey you kept this detail. Nice to see you have the mechanics laid down somewhere.

On 21/11/2014 at 1:10 PM, Talanic said:

It was time to get out of here. Now. I charged the exit furthest from the centaur and rammed my way through. Behind me, the building vanished as if it had been pulled straight into another realm, leaving only a crater.

Oh man, I did not catch that three years ago. Removing buildings like that is cool. Glad to see it wasn't forgotten later in the story.

On 23/11/2014 at 8:43 AM, Talanic said:

“Drat,” he said as its front hooves crashed into his face. It bashed him repeatedly, then kicked what remained away.

I love Hewn's calmness. 'Oh dear, my arm was just ripped off. Drat.'

[GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy)]

Loved it! (And read it all in one sitting too)

I have no idea if you are still working on this or not, as its been a couple of years, but if you are there are 2 things I wanted to point out:

1. Sam has trouble copying the glyphs properly, but can't she just use her mimicry?

2. I didn't realize that she was a girl for the first couple of thousand words, which threw me off a bit (and made the chiseled abs line not work as well as it could have)

 

Is there a sequel in the works?

[Random Reader]

Have you ever heard of the Iron Druid series? Seems very similar.