Eliza Mae Constant was a beautiful woman. She was a singer and a performer who used her magic to make light dance to her song. She was beloved by the people of Magictown, a bright ray of happiness through the dower cloud that hung perpetually over the city. But all that was gone now, David [...]
Title: Our First Kiss Word: Monumental Submission by Laurel. 200 words about what happens when you share secrets: In the woods north of where I grew up, we both stir, half-dreaming, in our sleeping bags. The morning light works its way through the walls of the tent. The cool dew is held back. We camp [...]
Back in the car, hurrying to the heart of the city, the trio of magics are surprised at the number of people they find packed into the town square. “Never seen so many people out here. ‘Specially not for something like this.” Turning onto the street that borders the southern side of the town square, [...]
At some point, Mark Millar will be taking public submissions for his new comics anthology, CLINT!. This is something that I’d like to take a pass at, and Pat is too nice to tell me “No, you booze addled twit, I won’t do that.”, so he gets drug along when I have a wild hair [...]
On the drive to the city square, each of them goes through their own mental rituals. Prepare themselves for what’s coming. David monopolizes the rear view mirror, preening himself and checking to see if any part of his breakfast had lodged itself unattractively in his front teeth. In the back of the car, Mary silently [...]
Inside the converted garage, David finds Maggie still fussing over her fugitive daughter, Sally. Ignoring the commotion between her mother and sister, the second Constant daughter, Lindy, sits at the table, gulping water out of a tin cup. She eyes David warily over the rim until he sticks out his tongue and makes a face [...]
Another MAGICTOWN short. This one for Jon Haas. Who, in hindsight, I realized is one of my favorite characters – both to write and read – and I killed him off in the first act of the book. Might not have been my best idea. Home is the place you know, where everything is familiar. [...]
In which I try something different. The first of a series of character-centric short fiction pieces I’ll be using as spacing material when I need more time to work on a MAGICTOWN chapter. First up: Maggie Constant.
In which old friends clear the air, and a family is met.
In which two Magics travel the twisting paths of Magictown and a trick is pulled off.
In which two old lovers come to terms with each other by almost coming to blows.
Alphonse smelled worse in death than he did in life. Which made the stink coming off of his corpse the stuff of pungent legends.
Danced behind as he’d played, danced out of the small hamlet, danced down into the Hollow Under the Hill, never ceasing, even when the hill closed shut behind him.
The air had a taste that night. Even here in The Bund, where street vendors were forbidden, it proudly trespassed. The city’s flavors conspired with the humid nighttime air to spread across all of Shanghai.
The sugar from the cotton candy had formed a thin film on his teeth. He ran his tongue over them, stopping at the recently loosed incisor to wiggle it – not quite ready.
Quickly and gracefully, I descended the steps and took my place at my new husband’s side. From here on I would be his support. I would keep him standing in place of the leg lost in the war.
Stealing into town, he heard the music blocks before he saw the gathered crowd, a vivacious throng waiting for the doors to swing open. There she was, on the edge. A smoke in her hand and red ribbon twisted in her hair. Just like last time.
The people are like plaster and brick towers, rising toward the blistering heat of the sun, as he, the dark, cool water, twists unnoticed below them.
The storm’s howling away outside. Came up out of nowhere. Air around us went solid, palpable, whiting out everything.
All that anger and pain and tension wrapped up into one crystalizing moment, prepping you for what’s coming in behind it. That great steel beast called life, barreling down the tracks, headed right smack for you.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so very sorry. My people can be anything, do anything, fix anything. Anything…anything but death. Death is always the intractable thing.”
When she stood there on the edge of the roof, gazing out over the twisting lights of the city basin, her willowy body barely hidden under a light blue medical gown, something in poor Karen just broke.
As I take an editorial step back, we find a chapter of Magictown in which a dream is had, an ultimatum is given, and an unwilling partnership is formed.
This post contains the outline of the remaining chapters of MAGICTOWN, rebuilt this weekend after I lost the original in a harddrive crash a few months back. Fair warning: this will spoil the rest of the book for you.
We’re frozen at home today, so here’s a Fast Fiction piece I have to share. MAGICTOWN is back next week.