Well HELLOOOOOOOO. (Feel free to read that in a Jerry Seinfeld voice, if that’s your thing. It’s not mine, but I won’t judge.) Welcome again to WIPpet Wendesday, which I will be participating in again this week. Things aren’t back to normal, exactly; I seem to have lost my will to write. I’ll get back to it. In the meantime, have eleven sentences from the next chapter of… um… well, I don’t know what to call it. The Thingy That I Shared From Those Other Times seems sort of inappropriate as a title, but that’s what it is.

This doesn’t pick up exactly where we left off last time (Part one here, part two here); I’m skipping a few introductions and the first part of the “Where the heck are we” conversation, simply because these eleven sentences are more interesting on their own, and I can do that, because this is my blog. OH, THE POWER.

—

I walked a few paces behind her and tried not to stumble in the road as I took in the world around me. It looked so much like the land I was familiar with— the moss-covered boulders rising from the ground, the birches and pines and aspens. A red squirrel nattered at us as we passed by, and a startled grouse darted out of the road as we came around a bend. But it was like there was another world laid over the one I was familiar with, with strange birds and plants I’d never seen in my summers exploring the woods around Brightdale. I reached out to touch a blue, magnolia-like flower. “Don’t worry,” Genessa said. “Nothing along this road is magic. Kind of like where you come from, right?”

“We don’t have magic or dragons, if that’s what you mean. Except in stories.”

“Lucky you.”

—

If you do want to read the whole story, and assuming that I can go back in time and rescue my writing mojo from Dr Evil (who OBVIOUSLY has stolen it, because what else could it be?), I’m thinking about using this one to try out Wattpad. This is a little side-story (probably novella-length) set in the same world as the novels I’m working on, so that might be a fun project, and it’s no big loss if it doesn’t work out. Not for promotion, just for fun.

Want more WIPpet fun? Check out the linkie here to see what the other WIPpeteers are up to, and feel free to join in. The more the merrier! Thanks as always to the fantabulotronic K.L. Schwengel for hosting.

What else do we need to do today? My ROW80 update, of course!

Obviously I haven’t been getting much writing done, but I’ve got some revision planning on the go, so that kind of counts toward writing, even if I’m nowhere near hitting a thousand words a day. Or 500. Or three. My other goals are going well, though. I said I was going to do meal-planning, and I’m kind of sticking with that. I finished that pony for that secret… thing, and she turned out really pretty. I don’t have a picture of her yet, but I can show you the bonus pony I did; I don’t think the person who’s getting these reads my posts, anyway.

The problem is, I did this one as a last-minute extra, and I’m having a hard time thinking about sending her away. LOOK HOW ADORABLE!

Freaking Baby Bubbles. Stop it. Don’t look at me like that. STAHP!

Ugh.

Anyway, I finished my son’s Beothuk Barbie doll in time for his birthday, which was another goal. She turned out OK. I researched clothes, and then realized how difficult that was going to be, but I think I did a decent job with it. I re-did her face, but left her hair. I didn’t have the time, energy, or skill to do a re-root (it’s much harder on dolls than on ponies), so she has some lovely and inauthentic sun-kissed highlights going on. In any case, he loved her, and that was the goal. If he wants to put ochre (or more likely, red chalk pastels) on her skin and clothes, we’ll make a project of that and talk about the culture. Learning time!

So there you go. Progress on some things, just not on what this challenge is really about (ie writing). We’ll see how the next week goes…

So tell me: Have you used Wattpad for reading or writing all of the free things? What did you think? Would anyone be interested in seeing this one finished and posted? Do you have dragons where you live? Would you like to? Can I borrow your time machine? Do you want to use the word “fantabulotronic?” You totally can.