[Possession, Indulge]

  “Where’s the outline, Rose?”

  “I’m trying Sparky, every idea I write down, thirty seconds later sounds terrible. Look there at the trash bin, look at all the ideas that went down the drain.”

  “Well how did you write your first novel? Were you a pantser or an outliner”

  “What’s a pantser, I always wear skirts, you know that.”

  “Ha, funny Rose, a pantser is a writer who writes by the seat of their pants, no plan, blindly flogging their way through.”

  “Yes, I’m a pantser who wears skirts.”

  “Ok, I’ve been asking you to do it backwards. In your last novel, what did you start with first the farm or Juliet.”

  “I started with Beatrice in a house.”

  “I don’t remember a Beatrice in your novel.”

  “No she’s not in the novel, I decided she wasn’t right for it.”

  “So you replaced Beatrice with Juliet?”

  “No, I replaced Beatrice with Clairiice.”

  “Who did you replace Clairice with?”

  “Darla”

  “Who did you replace ‘H’ with”

  “Who’s ‘H’?”

  “I have no idea. Again my fault I’m asking the questions in a straight forward way. I’m dealing with someone who thinks backwards. Ok who did Juliet replace?”

  “Darla”

  “Of course she did. So what made Juliet the character of the novel over Darla?”

  “Darla was very nice but she was a touch dull, quiet, and never wanted to talk. Juliet was the opposite. From the first time I met her I liked her and I loved talking to her. We could talk for hours about nothing at all and it was so much fun.”

  “Well maybe you should write a sequel, they're very popular and you have a built in base to buy the book.”

  “I thought of that but Juliet said no.”

  “What she’s becoming a famous character, doesn’t she want to get more famous.”

  “No, she says she’s too busy between the school and the adult literacy lessons.”

  “Adult Literacy is very important but still we’ll need to find you a new character and setting, unless you want to set it in Juliet’s world but with new characters.”

  “No, I think a new character deserves a new setting.”

  “Ok you should do character interviews, quick to the point. Why do you want to appear in this novel? Will you do nudity if the scene requires it? Wh…”

  “You want me to ask someone I just met to do nudity?”

  “No just ask the question, no point getting fifty thousand words into the book only to discover you need a skinny dipping scene and the main character refuses. What would you do then.”

  “Well I could get her a bathing suit, or have her bring one from home. Instead of skinny dipping, the couple could go for midnight walks in the forest, moonbathing, long walks on the beach or something like that.”

  “You’d surrender your artistic vision of skinny dipping, you can’t surrender your artistic vision Rose. It’s what makes you a writer at your core.”

  “But that skinny dipping is your vision, isn’t that just the male gaze, you want to see the female character naked.”

  “Well of course I want to see the female character naked, if the male character has to get naked why shouldn’t the female character?”

  “But what happened to all that talk about agency?”

  “What’s skinny dipping got to do with agency?”

  “Well if the female character didn’t want to do a skinny dipping scene, would you take away her agency and force her to do a nude scene?”

  “No of course not, that’s why you ask the question before you write fifty thousand words, do you understand?”

  “Ok but I’m not including a skinny dipping scene so there is no reason to ask the question.”

  “What if your characters wind up on a deserted island, they have only one set of clothes each. They’re dirty and smelly and desperately need baths and neither can swim so they need to enter the hot springs together to avoid drowning. If their clothes get wet, they’ll die of exposure overnight and your character hasn’t verbally agreed to do a nude scene if the scene requires it. Well what are you going to do now smarty pants?”

  “I’d have them bathe off page.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Off page, off page, where is the fun in that? Readers will be tearing their hair in frustration. Rose, just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean you do it off page. Rose, have you never enjoyed the joy of skinny dipping with someone you love.”

  “Sparky, I’m not answering that question, now stop teasing me.”

  “Fine this is the last thing I’ll say on the subject, there is nothing dirty or untoward in a skinny dipping scene and if someone says that there is I’d say that it’s them that have the dirty mind not me. Now I’ve got to go back to the tower. My experiment is at a critical stage. I want a character list from you soon. No, more hijinks, adventures, or rescues until I get that list. Understood?”

  “Understood.”

  Ok. Let's get started with Sophia.

  “Hello Sophia”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Rose, an author, I’m looking for new characters for my next story. Would you like to be considered?”

  “What’s in it for me?”

  “What do you do now, then I’ll know what to offer you.”

  “I’m Romani, a traveler, my family and a few others travel for work.”

  “Well that sounds interesting, do you enjoy that?”

  “No, I'd rather live in a mansion, if I can live in a mansion I’ll do your story.”

  “What was your childhood like?”

  “We traveled, people threw rocks at us for being in their towns. If stuff went missing people blame us. I went to jail till I turned eighteen. When I had a kid, my mother watches her now. So can we live in a mansion or not?”

  “Well honestly Sophia, I haven’t settled on a setting yet. But if I do wind up setting it in a mansion I’ll call you back for a second interview, ok. Thanks for your time.”

  “Do you have fifty dollars I could borrow, the baby needs formula.”

  “Certinaly, let’s call it pay for the time you spent interviewing, no need to repay it. Thanks again.”

  Then a lady dwarf walked into the bookstore. I’m afraid I showed rather bad manners, I’d never seen a dwarf before except in a painting, and those were all men.

  “Hello, welcome to Enigmatic Parchments, I’m sorry for staring, I’ve never met a dwarf before. How can I help you? Sorry I’m Rose. How can I help you?”

  The dwarf ran around the counter hugged me tight burying face in my belly button and started to cry. I patted her back lightly

  “I’m sorry, is there anything I can do to help? Why are you crying?”

  She stepped back wiping her tears away.

  “I’m so sorry dear, I’m just so happy to meet the girl that saved my Ilina, my name is Nimrith Valen but please call me ‘Nim’.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Ilina is a sweet girl we took to her right away.”

  “Well Ilina spent a couple of miserable days in that dungeon those evil men built and you’d think that’d be all she could talk about but she hasn’t mentioned a word about that at all. Instead she talks about you all the time and your friends and your magical tower. So thank you from the bottom of my heart, if ever I can do anything for you. Just say the word, I’d kill for you.”

  “Ah, thank you very much. No, need for killing, I’m just really happy we could help. The ghost, Daisy, deserves the most credit.”

  “Aye, I heard all about Daisy, throwing stones, overhearing plots, finding the farm. Most kids are afraid of ghosts. Now Ilina wants one, like she’s adopting a dog. But that’s not the only reason I came. My husband said you had a book club. I was hoping you might consider me letting me join. I understand if it’s full.”

  “No we’d love to have you, it’s all women, except I let my librarian Doug sit in, along with Daisy our ghost. Salome chose our latest book ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. We’ll talk about the book and visit a couple of the settings, all the members are very friendly, we drink wine and just generally have fun. Please come try it out. I have plenty of copies of the book if you need one.”

  “I’d be delighted to attend, I was in another book club with the wives of my husband's friends, and they looked down on me literally and figuratively. We just weren’t from the same worlds. We never had much money when I was a kid, but we had enough and a good clean house and food on the table everyday. I already have the book, thank you dear.”

  “My ma and I were the same, a nice enough small house, big enough for just us two. But we had food everyday, it was lovely actually. We didn’t have much but we had enough. As long as you have enough, what more do you need.”

  “That’s right, well I’ll let you get back to work, I saw you writing away and I’ll see you at book club, what should I bring?”

  “Oh, Nim you don’t have to bring anything.”

  “Do you have any beer drinkers?”

  “Yes a few, my girlfriend is a bard, she works at Jack in the Green. She enjoys beer, so does Paula Becker.”

  “Two more of the girls who rescued mine. Well I’ll bring some beer and homemade pretzels. Thanks Rose see you at book club.”

  “Bye Nim see you at bookclub.”

  Oh Sparky is going to kill me, I need a character and Sophia is just not going to cut it. Let’s try Scarlett”

  “Hello Scarlett please tell me about yourself and why you want to appear in the novel”

  “Ok my name is Scarlet McGowan, up till now I’ve been working as a lackey for the main character in a horror novel. That job ended rather abruptly when the author had my character dismembered in the second to last chapter of her novel. Unfortunately I didn’t have the foresight to ask for references before the novel began. I can get references from my former employer. She was the main character, a tart in a men’s adventure novel. A stripper with a heart of gold and a bank account to match. She was very well endowed, as were the two male leads in the novel. What else do you want to know?”

  “Um, what’s your best talent?

  “I can touch the tip of my nose with my tongue. I had a boy friend who told me that was rare, only like thirty percent of people can do that. He said I had a very talented tongue.”

  “Why did you want to appear in my novel?”

  “Well the tart had it good, she was either dancing or in bed with the two well endowed men. While I was running around picking up her dry cleaning or cleaning her bathroom. I’d rather be dancing or lying in bed with two well endowed men. Course if it’s a horror novel I’d want your promise not to dismember, I’ve got a pretty good body, course my melons aren’t as big as yours, but their pert, no sagging and if I have to be a corpse I want to be a whole pretty corpse.”

  “Yes, I see, would you do nudity if the scene required it?”

  “Oh sure, no problem, it'd be my pleasure. Do you want to see them now?”

  “Oh, no, no, that won’t be necessary.”

  “Here let me show you they are pert”

  “No really that’s not necessary, there probably won’t be any nude scenes, now that I think about it.”

  “Well you're the author.”

  “I’ll let you know if I decide not to do that dismembering scene.”

  “Ok thanks.”

  Ok what have I got so far. I have a thief who’ll rob the stripper with the heart of gold. She’ll steal her heart, then for the male audience we’ll put her into bed with two well endowed men take off her top in all her pert glory. I’ll just write this up along with the interviews and leave it on Sparky’s desk.