My main focus just now is on NaNoWriMo and my in-process draft for that – but at the other end of the writing journey, I have two short stories in an anthology that came out late October. I shared an excerpt from one of them earlier, but thought it only fair to give a little attention to the other one too!
Plot Twists is a collection of short stories about people entering into the books they read. I was honored to write the first story in the collection, about a boy entering into J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Enjoy the excerpt below, and read the full story by getting your copy of Plot Twists here!
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The Bookseller nodded once, and came out from behind the counter. “Not to worry. Only the right people can come in here. Now let’s see about finding you the right book.”
“I’m just looking,” Will mumbled again, because he didn’t want to admit he had no money to buy any book, but he also didn’t want her to toss him outside while Big Tom was still there. How pathetic was it if he couldn’t even run away properly?
“I quite understand,” she said, and strode purposefully down one of the narrow aisles. “Follow me, please.”
He trudged uncertainly behind her, eyes getting bigger as they walked through one twisting aisle and into another. It was impossible to tell how big the store was. All he could see was books.
“Did you have something in mind?” she asked. “Pirates, perhaps? Magic? Romance?”
“Pirates,” he said quickly, cheeks turning hot. Romance? Definitely not. He’d seen older kids making eyes at each other, but—no, pirates sounded much better.
“Heroics or something comforting?”
He wasn’t altogether sure what that meant. “Um…either?”
“Something funny or educational?”
That was easy, at least. “Funny,” he said firmly.
She turned suddenly and looked at him with a newly intense gaze. “And, very important—do you want an escape?”
There was something about that gaze, about those eyes looking straight into his. He wasn’t sure anyone had looked at him with that much attention since his mother had died. Maybe that’s why he answered with the truth. “More than anything.”
She nodded again. “Then you are in the right shop.”
Tales of the Marvelous 