#WIPpet Wednesday – August 23, 2017

Hello and welcome to WIPpet Wednesday, a blog hop wherein writers share an excerpt from their current WIP that somehow relates to the date.  To join in, simply click the blue linky up there to the right.

The new version of Memories and Magic is trucking along well (if you missed it, check out last week’s post for a long ramble on how I am totally revamping it). I have a bit of a rough outline which gives me an idea of where I’m going and how to get there. I’ll fill in the gaps as I go along. Characters are slowly revealing themselves to me, though I’m not 100% sure what they’re all doing there at this stage.

But for now, the WIPpet. At the end of Chapter 1, Clara hears screaming down the road from her shop. Someone is freaking out that there’s a magician there. Turns out it’s not a real magician, but her friend and neighbour, Mathias, who performs sleight-of-hand illusions on the street and loves nothing more than embarrassing Clara. He’s tried his tricks a bit too far uptown where they’re a bit more paranoid about magic. Eight paragraphs for the eighth month.

Mathias gave the Guard a winning smile. “Captain Voidsun, sir.”

Clara covered her face with her hands. Rikard Voidsun had to be the best Guard in the country, let alone the province, and here was Mathias antagonising him like it was all some big joke.

“Are you wasting my time again, Mathias?” he asked.

“You’ll probably say so, sir,” Mathias replied.

The Captain rolled his eyes again and then looked at the two other men. “You can let him go, gentlemen. This man is no magician.”

“But he made a solid gold coin appear out of Mrs Merimon’s ear!” one of the men protested.

“The coin was in his hand the whole time. He simply directed your attention elsewhere so you wouldn’t notice.”

Mathias clicked his tongue. “I can’t make a living if you go giving away all my secrets every time we cross paths, Captain.”

I wrote this dialogue before I even had a clear idea of the role Mathias was going to play. All I knew was the quips kept coming and Clara was mortified.

In other news, it’s Book Week in Australia, and we got to dress up at work! 😀 (Dressing up for Book Week is a Thing). I went as Offred from  the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I knew there was a reason I kept my bonnet from doing The Crucible tucked away for three years. You can see photos on the National Library of Australia Facebook page

To be honest, I won’t make any promises about visiting your posts this week. I’m going to be spending the weekend running around Canberra Writers’ Festival, both as a visitor and a volunteer at different times, and then in the evenings I’ll probably feel guilty for neglecting my uni work. But I’ll try, even if it is next Tuesday when I get to it again!