Well, I’ve been quiet the last couple days. My apologies. I completely blame the Wheel of Time, of course. Every spare moment must go into catching up on my favorite characters.

This weekend is moving weekend! Not for us, unfortunately. My sister got a bad deal at her apartments. The storms that have come over the last few weeks have created a waterfall down her wall (which is much less cool than it sounds). After going back-and-forth with them for WEEKS, they finally are moving her to another building. There is mold growing around her vents, it’s disturbing. So I’m off to go help with the packing. Tomorrow I’ll be helping with the moving as well.

Check back tomorrow for another Interesting Reading post.

The conclusion of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities! How will Peter stop Snaggle and save his friends and neighbors? Read on to find out!

Audio version narrated by David Carroll:

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Sweat dripped from Peter’s forehead as he concentrated on the vial in front of him. Next to it, three other vials were mocking his previous failures, each was filled with a solidified black substance. If he thought making special shampoos and vitamins had been a challenge, this was a nightmare. Peter knew he had to finish it tonight, they would be leaving tomorrow morning.

He knew this was it. If this potion didn’t work, everything he had set up would mean nothing. His parents would still leave for Europe tomorrow morning and he would still be leaving with Mr. Snaggle. The man went on and on about how together they would make a circus fit for royalty. That didn’t sound interesting to Peter at all.

Worse still, his need to keep lying about his interest only served to excite Snaggle a little more each day. He hated lying to the old man, but what else was he going to do? He needed more time. He always needed more time. After tonight, it would be the one thing he didn’t have.

With a deep breath, he projected the last ingredient of his potion. The vial turned a bright green that started to turn darker. As it turned, Peter got nervous. If it didn’t stop changing soon, it would be another two hours wasted. If that happened he would only have one more shot. That would mean he’d have to skip the final ingredient. It was that final bit of himself that made the whole thing a challenge.

If he was right, that last little bit would allow Jackson to retain his thoughts after his transformation. There was one other option if it should come to that, but Peter liked this one more. He watched as the potion turned to a deep green before beginning to lighten back up.

“My boy, you’ve done it! And quite masterfully, if I do say so!” Mr. Snaggle slapped a hand on Peter’s back and he fought the urge the move away from the man. He felt more contemptuous of the things Mr. Snaggle had done to trap him every day. Instead though, he gritted his teeth and put on a good face.

“Thank you, I see how right you were about the complication now. I feel as if I just ran a marathon after so many hours of work.”

“Well you should be proud, Peter. You may think the afternoon a failure because it took so much time, but know that I do the same all the time! You are a natural, my boy, a natural! It was as if you had done it before.” Snaggle said. “What do you say, shall we give him the potion then?” The excitement was plain in his voice. Peter did the best he could to put on a smile.

He waited in the lab while Mr. Snaggle went to get Jackson. Peter didn’t want to know where the man had been keeping his friend for so long. He must have had him locked up somewhere. It fueled the fire that was building inside him against Mr. Snaggle. It was now or never, he knew, and he fought all the feelings of trust he had picked up for the old man.

Jackson came in, blindfolded, with a frown on his face. At least he looked healthy. Peter was glad Mr. Snaggle had fed him well.

The old man sat him in a chair next to where Peter was sitting. Snaggle smiled encouragingly toward him. With a gulp, Peter took his potion and poured the vial on his best friend’s head. It took everything he had to keep the tears inside at the fear on Jackson’s face. Snaggle was looking at Jackson with greed in his eyes.

Jackson began to twitch and fell from his stool. He wriggled about on the floor as his body began the transformation. Mr Snaggle moved forward, watching eagerly. “Yes, yes, simply magnificent.” His words were drawn out, like he was under some spell watching it all. Jackson cried out at the painful process, catching Peter’s attention. He could see the claws forming on his hands and feet. His friend let out a guttural cry as he sat up on arms and legs. Fur sprouted up across his body as the growth began.

“Quick, hide behind something!” Snaggle shouted, eyes wide. Jackson grew a couple hundred pounds as the orange and black fur finished growing. Peter jumped behind the nearest counter. Before he ducked down, he stared in awe at his creation. Jackson was the exact image of a tiger. His best friend growled viciously at Snaggle. It had worked, his potion had worked! Even the bits of anger Peter added had worked. He could tell that Jackson felt all that anger toward Snaggle.

Peter finally ducked behind the counter as Snaggle let out a horrible cry. In his mind he saw Jackson pounce on the old man. He couldn’t suppress the smile that found its way to his face. He peeked out from around the corner and saw Snaggle struggling with the tiger and his smile disappeared. Actually seeing the attack was something else entirely. It wasn’t as large as a real tiger, but it was still enormous.

He realized that Mr. Snaggle had been struggling to pull something from a pocket hidden in his sleeve. Peter watched in horror as the man pulled the stopper and poured the vial on Jackson. Immediately, the tiger slumped to the ground. Snaggle had gashes all over his body.

“No!” Peter yelled. “Did you kill him? I didn’t mean for this! It was an accident”

“Calm down, my boy.” Snaggles words were tired and strained. “It is only a sleeping potion. What you did, it- it’s remarkable work, Peter. Why don’t we have a toast to your success. I could certainly use a drink.” Snaggled limped back to the counter Peter hid behind. He opened the cabinet and pulled out his favorite brandy, and a jug of juice for Peter.

“My heart is racing. I can’t believe that it worked.” Peter said.

Snaggle smiled down at him, handing him a glass of juice. “To your very first potion!” The man held his glass down to toast Peter. The two glasses clinked together. Mr. Snaggle didn’t waste any time in downing his brandy. “You didn’t drink?” Peter looked to the ground, suddenly feeling very guilty. “What is it, my boy?”

“It’s just that, I couldn’t toast to my first potion until you took that drink.” The man’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry! I had to do it, you- YOU DESERVE IT!” Peter moved backward reflexively.

Snaggle dropped his glass and it shattered on the ground. “How- How did you do this? You are never alone in here, I know it for a fact!” The man fell backward into a chair, not fighting the changes beginning inside him.

“When you fought with Jackson.” He said. “I added it to your brandy when you were fighting. It was all I could come up with.”

Oddly, Mr. Snaggle smiled at that. He looked very peaceful. “I always said you were a very clever boy.” Then he screamed as the changes really started. His body shrunk and his skin turned green all over. He shook uncontrollably as the final changes took place. Peter took a jar and trapped the caterpillar inside. He breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, it was all over.

Peter ran to the stock room that he wasn’t supposed to know about. The potions he was looking for were packed in a box in the corner. He’d found the clues to get around Snaggle’s securities in the old book he’d found. He took the whole box and ran back into the lab. He took one of the vials and poured it in Jackson’s mouth.

He was thankful that the sleeping potion would keep Jackson from the painful transformation back to his human body. He watched in amazement as his friend changed from the tiger form. It really had been a good plan, he was quite proud.

(*******************)

After all the animals were made human again, Peter found himself in a new set of trouble. Some of the kids Snaggle had transformed were very old indeed, and many were from other countries. Eventually, he decided it wasn’t something he should have to deal with at all. He asked some of the neighborhood kids to watch over everyone and he and a few others went to their houses.

It was a pleasant surprise that the parents did not argue with them. It was pretty obvious that their kids were not away at camp when they were standing right in front of them. On top of that, that realization seemed to snap them out of whatever Snaggle had done to them. While they were skeptical, they listened and agreed to check things out on their own.

Peter left it to all the parents to figure out what to do with dozens of children, some with no homes. After a few dozen thanks and hand-shakes, Peter left. He still had his parents to see to. He’d found a concoction that would counter the tea his parents had been drinking. Then everything would be back to normal again.

Today we finished recording the final part of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities. That marks the end of three stories that I’ve written for Tuesday Night Storytime. At 9 parts, this story was the longest so far with 11,000 words. I think it’s one of my best works yet. As someone who usually follows the more traditional medieval fantasy, this was both a challenge and a blessing. It was a blast to work on something in a modern setting.

Because I do all my podcast writing in yWriter, I thought I’d share the statistics that it has kept track of. Since we began we’ve done 3 stories over 23 parts. All together that is almost 24,000 words, written and edited, in the last few months. I’m feeling pretty good about that!

This means it’s time to come up with a new story idea! I thought I would open the floor to my readers and internet buddies. This is a fantasy podcast, so keep that in mind. Your suggestion can be anything related to the genre. I thought it might be a fun thing to do whenever we finish a story.

And don’t forget to check back Tuesday for the final Snaggle episode!

It’s been quite an eventful week in the publishing world. The one everybody is talking about it seems is the fiasco Walmart, Amazon, and Target have caused. If you don’t know, Walmart.com cut the prices of new bestsellers to less than $10, and both of the other companies followed suit. Even Sears got involved through the use of coupons. Basically they want to (admittedly) take a loss on their books in order to get people into their stores. So we’ll start with something related. The American Booksellers Association drafted a letter to the Department of Justice about the whole thing. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Over at BookEnds, Jessica wrote a reminder post about why an agent does what she (in this case) does. It’s not about torturing writers, it’s about experience in a field that is hard to work in. It made me smile to read about the things her clients go through, it’s not just the writers trying to query!

This isn’t exactly something to go read, but in light of NaNoWriMo coming up, I thought I’d share this. Jennifer over at Procrastinating Writers is having a special series of posts all throughout the month of November. Check it out for daily tips to get you through your 1700 words a day!

And finally, Barnes and Nobles released their new e-book reader this week, the Nook. One of my online writing buddies, Robert McKay, did a neat post about some of its features.

The other day a friend of mine, CrissWrites, pointed out Jay Smooth to me. He runs a video blog and his posts are great. He has a calm, confident way of addressing issues nobody likes to talk about. There are also some hilarious videos he’s done as well. Jay Smooth started the longest-running hiphop station in NY, Underground Railroad.

I was surprised I’d never heard of this guy. I read about hiphop often because there is something very powerful about the music, especially the underground. Smooth also founded a hip hop blog you can check out. If you don’t have time for the rest, his vlog is worth some time.

Nobody likes to talk about race, but with a President receiving record threats every day and town hall meetings full of it, it’s time to start talking about it again. We’ve come so far, but we have a long way to go. Next time you hear a racist comment, keep this is mind.

And because I found this absolutely hilarious.

Do you ever use nature to inspire your writing? When I plotted out my Young Adult novel, I knew I wanted a place near a forest. That was simple enough, there are forests all over the world to use as a reference. But I’m writing a magical forest, a faerie realm, so I wanted to be a little more specific. I didn’t have to think about it very long to come up with my solution. There is only one place that inspired such a magical vision in my mind. The Teton mountains in Wyoming, and the Yellowstone national forest. I can’t think of many places more beautiful.

There was more to it than that, I came to find. Studies of the area pointed out that it was the first national park declared in America. An event that also happens in my book. On top of that, it was declared such in a year that fit within my story’s timeline. I found it interesting to say the least. I like to study history, so I knew some things I read, but Yellowstone has worked out better than I ever imagined.

Do you get inspired by things around you? Sometimes it seems to fit just a little too nice for it all to be mere coincidence. For me, I think we find what we need to find. Or at the very least, we find a special meaning in the things around us. I used to visit the Tetons every winter, I did so for many years. I hope that one day I can do so again, create my own annual tradition.

What inspires you?

The next to last part of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities. In this part, Peter struggles to come to grips with what Mr. Snaggle has asked of him. Can he really transform a human into an animal? Can he stop the man before he’s forced to?

As always, I hope you enjoy the story.

Peter didn’t know what to think about Mr. Snaggle’s request. He thought his comment had been safe enough because surely he wouldn’t actually ask him to do such a thing. That obviously was not the case. With time running out, he saw no other options and agreed to do it.

“Good, Peter, very good. I see you’re scared, that’s perfectly fine, my boy, perfectly fine. Did you know that I was just as nervous my first time?”

“Were you really? Does that mean we are going to do it tonight?” Peter asked.

“No, I have been searching for a special book for some time now. It must be here somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find it. Until I do, I’m not sure that I can talk you through the process I’m afraid. Do not worry though, I will find it soon enough.”

Peter’s heart skipped a beat at that. What was he going to do? Could he return the book without the man realizing what had happened? An idea came to him, he just hoped his guess was right. “Is it an old leather book? Brown, with golden symbols on the cover?” Snaggle turned to him, suspicion plain on his face and he went on quickly. “I- I found a book like that last night in my bedroom. It had the word book in it too, scribbled very poorly.”

“That damned fool of a beast! I don’t even know why I still bother with him after all this time.” The man said.

“Who?”

“It’s the monkey, I know it. It’s not the first time he’s pulled such a prank. I should have seen it coming I suppose. Peter, have you looked in the book at all?”

Peter was happy that his guess was right, but he pretended to be nervous anyway. “I did glance through it a bit last night. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosy. I was going to bring it back, but I completely forgot about it today when I woke up. I meant to bring it right back, I really am sorry I forgot.”

“That’s alright, my boy, I understand your curiosity. I don’t imagine what was inside made much sense anyway.” Snaggle laughed at that. “Sometimes I don’t even understand it!”

Peter forced a smile. “If you want I can go get it and bring it to you?”

“That’s quite all right. Why don’t you read some more from it tonight. I’d be curious to know what you can make of it. No, don’t worry, I know it won’t be much. You are very bright though, so perhaps you can find something that makes sense.”

“I can try, was there anything else you wanted before I leave tonight?”

Mr. Snaggle considered the words for some time before answering. Peter felt a little uncomfortable at the way he was just staring at him. “I do, Peter. I’m curious why you have not asked me about your friends yet.”

Peter couldn’t hide his surprise this time. He’d tried very hard to avoid talking about that all together. He looked at the ground, unsure of what to say.

“I understand that you don’t want to talk about it. You must understand that I don’t seek out people to harm, Peter. The only ones that I change, are the ones that sneak into my tents late at night. It’s their own fault, you must understand this above all else.”

“I had suspsected the rats you put on display were my friends. I wasn’t sure because there were only two of them though. They warned me that they were going to try to sneak in. I tried to stop them! I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them!” Tears began to fall and Mr. Snaggle put his arm around Peter.

“I don’t blame you, my boy. Not at all. The third boy is the reason that I am bringing it up. He is the one I would like you to transform.”

Peter pushed at Mr. Snaggle and jumped backwards. “No, I cannot! You can’t make me do that!” He yelled. If Snaggle was worried about him being heard, he didn’t show it. “I can’t do that to my own friend!”

Mr. Snaggle let him complain for some time until he was tired and sobbing on the floor. “I know it’s hard, Peter. It’s important though. I assure you, he will have no idea that it is you. You have my word.”

Peter’s mind raced. How was he supposed to do this? He was running out of time to stop Mr. Snaggle, he was running out of time to help his friends, he was running out of time to do anything at all! He felt like the walls were almost crushing around him now. Snaggle was just staring at him, waiting for a response. He slumped his shoulders. “Alright, I will try. It won’t kill him, right?”

Snaggle lit up with excitement. “Of course not, my boy, of course not! He will not be harmed in the least.” He wouldn’t be harmed? In what world was turning someone into an animal not the same as being harmed? Peter decided the arguments would not go over well if he said them out loud, so he just kept them to himself. “That is all for today, Peter. Why don’t you head on home. Tomorrow you can bring the book with you and we’ll talk about how to mix the right kind of concoction.”

The whole way home Peter knew it was now or never. When he got there he wasn’t surprised to find his parents were not even home. They’d been going out almost every night to some place or other. He thought it was to see a musical tonight. Sad and lonely, he made his way to his room. He pulled the old leather book from under his mattress and turned the page to the one he’d bookmarked with the monkey’s note.

He was pretty sure the page described how to turn animals back into humans again. Some parts of it he didn’t understand, but it was becoming more clear as he read through the old book every night. He was sure he could figure it out in a few more days. Then he flipped to another page toward the back, the page described something else he was close to figuring out. And that was the key to everything. 

I haven’t given you guys a writing update in awhile. I’m still plugging away at the assassin novel. The percentage bar is up to 15%. It has been going a bit slower than my initial estimation. Mostly because after some agent rejections my wife and I began a 5th draft of my YA novel. Hey, it never hurts to do more work. It’s almost finished (again) and I’ll soon be sending it off to more agents. Then I’ll get back into working on the assassin book full time again.

Episode 8 of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities comes out tomorrow. It will be the second to last part of the story, since we don’t want to get up to 10 parts on any given story. In all it looks like the story will end up about 11,500 words. Does that still stand within short story limitations? *gives an evil little laugh* I love this story a lot, easily one of my best works so far. Things are about to turn a lot darker, so look forward to that.