The continuation of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities. In this part, Peter can’t wait to tell his family about his trip, but their strange behavior might just change his mind. Thanks for the comments last week. Some of the ideas can be seen in this part, but more will come later as well. If anyone has ideas or suggestions go ahead and leave a comment.

Audio Version narrated by David Carroll:

As always, thanks for reading. If you missed last weeks episode, check it out here.

Peter opened the front door feeling quite excited about telling his parents of all the fun things he’d seen at the circus. It had closed a couple hours ago now, but his friend’s family liked the idea of the circus and made it fun talking to about it. Mr. Snaggle had so many stories to tell that they’d ended up staying the whole day. The more kids that showed up, the more interesting the stories became.

The smell of dinner from another room distracted all other thoughts. His stomach growled at the delicious smells reminding him of dinner time. He found his parents already sitting at the table, waiting for him.

“You almost missed dinner, you know? Have you been down at that circus all day?” His mother asked, not unkindly.

His father had more irritation in his voice. “So, was it everything you’d hoped?” Neither was enough to make Peter forget the fun of the day though.

“It was,” he said, “there was an enormous toad with three heads! And I saw a monkey that could fit into the palm of my hand. I’m serious, I saw it with my own eyes!” His parents only looked at each other in disbelief.

“Nothing more than illusions, I’m sure.” His father’s words made Peter’s jaw drop open. “Go on in the kitchen, Pete. Clean your hands and come eat. You can tell us all about it.”

With a sigh of disappointment, Peter went into the kitchen to do what he was told. Why did he think they would care? They never liked the things he did.

Back in the dining room, his parents were already filling their plates with food. He smiled at the sight of it all. It wasn’t often that his dad cooked, but it was obvious when he did. He always made way more than they could eat.

Tonight was some sort of chicken dish, with a red sauce he didn’t recognize. To go with it, there were two kinds of rolls. And three other bowls that he could only tell certain ingredients from. It all smelled wonderful. His stomach grumbled again at those smells, so he sat down quickly at the table.

Peter scooped different dishes onto his plate while he tried to think of something his parents might like to hear about from the circus. It seemed so obvious when it finally came to him.

“There was one one thing that was really weird about the circus. I bet you guys would like that since you think Mr. Snaggle is so strange and all.”

“Honey,” his mother interrupted, “it isn’t polite to talk about Mr. Snaggle like that.”

“You know better than that, Pete.” His father finished the thought for her.

Neither stopped eating. Peter stared at them back and forth without saying anything. He just couldn’t think of anything to say. It’s not polite for me to talk about strangers, he thought?

“But, you were the ones so convinced he was a strange old man.” His argument fell upon deaf ears. His parents just stared without expression.

“Did we, now? Well I guess we just had to sit down and think it through.” Said his father with a shrug, and his mother nodded in agreement. Peter didn’t know what to think. Five minutes ago they obviously had felt completely different!

He didn’t feel much like telling them about his day after that. It didn’t seem to bother his parents either. So they sat there, eating in silence.

* * * * *

Billy had watched all the kids pour out of the circus when it was time to close. He watched over the tent for a couple of hours to make sure than the old man living there had moved on to one of his other ridiculous tents. He had it in for Snaggle for making a fool of him earlier.

Maybe trashing his tent will teach him to mess with me, he thought. The sun went down early this time of year, which was all the better to him, because he didn’t want anyone to see him sneaking into the circus.

He walked slowly up to the bright yellow entry flap and peaked his head inside to make sure nobody was there. The place was dark without any lights on. He sighed at not having brought a flashlight.

Billy crept through trying to peak into different cages and glass tanks. This was pointless, he couldn’t see anything at all in the dark. He leaned close into one enclosure and the biggest snake he’d ever scene hissed and attacked him. Billy fell back against a wooden block, his heart pounding in his chest.

He leaned in again to notice the snake in a glass enclosure. Billy breathed a little easier. Then he blinked at the realization that the snake, which he recognized as a cobra, had two heads! He decided not to release that one.

Then he felt something touch his back. Billy jumped, turning in alarm, but his cry was cut off short. The last thing he saw was a shadowed outline of a beast, towering in the darkness.

The first part of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities. In this part, a young boy named Peter finds the old man living down the street from his house quite strange indeed. When the man opens a private circus tent, Peter’s friend makes sure they are the first to see it.

Audio version by David Carroll:

As always, thanks for reading! And feel free to help guide the story’s direction by commenting your ideas and thoughts.

Peter Morgan just didn’t trust old Mr. Snaggle.  There was something strange about the man, even if he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly.  Perhaps it was his circus, or that he lived in a giant green tent.

Peter tried to tell his friend his thoughts about the man, but Jackson wouldn’t listen.  To him, it was all about the exotic animals.  Nothing else mattered.  That was how Peter found himself riding his bike to the opening of Mr. Snaggle’s twisted circus.

He’d passed by the place—which was not really up to circus standards by his estimation—often enough.  Old Mr. Snaggle bought the large empty lot at the very end of the street, three blocks down from his own house, a couple weeks back.  There was no house on the lot.  Instead, Mr. Snaggle put up three large, colorful tents.

Peter had marveled over them when they first went up, but every day he passed by them they seemed more and more strange.  It was his parents that pointed out the oddities.  They wondered why anyone would want to live in a tent anyway, and how the man kept out intruders without any doors.

Jackson rode in front of him, making it impossible to talk during the short trip.  His friend was just about bouncing off his seat he was so excited.  Peter just tried to keep up.  Lots of the kids around the neighborhood seemed happy about the largest of the three tents being opened for the first time today.

The colorful tents came into view as they circled around the final curve in the road.  Strange or not, they were splendid.  The smallest of the three was neon green.  The others were purple and yellow.  The yellow tent, the largest of them, was the circus tent.

Peter had been to a circus before, a proper circus, and that had been much bigger than all three tents combined.  He didn’t see the big deal of this one, even if it was on their street.  Really though, it wasn’t even that.  He was excited at the prospect of the rare things they would see today.  It just came back to there being something off about Mr. Snaggle himself.

His parents seemed to agree, it was all they had been talking about for days.  He’d had to convince them to let him see the circus when it opened.  They made him earn his own entrance fee, but Peter didn’t mind.

Approaching the tent, the boys left their bike’s locked to a tree and made their way toward the tent.  Peter looked over the new sign above then entrance.  It was done in colorful paint and had shapes and symbols all along the edges.

MR. SNAGGLE’S ODDITIES
Home to the Unnatural and Weird

Despite himself, Peter smiled.  He had to admit that sounded like a place he’d enjoy.

“Come on, let’s go have a look.” Jackson said.

“Not so fast, kids.”  Peter gulped at the words and turned to their source.  Everybody in the neighborhood knew Billy’s voice.  Billy was going on to high school this year and thought that gave him a right to pick on everyone smaller than him.  It had been a rough summer with him around.

“We don’t want any trouble.”  Peter said, frowning.  The older boy had a friend with him.  Peter got the feeling he knew where this was heading.

“I made a bet with Todd here, told him I thought we could get in for free today.”  Billy said, ignoring his comment completely.

“That’s impossible,” Jackson countered, “the price is five dollars.  It says right there on the sign.”

“That’s right.  Dang, I guess I lose, Todd.”  Billy smiled at his friend with a troubling grin.  “Well, that’s a shame.  We’ll just have to take your entry money then, I guess.”

Jackson paled a little at the realization.  He turned to Peter with a look of defeat.  They both knew better than to argue with the older boy.  If they did, they’d lose their money anyway and probably get a black eye for their effort.

Reluctant, both boys pulled out the few dollars they had managed to earn with chores.

“And what do we have here?”   The voice made Peter jump.  It came from old Mr. Snaggle, sweeping out of his tent with a flourish of his cloak.  The cloak was another of his strange habits.  It was green and made of thick material.  Peter thought it was great, but his parents both considered it very odd for a grown man.  It seemed to fit a man who lived in bright tents to Peter.

Peter and Jackson, money in hand, stood dumbfounded.  Neither had any idea what to do.  It didn’t seem like a good idea to tell on the older kids.  They would surely pay for it later if they did.

“We were just asking our friends if we could borrow the entry fee.  We forgot our money at home, you see?”  Billy explained, looking as innocent as possible.

“I see,” the old man repeated, eyeing them all at once it seemed.  “Well that sounds good to me,” he said, pausing while Billy smiled.  “Of course, that means these lads have enough to pay for all four of you, yes?  Let’s see the money, and then I will show you things you’ve never imagined.”

Billy’s smile disappeared.  Peter would have laughed had it been safe to do so, how was he going to answer without smiling?  Billy saved him from having to find out.

“It doesn’t even matter.  I didn’t want to see the stupid circus anyway.  Come on, Todd.  Let’s go sneak into a movie or something.”  The two stalked away angrily.

Smiling widely, Peter looked up at Mr. Snaggle and said, “thank you.”

“Think nothing of it, my dear boy.  And may I bid you welcome to my circus of oddities.”  The old man flourished his cloak again, sweeping it out beside him as if to gesture toward the entrance.  “For only five dollars, you can be the first to witness my collection of all things intriguing, baffling to scientists, thing unexplainable by experts all over the world.  Enter, and see the impossible.”

Peter laughed in delight and his friend was clapping along with every word.  The old man had a way of speaking that he’d never heard before.  Why had he ever doubted coming to this place?

They both raised their hands to pay the man and he paused as if in thought.  “In fact, for being my first visitors, why don’t you go ahead and keep your money.  How does that sound?  All I ask is that you tell other’s of what you see today, can you do that?”

Peter looked at his friend in wonder and they both nodded vigorously.  To think they both now had five dollars!  He turned to thank Mr. Snaggle again.  In the back of his mind he remembered thinking there was something strange about the man.  Then they went into the tent, and he forgot all about the things he’d been told.

Some people have been asking me about my projects listed on the front page. Everywhere on the site they are only hinted and “coming soon.” I thought I would go ahead and fill people in about what I’ve been doing since finishing The Forest Awakens at the end of July.

Assassin’s Tale, Adult Fantasy

That is not the title I’ll use for the book, but it sums up what I’m going for. When I have a title I’ll let you guys know. I have always loved to read both fantasy and espionage, so it makes sense for my third book to be a fun mix of the genre’s. It will be mostly fantasy, so no guns or advanced government spy organizations, more back to the basics. Knives will be a popular weapon choice among thieves.

The book will track the protagonist while his life is, to some degree, falling apart. Once an honored soldier turned merchant’s guard, he finds himself on a downward spiral that leads him to become an assassin with the fate of two kingdoms caught in his schemes of revenge.

The novel will really be about the protagonist. I wanted to tell a detailed story of what it takes to break an honorable man and turn him into a deadly adversary. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

I’m estimating 100,000 words for this book. It’s plotted out at 38 chapters, using 2500 words/chapter as my rough estimate. I have about 12,000 completed. This project began in the middle of July.

Tuesday Night Story #3, Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities

I can hardly believe that we’re already on the 3rd TNS! This has been so much more fun than I expected when it began. To those that haven’t been keeping up, every Tuesday night I post roughly 1100 words of a continuing story. When story #2 began, my good friend David Carroll offered to record the stories each week. So TNS got an upgrade and became a podcast as well! You can find it on iTunes if you’re interested. See the mp3 player on the front page to listen to recent episodes.

Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities is a new style of writing for me. It is my first attempt at such a young voice. This one is a children’s tale about a strange new circus that has come to young Peter’s street. The circus is run by old Mr. Snaggle and it all seems just a bit too good to be true.

*****

That’s what I’ve been up to lately. Feel free to tell me about your latest projects in the comments. And make sure to check back tomorrow for the beginning of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities! It may be one of my favorite story ideas yet.