[Attain, Gentle]
Opal did a few more minor healings at the clinic, nothing nearly as impressive as healing cancer and she didn’t need me to refill her magic reserves. Then the three of us portaled to the tower. I introduced Laura to Doug, Daisy and Elmer and asked Doug for a copy of Paula Tabert's book about Paula Becker.
“So before I have to go back to work did you give any thought to my offer, I think you’d make a really compelling main character, you could pick the location and it’ll definitely be a cozy not gritty realism. You can still give whatever views you like but there won’t be any toxic national or state politics to contend with. Like I said before a fall and a bump on your head and all of your favorite books will be vague impressions of books you loved but have forgotten due to the bump on the head. So you can happily re-read them but have the joy of discovery like you never read it before. We could even work it into the plot, you actually witnessed the murder, that’s why the murderer knocked you off the ladder attempting to kill you as well. But a customer at the store was approaching so the murderer had to flee before they could finish you off.”
“Wow you really just revise the plot on the fly don’t you?”
“Yes, I enjoy making up the plot as I write, I make up the plot based on the character. First I thought of you and your eidetic memory, how I can make your life a little more enjoyable, then the bump, so you can re-read favorites as though it’s your first read. Then as long as we are doing that anyway hey lets get that into the book. It gives you the greatest joy but it also presents you with your greatest danger, because you know who the killer is, you just don’t know that you know it. But this is a cozy not a thriller so that is going to be downplayed, faded into the background, when I read a cozy I certainly don’t like it if the protagonist is put into danger.”
“Do you always try to please the reader?”
“Yes but only to the extent I consider myself the writer but also the reader of the novel. Of course I want other people to like it, but I’m writing it to please myself. Doug was showing me this big discussion group on the internet, about romance books and women would post with almost a synopsis of a book that they wanted to read, what the male character did for a living, what he looked like and the same for the main female character, then how much sex they wanted in the novel, what types they wanted, want they wanted to avoid. Then other readers wrote back with suggestions for such a book. I would hate to know all those things in advance as a reader and even as a writer, I thought if the person wants something so specific, instead of reading which they just ordered up, they’d be better off actually writing it. They’d have exactly everything that they wanted and none of the stuff they didn’t want. But they’d discover themselves on their own.”
“That happens in all genres Rose, back when my bookstore was basically a paperback only, all genre store. I’d have men come in and explain just what they wanted in a science fiction or fantasy story and get offended if something like it had been written but I was out of it or it’d never been written at least as far as I knew.”
“I think if people knew how much fun it was to write their own stories, more people would write.”
“Wait, what about the tortured writers you hear about.”
“I’m not saying it’s easy, I’m saying it’s fun. I think writers may be tortured for different reasons. How about the successful first time author, who feels tremendous pressure writing their second novel knowing it’ll be judged not based on its merits but rather against the first novel. Imagine a mother who judged her children that way. Or the struggling professional author who has to make a sale just so they have a place to live and something to eat. No, I wouldn't want to be in either of their positions.”
“I think that is the life of a professional author on Earth except for maybe the most successful.”
“If on Earth I’d want to join a writer’s collective and work part time to support myself, ooh, that would be, I just had an idea for the cozy novel. Your bookstore helps to support the writers collective. You’d inherited a vast mansion, the down stairs is the bookstore. The second and third floors are the writers collective. You have a large cast of eccentric characters built right into the story, plus the customers. One of the rooms of the bookstore only has titles from the collective both present and past writers, who lived right at the store, when the story was written. Hmmm what do you think of that?”
“It seems like you really want me to be in your story.”
“I do but I have to go back to work, Sparky is going to kill me. I’ll send you home, you decide if you want to be in the cozy, I can always find someone else if you don't, so please don’t worry about that. I’ll check in with you in a couple of days to see what you decide. I will knock you on the head, either way, but again only if that is something you want.”
“Thank you Rose for a very interesting day, I appreciate you taking the time to show me around, you have a really interesting world here.”
Then I sent her back to her store and portaled back to the store.
“A four hour lunch, Rose, that's pushing it even for you, Rose. Keep it up and you’ll be big as a house.”
“Ha, Ha, Sparky, I’ll have you know I only had a cup of tea and a few cookies, now do you want to keep making fun of me or hear my report on Opal’s latest healing feat?”
“Well, come on, of course I want to hear about my good apprentice’s latest accomplishments.“
“I’m not sure your ‘bad’ apprentice wants to tell you.”
“Get on with it, Rose. What happened?”
“Lottie thought this woman might have the flu and asked Opal to heal her. She poured healing magic into her for fifteen or twenty minutes, then she stopped. The woman started coughing blood then she coughed up this hunk of flesh. Lottie said it was a tumor. So we portaled to Toronto and I authored her a lab so she can do tests there that can’t be done here. Long story short, Opal cured the woman’s cancer. Now I need Mossbeard so we can create a portal at the lab so Lottie can get to the lab when she needs something tested.”
“She cured her cancer in one shot, that is very impressive, have you boosted her yet and how much magic did she have left?”
“No I haven’t boosted her yet, I haven’t had time, but I will as soon as I possibly can. She only had ten percent left when she was done.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“That’s much too low, Rose.”
“I know, and I scolded her. She knows she’s not to go below thirty percent, but her reasoning was that I was there to refill her, like I did when she was healing Draco. But I also explained to her that if she passes out, she can’t heal anyone and even if I’m there to let her refill it can’t happen if she has passed out. I’ll tell Draco the whole story later and I’m sure he’ll talk to her about it. Once I boost her and teach her to refill on her own it won’t be an issue. I’m sure she’ll pause and refill at the recommended levels, she’s a good girl and was just trying to ease a woman’s suffering.”
“I understand that Rose, I’ll leave it to you and Draco, because you know from experience how bad it feels to truly deplete your magic. It took you a couple of days to recover. You already refilled her magic, didn't you?”
“Yes, right away, she went back up to ninety seven percent, then she did a few more minor healings before I took her home.”
“So how did Laura take your proposal to be a character for you again?”
“I’m not sure, she didn’t jump at it. I hope she does because I think she’d make a really interesting main character, I already have a setting and the opening scene plot all worked out.”
“Well don’t forget I want a horror story from you first.”
“I know Sparky, I already dreamed up a real monster and a surprising hero who reluctantly faces off against the monster.”
“You must be up to something, you almost sound excited to write this and I know you hate horror. But I think this will be good for you and you better be writing a real horror story.”
“I’m telling you I have a real monster, just thinking about them makes my skin crawl.”
“Good writing is good therapy and with horror you can get out all that rage and despair.”
“Who is your monster, Rose?”
“No spoilers Sparky, I want you surprised as well as horrified.”
“Fine if you want to play it close to your chest, but just remember this if you give me the Nightmare Before Christmas or Edward Scissorhands you will be doing it over again until I get a true horror story.”
“I don’t have to kill off the hero do I?”
“No, as long as the story evokes fear, there is a real threat and a disturbing setting.”
“You’ll like it, Draco was actually the inspiration, Sparky, he told me I have to write the story.”
“Alright we’ll see, just seeing you happy about a writing assignment mmakes me nervous. Remember when you wound up writing three stories with male lead characters.”
“I remember Sparky, the horror story even has a male lead.”
“This better not be about that American president, I want horror not farce.”
“No there isn’t supposed to be any politics in the story, some may creep in of course you know how I write but there will not be any politicians in the story at all. Strictly good versus evil.”
“Good you can start on it tomorrow after you boost Opal’s power and teach her how to gather.”
“Okay Sparky, Mossbeard and I are going to install that portal.”
“Fine but don’t forget to talk to Draco..”
“About Opal using too much power, I got it, Sparky.”
Then Mossbeard and I jumped to Toronto, where Mossbeard made the portal drawing then we portaled back to the tower where we had Opal activate the drawing. I jumped to Juliet’s World and made a couple of portal wallets with locations of the lab, the clinic and Lottie's house. Finally I portaled to the clinic. Bhizzie told me to go right down to Lottie’s office, all the patients were here and gone. I went down and knocked on the open door, Lottie looked up from the computer.
“Rose, you’re here late, is everything all right?”
“Yes, fine, I brought you a couple of portal wallets, they have your home, the clinic and the lab, the bakery, the tower and the bookstore.”
“Thank you Rose, you needn't have rushed. But I do appreciate it. How’s Opal? She looked a little weary there for a while but then seemed to pick up again. Is she alright now?”
“Yeah, she’s good. That was a long session. I told her to pause and take a few moments to herself so that she can start the healing again, where she left off. We want to test her healing ability. Draco and I were talking, it seems that Opal might have some kind of general healing ability. Remember Mr Thompson, the man who was beaten.”
“Sure, Opal healed him and I released him.”
“Well I talked to him a few days later and he said he had other minor ongoing health issues, arthritis in his hands, things like that. He said that after Opal healed him, she also healed those other issues. Draco said that’s not how healing magic generally works, if a person has two broken legs, most healers have to heal one leg then they heal the other. It sounds like Opal might heal both at once. Just let us know if you notice anything. We want to come up with some tests.”
