Conclave...Part 1

Ravyn and I emerged from the Shadow into the Professor’s study in a slightly less hurried fashion than my last arrival. I was not at all surpised to see that Jim had found the time to reorder the bookshelves I had so unceremoniously disordered when I had brought Alexa to him.

I was surprised, however to see Jim sitting in his favorite chair in that room, holding Alexa cradled in one arm while supporting a bottle with his other hand. It was an eery scene, knowing that Jim had never been married or had children. Even more surpising, the baby was swaddled in a clean, dry blanket and seemed to be wearing a different outfit than she had on when I had dropped her off, not more than an hour before.

Ravyn must have been as surprised as I was at this turn of events, she was standing next to me, mouth agape, for once in all of the time I had known her, caught speechless for a moment.

Jim looked up from Alexa’s face a moment after our arrival, a smugly satisfied grin spreading across his face. “What, has Katrina got your tongues?”

I was actually the first one to respond, “How did you get all of this done in the time since I left her with you?”

Ravyn quickly piped in her own question, “Where did you learn to take care of a baby?”

“Hmmph, not all of my reading is in dusty old literature or musty textbooks.”

“But where did you get the clean clothes, the bottle and the formula?” I asked.

He smirked at that question, “Let’s just say that I have many untapped resources at my disposal. Now, do you mind? I just got her settled down here, she should be a asleep soon. You guys can go downstairs and get yourselves cleaned up. I’ll be along as soon as I can put her to bed.”

Ravyn c ouldn’t contain herself at this, “You have a bed for her? You better not be thinking of putting her down in an adult bed!”

Jim nodded at the hall behind us, “You can see for yourselves, I have a small travel crib set up in the guest room right behind you. You can inspect it to see if it meets with your lofty standards, m’Lady.”

We looked at each other in amazement, shook our heads and tromped out of the room. As we passed by the open door, we each took a moment to marvel at the shiny new portable crib that appeared to be assembled perfectly, complete with frilly pink and white bedding. We shuffled down the stairs and into Jim’s bookshelf lined living room. We were greeted by even more surprises as we entered the dining room...we were engulfed by our gathered friends and family...Cerrydwen, the Frau, Herne and Moira, Katherine (my ex-wife), Jasmine (my daughter), and Kenny (my son)...

(Narrative to be continued with the next post--due Sunday)


Author’s Note:

I would like to take a moment here to reflect on the fact that this post marks the one year anniversary of this blog.

This whole project began as a rough attempt at writing a journal from the standpoint of an undead agent who was more than a little upset at discovering that magick was real and that he was trapped by the very choices he had made, and the associations he had kept.

I had no idea that Rusty would grow into the character he has become and no idea that the stories he would get caught up in would be as interesting or as unpredictable as they have turned out to be.

As a writer, I have tried to come up with ideas in advance of where the story would go, or how the characters would develop. In almost every instance though, the storylines and the characters that drive them have taken me in very unexpected directions.

This past year has really whipped by me as I have tried to keep up with the events in Rusty’s never dull (un)life.

My initial goal for this project was to make it this far, to blog for a year and see if I could maintain not only my own interest, but the interest of other readers as well, and hopefully come up with enough material to fill a decent sized novel. 153,000 words later (not counting comments from readers or myself), I have the genesis for at least three books so far... and I know that I have only began to touch on the potential of this character and the world he inhabits.

I am reasonably sure at this point that the first book, Omega Rising, will be finished by the end of August and available before the year is out through an online publisher I have worked with before that will allow me to keep the story exactly as I envision it to be...all while I continue to post Rusty’s ongoing adventures here in this space on approximately the same schedule as I have kept over the past year--8-12 posts a month.

Thanks again for all the support!

-Doug