I like to acknowledge good news when I get it. Maybe that’ll make it multiply. :razz:

The manuscript is off. The deadline was met. Yay.
But the REALLY good news is that the editor seemed to like the story I wasn’t so sure about. YAAYYY!!!
Swear I could sleep for a week!

To celebrate my first deadline-victory, I’m gonna post a little fairy tale I wrote some years back. I’m very fond of fairy tales–but I confess I like to twist them a bit… :twisted:
I had fun with this one–but look for more excerpts to be posted on a separate page before the holiday weekend is over–something with a slightly sexier edge.

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

Once upon a time in a land far away, a handsome youth lived with his beautiful but poor mother on the outskirts of the kingdom. Forced to raise the boy without a husbandman, the good woman did her best to support the child, but had finally come to her wit’s end.
She came to him one day, her face sad and drawn. “The time has come, my son. You have lost all of our money making witless wagers with your useless friends. You must learn the ways of the world.”
She handed him a black velvet pouch, secured with a dainty pink ribbon. “This is a magic pouch. Take this to the King–but you yourself must not open it, else it may lose its magic. The journey is three days by foot, so you must depend upon the kindness of strangers. If you will bet every gentleman you meet that the object within this pouch is of more value to them than anything they possess, the magic will work. But tell no man your name, and mind you return to me in a fortnight with your fortune.”

He was a dutiful, trustworthy lad, and, kissing his mother goodbye, set out upon his journey.
He had not so much as a hat to cover his poor sun-baked head, nor shoes to protect his feet. But he traveled without complaint, and by sundown reached the cottage of the village baker. The scent of fresh-baked bread greeted him as he knocked upon the door, clutching his pouch expectantly.
The baker, a round, red-faced man, welcomed him with a growl. “Away with you! I have a wife and eight children of my own! I cannot feed every beggar who comes to my door!”
The boy carefully repeated what his mother had told him to say. “Sir, I will wager twenty silver coins that the object in this bag is of more value to you than anything you possess.”
The baker laughed, noting the youth’s impoverished condition. “A wager I will accept!” He seized the pouch, opened it, and turned very pale.
The next morning, whistling and refreshed, the boy was off again, with twenty silver coins and a belly full of bread. :grin: (more…)