Smiley Sunshine South's Horseshoe Key

Smiley Sunshine South's Horseshoe Key: Object Post 23

Source? Arrived with a deed of inheritance

Significance? This key unlocked a great adventure

Fate? Smiley lost it but regained it

Author’s inspiration? I invented the horseshoe key as a traditional symbol of entering a new land It’s also a nod to E. Nesbit’s The Story of the Amulet

First appearance? The Mares of Merryland Chase

The key didn’t look like a key. It looked like a silver horseshoe.

Smiley held it up between her finger and thumb for a better look while she chewed and swallowed. ‘Mirrandia,’ she said aloud. She liked the sound of the word. She was about to say it again when the horseshoe grew suddenly heavy in her hand.

Startled, she let it go and it dropped to the porch where it sat on its two legs. Smiley blinked. It had been the size of a coat button, but now it was a big as a flowerpot… and it was still growing.

Smiley goggled at the horseshoe. It was knee-high, and then it was waist high. In a few moments more, it was taller than Smiley. It glinted in the lazy sunshine. It reminded Smiley of the arch Dad and Liz stood under at their wedding, except that had been twined with flowers.

 Arches are made to walk through, so Smiley stepped through.

Having stepped through into the land of Mirrandia, Smiley was quickly faced with a challenge in the shape of six regents, by appointment of the Most High Hilaria whose task it was to guide Mirrandia until the Most High Hilaria returns to take up the governance of this fair land,’ said a man with a red horse badge.

‘May she come in our lifetime,’ gabbled the last woman.

When Smiley pointed out that according to her deed of inheritance she was the Most High Hilaria and that she had indeed come in their lifetime, they were unimpressed. Charged with great deeds that must be done before she could take over, Smiley left on the first task which she accomplished before returning for her key which she expected would get her home.

‘I have solved the sticky problem of the Mares of Merryland Chase,’ she said again. ‘Now I have to take care of things in my own world. I need my key.’

‘Your key.’ Florian sneered. ‘What key?’

‘Florian.’ Carrie frowned and tsked. ‘Oh, you are impossible. Here, dear… I mean, High Hilaria. The key is probably in someone’s pocket. Not mine, unfortunately.’

There was a long silence.

‘Shall I call Master Po?’ asked Smiley. ‘I’m sure he will pick pockets again.’

‘No need for that.’ Francesca sullenly put her hand in her pocket and plinked the silver horseshoe on the table.

‘I expect you put it in there by mistake, right?’ said Smiley, picking it up.

Francesca gave a grim nod. ‘I had to keep it safe. If I’d left it on the table anyone might have taken it.’

Back in possession of her horseshoe key, Smiley returned to her everyday life in the knowledge that more tasks awaited her in Mirrandia.

Hilaria Sunshine Halfacre South, (which is Smiley’s ‘Sunday name’) appears in The Mares of Merryland Chase, Book 1 of Smiley’s Secret World

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Bertie's Bathplugs

Bertie's Bathplugs: Object Post 22

Source? Initially, Raelene threw them at Bertie

Significance? Bertie developed a fondness for eating them

Fate? Bertie digested them

Author’s inspiration? Our Jack Russell Tess had a penchant for eating bathplugs

First appearance? Matt the Mage: First Spells

Everything would have been fine if it hadn't been for the bathplugs. Bathplugs were Bertie's favourite snack.

First, he ate the two that Raelene threw at him, then he went searching for more.

Bertie was a camel who showed up when would-be mage, Paramatta Wheatslump, was practising maging in the desert. Bertie, who spoke with an upperclass-Brit-twit accent, confided to Matt that he hadn’t always been a camel, but he wasn’t too sure what he’d been because it was just too long ago. Unfortunately, his transformation seemed to have affected his appetite because he’d eat anything that wasn’t nailed down. Especially bathplugs.

He ate two perished ones out of the recycling bin, then the ragged one that stopped up a hole in the chooks' water bowl. This was serious, because of the drought. Matt had to stuff his second-hand bubblegum in the hole, and next day Raelene complained that the eggs tasted like pink sugar and fake fruit.

Bertie ate the plug out of the washing machine, and after that, he stuck his head through the bathroom window while Raelene was having a bath and stole the plug from the basin.

Raelene screamed and threw the bathplug at him. Then she threw the soap. Bertie ate that too. It gave him hiccups.

"This has got to stop!" said Raelene, after Bertie had eaten the plug from the kitchen sink. "We're all unplugged!"

"What about that box of new ones?" Merv wanted to know.

Matt began to edge towards the door.

"I'd forgotten them." Raelene stalked out to the porch, but the plugs were gone. Bertie had eaten the lot, and had the box as dessert.

Matt scooted under the mulga tree. Bertie followed, urgling urgently.

"You may well urgle," said Matt crossly. "Now we're both in trouble! Why do you have to eat bathplugs, anyway?"

"Urg," said Bertie sadly.

Matt wished he could get more plugs, but that would mean riding Bertie ninety kilometres to the nearest big town. (Windigurrup was closer than that, but the general store there didn't stock bathplugs.) He could steal some from the neighbours, but Bertie had probably already thought of that. On the other hand… Matt was a mage, wasn't he? Well, almost?

He decided to conjure some plugs.

Matt’s efforts led to hearthrugs, earwigs and earplugs. Finally, Matt and Bertie set off on a quest to find the mage Old Man Parboil with the hope of solving both their problems. Pity about the vampire scare on the way.

Matt and Bertie appear in Matt the Mage: First Spells

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Sarah Little's Baked Boyfriend

Sarah Little's Baked Boyfriend: Object Post 21

Source? Sarah made him out of clay

Significance? Clay Newman was the perfect boyfriend, who wasn’t what Sarah needed

Fate? Sarah dismissed Clay by firing the statuette in the kiln

Author’s inspiration? This was my take on Pygmalion

First appearance? A Bird, a Bloke and a Boyfriend

I roughed out the general outline, using my thumbs to suggest the arms, and scooping clay out from where the jaw line would be. I could already see the tilt of the head, and how it would be slightly turned to one side. Kind of the way A.J. often stood… but of course the boyfriend wasn’t a bit like A.J.

Sarah Little, coming to spend a year with her grandmother in Australia, found everything changed, including her friend-next-door, A.J. Tobias, who’d got a lot taller and developed a girlfriend called Clemmie. Sarah, a budding sculptor, agreed to go to an activity camp called NEW and roughed out a sculpture. At the camp, she inexplicably met someone who looked a lot like her sculpture…

I relaxed, and looked up at Mr. Mocha-fudge.

“Have I seen you somewhere before?” I asked. “You do look kind of familiar.”

“I was there at NEW last night,” he reminded me.

“But I didn’t…” Then I laughed, because of course I had seen him last night. And kissed him, too! He’d been starring in my dreams.

His hand touched my arm and slid down, and his fingers closed gently around mine. “You don’t mind?” He glanced down at me, smiling. He knew I didn’t mind.

“How about your swim?” I asked as we came up to the first of the tents.

“Who wants to swim when he can keep company with a gorgeous girl, Sarah?” He gave me another sideways smile. He was big on smiling.

“Not you, obviously!” I said, and he squeezed my fingers. “What’s your name, by the way?” It didn’t seem quite real to be walking hand in hand with a guy I didn’t know. 

He hesitated. “Would Clay Newman do?”

Clay is the perfect boyfriend, but Sarah quickly tires of perfection. Also, he seems oddly vague about what he does when he isn’t with her.

“So, how did the modeling go today?” I said instead.

 He looked confused. “I don’t remember.”

“But it was only this afternoon…”          

“You weren’t there,” he said, as if that explained everything. And maybe it did.

“I’m here now,” I said. “And now I’m going to make you into a sculpture.”

Clay looked deeply into my eyes. “Princess, is this really what you want to do? You wouldn’t rather go for a walk? Or a picnic? Or back to the dance?”

“I really need to do this,” I said. “You’re a perfect subject for what I have in mind.” I smiled at him, and opened the cooler. “I’m going to call it The Boyfriend from… where did you say you came from?”

“Daydreams,” said Clay.

I nodded, because that figured.

Creating The Daydream Boyfriend took me close to three hours. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard or so quickly on anything. I shaped and scraped and shaved and smoothed, and all the time I thought hard about that perfect boyfriend I’d wanted to create. It wasn’t difficult to do, since I had a perfect example in front of me.

Having finished the new sculpture, Sarah is a bit nonplussed. Clay is still there… Clearly, something more needs to be done.

“OK,” I said. “I’ll put it in the kiln.”

I reached for The Daydream Boyfriend, but Clay put his hand over mine. “Is this really the way you see me, Princess?” He sounded kind of wistful.

“Yes,” I said gently. “It really is.”

I opened the door of the kiln again and felt the heat beating on my face…

…I kissed The Boyfriend goodbye, then slipped it onto the rack. If this didn’t work, I’d…well, what could I do? …

I turned the latch on the kiln.

I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t what I got. The kiln clicked shut, there was a horrible squawk and A.J. fell through the Kiln Shop door and landed on his knees on the floor.

“Bloody hell!”

We stared at one another for a few seconds. A.J.’s eyes were popping.

“That figures,” I said, nudging him with my toe. “Get rid of one pesky guy and another one falls at my feet.”

“You—he—Little, what did you do to him?” A.J. sat up. “Where’d he go?”

I pointed to the kiln.

“Bloody hell,” said A.J. “You baked the beggar!”

“I did not,” I said. “The proper term is firing.”

“You fired him?” A.J. choked.

“Yes. That’s what you do with statues.”

“Fine. Yes. Good.” A.J. staggered to his feet and leaned against the wall. He ripped off a piece of paper towel and mopped his forehead.  “Bloody hell!” he said again. “Remind me never to model for you, Little. You get sick of a bloke and then you fire him?”

I looked at him uneasily. “I didn’t hurt him… I just turned him back into what he really was.”

“I know that…” A.J. scrubbed at his forehead again. “But it gave me a bit of a turn. My bird the sorceress!”

Sarah isn’t really a sorceress, of course. She’s just a talented sculptor with a little extra in the talent department.

Sarah, A.J. and the baked boyfriend appear in A Bloke, a Bird and a Boyfriend.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Stephen Petros’ Lucky Rabbit’s Foot

Stephen Petros’ Lucky Rabbit’s Foot: Object Post 20

Source? A hare named Hector

Significance? A loving remembrance of a familiar

Fate? Stephen still wears it around his neck

Author’s inspiration? I wanted Stephen to have something that implied one thing, but which meant another

First appearance? The Peacock’s Pearl and further in The Drake’s Diamond

Actually, Grandpa wears a lucky Scottish rabbit foot around his neck. I think that’s in pretty bad taste too.

Stephen Petros is Cat Mahal’s grandfather, a Greek-born witch with a strong Scottish accent. Cat loves him, but she finds him disturbing. And it takes a lot to disturb Cat Mahal.

One of Stephen’s problematical aspects is the lucky rabbit’s foot…

He pulled a disc of clouded violet marble strung on a hide thong and snuggling up to his lucky rabbit’s foot out of his shirt and twiddled it. “Athenian marble. Amazing what you can get on-line. I really recommend a site called Tammy’s Treasures.”

His wife, Olivia, accepts the rabbit’s foot as she accepts everything else about her odd family.

Grandma chuckled. “I know the feeling. Whenever your grandfather gives me a gift… it could be a lovely antique brooch or a chocolate spider or even a freeze-dried haggis.”  

“As long as it’s not a rabbit’s foot.”

“Yes,” said Grandma, sneaking a glance at Grandpa who was pounding garlic with the bottom of the honey jar. “I must admit the rabbit’s foot was almost a deal-breaker when your grandfather proposed to me.”

“Why didn’t you make him get rid of it?”

“I couldn’t do that, dear. He’s had it longer than he’s had me. No, it was just one of those things. I had to take him whole or not at all. And that included the rabbit’s foot, the tam o’shanter and the ouzo habit.”

Later, in The Drake’s Diamond, Cat learns something that makes her rethink her stance on her grandpa’s luck charm.

For one thing, the “lucky rabbit’s foot” didn’t come from a rabbit at all.

Then he fished inside his collar and pulled on the leather thong he wore round his neck. Up came the cloudy purple marble disc and his lucky rabbit’s foot.

“Ugh,” I said. “Do put that away. You know I think it’s creepy.”

Grandpa stroked the foot with one finger. “This is my remembrance of auld Hector,” he said.

What?

“Auld Hector, Kitty-Cat. He was my familiar.”

“Your familiar was a rabbit?”

“A hare,” corrected Grandpa. “Witches and hares have a long and noble association. Hector came to me when I was fourteen and we were together until just a couple of years before I met your grandma. When he went I didnae ha’ the heart for another right away. One day, perhaps.”

“But it’s been years!” I said more loudly than I intended.

Stephen married Olivia quite late in life, so it’s evident the hare, Hector, lived a long time. Familiars in Cat’s version of reality do outlive their real-world animal counterparts.

Cat Mahal is Magic page

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Jory Pendennis' Tutu

Jory Pendennis' Tutu. Object Post 19

Source? Jory acquired it for a job

Significance? It gave Linda some public annoyance and private amusement

Fate? Last seen on Jory in Linda’s Vouch-Safe van, but most likely now in Jory’s closet…unless Laura has appropriated it

Author’s inspiration? A wish for something unusual to appear in an opening and closing scene

First appearance? Pisky Business

“Just drive!” The voice sounded tense, as her passenger bundled in with a flurry of pink tutu and fishnets, slammed the door, and buckled up.

Linda got the van in motion just as the chap in the tutu went off into a gale of laughter. He was clearly a chap, not a chick. Okay, so she had a chap in a tutu in her passenger seat at fifteen minutes to midnight. That figured.

Jory Pendennis’s friend Linda described him as rackety and also as a tomcat. As a person who liked an ordered life, she found Jory, whom she’d known from the cradle, permanently disconcerting, especially when he started turning into a dog. Jory was half pisky and a mutable fay. This possibly accounted for at least some of his rackety behaviour. Linda herself was half hob, but for the first nineteen years of their lives they believed they were human.  

 By the time Jory and his tutu bundled into Linda’s van at a quarter to midnight, they’d been married for a while, so Linda’s exasperation was mostly staged. She tossed Jory out of the van…

 “Don’t be like that.” The studs on the tutu popped as he ripped it adrift. He peeled it off, hitching up to do so, and started on the tight-laced corset.

She pulled into the nearest parking spot. “Out.”

“Aw, come on.”

“Out.”

He gathered tutu, wig, shoes, wings and tiara. “You wouldn’t throw me out on the street dressed in nothing but knickers and a corset, would you?”

“You’ve still got the fishnets. Oh, and just watch me.”

 “Fine.” He got out.

Linda pulled away from the kerb, the breeze of her passing ruffling her erstwhile passenger’s tutu, and drove off. In the rear-view mirror, she saw the abandoned figure heave up his bundle of costume and start plodding along the road.

“Three, two, one.”

Blink.

The man was gone. So predictable.

Of course, Linda relented… just in time for the last chapter. She drove round the block and picked him up.

“What have you done with your tutu? And why a tutu, anyway? And why the sudden exit from whatever decadent event you were at?”

“The tutu is on the back seat. I wore it because a chap wished for a fairy in a tutu. The sudden exit was because his girlfriend came into the party unexpectedly. You should have seen his face.”

“I can imagine. Put it on right now. Forget the fishnets.”

Jory snapped his fingers and resumed the tutu.

“Where is the corset?”

“The corset is safe. Would I let anything happen to the corset?”

“Why the corset?”

“It’s been feeling unoccupied of late. I was showing it some love.”

“Really. I take it Mum’s looking after Laura?”

Jory might be rackety, but Linda at least knew their daughter was somewhere safe… which was just as well, as, having acquired a Vouch-Safe voucher, Jory had plans for what remained of the night.

“Courting cake notwithstanding, I am not getting into a spa with a chap in a tutu.”

“That’s easily sorted. You can get in with a chap out of a tutu, and we’ll have some fun with the soap.”

“Mmm…I like that plan. Give me that voucher.”

Jory’s pink tutu appears in the first and last chapters of Pisky Business.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Tam's Colleen Dress

Tam’s Colleen Dress. Object Post 18

Source? Liam Dancey got his sister to make it and gave it to Tam

Significance? It was a symbol of Liam’s culture

Fate? Tam probably still has it

Author’s inspiration? It just came to mind as a gift that suited both personalities

First appearance? Pisky Business

      It was green, with flowers on it, and it had a little silver horseshoe sewn to the waist.

Tam was a water maid; a woman of the waterfolk over there. Waterfolk were free-living people, who spent most of their time around waterfalls, rivers and pools. They were fay, with an adaptation that meant they could spend extended periods in water without getting waterlogged. They don’t often bother with clothing, although occasionally the women might choose to wear something for decoration, especially if they had pixie blood. Waterfolk rarely married or paired up in the formal sense, but the maids always knew who fathered their children, who were always loved and wanted.

Tam was in some ways a typical water maid, but she had a quirk that meant she chose to have children with non-waterfolk men. She did her research and picked out single men with traits she found appealing. Having chosen her target, she would pay him a visit and put her proposition to him. She made an effort to understand his point of view. Tam already had three children when she set her gaze on Liam Dancey, a leprechaun gossoon from Shamrock Village. She paid her visit, but Liam was a traditional man. He was delighted with Tam, but he declined to give her a child until or unless she agreed to be his lovie. Tam was bemused by this attitude, so a battle of wills ensued. From the outside this looked like a courtship. On one occasion, Liam produced a traditional dress as worn by the leprechaun colleens for Tam to wear. As Jory Pendennis related to his friend Linda;

Liam had got his sister to make a dress for Tam that actually covered her knees. It was green, with flowers on it, and it had a little silver horseshoe sewn to the waist. Liam said the horseshoe was a charm to help Tam make up her mind…She kissed him for a thank you.    

Tam’s acceptance of the dress was a signal she was at least considering Liam’s proposal. She wore it to a céilí which Liam would have considered a major coup as he’d feel that having her dance with him in public, wearing his gift, gave their relationship official standing.

Liam’s sister’s willingness to sew the dress signified her acceptance of her brother’s desired bride, and Tam’s willingness to wear it signified her wish to please him. The silver horseshoe charm was traditional, but although it was a come-to-me, someone observed that the reason these charms always worked was because the gossoons and colleens only ever offered them to someone who wanted them already.

Tam did settle down with Liam, much to his delight, and they had three sons. Liam was inordinately proud that he’d got three children with his lovie. He thought that set him on a much higher plane than the other three men who had fathered her children. The four men became friends, and had regular get-togethers.

Tam’s agreement to stay with Liam and to wear his colleen dress was of her own choice. She still spent a lot of time at the falls with her people; something Liam accepted with grace. After all, he had enough pride in himself to believe she loved him best. As he might have put it, it takes a fine gossoon to win a lovely woman like Tam.

Tam’s colleen dress appears in Pisky Business. Tam herself also pops up in other stories, including Sam and the Sylvan.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Tau the Scribe's Flying Sandal

Tau the Scribe's Flying Sandal. Object Post 17

Source? His sister made sandals for him after he was chosen to work in the temple

Significance? Tau threw the sandal at Ramses Rat

Fate? He recovered and replaced the sandal and befriended Ramses

Author’s inspiration? A sandal seemed a likely thing for a young temple scribe to throw at a rat

And then a boy in a white linen kilt and flat sandals came to the door with a lamp. He set the lamp on a shelf and pulled the big door shut.

Ramses Rat encountered the flying sandal when he appropriated a honey cake in the Temple of Bastet. Tau the scribe saw him trying to remove the cake and tossed his sandal to scare Ramses away. When Ramses stood his ground, Tau admired his courage. Thereafter, the two became friends.

His eyes bugged. His mouth opened. ‘A rat!’ he said. ‘A thief in the Temple of Bastet!’

Slowly, he bent and took off his sandal. Slowly, he stood up. And then he threw the sandal at me.

One second, the sandal was flying through the air. The next, it landed on my back and then scraped down my tail. It didn’t hurt. It was a light sandal, made of palm fibre.

I was so cross I let go of the honey cake. I spun around on my haunches and chittered at the boy.

‘Why did you do that?’ I squeaked. ‘I am Ramses Rat and I was born in a V.I.P. Why did you throw a flying sandal at me?’

After an encounter with the great cat, Bastet herself, Ramses was granted the boon of limited human speech. Tau, Ramses the flying sandal and Bastet appear in Ramses Rat and the Great Cat, Bastet

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of May 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!