There ought to be a news desk here for this sort of thing… but since there isn’t, I will just keep on as I have been.
The good news is that I have had the time to work on the next story; Winter Coronation. But the story isn’t completed, even though it is nearly 650 pages. But if I seem a bit scattered, it is because I am in pain, in that my jaw is aching at me again. Anyway, I have gotten almost 60 pages done in the past week, and I know that there is a lot of work yet to do to finish this story. I don’t think that I will be posting entire chapters here, but perhaps I will post short amounts. So here it is; the first attempt to interest people in the second book in the series.
Chapter One: Before the Event 2034
By sunrise on that first day of Maraké– which happened to be a Monday, incidentally– there hadn’t been any further reports of injuries to Joanna or anyone else on campus in their group. So, James and Wallace walked into the lounge with a proposition for the group after they had gotten onto campus about an hour ahead of their first class for the day and stood just inside the door, trying to shake off the cold.
They knew that the plans needed to be finalized for the first loads that were to be brought to the event, and that would require the rest of the group to know about the ideas they had had regarding how to get all the stuff there in the first place on the Friday of event week.
Inside the lounge, the comfy chairs scattered almost at random through the long room were almost all empty when they had walked in, so each brother had claimed one of the overstuffed orange-brown horrors for themselves, the better to wait for the arrivals of the rest of the chapter from their most recent classes.
There were only a few other students in the alcoves this early in the morning—still bundled up against the lingering chill in the air, and some clutching foam cups of something still steaming in the cool air of the alcove nearest the doors– but none of them were club members, so neither brother paid much attention to who was lurking in one of the hidden corners of the room.
The only benefit to having a class this early, James thought, is that at least the kenaia shop in this building actually has kenaia still. Usually, when I go through here on my way to the office, they’re out for the day. Oh yeah, that reminds me, he thought as he levered himself to his feet once more and slung his book bag and computer case into the chair he had been sitting in, and headed quickly to the coffee counter with his two large covered cups in hand.
As he did, he absently took note of the fact that not even the bookstore was open yet, and he was willing to bet that even the cafeteria and the school bakery were still just beginning to be active enough to be considered open for business.
Thinking about the bakery upstairs in the Campus Center reminded him that it would be an idea to bring a box of dreamseed frosted sweetrolls into the office at some point, to have some to offer to Pamela, but it was something that could hold until after the meeting with Joanna and the others this morning, James knew.
Pamela wouldn’t complain too much about not having sweetrolls; after all, she knew that she could get some herself if she wanted them badly enough. It was simply that most of the time she was too busy to indulge in such things; James knew the feeling.
Most of his time was taken up with troubleshooting everybody else’s worlds for them– at least it seemed that way most of the time– between the group that was working on cleaning viruses from other people’s computers in the common room his office was linked to, and the office staff who seemed to need near constant supervision, and his own homework, not to mention the classes he was already teaching on the various computer languages…!
Honestly, it was enough to make anyone wanna tear their hair out by the roots, James thought bitterly as he contemplated the situation on the campus.
I need to remember to get some kenaia for myself before the meeting gets started for the day, and more importantly, before heading in to work for the day. I sure hope that Joanna remembers to bring enough kenaia to this one! I have this feeling that we’re gonna need it.
And at the same time, I need to be sure to get enough for today to last long enough to see me through during class, of course, James thought as he paid for his morning ‘cuppa’ and headed back to his briefly abandoned chair as quickly as he could.
When he got back, he moved his bags and sank into the chair’s plushy embrace once more, grateful for the warmth of the fire in front of his chair this morning. Of course, the other thing I need is a cigarette, but with how cold it is outside, I think my pain meds can wait for now, at least for a little while, James decided firmly, only just then noticing that he was shivering.
It was really cool outside still that morning—in fact, it was downright cold outside, James thought, if he was being honest with himself– with moisture from the most recent storm still dripping heavily from the new tiny leaves and sharp buds on the branches onto the nearly solidly frozen ground of the shady spot outside the door.
There had been an ice formation growing there when they had come in, James had noticed that morning that hadn’t been there the afternoon before when he and Wally had left. So, of course, the fireplace on the southern wall of the lounge was on, blue white flames shading toward red at the bottoms of the flames, leaping from the jets in the heat proof box surrounded by stone walls that did the job of a hearth for the students who had early classes on campus that morning.
And James turned to face the fireplace again for a few more seconds, knowing that Joanna, Raven and Amelia would be among the first of their group to come in that morning; they had the earliest classes in the corner group, and the three of them had been the most vocal about finding out where the event was going to be held this year, and when during event week the Feaste was going to be held.
James knew that he would feel better if the first person he saw that morning– other than his brothers–had been Joanna, but since that hadn’t been the case; the next best thing would be for him to see her first when she arrived on campus. But that was in the hands of the Patriarch, James knew as he listened absently to the hiss of the jets of gas that made up the fire, as well as the hiss-clank of the coldsteam and heated steam pipes that were overhead, which he knew led to the kitchen upstairs.
James allowed his thoughts to drift for a few seconds, knowing that she wouldn’t be there for a few minutes yet.
The start of the club’s first major outdoor event of their medieval history club’s camping season was coming up next weekend in the thick forests outside Langford, to the West of the town, and they were wondering if anyone else– besides their usual group of three or four passengers– planned to go in the van to the site in the first load with them to help get their encampment set up for the run of the event.
And he wondered if he was going to have her help this time or not. Then he sighed, knowing that she would likely be busier than many of the rest of them getting the rest of the camp set up to her satisfaction. And he hoped that he could get more of their group to go with them to help her get things set the way she wanted them, but also to be available to help set up—and incidentally to help with take down too eventually—the work pavillion everyone who had had previous dealing with setting up; called the Beast.
· · · · · · · · ·
Both brothers knew they would need the help; the main work pavillion was a pain to set up with only three people, and it was much easier with eight or more. Unless the wind picks up while we’re tryin’ to get it set up, Wally thought, still thinking about how much work Joanna’s main work space was to set up and take down again. Packing it away in its boxes properly each time was a whole different story, and almost required its own team to accomplish each time, Wally knew, from personal, painful experience. Then it will be a pain no matter how many people we put on trying to set it up, Wally thought, smiling as Joanna, Amelia and Raven hurried in, looking chilled and Amelia and Raven headed directly for the warmth of the fireplace to try to warm up before heading to class that morning.
Joanna, on the other hand, headed straight for James’ arms as he had risen when she and Amelia had walked into the room. They were the only ones in the room, so he knew it would be safe enough for him to embrace her, though they both knew they didn’t dare kiss each other, at least not the way they wanted to be able to.
So, he contented himself with a long embrace while she shivered, gradually warming up in his arms where they stood in front of the fire. But a great deal of the speed at which she warmed up had to do with the fact that he had handed her one of his covered cups and she held it cradled in her hands, drawing the heat into her palms before she opened the lid and sipped sparingly from the cup.
James smiled indulgently as he said, “It’s okay, sweetheart. Go ahead and drink it if you want some. I can sit long enough this morning to conduct the meeting, and that will mean that I can get more today. If we had scheduled this meeting for any closer to the start of the event, I couldn’t have done this. But today worked out very well for me, at least in terms of scheduling today’s meeting of the College of Saint Olwen, at any rate.”
Joanna grinned, her expression grateful, and she took a deep swallow of the hot creamed liquid he had filled the cup with from the pump station on the counter at the far end of the long and wide room.
“I’ll be sure to get you some more kenaia before I have to go to class this morning, James,” she said, after another swallow and a small sigh of relief as she realized that she was finally getting warm enough to stop shivering. And she had realized that just in time, she discovered, as he gently released her, hoping that she was warm enough with his kenaia cup in hand.
A couple other people had walked into the room at about that point in the conversation, and Joanna knew that her time in the comfort of his embrace had just been cut short for the morning as he let her go and sank back down into his chair with a small sigh of discomfort.
And she abruptly put together what was missing in the fabric of her awareness; she suddenly knew that he hadn’t had any of his medication that morning, and possibly not since sometime last night.
Though she knew that she couldn’t be as sure about that. There had been the familiar aroma last night when she had seen him, and today it wasn’t there. Normally, even showering didn’t completely erase it from the combination of aromas that she thought of as being his personal scent; usually the application of water only diminished it to a background aroma. Today, the aroma of it was almost nonexistent, and she knew from that alone that he hadn’t had any since late last night at the very earliest.
She could normally smell it on his skin, breath, hair and clothing. Today, there was almost no familiar smell of bluesmoke plant anywhere around him, and she frowned at him over the rim of his cup. “James…” she began, and he looked up at her at the slightly scolding tone in her voice as she continued, “why didn’t you take some of your meds if you were hurting?”
He ducked his head in an endearingly child-like way, and said, “Baby, I haven’t had the time to have a smoke yet today. I will, in a bit,” he promised her. “I promise!,” he added wryly when she looked at him steadily, knowing that if she didn’t remind him soon enough, his growing discomfort would.
In fact, it had only been because of that dream that he had been able to resist the siren’s song of his medication for as long as he had this morning. Last night had been the first time in many months that he had been able to go to sleep and stay that way; without the soporific effects of his inhaled medicinal smoke, and he wondered how Joanna had known that he hadn’t taken his meds that morning.
She studied him for several long seconds, then she replied, “You had better do that, James. You know how much I hate seeing you in pain, sweetheart.”
“I know, baby.” James replied quietly, then he added, “But, last night was the first time in almost a year that I didn’t need it to go to sleep or to stay asleep this time. Almost a whole year!” he marveled again. And she knew that he was as surprised as she was that it had happened at all.
But that didn’t mean that she didn’t want him to be sure to bring his meds to the event with him, just on the off-chance that he would be able to replicate the feat as more of their group finally began to straggle into the lounge area and he could call the meeting to order at last.
There were only six or eight more takers that day, but the boys were glad to get even the offer of the help with that load, because the two of them knew they were going to be carrying the heaviest of the groups’ stuff to the site in the first load, as was usual for them to do at the start of an event, especially a long one like this one was supposed to be.
They would be carrying in the first load a good deal of the chapter’s gear, including the main pavilion that Joanna, Amelia and the others would be working out of for the next ten days. And the upsurge in interest showed them that there would have to be more than one trip to the site that Friday, just to carry all the people who were interested in coming to this event.
Joanna knew that such an upswing in interest was normal at this end of the year. She would be surprised if all the newcomers that wanted to go to this event were still here at Twelfth Night, on the other end of the year. But at the same time, she wasn’t about to disdain the help now, considering the fact that she needed it.
Also going out to the site in that first load were most of the smaller residential pavillions and the cloth walls and short poles that held them up that would surround the edges of their chosen encampment and delineate the practical visual and physical boundaries of the camp of College of St. Olwen while they were onsite.
But the extra bodies meant that some of the personal pavillions might have to be brought on subsequent trips, James knew. And he hoped that Joanna would be okay with that.
It was okay with him, James knew, because the extra bodies also meant that there would be extra security onsite, in case something… untoward should happen while they were getting set up for the ten-day run on site this time. It didn’t mean that he was expecting there to be trouble, but he had a funny feeling that something could happen at this one, and having the extra witnesses around made it less likely that there would be too much trouble, even if there was some.
It didn’t occur to him until later that even then he had suspicions that Jerrica would make her presence felt at the event, though he couldn’t have said exactly how he knew it would happen. However, even though he thought he felt something coming that would seriously impinge on their fun at this event, he didn’t know how badly it would impact them, or who would be the cause of it.
And, as the week leading up to their departure passed as quietly as it could, there were several more members of that branch of their club offering to ride along for the very important first load. Or there were even some members of the group offering to meet them onsite to help get the camp set up.
But they could only carry eight with the rest of the gear in the first load, so, after they’d gotten that many offers, they were telling people that they would be making other trips to pick up people who wanted to come to the event and their gear in subsequent loads. James knew they would be very busy that first day, and also, he knew that the two or three trips meant that their stuff could wait until the last load of the day to come to the site for a change.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ · ∙ · ∙ ·
Also happening that momentous Monday morning, Wally had almost forgotten the dream that he’d woken from early on the previous Friday morning with the driving urge to write it down as his version of a sexual vampire attack– with himself as the vampire and Joanna as his lover/victim. But the story that intense dream had spawned had been written after he had gotten done with his first and only class last Friday morning.
It had seemed to almost… spill out through the tips of his fingers as he typed, and he almost couldn’t keep up with the way the thoughts tumbled onto the simulated ‘page’ in front of him, assembling themselves in the correct order almost as though by magick.
It had been sent into the website a few minutes later and it was getting thousands of hits each hour by the time they were planning for the event that was now less than a week away. As a matter of fact, the story was going viral, and the website was trying very hard to get back in contact with Wallace to talk about a permanent contract to write for them.
They had no way of knowing that he’d already begun work on a book more than a year before– along the same lines– that he’d grafted the incident in the Maze onto. But he knew that if he could get it finished, they might be interested in it beyond the five books he’d already contracted for. And he knew he was going to have a hard time getting them all written, if he stuck to his homework schedule as it currently stood, but he would give it his best shot.
He had no way of knowing that his best shot would only produce three complete books, and most of the fourth before his time in the view of the world ran out. But even those three books would produce more income than he had ever had, so that was sufficient impetus for him to work diligently on the next in the set, even if he didn’t finish it before things got too complicated for him to work on the stories for publication under his own name any more.
And he only knew that with what he had seen in his dreams last night, it could come to that if he wasn’t extraordinarily careful with what he did at the event. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed that the stories seemed to be flowing more quickly than he had thought they would, seeming almost to write themselves at times. And, at the same time, he could feel his time growing short, so he knew he would have to work harder to get everything done before time ran out, he thought with a quiet sigh as he continued to work at his self-appointed task.
Though while he did, he wondered what would happen if they weren’t finished before it got too hard to resist the voice he heard in his dreams. What he didn’t know was that the voice of the woman he had been hearing in his dreams for months sometimes wasn’t Jerrica as he had thought for the entire time he had been hearing her.
At those times, it was the one Joanna would forever after this event refer to as ‘the mimic’. And he didn’t know that she meant his death, whereas Jerrica offered him the promise of eternity.
He had heard this voice since the last event he had gotten to, and for months now, it had been getting harder to resist the urge to spend all his waking time trying to find the one who seemed to be calling for him. He had been able to, so far, but last night, he had woken with a start, to find himself on his feet beside the front door, his hand on the knob, and that had frightened him more than he wanted to admit.
He had shivered as he had quickly climbed back into his bed, knowing that the situation he found himself in was growing intolerable; he suspected that it was because the voice belonged to the same woman he had met at Harvest Festival. In many of his dreams, she promised riches and eternal life, but in return, she seemed to want his humanity, and that was something Wally wasn’t really prepared to give up yet. And in other dreams about her, all she seemed to want was his love– though she still promised him eternal life– which confused him.
Then, it had occurred to him that even if he died, there was still a way to finish the stories; have a ghostwriter finish them for him. But who to choose, he wondered. It should be someone who he trusted, Wally knew, but shouldn’t it also be someone who had skill as a writer?
He thought about it for a while before realizing that he hadn’t read very many of his classmates’ writing; for a few seconds, he felt paralyzed by indecision. And he realized that the only one whose stories he had read and enjoyed amongst those he knew had been Joanna. And he wondered if she would be willing to be a ghostwriter for him. But he knew that the only way he was going to find out was to ask her. And it would be a good idea to have the files set up and ready to go, in case she said ‘yes’.
But also, having the work done was a good idea in case she said ‘no’, and he had to find another on short notice, Wally knew. Though at the same time, she would give him a reasonable reason why she couldn’t, and she would be sensitive to his feelings; some of the others he could ask might not even do that much.
If my notes and outlines are complete enough, the style shouldn’t change too much, but if Joanna is willing to follow my suggestions about the way the dialog is supposed to run in certain scenes, then maybe it won’t have to change at all…But I won’t know about it… he thought as he worked, quickly setting up the outlines for the next books in the series on the nearest thumbdrive he had to hand, a plain little 2 gig in black plastic, each outline labeled in individual files and paired with the notes that went with the story.
And when he was done with that, it occurred to him that having a backup of his notes would make sense if he was going to set up for having a ghostwriter in case he needed one, so he copied all his notes and world building information onto one of his two external harddrives for safe keeping.
The only thing he had to worry about with that, Wally knew, was that his notes changed daily– sometimes hourly– and he would have to be working from the files on this harddrive to be able to keep current copies of what he had, in case something happened to him, or there was an accident that wiped his computer down to the operating system, or farther.
And he knew too that even though it was more work for him to do it this way, it was the only way to make sure his notes were current enough for him to be able to work from them when he needed them, which was most of the time while he was writing.
Right now, the larger drive was only about half full, but he knew that would change, because as fast as he was writing the stories, other seemed to suggest themselves; he was always adding more details to them. It hadn’t even occurred to him yet that there might be a path across Death’s boundary that would lead to him still being able to work on his stories yet, but eventually it would.
And when it did, he knew he would be able to work on all the stories his imagination could come up with, even though many of them would have to wait to be published until after he had made arrangements with Joanna to get them published in another name.
He’d had a hard time naming his lead vampire from the first round of his stories for a bit, until he remembered the fact that Joanna’s family was liberally scattered with classical and demi-classical names; and accordingly, he had chosen the name Kendall for his male lead.
The name meant “From the bright valley” in Middle Elandi, Wally discovered, though he knew that it also meant ‘eternal warrior’ in the oldest Cymryc form Wallace was able to find for it, and could be traced back to at least the late sixth millennium BCE.
The name itself had been translated into several other languages, such as Zaolzi, and Nachtmanzi, as well as Pasento and Sprezo, though Wallace hadn’t been able to find what the name meant as yet in those languages.
But he suspected there was something about eternity, and royalty involved in the translations. The name had changed only a little over the centuries, and Wallace knew that would be a good name; it would last.
Then Wally had turned to finding a name for the woman that Kendall loved, eventually finding a word that meant ‘beauty’ in Ancient Pnati. After thinking about it for a couple days, Wally knew ‘Cinnia’ described the woman he had pictured for this story to the finest detail. The way he saw her in his thoughts, she was indeed a beauty. And so, that had become her name. Over the course of the writing, the word had woven itself into his thoughts until the meaning and his description of her face were inextricably linked in his mind.
That she had been modeled after the woman he loved didn’t even occur to him until much later. And it was longer still before he told her about that; long enough for them to laugh about it and go on with what they had been doing when he had whispered that secret into her ear during loveplay one night in the playroom.
· · · · · · · · ·
But the thought remained in her mind for months afterward, and it prompted her to ask what his plans for the character he had based on her were during another session in the playroom later that summer. If Joanna were actually Cinnia, and he were Kendall, what would he want to do with her sexually?, she had asked with a coy smile. His reply hadn’t been in words, and had been food for thought for her for many weeks to come.
And eventually, she would use that encounter as the basis for a scene in one of her own stories, steaming up the computer screen as she wrote it, Joanna was sure. But it had sure been fun while it was happening, she thought! And she knew that she would enjoy it again and again, each time Wally decided that he wanted to reenact it with her, which she hoped would be often.
It occurred to her then that she could write that scene again, from a slightly different perspective, and see where it would fit best in another story. And she found herself using it many different times—each time from a slightly shifted perspective—in many different stories; not all of them about her main characters. But that too was later.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ · ∙ · ∙ ·
The parent company of the website that had published Wally’s first short stories had already sent him a very large check for the first installment of the sales of his vampire story and the first round of requests to make it book length.
But he didn’t know of those developments yet; they wouldn’t reach him until after he’d gotten back from the serious skull session that was needed to plan out the schedule for the group’s trip to the site in a few days. But eventually they did catch up with him. And his financial world was turned upside down in a twinkling, then it righted itself almost as quickly as he continued to write.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ · ∙ · ∙ ·
However, the initial meeting to discuss the event took more than three hours to fully hash out where they were going to be camping for which site, what day they should have their traditional Feaste, and who was carrying how much in which vehicle to the site, because of people having to flit back and forth to their various classes.
But at least, by the end of the meeting, everybody knew what was going to happen, regardless of which main site was chosen. And everyone had their favorite of the three sprawling estates that belonged to the club.
It turned out to be the one that Joanna favored this time; the one with the extensive woods and fishing opportunities, as well as literally hundreds of li of riding trails. There was also a large lake with more than twenty-five li of soft sandy beaches that were perfect for sunbathing, fishing and boating when the site wasn’t in use for an event. The property was one she knew well, in that she had been instrumental in the club’s acquisition of the lands therein.
One of the better parts about that site was that it had been set up as a park nearly three hundred years before the club had been granted the lands; there was no ‘main house’ but there were several smaller buildings dotting the property that were put to many different uses, including a row of small buildings that were primarily used as marketing space when the club was in residence, and used as a farmer’s market for the area surrounding the town of Langford when they weren’t. And of course, there was the small medieval style village that was part of the educational traditions of the Kingdom.
But the best part to Joanna was that several of the buildings were set up with all the amenities; showers, fresh linens, and servants. And she knew many of the members of the club preferred that site in particular because there were quarters for their personal staff. In fact, Joanna knew that she had been able to convince Mira occasionally to go to events to help in the College’s kitchen.
However, since she had taken a fall last season, Joanna knew that it would be kinder to let the older woman stay home and work from there, though Joanna knew that she would still need help. And she wondered if she could get away with bringing Mira’s daughter Tamea to help in the kitchen this time, along with—at the very least– her assistant Carrie.
The girl was old enough to be able to handle most of what her Mother could do anyway…!
Joanna shook her head and filed the idea away in her notepad for further consideration, knowing that she had a lot to get done in only a little bit of time, and keeping track of everything was what the notepad was for.
Another feature was the huge stableyard, where many members of the club brought their myrasti for when they wished to go riding while they were onsite.
Joanna thought about whether or not she was going to bring her stoyrai this time, but she knew that was something that required serious thought; he was very high-spirited still, and she wasn’t sure that the excitement of travel would be good for him at this stage in his development.
Another idea to be filed away for further consideration, Joanna sighed as she worked on taking notes for the class she was in and figuring out what was going on with the meeting while she was gone.
But the idea of possibly not taking Flickeringwind with her to the event this time spawned another idea; she knew that she could rent a myrasti while she was there and go out riding while she was on the site. The club kept several myrasti stabled there for exactly that purpose, Joanna knew.
And that settled that thought, she decided. If she was going riding at this event, it would have to be on one of the club’s myrasti, so that she didn’t have to bring Flickeringwind and his partner, Stevaglow. The stoyrai wouldn’t go anywhere without the other myrasti, even though she wasn’t in season yet.
It turned out that most of the meeting was conducted by a series of texts and hurried conversations between classes over the course of the rest of that very busy day. But it finally was settled that they would be camping in the only spot on site that made any sense for an encampment of their collective size; the head of the space known as the Row, where most of the Kingdom’s merchants would set up their sales spaces for the run of the event. There were very few who could afford to have permanent booth space onsite, but Joanna knew that was the next step for something the size of Heart’s Desires; a permanent structure built on her favorite of the three Kingdom owned sites.
It meant a lot of paperwork, but no more than doing the taxes for her businesses each year entailed, Joanna knew, so she knew that she was going to have to talk to her Father about hiring contractors to begin the construction of their booth space as soon after the end of this event as she could comfortably manage.
And this time, she knew she could build in the expansions that she wanted. That was something that she hadn’t been able to do with the pavillion. She was looking forward to having the extra space available, knowing that it would cut down on the trips back and forth to Shadow Valley during events to get more of the merchandise she had stockpiled. And that would do nothing but make Amelia happy, Joanna knew.
· · · · · · · · ·
Because of the way the bulk of the meeting had been conducted this time, the rest of the group knew within a few seconds, as she sent out the location in a mass text to be sure that no one got lost on their way to the site this time. And she knew that she had a lot to do to get ready of the Feaste was going to be what she wanted to convey with it.
Every year, it was an expression of a theme in the way she saw what they were doing in the club, and every year she was trying to do better than she had the year before. This year, she had already worked out the theme; ‘Carnivale’ and she knew that it would involve a lot of consultation in her recipe books from the time period she was attempting to portray with her persona.
But it wasn’t going to be that hard to accomplish, with all the help she usually had to finish the actual cooking, especially if Tamea was able to come along with her this time, Joanna thought.
Tamea’s assistant cook, Carrie, would also be needed, Joanna knew, especially if they were going to be doing any serious baking onsite. Carrie’s specialty was breads baked onsite, by traditional methods. And she knew it would be even easier if she brought her fellow kitchen worker, back’us girl Mercy to help with the amount of work that Joanna knew this event was going to be for the kitchen staff for the College.
And Joanna knew that she would need Holly’s help with her hair and her corset lacings each morning, regardless of whomever else was brought along to work on sit this time. But at the same time, Joanna knew too that she was going to have to have more than just Holly and Mercy’s help at this one.
She wondered if Lavender was possibly going to be willing to come along to help with the laundry that was guaranteed to be generated by being onsite for this event, but Joanna knew that if she was to bring the other girl, there would be plenty of room in the dorm pavillion for her, as well as room in their camp site for her work area.
And Joanna knew that Lavender would need her helpers Polly and Patience, so Joanna mentally added them to the list of staff members who would be onsite for the run of the event.
And it wasn’t going to be all work and no play for the ones who got to come along this time, either, Joanna knew. After all, it was only during the day, for a couple hours a day, she knew, and since she could manage for herself at night—except unlacing her corset, and Amelia was very good at that—the servants would have the nights for their own amusements.
Unlike what they had to get done when the whole family was in residence; helping at an event was almost a vacation, Joanna knew. After all, she heard the servants talking about things like that occasionally.
And the girls had their own dormitory-style pavillion, as well as the company of other servants; Joanna knew that Devon was bringing three of the servants who usually worked at his Mother’s house on the other side of town to act as his food supply and perform general work for him while he was onsite. So were several of the other members of the College, Joanna knew, so she wouldn’t be the only one who was bringing employees.
Then she recalled that she had also planned to have employees at the booth space this time too, and that meant that there had to be room for them in the main encampment too, as well as garb for while they were at work. That was going to be more work than she had thought, but she knew that it was part of the plan for making things easier for everyone in their group. Some of these kids had never had servants before, but others of the group hadn’t had to live without them, so she could see both sides of that particular argument. And the year her Father had made her live from paycheck to paycheck in Central in the homeless shelters would stand her in good stead here, Joanna knew.
She knew that since then, she had endeavored not to take the staff for granted, knowing there were things they couldn’t do that she could just as easily do for herself. But she also knew enough to admit when she needed help, like in the instance of the kitchen work, or with the amount of sales she was hoping to have that necessitated the presence of at least one more person to help with sales. However, Joanna wasn’t sure that she would have enough help in time for the Feaste—unless she used some of the kitchen staff at the house this time, given how late the information she had needed had come in this year. But she knew that she was going to work just as hard at this one as she had at the first one, and hope that it would at least equal her first attempt.
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But everything to do with the meeting that day would all be driven out of Wally’s thoughts instantly by the mind blowing news that the publisher had sent him.
When he found out about the check, however, as soon as he booted up his computer and stepped out on the Ethernet when he’d gotten home that afternoon, he had to immediately sit down and compose a reply that properly expressed his surprise at having been accepted so readily. He described the book he already had begun, and outlined his estimated time of completion. Then, he sent on what he had already written to them for review and editing.
And while he waited for their reply, in another file, he began the modifications that would allow him to turn the story of the dream into the book length feature that he had contracted for. It was to be the first of five –beyond what he already had written—though they were also interested in what he was working on right now almost as much as what he had already written.
But, at the same time, on the surface of his thoughts, he was focused on getting the logistics of their trip to the event in a couple more days sorted out as he did. It wasn’t until after he’d published the first book that he remembered that Joanna’s favorite cousin’s name was also Kendall.
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