Blurred Line

My final exams are coming up on Saturday and Tuesday, so I'm devoting today entirely to studying (since tomorrow is Game One of the Ottawa Senators first round playoff series). In the meantime, please enjoy this excerpt from "Learning Magic From Mint", which is almost complete. If you think it might be something you'd like to do some beta reading/critiquing for, leave a comment or fire me an email saying so.

She is at the edge of the park again, one foot on the grass, one foot on the cement. She does not notice me until I am standing beside her.

"Hi."

When she looks down this time, I can tell that she is surprised. "Magic man," she says. "Where's your Mom?"

"At home. She dropped me off at school, but I came here instead."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"I want to learn magic," I say.

Her face is doing a lot of little moves and I can tell that this means that she is thinking her head into all sorts of different shapes. She is probably deciding if I am good enough to become her apprentice, so I stand up very straight to look taller. "Come on," she says. I follow her to one of the cardboard booths, where she sits down. She hoists me onto the stool beside her. She talks to the man behind the booth, who pushes a bowl across to her. It is filled with something hot. I can tell because there is a lot of steam rising from it.

"Mother says you're different," I say.

She looks at me through the steam and I think that maybe she has to read my fortune in the bowl and that is why there is so much steam. "Your Mom's right."

Mint puts the stuff in the bowl into her mouth. I cannot do this. It would hurt me. She can do it because she's different. She knows magic.

"I know you're different," I say. "You have a different face. Your eyes look like someone stretched them out."

Mint laughs. A happy laugh. "My grandparents were from Japan."

I think about what this means. I know all about Japan.

"Are you a Toshiba?"

Mint laughs again.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Thursday, April 20, 2006 - Study Time + Magic My final exams are coming up on Saturday and Tuesday, so I'm devoting today entirely to studying (since tomorrow is Game One of the Ottawa Senators first round playoff series). In the meantime, please enjoy this excerpt from "Learning Magic From Mint", which is almost complete. If you think it might be something you'd like to do some beta reading/critiquing for, leave a comment or fire me an email saying so. She is at the edge of the park again, one foot on the grass, one foot on the cement. She does not notice me until I am standing beside her. "Hi." When she looks down this time, I can tell that she is surprised. "Magic man," she says. "Where's your Mom?" "At home. She dropped me off at school, but I came here instead." "Yeah? Why's that?" "I want to learn magic," I say. Her face is doing a lot of little moves and I can tell that this means that she is thinking her head into all sorts of different shapes. She is probably deciding if I am good enough to become her apprentice, so I stand up very straight to look taller. "Come on," she says. I follow her to one of the cardboard booths, where she sits down. She hoists me onto the stool beside her. She talks to the man behind the booth, who pushes a bowl across to her. It is filled with something hot. I can tell because there is a lot of steam rising from it. "Mother says you're different," I say. She looks at me through the steam and I think that maybe she has to read my fortune in the bowl and that is why there is so much steam. "Your Mom's right." Mint puts the stuff in the bowl into her mouth. I cannot do this. It would hurt me. She can do it because she's different. She knows magic. "I know you're different," I say. "You have a different face. Your eyes look like someone stretched them out." Mint laughs. A happy laugh. "My grandparents were from Japan." I think about what this means. I know all about Japan. "Are you a Toshiba?" Mint laughs again. Cavan blogged at 6:23 PM \| 1 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart