Chapter Four

When our heroes arrive back at the cabin they don't find the repair man, but instead they find Loki. He is dashing and charming and the kind of person who could just sweep you off your feet; but he's also brooding and something of an anti-hero so obviously the only person that could change his heart would be our protagonist. Unfortunately he is destined to remain unloved forever because the heart of our protagonist lies with someone else, He sincerely is the Jacob to our sidekick's Edward. Still, when he arrives he absolutely steals the show and is incredibly charming. 

But he's Loki so he cannot resist sending everyone on a wild goose chase after some book in the Catskills when people are vanishing from towns right the hell now! So our team gets together and assembles all the clues, when our protagonist uses her Sherlock Holmes level deductive abilities to determine where the next town to go missing will be. Standish, NY! Our protagonist also learns that the base of operation for these thefts is Titusville Park, NY so our protagonist and her squad of scoobies adventure out, exploding onto the scene of Standish for a few hours of fun and then head out to Titusville. 

The thing about Titusville is that it's a reasonably large mountain and the protagonist deduced that there would be all kinds of Nemean Animals and Spirits of the Land protecting it. Well, something was wrong with her deduction skills or our protagonist was huffing too much flour because there were no spirits and no nemean animals, just big stupid giants and a couple of tengu. Just to test the waters, we sent in one of the supporting characters to try and sneak into the place. Now in any other book you might read about how the supporting character was captured and had to be rescued by the hero, and that's basically what happened except we're going to put a sexy twist on the book and reveal that by the time the protagonist arrives the supporting character has managed to seduce her way into the bed of the Dragon! 

The importance of this is to build up the use of the supporting characters and make other people start to care for them. A real ensemble cast like you might find in Buffy or Firefly. Everyone has to have a story and be sincere. Anyway, the supporting character almost gets away with stealing an ancient and important relic responsible for all the missing towns, with the help of the protagonist, but it is too early in the story for the Dragon to be defeated so the heroes cannot possibly win. I'll write up some believable reason why he doesn't just kill them all instantly. Maybe something to do with heartbreak and romance with the supporting character, or... just warping everyone into a parallel universe.

Chapter Three

One of the supporting characters, who claimed to be a child of the god Loki, sits down to interrogate the bright one but after a couple of hours they don't have much, so the heroine boldly walks over and convinces the bright one of such a profoundly ridiculous lie that it can be nothing less than a demonstration of supernatural power. With that accomplished she could have taken over the interrogation but decided it would be best if the supporting character got to work with the new and more pliable bright one. Aren was obviously wet behind the ears but with a little practice under her belt she could be a force to be reckoned with, and it never hurt to have one in your debt!

She spills the location of the enemy 'secret base' and everyone hauls ass to get there as soon as possible. Usually it pays to have a plan before bursting in through the door, but our protagonist likes to improvise on the fly in classic Indiana Jones style. Plus it saves time. Only problem is a squad of death ninja show up out of the darkness and murder the bright one, which they brought along to give them directions, but then mysteriously slink away without continuing their assault. This is going to be a real head scratcher for readers since they could have pretty easily killed the Heroine or at least one of the supporting characters (have not designated who is the red shirt yet).

The group mulls that over a bit, comes up with some conspiracy theories, but ultimately they plow on ahead and burst through the front doors to a guard station. The guards really don't pose much of a threat, but the group takes some precautions and lures them out by trickery anyway since they could have some kind of nasty trap set up. Turns out it was all for nothing because the 'secret base' is practically empty. This only adds to the sense of conspiracy since there are no signs of hasty departure or getting packed up. Just to make light of the situation, the sidekick cooks up some delicious ramen in their own kitchen.

Break time ends and now everyone is just wandering around trying to find someone, anyone in this place, but the group stumbles upon a hallway with a door on either side. The door to the right gets checked and a big nasty looking hound is inside, and he starts barking up a storm. The group decides to try and save themselves some time and hopes that the barking will lure an enemy, and sure enough it does! The door right behind them snaps open and they run right into a mini-boss! The fight is not too dangerous but cuts and slashes are dished out to almost everyone involved. In the chaos of battle a fire gets set, and the mini-boss is defeated. Even as the body is toppling into the flames, the group spies important documents going up in flames.

The child of Loki suddenly gets supernaturally lucky and plucks a bunch of useful scraps out before they get completely incinerated, and a bookcase that fell over reveals a convenient secret passage. That's probably a good thing, because suddenly a large squad of guards are rushing right towards our heroic party. Need to do a little revision on the final draft, because a reader is going to wonder where they were when the group was wandering around for an hour and made some ramen in their kitchen. In any case, they escape down the tunnel to safety and the swarm of guards do not persue them through the burning room.

Chapter Two

Alright, so the spear that punched through the windshield turns out to be thrown by a fomorian goon and the hero and the other characters easily mop them up. It isn't a real battle but more like a way to prove that the heroes are really bad-ass before they face actual troubles. They meet a girl who convinces them to trust her for a little while even though the readers are going to be screaming 'Don't Trust This Girl'. We've got to establish the the characters as fallible, you don't want anyone looking like a Mary Sue.

The main character offers to take her back to the cabin and call a friend to pick her up and take her to the hospital while the others start following the tracks the fomorians left. Just like you expected the woman was bad news and ends up calling up some more fomorians that try to jump our heroine, but she's been keeping in contact with her buddies by walkie talkie.

So our heroine valiantly holds off about a dozen thugs but there are just way too many, so she's got to retreat upstairs and burst out of the window in a complete action-hero kind of way. She's sporting a few new bruises to show she is dashing but vulnerable. Cue dramatic arrival of the other characters who had overheard the start of the battle over the walkie-talkie and turned back.

With everyone working together, the heroine and her sidekick burst into the house to mop up the rest of the mooks while the other supporting characters guard the door. Cue some cool explosions but nobody is hurt very badly after a moment of tension. The mooks get taken out by the sidekick who is seriously competent at this kind of thing, like Kato from the Green Hornet.

The hero boldly incapacitates the villainous wench and it is revealed that what the reader suspected all along is completely true. She's a bright one, one of the fomorians known for being attractive as opposed to being an ugly lump of inbred badness. The supporting characters fetch some rope and iron to keep her bound and they find out just how Crazy Prepared our heroine actually is.

Chapter One

The story begins with our heroic protagonist riding in the passenger seat of a 4x4 jeep, gazing out over the woods and mountains with an amused air. Her sidekick, a fiery redhead named Alanna who really put the 'beat' into the word 'beat cop', was blasting the music so loud you couldn't even hear the roar of the engines struggling to compensate for the steep incline of the road. She packed everything she could think of, but since whole towns had been vanishing without a trace it was hard to prepare for something completely unknown. Alanna forgot to pack her swords, but our heroine brought them anyway knowing it would earn her some extra fun that night.

Pulling up to the cabin revealed it to be a pretty decent affair, enough bedrooms to suit four people which meant one was getting used as a spare. The heroine hoped out of the jeep and drug her bags to the door, but peeked in a window just to be cautious. Someone else was already there, waving back to her, and another person was walking up the long road they had just drove along. Supporting characters.

So they get everything from the jeep brought in and made their introductions. The girl who was there first came off as clever and intelligent. Probably 'The Smart Girl' if you tried to put it into the context of the Five-Man Band. She immediately suspected spy cameras and went searching for them, but turned up nothing. The girl who showed up last was aloof and sarcastic, which probably makes her 'The Lancer' but we don't see a lot of leadership qualities, just a Deadpan Snarker. Might need to delve into her background further if the reader is really going to take an interest. Maybe something anguishing happened in her past.

Speaking of Deadpan Snarkers, Alanna has a real tongue on her and harasses our heroine something fierce but the reader can tell based on the casual way they address each other that they are longtime friends. The protagonist takes the remarks of her sidekick in stride, and feigns indignation which is the best kind of indignation to have. Everyone eats the sandwiches our heroine made, proving once again that it is always good to be Crazy Prepared.

After some friendly banter the bedrooms get picked and then everyone is off to the town below to ask around about rumors and leads regarding what's happening. Only, the town is gone when they get there. Definitely a twist that would make M Night Shyamalan pleased with himself. Absolutely nothing is left but holes in the ground and those are not very deep. Our heroine wanders around searching for clues, but the sidekick chimes in like she was Dr Watson and proves her value to the readers. There's a brief debate over leaving the jeep to follow the tracks, but that ends in irony when the jeep gets impaled by a massive spear.

Announcing a New Novel!

Alright, since truth is stranger than fiction the next novel I'm going to write is going to be based an awful lot on truth. It's up to you dear reader to figure out just how much is truth, how much is deception, and what kind of metaphor and allegory I'm creating. This is going to be a rough outline to give you readers something to sink your teeth into; when the real thing is ready to roll off the printing press you can rest assured it will be another bestseller.

Oh, due to popular demand one of your favorite characters will be returning: Alanna. Two new characters are being thrown into the mix so there are all kinds of interesting dynamics to explore. Without further ado, I'll post up the first chapter outline.