If you have not already heard Michell Plested and I are at it again. We are soliciting submissions for a new anthology. This time we are looking for stories about Magical portals that take you to those places that are, well let’s just say that they are not on the top ten destinations you would pick for a vacation.
Today we wanted to share with you a quick example of what we are looking for, and give you people out there who might want to read the book, and idea of what you would be getting into.
You might think that the editors of a book called, A Method To the Madness: A Guide to The Super Evil, would themselves be pretty evil. Well believe it or not, we aren’t.
To prove the point we have decided that from time to time we will post snippets of stories that we may or may not be developing for this anthology. We are doing this for two reasons. First, for the readers, we want you to be interested, to know what you are getting when you buy this book. Second for the writers, we want to give you and idea of what we are looking for. Obviously this is only an example written by one of the authors, but it should give you some ideas.
Here is our first example. This has a working title of: The Other Wonderland
Wonderland is one of those places that could really go either way. There is of course the truly wonderful Wonderland, the one with friendly creatures, and food on every tree that you can just pick and take with you. Everything your heart could desire right at hand all the time. It is really a wonderful place to go. I should know, I have been there several times. There is also the not so wonderful Wonderland where the wonder is more of a, “I wonder what kind of sick twisted mind made up this place.” I had never been there, that was until today.
I should back up and explain a little bit. I am Colonel Jack Underwood, the portal seeker. It is my job to seek out and find portals for the rich and, well really the rich, and sometimes the people who have enough power, that they act like they are rich. Anyway, my job is to seek out the portals to these places so these people have a place to go when the troubles of too warm bree cheese and too cold champagne become too much for them to handle.
Normally I seek out places like Wonderland, the first type not the second, for them. Not Wonderland itself, of course. I keep that one just for me. I have to have some place to go when things start to get bad, or when I have had a trip to one of those places that one does not bother to talk about. They always want those idyllic settings with hot and cold running everything. And they are out there, have no doubt about that. They are not even that hard to find; the auras that the portals themselves give off tell you a lot about the worlds they lead to. Not everything mind you and sometimes they can fool you but normally you can get a good read that way.
That is what happened this time. Usually if a world gives off one of those feelings, I don’t even bother going in. I mean what is the point? I don’t get paid for taking them places they don’t want to go. But sometimes I get a real nut job, one that wants to take a gun in and blast everything in sight, or bring out a trophy that no one else has. That is dangerous business for me so I tend to stay away from it but, once in a while, the money is just too good to pass up so I keep a couple of those tucked away for times like those.
As I was saying, what happened this time was the biggest hazzard of my job. Everything looked great, the aura was good, the look and feel of the place felt right, everything was in place. So I armed myself up with the normal gear and set out to explore this new world. As soon as I set foot in the place I realized I was in for more than I bargained for. It was not the look of the place. Like I said, it looked like wonderland. There were no dangerous animals, that I could see at least.
I guess you could say that we are still pretty evil, for giving you such a little teaser but we are hopeful that you will like it and that it might get those creative juices flowing.
Best of luck to all of you, no matter what portal you have just come through.
Co-Editor,
Jeff Hite
For more information about the book, how to submit your own magic portal story or to keep up on all the news from Col. Jack Underwood please visit http://portalundermysink.wordpress.com/
The Great Hites 