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Sparky And The Wheezles

The Glen Meadow Chronicles

Writing Examples

Sample Chapters From My Books

From time to time, I will copy and paste chapters from each of my books here as examples of my writing style.  Often these are chapters that I have just written and have not edited yet.  I write in a stream of consciousness style as I think the story up and I do not take the time to go back and edit as I create.  I have a story brewing in my head and it needs to bubble out and I don't want to take to time to stop the flow of creative juices in order to correct a spelling or grammar.  I will make corrections in due time during the editing process.  But, the story is there and it is waiting to be explored.  If you are brave, enter carefully.  Be on the lookout for dangling participles, sentence fragments, run-on sentences and bad spelling ( mostly caused by auto-correct ).  Hopefully you will find a precious story nugget on your quest.

 

 

Benji The Greaser: Saturday Night

In this story segment, Bengi and his mate Margo are visited by Donner and Kitcher Wheezle, a newly married couple who are new to their village and have come to discuss a potential business venture.

It was still early evening, Benji and Margo were quietly visiting in the living room while sipping tea and nibbling on cookies when there was a soft knock on the door.  Benji gave Margo a look of mild shock, nobody they really knew was in the habit of visiting at dusk.  Benji set his mug of tea down and approached the door, “I don’t welcome strangers this time of day.  You had best be going!” he barked through the closed door.

 

“Benji, let us in, it’s Donner and Kitcher!” came the voice from the other side of the door.  Benji looked over at Margaret.

 

“Oh, let them in, Kitcher’s a distant cousin on the Von Steuben clan and such a dear.  You know Donner too, he just finished his Journey-level exams in Bladecraft.  They’re too young to be any trouble.”  Margo got up to make more tea and to take out a seed cake for company.

 

Benji took a small lantern from off the table by the doorway and lit the wick inside.  He raised the bar on the door and lifted the doorlatch.  He held the lantern up and opened the door slowly.  Standing on the porch was a very young couple that Benji only half-way remembered seeing before.  Nothing about them looked dangerous in any way, except that the male might be a threat to Margo’s pantry.  He remembered his manners and motioned for them to step inside.  He felt a warm breeze in the air and the smell of petracore.   “Evening young Wheezles, you don’t look wet, is it raining?  I didn’t see any cloud cover this afternoon.”  He closed the door, replaced the lamp and extinguished the flame. “Here children, let me take your coats.”

 

Kitcher removed her light coat and handed it to Benji who hung in on a peg near the door. Donner didn’t have a coat, only a second long-sleeved shirt that had seen way too many days.  It was painfully obvious that these youngsters were desperately poor.  Donner spoke with a thick accent from the old country, “Nein, we haven’t seen any rain as such.  But the sky is full of clouds.  Kitcher thought she saw lightning up on the mountain.”  Though it was still quite warm for a summer evening, Donner shivered and rubbed his paws.

 

Margo appeared, hugged and kissed both Donner and Kitcher on the cheek and invited them in to sit on the small settle near the hearth.  “Have you youngsters eaten?”

 

Donner went to stand like a school-aged child would when answering a question of his teacher, but he eased back into his seat embarrassed, “Yes, Ma’am,  I mean Mrs. Redfern.  Kitcher and I had a good meal tonight, thank you for asking.”

 

Benji wasn’t much for small talk and got right down to business, “You know, it’s a little unusual for anybody of our kind to be out at this time of evening, what with owls and coyote and such on the prowl.” He shifted his weight in his chair, “What brings you all the way over from Manzanita Gorge this evening.”

 

Margo snorted, “Benji, manners.  These two obviously came to us for some kind of assistance, I think it’s only polite to give them a little chance to catch their breath before you grill them and send them off.”

 

Benji sighed and started to apologize before Donner interupted, “Oh, no.  It’s OK Mrs. Redfern, we really didn’t want to stay, we need to get back home tonight as it is.”

 

Margo protested, “Donner dear, I’ll not have you rush out because my mate is a more then just a little bit rude.  You must forgive him, he had a bad day today.  Now let me get you two some tea and some honey seed cake.”  She got up to the singing of the teakettle and strode into the kitchen.

 

Donner stood again. “Oh, don’t bother about the tea and cake, really.  We didn’t mean to stay.” He stopped his protest at the touch of Kitcher’s paw on his.  He looked at her face and realized that she really wanted to stay just a little bit.  He smiled at her and patted her paw. “Well, maybe we can stay for a little while.  It seems that Kitcher would like to try some cake and tea.”

 

Margo was an efficient hostess and had the cake and tea served in a few moments.  Despite Donner’s assurances that they had a good meal, the two young weasels managed to put away several slices of cake and several mugs of tea before they got down to the reason for their visit.  Benji was about to bust waiting to hear the reason for the visit, but managed to put on a cheerful face and soon found himself liking Donner quite a bit.  For one so young, he seemed to have a lot of common sense and a lot of heart.  He couldn’t help liking Kitcher, she was absolutely adorable, sweet, funny, and despite her youth and obvious poverty, she was quite pretty.  

 

Donner set down his plate, sipped the last drop from his mug of tea and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.  He was about to apologize to Margo, but she winked at him as if to say that it was OK and he nodded. “I want to thank you Mr and Mrs. Redfern for letting us visit tonight, the cake and tea were delicious.”  Donner cleared his throat again, “Let me start by saying that we heard from one of my cousins in Apple cove what happened two weeks ago and what happened to you today in Burrow Hollow.  I just want to say that I’m sorry that happened to you.”

 

Benji opened his mouth before thinking, “These cousins of yours, wolverines perchance?” He caught Margo’s dirty look and redirected his comment, “Uh, thank you Donner.”

 

Donner didn’t make the connection, was momentarily confused but then continued. “No, but the one killed in Apple Cove was a cousin of Kitcher’s.  You knew him as the tallow-maker.”

 

Benji looked chagrined but nodded his head, “Yes, I did know him, a regular customer named Kyle.  His mate is named Lotte.  I don’t know the children’s names.” Benji turned to Kitcher, “I’m so sorry Kitcher for your loss.”  He didn’t know what else to say, the memory of watching Kyle killed was too fresh in his mind, even after two weeks.

 

Kitcher nodded, “Thank you Mr. Redfern, you are most kind.  We know that you did what you could to stop it.  It’s not your fault that you couldn’t, we know you were also beaten senseless too.  We are so sorry.”  Kitcher sat quietly and fiddled with the napkin on her lap.

 

Donner continued, “The point is Mr. Redfern, there’s something going on and we want to do what we can do to get to the bottom of it and stop it.”

 

Benji sat up, “Get to the bottom of it?  Stop it?  How do you propose we stop it?”

 

Donner scooted to the edge of the settle, “well, I was hoping that maybe you had some ideas about this sort of thing, seeing that you’ve been involved three times in the last month.”

 

Benji looked surprised, “Who told you I’ve been involved three times?”

 

Donner looked chagrined, “Your mother did.  We met her earlier on our way here, we crossed paths and spoke.”

 

Benji didn’t know if he should be angry, or intrigued, so he chose intrigued just to keep on Margo’s good side. “OK, I’m involved somehow.  Now what?”

 

Donner knew he had Benji on the hook, “I suggest that we pool our information, see.  We won’t have to sneak around so much as just keep in touch and share what we have learned.”

 

Benji was indeed hooked, he liked the way the young weasel thought. “OK, so we gather information.  Then what?”

 

Donner nodded, he was getting further then he thought he was going to be able to, “Then we bring in others who feel just like we do, that there is something strange going on and we get them to share what they know.”

 

And so it went for two hours, the four weasels talked into the late evening about the strange goings on in Glen Meadow and formulating plans to find out more ways that they could help the citizens of their community without getting themselves in trouble or killed.  Their meeting had reached a fevered pitch when there came a brilliant flash through the windows and a deafening clap of thunder.  Benji yelled, “Donner!”

 

Donner had his paws over his ears, but heard Benji’s cry. “Yes?”

 

Benji turned and laughed, “No, I meant thunder, my mother still calls the thunder by the Old World name, Donner.”  He laughed at his lame joke and waved his paw, “Never mind.  Well, I can tell by the sound outside that it’s a real down pour outside.  I hope you children don’t mind sleeping here tonight.”

 

Kitcher protested. “Oh no, we couldn’t possibly impose.”

 

Her protests were interupted by a new sound, the wails and cries of seven distraught children awakened by the lightning and thunder.  All four adults wandered down the hall, lit candles and lanterns, entered the nursery and found Griffin and Jan on Griffin’s bed crying, Elzie and Rose on Roses bed crying, Fritzie and Penny on Penny’s bed crying and little Sabine going from bed to bed patting each of her sibblings, passing out kisses and hugs, cheerful as a basket of chips. 

 

In the end there was nothing for it, it took another round of stories, cups of water, trips to the potty, hugs, kisses, prayers, being tucked in and more trips to the potty, the adults were exhausted.  Margo wouldn’t take no from Donner and Kitcher and insisted that they sleep in the spare bedroom, provided Kitcher with a long night gown and Donner with a flannel night shirt, hugged them both good night and shut their door.

 

It was nearly midnight by the time Margo and Benji crawled under their covers, but Benji was still wide awake.  “Margo, I think that young Donner has some good ideas.”

 

Margo leaned over and kissed her mate goodnight, “He’s a lot like you, Mister.  Now go to sleep.”