Meredith Mansfield, Author

I’m well into the third draft of MAGIC’S FOOL and still liking it very much. That’s a good sign. Hopefully, my writing colleagues who read it in March will also like it. 

MAGIC’S FOOL is actually a rewrite–complete rewrite as in I didn’t even look at the first version until after I’d completed the first draft–of my first novel, which was called (ahem) THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. TSC was originally written as if it was an adult story, so I’ve had to break it down into parts to make it middle grade. I like this version better, though. It probably alwasy should have been middle grade. I just wasn’t experienced enough as a writer to understand that.

Of course, I’ve had to lose a few things along the way. Several characters have been axed or combined. That’s okay. There were too many in TSC anyway. I am a little sorry about some of the more adult subplots that have to go. Oh well, maybe I can use those ideas in another book somewhere along the line. They just won’t fit here any more.

Here’s the first page, as a teaser:

Vatar rode along beside his father, helping to move the cattle to better grazing. Though, really, the Dardani’s short-legged herd dogs did most of the work of keeping the herd together. Tradition demanded that he spend the day before his formal initiation into the clan with his father. This was supposed to introduce him to the responsibilities he’d be expected to shoulder as an adult someday.

Vatar’s eagerness was boundless. Not so much for the responsibilities, although the glamour of being considered grown up covered even that. Anyway adult responsibilities were still a few years away. Forever to a thirteen-year-old.

It was the more immediate promise of freedom that had him checking the position of the sun every few minutes and wishing it would move faster. After tonight’s ceremony, he would finally be considered old enough. He and his friends would be allowed to ride out of sight of the village in small groups without an adult to keep an eye on them. They’d be able to do things. What things he didn’t know yet, but he was quite certain they could think of some once they had the chance.

He looked around the endless circle of the plains, merging with the sky at the far horizon. The earth was all golden brown now, the grasses prematurely dried up by the lack of rain. Here and there, the green smudges of trees surrounding a waterhole dotted the plains. The darker line of the Great Forest marked the eastern horizon. The possibilities for adventure boggled even his imagination.

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