Jesse has given me permission to cross-post his two excerpts for his NaNoWriMo novel, The Autobiography of Ziggy Swift. Here’s the second excerpt…
Andy was dumbfounded that I was stupid enough to pour bricklayers mud into a trough and then take a bath in it. I wheezed the word ’soap’ and he laughed. He chipped most of the stone away and was able to stand me up straight while he got some of the stone off my back. After a while he had to stop because his chisel was dull. He said he’d be right back and told me not to move. I didn’t think that was funny.
A long time passed, and I watched a lot of people walking by- they stared at me as they walked back and forth, doing whatever. Then something funny happened. A large stinky ogre walked by and glanced at me, then kept walking. After a few moments, he stopped, stepped backwards and stared at me. It was Kibbel- I recognized the smell and the clothes. He looked me up and down without saying a word and scratched his head. After a while, recognition lit up in his eyes, then he smiled.
“Hey, I know you! You’re my partner! Zaggo!” he stated, proud of himself. He jumped up and down and clapped his hands at his accomplishment. Then he furrowed his brow, troubled by something. “Why are you stone?” he asked. I tried to explain, but couldn’t eek out a full word.
Recognition set in again, but this time it was followed by terror. He slapped his hands over his eyes and began screaming “The invisible dragon got him! the invisible dragon got him! Run for your lives!” and took off running, tripping over a wheel barrow and scattering a fresh batch of bricklayer’s mud onto the ground. He fell and slip into it, flailing his legs but never taking his hands from his eyes, and continued to run, far out of view.
And as an added treat, Jesse has given me a copy of Willis, the city where Ziggy will eventually end up. This entire map was done in GIMP and it’s taken Jesse quite a while to do and it’s still not done. The buildings marked red = Readby’s Trinkets, light blue/purple = Mongo’s Bar and Inn, Blue = Saphenest Zeppelin Travel Agency.
