This took longer than it should have. I lost a week to other projects from co-workers. All in all, though, I can say this series is going well. This chapter is still laying groundwork needed to get readers up to speed and introduce some of the ideas that will come into play later. There are even a few hints scattered throughout.

Folks may notice I've done a few things to the original storyline from the movie. For one, I've stripped off a lot of the 'happily ever after' elements. I've never really believed in everything turning out perfectly after a conflict has been resolved. For another, I'm not putting much humor into my work. That's more a result of my inability to write good humor.

I'm also finding out just how rusty my skills have gotten from lack of use. It's going to take a while, I think, before I'm back to where I was.

One more thing. I spent at least two long brainstorming sessions with  kathmandu to figure out some of the key plot elements. Without those crucial conversations I wouldn't have been able to figure out where things needed to go and how much of it would work. So a shout out to him is definitely in order.

Back to writing. =)