kayeaton | second draft || [written]

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second draft || [written]

All right, I've got to know: Are there any publishing outfits here? In a town this size, the chances seem slim, but for all I know, there's a paper no one's mentioned to me. I've got a story or two started, and if I could see them in print, I wouldn't mind dropping my asking price to zero cents a word. It won't hurt them to sit in handwritten piles in my apartment, of course, but stories are always better when they're shared.

It's strange to think that it's May here. It was November back in Manhattan, and that meant a lot of gray skies and windy days, and some rainy ones. Thanksgiving was coming up; between Julius and I, a whole turkey is a waste of a bird, but we were going to have something nice for dinner nonetheless. And in the meanwhile, it would have been a whole lot of pounding on typewriters and talking, no doubt.

At least I left near the start of the month. Just in case time here doesn't run faster than every other world's time, he's got a few weeks to plan out a story or two about the drunken scientist or the mutant hillbillies, and from there...well, ideally, he'd show up here one of these days, too. And if not, he's written plenty on his own before; he's not about to starve to death just because I'm not there to do my share.

I do miss him, though.

((OOC: And just in case you're curious, when she says drunken scientist and mutant hillbillies, she is, uh. Completely serious.))

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Well, what's it about? Sometimes it helps to talk it out.

I'm Kay Eaton, by the way. It's always nice to meet another writer.

Rupert Giles. Not a writer, actually, which is...part of the problem. Just dreadfully bored and trying to fulfill a promise I made to a friend of mine.

...it has to have a horse. Preferably a pony. And a happy ending.

Nice to meet a would-be writer, then. Once you've written the story, you get the title, even if you never write anything again.

A pony and a happy ending? Well, you could always write your friend a western.

Really? That's nice to know. I seem to be in need of a new title. ["Ex-Watcher" is getting tedious, and "Watcher" is...just unacceptable.]

Westerns? You mean like those awful American films with the unreasonable deserts and ridiculous costumes?

It's not a bad title to have, if I do say so myself.

...We have to find you some Zane Grey, clearly. You can imagine whatever costumes you life if you read the stories. But if you're not keen on the genre, we can come up with something else--what kind of books does your friend usually read?

...romances?

Yes, I think she likes romances.

[He remembers a conversation with Buffy, last time he was here. About their hobbies. About the library. "I like romances."

...hadn't he promised to bring her some?]

Romances? Hmmm.

[You've come to the right woman, Giles--she's fond enough of romances herself, albeit when they're secondary to the plot.]

Dime store romances, you could write something about the girl taming a wild horse and falling in love with a ranch hand, I guess. If the romance is just background, you could write just about anything you wanted. In that case, it's more a matter of the kind of thing you like. Since you're writing the story and all.

[Good, because Giles is absolutely and utterly lost, in this case. Especially considering the "friend" in question.]

Any designated romances should...probably be secondary, actually. To save embarrassment on my part, and I'm not sure either of us has a very conventional definition of the subject.

...I like horses. Books. Music. Traveling.

They can drag the story down if you don't have a good plot to involve them in, anyhow. So what kind of books do you read?

Fantasies, mostly. Myths, legends. And plays - I've read a lot of Shakespeare.

A man after my own heart. [The smile's as evident in her voice as on her face.] You've got some good options, then. Let's see...you could retell a myth with a horse in it, if you want the plot built in for you. Or you could write some kind of fantasy, if you'd like a little more freedom there. As for Shakespeare — I can't think of anything that features horses and happy endings both, but the beauty of borrowing from other people is that you can write all the happy endings you like.

Kind of you to say so. [Giles can read the tone of her voice well enough, even if he can't see her face right now.

It's comforting, especially considering how ridiculous he felt making this request in the first place.]

I don't think she's terribly fond of myths and legends.

A proper fantasy is probably best. I'm not sure how much she'd appreciated Shakespeare.

Fantasy it is. Are you thinking some kind of sword and sorcery tale, or something based more in the real world? [Whatever constitutes "the real world" for him, she realizes belatedly.]

Something as disparate from our world as possible, actually.

...what sort of world do you live in, Ms. Eaton? It might let me explain better if I know what I'm comparing my world to.

My world? Let's see.

[It really is difficult to know what to describe in a place without any frame of reference of what you're comparing it to. After a moment, she gives it a go.]

You already know I'm from New York, of course. It was 1953 when I left--the war had just ended a few months ago, Eisenhower was president, and if there was magic like in some of these people's worlds, I never saw it. And yourself?

I'm from...well, I was traveling when I was brought over. [Actually, he was fighting a war when he was brought over, but...details.] Originally from London, spent a while in California for a job.

It was 2007 at the time. I didn't pay attention to who was still President in America. And my world had its fair share of magic and supernatural horrors. By my time, the world at large was well aware of some of them.

Oh, London's a great place. California, too.

I don't know if I'll ever quite get over meeting so many people from the future--or a future, anyway. If you need something completely different from that, though...[She pauses, considering the options.] Sword and sorcery would certainly work...or you could set it in a completely different world. Depends on how much you want to put into making up the setting. And once you've got the setting--well, write your friend some kind of good versus evil, you can never go wrong with that. All you have to do is let the good win, and you've got your happy ending.

London is very nice. I'll argue the point on California.

...my friend's life has been some kind of good and evil. And good usually wins, but...

...there's always more evil. That's how things work, back home.

When I was there, it was January. California was guaranteed to come out like paradise in comparison to home.

[This gives Kay some pause; to talk of good and evil in a way that means something more than political figures and fictional characters seems as though it oughtn't be that strange. And yet, somehow, it is.] Well, there'll always be more evil, certainly--that's why God gave us serials. But the promise of a decent break for the hero before his next adventure isn't exactly a sad ending for a story.

But we need something as far from your world as possible, so good versus evil is out. Maybe the main character needs to retrieve something that was lost instead.

...that's good. A good alternative.

[His voice is thoughtful, speculative - he's definitely listening closely to what she says.]

...maybe she lost the horse?

That's a good start, right there. You've got the pony and happy ending all wrapped up together.

So she's lost the horse. What's she going to have to do to get it back?

[The delay is slightly less this time.]

...leave her home. When she never has before.

A journey's good. Is she going alone?

Yes. At first.

She doesn't want to draw attention to herself.

But someone notices her eventually?

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