Those who were incarcerated with me in the seventh circle of hell (aka Korowa Anglican Girls' School) will recognise the format of what we always referred to as 'tories (stories without the S, for some unknown reason), as I basically spent the entire last three years of school writing them. Sometimes they were passed around and many authors contributed to the mix, sometimes they were the work of me alone. They had several distinguishing characteristics:
- everyone ended up with the hot guy of their choice (except Alix, whom I used to tease by making her end up with Russell Lowe, a friend of ours - Alix insisted her feelings for Russell were entirely platonic but I thought otherwise)
- anyone we were annoyed with at the time was tortured in various interesting ways
- they usually featured the Ashburton Library as one of the settings
- there were various historical characters thrown into the mix (notably Gavrillo Princip and Apis) and some entirely mythical characters, such as a hot French man called Jean-Phillipe (I think - it may have been Jean-Pierre), and someone called Estra
- there were occasionally tangents involving hallucinatory experiences. I seem to remember one 'torie where there ended up being an orgy attop a giant marmalade-coated crumpet. It's almost as if we were at the forefront of magical realism.
After I escaped from the seventh circle of hell, there was a confluence of events which for various reasons left me unable to write anything except for bleak and depressed journal entries, and some insanely bad poetry (which has been destroyed but which possibly rivalled the Herald-Sun obituaries). People who know me well will know at least part of this story, which I am not going to tell on the internet. Suffice it to say, it took almost ten years before I found myself able to write anything story-like again, and naturally I am fairly out of practice. I have an idea for an actual book fermenting in my mind (I have even got as far as jotting down some notes). This story is like a warm-up for the actual book.
I know it's patchy in parts - as I said, fairly rusty here, so bear with me. I am trying to be true to the spirit of the 'tories, so in the end, everyone may end up with someone hot (myself included, natch), the spirit of the Ashburton Library has been included as the abandoned library where we first meet the Librarians Three and their army of fierce Ninja Meerkats, and Alan, previously a librarian at the Ashburton Library,, will be included in his very own chapter (nothing unusual there), apparently to be titled "Sad old git" - although I am having some trouble with that as a concept.
And I'll almost certainly write another one when this one is finished - which will probably involve more of the usual suspects, including the shadowy organisation of the Black Hand - Ujedinjenje ili Smrt, comrades.
The other reason for this tale is of course that I am, as always, looking for something to do at work that doesn't involve actual work. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story - and leave a damn comment in the guest book!
Rebekka x