Sunday 13 December 2015

It did! And Hope

It really did! It snowed!

It wasn't forecast. I was in our beautiful church, helping at a stall in the Christmas Fair. There were stalls in the Market Place, too, choirs singing, and people selling hot chestnuts. About midday I saw that people were coming in with white on their hats and shoulders, so I nipped to the door. Yes, soft flakes were landing on stalls and hats, on baby buggies and the Christmas tree.

There were moans and grumbles. It would keep people away from the market. They'd have to leave early. Cars would need de-icing. Steps must be gritted. The journey home would be a problem.

At 1.30 I escaped from the grumblebums and went for a quick bite of something for lunch, and one of my young friends came with me. She had been wishing for snow, she said as she looked up in excitement. We sat in the lovely old cafe, drinking hot chocolate (her) and cappucino (me) as the snow fell steadily outside the window. I didn't just have snow, I had snow in the company of somebody who knew how wonderful it was and loved it even more than I did. And if it's snowing here, I'm sure it's doing the same on Mistmantle.

HOPE

I could smell it before anybody else knew it was coming, you can always sniff snow on the air if you know what it sniffles like. I told everyone, Master Urchin, Miss Sepia, Fingal, everyone. I went up to the tower and told the king and queen once I'd worked my way up to the Throne Room. I told Mum and Dad, and I told a tree because I thought it was Mistress Tay and then I told Mistress Tay and she said she detests snow and I had to ask Captain Lugg what that meant, and he said it means Mistress Tay's an idiot, but then he said not to repeat that because it could get back to her. She's very clever so I don't think she can really be an idiot, but if she is I suppose it mustn't get back to her because she doesn't know she's an idiot, and anyway idiot isn't a very nice thing to call someone.

I asked Captain Padra if somebody could be very clever and an idiot at the same time. He laughed. "Definitely', he said.

4 comments:

Chocolatep1e said...


Will you ever write more stories about Mismantle? Maybe not a book 6, but I have known some book series that have gone back and written about the past, and what happened before? For example, you talk about an old rage ride where Crispins dads die in another rage tide, do you think you will ever write about the things that happened when Crispin and Padra were only lowly pages? Or maybe about Urchins parents? Or maybe even the volcano island that Cedar is from?
Thanks for reading.

margaret mcallister said...

Hi Chocolatep1e, what a great name! Welcome to The House of Stories. To answer your question - the decision whether or not to publish more books isn't up to me, it's up to the publisher, and they only wanted to do five. You could always try pestering them!

Certainly there are back stories in there. I do wonder about Crispin, Padra and Husk growing up together. And Brother Fir's story, too.

Unknown said...

I wonder about their stories, too.

margaret mcallister said...

:)