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Windfall - Chapter 1 - A new published novel from Tempo!
Windfall
Chapter 1: On the Train
This is the complete first chapter of my new novel! Which just sold out at Anthrocon 2015!
~ ~ ~

Max didn't really miss being a TV star. He did, however, miss Kylie, his co-star and co-conspirator.
In the six months since the show had ended, the husky had tried to fit in with the rest of the world. He'd moved back into his parents' house and his old, normal life. He'd caught up with the lives of his large, close family and the sights and smells of his childhood home, but it was weird not having Kylie around to fire off a wisecrack or save him from some awkward social situation. Really, it made sense: dogs excelled at missing friends.
Now, at long last, he sat aboard a passenger train as it rumbled down the long line of tracks between the Rocky Mountains and New England. When the trip started, he'd never been so happy to sit on so lumpy a seat—It'd be good to spend time with her again, even if it was only for a few weeks. As the countryside sped past, though, time had dilated to a crawl. He'd reached that anxious period of near-arrival found toward the end of every long trip. He stifled an impatient whine, breathed, and blinked to clear his mind. When his eyes opened, scenery still rolled past the window: trees, hills, rivers, power lines; all superimposed on his blocky canine face in the glass's reflection. He rested an elbow on his duffel and watched the rocky, wooded landscape roll by, knowing only a few hours lay between him and his best friend.
The train car rumbled, almost empty. Almost.
The mouse two seats ahead peeked at him over the back of her chair. She couldn't have been older than mid-teens, judging by her glittery bracelets and neon fur clips. She'd gotten on with her father about an hour ago and gradually started staring at him. The weight of her gaze pressed down on him, drooping his pointy ears and burying his nose further in the book he kept trying to read. Back on the show, he never dealt with fans in his day-to-day life, since filming ensured he never had a day-to-day life. Besides, he'd only been a second-string character, regardless of what the Internet insisted.
His phone buzzed, a blessed diversion. He dug the mobile from his pocket and swiped a paw pad across it.
Kylie Bevy: {The show jumped the shark when the director hired triplets to be in the background of every scene and wouldn't tell us why.}
Max grinned. Speak of the otter...
Max Saber: {What about the mirror universe panda with reverse-dyed fur?}
Kylie Bevy: {Hmm! I'd forgotten about her. XD How's the ride?}
He sighed, glancing up from his phone. The giggly mouse girl still stared at him.
Max Saber: {Train should be on time. Being stalked by suspected fan.}
Kylie Bevy: {Hunky huskies get stared at, especially when they're famous. Nobody stares in Montana?}
He looked up again. The mouse's whiskers bounced with the motion of the train; her gaze flicked away once he made eye contact.
Max Saber: {Well, we do, but we pretend not to.}
Kylie Bevy: {See ya soon, Maxie. ; ) If you survive.}
The husky put his phone away and checked his watch. An heirloom with two time zones, his father had given it to him when he left for filming full-time. He kept it set half on Kylie time and half on family time.
The train rumbled on, tree shadows flickering against the windows. With every sweep of darkness, the fan crept a little nearer, appearing in the next closest seat.
Max closed the mystery novel. He'd already read it, but he'd been going over it again to pick it apart and figure out why he liked it. He relaxed his shoulders and smiled at the mouse, trying not to be huge and intimidating.
The scrawny young rodent seemed to encounter thinner and thinner air the closer she got. Her pink paws clutched a battered and very familiar DVD set.
He gave a disarming wag, his tail thumping the seat. "Hi?"
She bounced and swept away a nervous lock of hair. "Oh. My gosh. Are you Serge from Strangeville? Because if you're not, I'm sorry if I'm, like, coming off like a total weirdo."
Behind her, a taller, graying mouse had peeked around his chair to see where his daughter had gone. His eyes met Max's with a shrug of silent apology.
There'd been a time Max would've leapt from the train sooner than have this conversation, but Kylie had spent three years beating a semblance of social grace into him. "Um, yeah." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. "But in real life, people usually call me Max."
"Ohmygosh! My friends are gonna be soooo jealous!" Her hyperventilation was prevented only by the air resistance of her braces. "This is soooo cool! Okay, okay, so like, what's it like being, like, a TV star?"
"I wasn't really the star—more like a supporting cast member."
She trembled with excitement, mobile phone charms clattering. "So what's it like?"
He contemplated the experience, then distilled it down: "You get up early, go to bed early, and spend most of your day working." It wasn't so different from farm life, really.
"Ugh!" Reality left a bitter taste in the mouse's mouth. "You make it sound totally like school."
"I guess so." He offered a smile.
She glanced down at the scuffed DVD box set, studying the cast list in search of a conversation topic. "Is your name really Max Saber?"
"Yep." A polite nod. "It was a birthday present."
"Like, really really?" She donned the look of a reporter gunning for a scoop. "It's not, like, some kinda stage name?"
The husky glanced at the middle-aged mouse opposite her original seat. They traded shrugs across the aisle. "Saber is an old husky name. The casting director wanted to add a second X to Max, but everyone else said that was too cheesy."
"Yeah, you wanna keep things, like…genuine or whatever." A pause. Wheels turned in her mind. "I didn't like it when they tried to ship you with that fortune-teller bat lady."
Max couldn't suppress a wry smile as the conversation took a familiar turn. He shrugged. "Yeah, I don't think anybody liked that."
"Why didn't you get together with Cassie at the end?" A cheery scoff bounced her whiskers. "Everybody knows you should."
His ears drooped, suspecting where this line of dialog led. "Um, that was really more the writers' call."
"Oh…" The mouse seemed to run off the edge of the conversation, then scrambled back onto it. "Soooo, are you guys dating in real life?"
Max squirmed. The inevitable question; the writers had always flirted with the idea of them flirting. "We weren't really dating in the show…"
"Yeah, but you know what I mean!" The mouse cornered him, blocking all escape from the seat or conversation. "Where are you headed? I mean, if it's okay that I ask that. I don't wanna, like, train-stalk you."
"I'm going to see Kylie, actually." He retreated against his carry-on luggage as he realized what he'd said: those words would keep her glued to the spot until one of them got off the train. Still, he thought, no way out but forward. "Cassie from the show."
Sure enough, a quiver traveled up the mouse's entire body, from tail to ears. "Oh my gosh! Did you finally propose?"
"What?" His ears shot up again, flushed hot. This wasn't the first time a conversation had taken this route. The fandom seemed determined to conflate him with his character, and Serge and Cassie had been the target of a lot of speculation over the seasons. "We aren't dating in real—"
"Does she actually live out here?" The rodent looked around, as if Kylie would spring out from the luggage racks. Then she focused like an awkward laser back on him. "It's totally awesome you two're together like that!"
"We're just friends. And, I don't know, we were on the show together forever, so I figured I'd visit. I wasn't really doing anything back in Montana anyway." Max's family had gotten used to his presence around the house after so much time in Hollywood, and it had taken some work to get them to endorse a two-week trip to the Eastern Seaboard. In the end, his mother's parting hug had been less "have fun, honey" and more "come home soon."
"Ya-huh!" She jabbed an unsteady glitter marker in his direction. "Would you mind signing my Season One, please please please?"
"Okay." He took the box. "I'll sign on the disc I actually appeared on, how's that?"
She nodded, whiskers whipped with enthusiasm. "Sure!"
Sitting up straight, he autographed the DVD with her squeaky felt-tip marker. It was his first signing in some time. At home, surrounded by people who'd known him from diapers, he'd felt foolish playing the Hollywood big shot. "Why do you have this on a train?"
Her pink paws lifted at how obvious the answer was. "In case I need to watch it on the way!"
"Ah, okay." Max gave a slow nod. "Aren't you kinda young for Strangeville?"
"Nah, my parents know I'd just watch it on the Internet anyway."
"Can't argue there." He handed the box set back.
A quiet hiss of deceleration. A train station rolled into view out the windows.
Her dad rose from his seat and gathered their bags.
"Ohmygosh! This is my stop!" She fumbled out her phone and held him and her father hostage with it. "Can I take a picture with you?"
He took a deep breath and tried to seem cool and friendly. "Sure." With a good-natured shrug, he stood, careful not to bump his head on the overhead rack.
Shoving the phone into her dad's hands, she scrambled over and hugged Max with disturbing strength.
The canine gave his best smile. The last thing he wanted was to seem all jaded and bitter.
A screech of brakes brought the train to a gradual halt. The mouse grinned back, colorful braces shining. "It was super awesome meeting you! Say hi to Cassie for me! Thanks so much!"
He chuckled. "Kylie, you mean. And sure."
The mice disembarked. A few more people loaded onto the train, but none seemed very interested in Max—save for the mouse girl who waved so hard she seemed in danger of spraining her wrist. As the train pulled away, the husky waved goodbye to the mice on the platform, then sunk into his seat. His thoughts lingered on Kylie. Before long they'd be together again, without any of the rigors of filming, getting into weird little adventures and feeling special for more than their moderate fame and his considerable tallness. He liked that idea. At least the weirdness with her was weirdness he enjoyed.
~ ~ ~
Windfall is now available online! Over three years in the making and it's finally here. :D The book is a M/F furry romantic comedy in a Lovecraftian horror setting.
More previews here:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/10973174/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/12950193/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/12278672/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14827336/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14467401/
All art for the book:
Slate
-Tempo
Chapter 1: On the Train
This is the complete first chapter of my new novel! Which just sold out at Anthrocon 2015!
>>Physical copies: http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=798
E-book: http://baddogbooks.com/?product=windfall <<~ ~ ~

Max didn't really miss being a TV star. He did, however, miss Kylie, his co-star and co-conspirator.
In the six months since the show had ended, the husky had tried to fit in with the rest of the world. He'd moved back into his parents' house and his old, normal life. He'd caught up with the lives of his large, close family and the sights and smells of his childhood home, but it was weird not having Kylie around to fire off a wisecrack or save him from some awkward social situation. Really, it made sense: dogs excelled at missing friends.
Now, at long last, he sat aboard a passenger train as it rumbled down the long line of tracks between the Rocky Mountains and New England. When the trip started, he'd never been so happy to sit on so lumpy a seat—It'd be good to spend time with her again, even if it was only for a few weeks. As the countryside sped past, though, time had dilated to a crawl. He'd reached that anxious period of near-arrival found toward the end of every long trip. He stifled an impatient whine, breathed, and blinked to clear his mind. When his eyes opened, scenery still rolled past the window: trees, hills, rivers, power lines; all superimposed on his blocky canine face in the glass's reflection. He rested an elbow on his duffel and watched the rocky, wooded landscape roll by, knowing only a few hours lay between him and his best friend.
The train car rumbled, almost empty. Almost.
The mouse two seats ahead peeked at him over the back of her chair. She couldn't have been older than mid-teens, judging by her glittery bracelets and neon fur clips. She'd gotten on with her father about an hour ago and gradually started staring at him. The weight of her gaze pressed down on him, drooping his pointy ears and burying his nose further in the book he kept trying to read. Back on the show, he never dealt with fans in his day-to-day life, since filming ensured he never had a day-to-day life. Besides, he'd only been a second-string character, regardless of what the Internet insisted.
His phone buzzed, a blessed diversion. He dug the mobile from his pocket and swiped a paw pad across it.
Kylie Bevy: {The show jumped the shark when the director hired triplets to be in the background of every scene and wouldn't tell us why.}
Max grinned. Speak of the otter...
Max Saber: {What about the mirror universe panda with reverse-dyed fur?}
Kylie Bevy: {Hmm! I'd forgotten about her. XD How's the ride?}
He sighed, glancing up from his phone. The giggly mouse girl still stared at him.
Max Saber: {Train should be on time. Being stalked by suspected fan.}
Kylie Bevy: {Hunky huskies get stared at, especially when they're famous. Nobody stares in Montana?}
He looked up again. The mouse's whiskers bounced with the motion of the train; her gaze flicked away once he made eye contact.
Max Saber: {Well, we do, but we pretend not to.}
Kylie Bevy: {See ya soon, Maxie. ; ) If you survive.}
The husky put his phone away and checked his watch. An heirloom with two time zones, his father had given it to him when he left for filming full-time. He kept it set half on Kylie time and half on family time.
The train rumbled on, tree shadows flickering against the windows. With every sweep of darkness, the fan crept a little nearer, appearing in the next closest seat.
Max closed the mystery novel. He'd already read it, but he'd been going over it again to pick it apart and figure out why he liked it. He relaxed his shoulders and smiled at the mouse, trying not to be huge and intimidating.
The scrawny young rodent seemed to encounter thinner and thinner air the closer she got. Her pink paws clutched a battered and very familiar DVD set.
He gave a disarming wag, his tail thumping the seat. "Hi?"
She bounced and swept away a nervous lock of hair. "Oh. My gosh. Are you Serge from Strangeville? Because if you're not, I'm sorry if I'm, like, coming off like a total weirdo."
Behind her, a taller, graying mouse had peeked around his chair to see where his daughter had gone. His eyes met Max's with a shrug of silent apology.
There'd been a time Max would've leapt from the train sooner than have this conversation, but Kylie had spent three years beating a semblance of social grace into him. "Um, yeah." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. "But in real life, people usually call me Max."
"Ohmygosh! My friends are gonna be soooo jealous!" Her hyperventilation was prevented only by the air resistance of her braces. "This is soooo cool! Okay, okay, so like, what's it like being, like, a TV star?"
"I wasn't really the star—more like a supporting cast member."
She trembled with excitement, mobile phone charms clattering. "So what's it like?"
He contemplated the experience, then distilled it down: "You get up early, go to bed early, and spend most of your day working." It wasn't so different from farm life, really.
"Ugh!" Reality left a bitter taste in the mouse's mouth. "You make it sound totally like school."
"I guess so." He offered a smile.
She glanced down at the scuffed DVD box set, studying the cast list in search of a conversation topic. "Is your name really Max Saber?"
"Yep." A polite nod. "It was a birthday present."
"Like, really really?" She donned the look of a reporter gunning for a scoop. "It's not, like, some kinda stage name?"
The husky glanced at the middle-aged mouse opposite her original seat. They traded shrugs across the aisle. "Saber is an old husky name. The casting director wanted to add a second X to Max, but everyone else said that was too cheesy."
"Yeah, you wanna keep things, like…genuine or whatever." A pause. Wheels turned in her mind. "I didn't like it when they tried to ship you with that fortune-teller bat lady."
Max couldn't suppress a wry smile as the conversation took a familiar turn. He shrugged. "Yeah, I don't think anybody liked that."
"Why didn't you get together with Cassie at the end?" A cheery scoff bounced her whiskers. "Everybody knows you should."
His ears drooped, suspecting where this line of dialog led. "Um, that was really more the writers' call."
"Oh…" The mouse seemed to run off the edge of the conversation, then scrambled back onto it. "Soooo, are you guys dating in real life?"
Max squirmed. The inevitable question; the writers had always flirted with the idea of them flirting. "We weren't really dating in the show…"
"Yeah, but you know what I mean!" The mouse cornered him, blocking all escape from the seat or conversation. "Where are you headed? I mean, if it's okay that I ask that. I don't wanna, like, train-stalk you."
"I'm going to see Kylie, actually." He retreated against his carry-on luggage as he realized what he'd said: those words would keep her glued to the spot until one of them got off the train. Still, he thought, no way out but forward. "Cassie from the show."
Sure enough, a quiver traveled up the mouse's entire body, from tail to ears. "Oh my gosh! Did you finally propose?"
"What?" His ears shot up again, flushed hot. This wasn't the first time a conversation had taken this route. The fandom seemed determined to conflate him with his character, and Serge and Cassie had been the target of a lot of speculation over the seasons. "We aren't dating in real—"
"Does she actually live out here?" The rodent looked around, as if Kylie would spring out from the luggage racks. Then she focused like an awkward laser back on him. "It's totally awesome you two're together like that!"
"We're just friends. And, I don't know, we were on the show together forever, so I figured I'd visit. I wasn't really doing anything back in Montana anyway." Max's family had gotten used to his presence around the house after so much time in Hollywood, and it had taken some work to get them to endorse a two-week trip to the Eastern Seaboard. In the end, his mother's parting hug had been less "have fun, honey" and more "come home soon."
"Ya-huh!" She jabbed an unsteady glitter marker in his direction. "Would you mind signing my Season One, please please please?"
"Okay." He took the box. "I'll sign on the disc I actually appeared on, how's that?"
She nodded, whiskers whipped with enthusiasm. "Sure!"
Sitting up straight, he autographed the DVD with her squeaky felt-tip marker. It was his first signing in some time. At home, surrounded by people who'd known him from diapers, he'd felt foolish playing the Hollywood big shot. "Why do you have this on a train?"
Her pink paws lifted at how obvious the answer was. "In case I need to watch it on the way!"
"Ah, okay." Max gave a slow nod. "Aren't you kinda young for Strangeville?"
"Nah, my parents know I'd just watch it on the Internet anyway."
"Can't argue there." He handed the box set back.
A quiet hiss of deceleration. A train station rolled into view out the windows.
Her dad rose from his seat and gathered their bags.
"Ohmygosh! This is my stop!" She fumbled out her phone and held him and her father hostage with it. "Can I take a picture with you?"
He took a deep breath and tried to seem cool and friendly. "Sure." With a good-natured shrug, he stood, careful not to bump his head on the overhead rack.
Shoving the phone into her dad's hands, she scrambled over and hugged Max with disturbing strength.
The canine gave his best smile. The last thing he wanted was to seem all jaded and bitter.
A screech of brakes brought the train to a gradual halt. The mouse grinned back, colorful braces shining. "It was super awesome meeting you! Say hi to Cassie for me! Thanks so much!"
He chuckled. "Kylie, you mean. And sure."
The mice disembarked. A few more people loaded onto the train, but none seemed very interested in Max—save for the mouse girl who waved so hard she seemed in danger of spraining her wrist. As the train pulled away, the husky waved goodbye to the mice on the platform, then sunk into his seat. His thoughts lingered on Kylie. Before long they'd be together again, without any of the rigors of filming, getting into weird little adventures and feeling special for more than their moderate fame and his considerable tallness. He liked that idea. At least the weirdness with her was weirdness he enjoyed.
~ ~ ~
Windfall is now available online! Over three years in the making and it's finally here. :D The book is a M/F furry romantic comedy in a Lovecraftian horror setting.
More previews here:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/10973174/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/12950193/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/12278672/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14827336/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14467401/
>>Physical copies: http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=798
E-book: http://baddogbooks.com/?product=windfall <<All art for the book:
Slate-Tempo
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 946 x 706px
File Size 163.9 kB
So is this the full chapter or just a chunk of it? I have been having issues for a while trying to page out actual chapters but maybe I've been over-complicating the whole thing. I've been trying to keep to approximately 25-30 pages for a chapter, and I've had some issues filling in some of that void.
Whenever I go by a word count I always feel like I cut myself off in the middle of thoughts. I tend to get highly descriptive for most of everything, so it becomes a battle of do I want to describe something and let scenes kind of bleed together or lose the description but have more concise and measurable scenes. So then to page counts, but again, dilemma.
This is the whole first chapter.
I try not to pay attention to word or page counts. Just concentrate on playing out each scene and the rest will take care of itself. My chapters vary significantly in length, but I tell my students the only limit is if it's long or short enough to distract the reader.
As far as separating scenes, I usually think about it as "Is this connecting text going to move the story forward? Will it entertain readers? Will they be lost without it?" If not, I usually skip or summarize it.
I try not to pay attention to word or page counts. Just concentrate on playing out each scene and the rest will take care of itself. My chapters vary significantly in length, but I tell my students the only limit is if it's long or short enough to distract the reader.
As far as separating scenes, I usually think about it as "Is this connecting text going to move the story forward? Will it entertain readers? Will they be lost without it?" If not, I usually skip or summarize it.
I'll try to, but my publishers don't like me reading my readers' work, in case I ever wrote anything similar.
Posting work here is a great way to get reader feedback, especially since a good number of furries are going to be interested in lycanthropes (as opposed to lichenthropes.)
Posting work here is a great way to get reader feedback, especially since a good number of furries are going to be interested in lycanthropes (as opposed to lichenthropes.)
I really should finish some of my projects and start posting them. Every time I read something awesome, the ideas get stirring in my brain.
Actually, what I really, really want to do after reading this (and then going back and reading the rest of your Adap- er, Windfall stories) is go and watch something on SyFy (or, since I live in Canada, see if it's possible for me to find it up here). Any recommendations?
Actually, what I really, really want to do after reading this (and then going back and reading the rest of your Adap- er, Windfall stories) is go and watch something on SyFy (or, since I live in Canada, see if it's possible for me to find it up here). Any recommendations?
Well, I can't legally publish them because they're fanfiction, though I might be able to publish something similar. That's what 50 Shades of Grey did. I'll go through it and see how much I'd have to change.
I did, however, publish a pun-filled doggy noir story in Heat 11, which the evidence indicates you'll find to your liking.
https://www.sofawolf.com/products/h.....e=150708083337
I did, however, publish a pun-filled doggy noir story in Heat 11, which the evidence indicates you'll find to your liking.
https://www.sofawolf.com/products/h.....e=150708083337
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