I'm bad - and I don't mean like Michael Jackson

I need a book fairy - the Magical Fairy of Leave the Bloody Book Alone - if you spot her, in passing, send her along to visit me ... or an agent... that would do too - I believe they take the book off you and they don't let you play with it any more; that is what I need!

The finicky little re-edit that isn't really happening is well over half way done - it all began because I was determined to get the total under 80,000 - as the new micro total is 80,406 words - I think I'll be well under - which is like ... highly unlikely considering where it started!

You know like I'm banned from touching the first 60 pages? Seems that I accidently re-wrote the preface today - oops!

PREFACE

The pain from shredded skin, torn on the thorn and bramble thickets – nature’s barbed wire – drained what was left of my strength. Gasping and shaking, I scrambled to the top of the mound – the resting place of some long-dead, warrior-chief. I dragged shallow breaths into my aching, ice-scorched lungs. Time was running out – like my energy – and I still hadn't delivered the warning.
I’d come back home to enjoy hanging out with my friends… instead I’d spent time researching a little known sub-culture - narrowly managing to not avoid danger and working hard to keep the right side of certifiably insane; of course, love has a way of making all that seem like a really good idea.
Before the being ripped apart and dying part – if I was lucky... because there was another alternative – it could be that I had just enough time left to invent a time machine… perhaps he really wasn’t worth all this?
I imagined myself in alternate realities – each one different – safer… quieter. My head agonised over the question but my heart found the answer - love… excitement… the knowledge that I knew the real him – it made even this situation feel that I was in the right place. I smiled, and even though he wasn’t there with me, I reached out my hand as if we could really touch.
Time machines… they’re much over-rated – I’d stand by my choices.
I took a deep breath and screamed.