Short Story in Progress

Project: The Witch of the Little Wood
New Words: 2,079
Current Total Word Count: 7, 606
Goal: Complete the story (this short story is turning into a novlette, I think).

Random Rough Sentence(s): Everyone knew that the witch lived in the little wood, that she lives in the hollow of a tree. There she keeps old bottles, the labels torn off, which she refills with potions of her own making. The slithering slickly brown one turns a child into a toad. The angery black oilly one keeps you from ever having a happy thought again. The clear liquid one, evervescent and glowing will cause you to fall asleep forever and dream of things you want but can never have. And everyone knows that she eats children, roasting them, crisping them black over a tiny fire in the middle of the little wood. She saves the bones for her potions, pops the eyes like jellied grapes into her mouth. Everyone knows that she is the witch of the little wood. That wood belongs to her and always has. If you follow her too close, she will stop and stare at you with her sharp, dark eyes, and you won’t be able to sleep for a week. And if you stare back and look to long, you’ll end up crazy like John Peterson over on Elm, who tried to drink drano and now is living in a shelter, because he can’t be happy ever again.

Notes: This story has been tumbling around my head for a while. I started it a while back and intended to write it for Scheherazade’s Facade (an anthology market), but never finished it. I’ve started rewriting it from scratch and am rather pleased with the results. It’s the first time I have a longer story that I know I can finish and that I know I’ll be happy with by the end. Amazing feeling to have.

I’ve been getting good feedback on it from my writing group, too, which is always nice. (^_^)