The perfect view for Quarter Castle

Everyone needs an impossible dream, one that is so outrageous, our family and friends roll their eyes each time we mention it. It’s that fantasy that pursues us from childhood to adulthood, never dying even when we admit we’ve given up. It appears in our nightdreams and brushes our thoughts when something reminds us of it. Some of us – hopeful dreamers – never forget it. We feel we may run out of time before we reach it, yet we strive towards it as though it’s something obtainable. For some that’s a published novel, a trip to the moon or their own island, but I’m way beyond that. The dreamer in me wants her own castle (horses and knight optional).I even have a place to put this castle. It won’t be sprawling or grand, but a modest abode, one that will withstand the moderate hurricanes reaching our shores. It will be two storeys maybe three with a room or two on each level. When it comes to castles, it’s all about height, like a tower, a keep or peel (small fortified tower home in Scotland). The top will be open to the air and the view. It will be above the trees so I can look around for miles and further out to sea.

Castle builders are in our midst: Castle Magic A simple castle design priced well below a million dollars.

How do I plan to accomplish this dream? In other words, how I am going to finance this almost impossible dream on a meagre writer’s salary? One quarter at a time.

Don’t let anyone fool you. That’s a caribou.

Last year, I began tossing my quarters from my tips earned at the restaurant into a jar. When it added up to $100, I sealed the four hundred coins in a water-tight container and tossed the booty in the moat. The jars are adding up, but I wonder how I could make them add up a wee bit quicker.

I was going to do what the paperclip guy did: trade one paper clip for something worth more and continue trading until the trade ended in a house. You can read about his journey here: One red paperclip.

I thought if everyone in North America sent me a quarter, I’d have that castle built before time took away my ability to climb towers. But I couldn’t ask people for money. Not even a quarter. I’m too independent. I’m sure the idea would fly, but I just couldn’t do it. After all, I’m not like the paperclip guy; I have nothing to trade for that quarter.

. . . or do I?

I do. I have a story to trade for a quarter . . . or at least something close to a quarter. Smashwords sets a minimum price of 99 cents. Of that, I get 56 cents unless the story is sold through another outlet such as Apple. Then I get less, but not less than a quarter.

My offering is Mutated Blood Lines, a short story set after December 21, 2012, the date designated by the Mayan calendar to mark a great change on Earth. Personally, I’d rate this story thirteen and up.

Blurb for Mutated Blood Lines: Autumn survived the flood waters of the Atlantic when they threatened to consume Nova Scotia and its inhabitants. But she hadn’t done it alone. When her brother, Graham, insists she abandon the island and return with him to New Canada, she refuses. Though she insists she is safe, he is convinced he knows best and will stop at nothing to have his way.

I’ll add other stories soon. I’ll mention them in my blog when they are posted. When I do, I’ll give one story away for every story purchased. It will be closer to trading one story for a quarter – my profit from sales at Smashwords.

Until then, if you purchase Mutated Blood Lines, send me your email address. When I post the next short story, I’ll send you a coupon to receive it for free.

When I’m turned to dust, my Quarter Castle will fall into the care of my children. Long after they are gone and life as we know it is a memory on the horizon, my beloved castle may become a tourist attraction reached both by land and sea, a retreat for writers who wish to be bounded by stone walls or a stronghold for someone in need of shelter against the enemy.

Do you have an almost impossible dream? Something that may never come true, yet you dream it as if it will?