Teaser Tuesday: A Shiny New Idea

So last night at about two in the morning I had this idea. And I was a good person, for once, and wrote it down instead of pretending I'd remember it in the morning so I could go back to sleep. I've been working on that idea all day, and guys, I'm pretty excited about it. I don't want to say too much in case this project fizzles out on me, but so far I like it.

The story, very tentatively titled Smoke and Mirrors (I know, it's terribly original. Perhaps the one thing that John Green and I have in common as writers is that we both find titles kind of impossible), is going to be told through at least four different points of view, the four siblings of the Marks family, and will take place in London and in Bombay (cue research!!).

Here's the opening two pages; I hope you guys like it! Please let me know what you think of it so far.

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May 1878

London, England

            When Josephine Marks entered her sisters’ bedchamber, bright sunlight was streaming through both of the windows, in spite of the fact that every other window in the house displayed the typical dreary London rain. 

            “Kate,” she called, stepping through the doorframe and at once wishing she had not. 

            The room – or, at least half the room, including the half that now blocked Josephine’s path – looked rather as though it had been torn to pieces by an overeager dog or a particularly violent windstorm. Books littered the wood floors and hid the green, red and brown swirls of the Persian carpet. Clothes had been taken out from one of the tall, carved wardrobes and dumped unceremoniously onto one of the four-poster beds or thrown half-heartedly into one of the many steamer trunks crowding the room. The other four-poster, surrounded by a swath of uncluttered carpet, had things piled upon it as well, but these books were left in orderly rows, and clothes was neatly folded into an open steamer trunk at the foot of the bed. Those neat stacks were greatly in contrast with the piles of hair ribbons and sashes and bonnets that tumbled down from the bed opposite and spilt all across the floor.

            All this was strewn about, and yet there was no sign of the two sixteen year old girls who inhabited the room. 

            “Kate?” Josephine said again, stepping carefully around an atlas, opened, of course, to maps of India. “Kate, do come out from wherever it is you are hiding. Grandmamma has been wanting you this last half hour.” 

            There was still no response. Then again, Kate was well aware that an interview with Grandmamma was sure to cause more than a few fireworks. But Josephine was not about to retreat without what she had come for, so she changed tactics.

            “Clara?” 

            Still stepping over the things that Kate had thrown willy-nilly about the room, Josephine looked behind an open wardrobe door and pulled aside the neatly hanging curtains around Clara’s bed, but discovered no giggling sisters. 

            “Clara, dearest, do please come out.” 

            But of course, there was no reply from the neater and nearly always silent twin. She had hoped that perhaps Clara could be prevailed upon to give up the game first, but as always, the two were steadfastly together in whatever mischief they were up to this time. 

            It was then that Josephine tripped over a boot that had been left lying on the ground. She almost fell herself, catching herself on the lid of a steamer trunk, but she could clearly hear Kate giggling from wherever it was that she was hiding. 

            “Katherine Georgiana Marks, if you do not show yourself this instant, I shall tell Mamma and you shall have to give up magic from now till Michaelmas.” 

            “Oh, Josy, do be reasonable. It was just a bit of fun.” 

            Josephine blinked, and suddenly there were two girls right in front of her, sitting cross-legged with their skirts pooled about their knees in the small empty space between the two beds. Clara, at least, had the decency to look apologetic.