Library Vault — “Mirror Mirror: Halloween Party of the Century”

Mirror Mirror 

Mirror started as a short story until the Muse snatched me out of neutral and whispered into my ear, “Finish this one, honey!” So we did, and I have added another addiction to my list – writing thrillers. It’s an addiction now because I cannot refuse when my Muse hurls me into another adventure, and likely into several heads and a couple of hearts. I write with many narrative dialogs and love the freedom of the third-person point of view. I write so that the story is not told by me as much as by my characters’ lives, thoughts, actions, warts, and all.

That’s what Sandy Tillman, the protagonist in Mirror, does so well. She coasts comfortably through life until a phone call from a past abuser invites himself to her Halloween party. The short story version of Mirror Mirror brings the chaos at the party and the confrontation between Sandy and Phantasic Phil as he boasts of himself, and the story ends with Phil getting smoked by a burst of energy emanating from a large floor mirror. That was the end of the short story.

Clearly, it was not the end when my Muse planted her knees on my chest, leaned down, and whispered, “Let’s finish this.” So we did. Mirror Mirror was published in February 2023.

Sandy found the hidden room in the library when she picked a random book off one of the library shelves, Mirror Mirror, which triggered the release of a lock, and a section of shelves swung inward, revealing a small room with a single armchair and a large oval floor mirror. A lot goes down in that secret room over several dimensions that stretch time to the limit. Things happen in the present, and as the story progresses, in two subsequent visits in the past.

Time travel? If you can accept the exact Time as a destination that appears accidental, potluck may be a better descriptor, courtesy of the entity she met in the mirror. He managed her travels, and as it turned out, the entity owned Sandy as long as she possessed the book Mirror Mirror.

A double murder later, Sandy meets the entity that changes her life, her world, and, for all intents and purposes, her dimension courtesy of the large floor mirror.

Bizarre things happen when the 3-Dimensional world Sandy Tillman connects with an 11th-dimensional entity she named Paul and establishes something neither wants to refer to as a relationship. Something happens, and there are feelings, but only one way?

It’s a journey worth risking. No spoilers will be revealed here, so I encourage you to read Mirror Mirror.

Peace!  G.