Let’s welcome Mark to the Scribbler.
He is a newcomer to the blog, and most welcome.
His book is garnishing many 5-star reviews and he has kindly agreed to share the SBTS
with us today.
Read on my friends.
Mark looks like an everyday bland Clark Kent. If Clark Kent had a more
boring profession like an accountant. But inside, Mark is a burgundy and blue
clad Shuperhero, whose chin sometimes scrapes the sidewalk while he is flying.
He dabbled in sports writing, but quit just before cable sports increased the
number of sports journalists tenfold. Apparently, his watch runs three years
too late.(It does however play the bagpipes) He is also a whirl of creativity
imagination, and angst. He dampens his natural energy by running marathons,
walking all the streets in a city (i.e. Halifax, Calgary, Dieppe) or consuming
large amounts of chocolate. He has three children who are all taller and complain
that he makes too many Dad jokes. He pretended to be an accountant for thirty
years, all the while writing the most epic of epic fantasies which someday,
fates willing, will be his published masterpiece. Upon retirement, he toned
down the zaniness of his writing to produce the Wish Doctor, which received a
starred review from the Miramichi Reader. Mark likes to travel, hike, make
jokes and puns, be outside and read comic books while eating chocolate. Oh and
he owns 32000 comic books. He’s read 30000 of them.
The doctors’ told him his arteries were so clogged, unless he got hit by
a bus, he was going to die of a heart attack. To which he answered, “Anybody
got the number of that bus?”
Title: The Wish Doctor
Synopsis:
For 500 years, The Wish Doctor has battled the evil spirits that make wishes go wrong. Now, the number of wishes going wrong are increasing. The wish he has made to stave off a fatal heart attack is wearing off. He needs to find a replacement or the number of bad wishes will overwhelm the world. So he opens the School of Wish in the aptly named Baddeck, Cape Breton. He invites 22 of the most outlandish characters, all susceptible to the power of wish Magic. The Wish Doctor uses his last birthday wish to wish for a replacement. What can possibly go wrong with a wish like that?
The Story Behind the Story:
We
were traveling in Ireland and on a bus trip to the Giant’s Causeway we saw a
movie about a human and a leprechaun in a wish battle, which had me thinking
about wishes and how they go wrong. There really should be someone who helped
train people to make wishes correct. Later we were in the West of Island on a
fairy trail with all sorts of little fairy houses and doors. The story
crystalized in my head. Details were added while telling the story to my son
while we walked through poets corner in Central Park, New York. The story took
on gravitas when I had two heart attacks and realized I had to turn over my
responsibilities to a new generation – hence the need for the Wish Doctor to
create the School of Wish. Of course, I don’t believe in telling anything
completely seriously. Even with dire consequences, one must keep their sense of
humor with them, so the plot of the Wish Doctor is actually propelled by puns.
The cornerstone of my life.
Oh
yeah, despite the imagination of this book, every single scene, is based on
something from my real life. After you have read the book, think about that
line. What kind of life has this guy had?
A question before you go, Mark:
Mark: Outside, feet lifted, staring into the sky, sea, mountain or garden. Scotch is the correct beverage. Chamomile tea for editing. My Scotch is kept in an antique globe bar, my beloved spouse gave me celebrating the publication of The Wish Doctor. My mind is an unorderly, orderly mess. My outside world, which I don’t often see due to the flashing lights of imagination, in my head, is a string of chaos theory, decorated with gingerbread icing swirls.
Currently, we are spending our writing time in our piece of heaven known as WishLight Cottage with the view of a famous little lighthouse.
At low tide, behind our summer house is the Wine and Sand Bar, where only the grandest tales are told. We encourage people to visit us. You never know what kind of story you are going to hear…
 |
| Photo from Mark's website. |
From Chapter 19, The Danger of Birthdays
The Wish Doctor’s ninth lesson:
“A birthday wish is almost always useless. Unless you want to invite
trouble. It is the single type of
wish most likely to go wrong.”
“Why?” Christian
asked. “I make birthday wishes all the time.”
The Wish
Doctor felt like shaking his head.
“I’m well aware of that. It’s why the true colour of your face is purple and
why you always have termites
in your pants.”
The other students
laughed. They thought
he was joking.
“To get a birthday wish right, to make it so that the language
is airtight, that nothing can go wrong, to overcome a granter’s
desire to make the wish go wrong, is
almost impossible.
“Since a birthday
wish is yoked to the turn of time, it can rarely be used or boosted in conjunction
with a pure wish, making it even more difficult to use, or use without
something going wrong. Yet even so, a birthday wish sometimes may be your only way to solve
a problem.
“Everyone has a set of birthday wishes, and
though you may give them away, no one may take
them. In an emergency, if you know how, you may borrow a birthday wish
from the future, as long as it is from
a year in which you will still
be alive.
“To make a birthday wish work takes great
effort. If you can do that, you can make almost any wish work.
You must use the principles I will discuss
with you now in making
most wishes, but most certainly for birthday wishes. But first I have to make you promise one
thing.”
He looked across the class with the most serious
expression the students had yet seen upon his face.
“You must promise me you will not make a
birthday wish until you have made it to fourth year and then only with my
blessing. We cannot continue until you promise me this. Raise both hands if you
agree.”
Syd was the first to raise his hand, and most
followed quickly. Alma could not help looking at the triplets. Not for the
first time did they raise their hands last, but they did.
The Doctor took a deep breath and called for all eyes to look upon him, and all ears
to hear. If ever anyone of them were
to learn enough to be his replacement, they must learn this lesson.
“To make a wish
happen, you must never have just one wish
to use. At minimum you need nine wishes. Nine wishes, so maybe, maybe, you can make
one come true. Without disastrous circumstances.
“Use the first three wishes
as protection wishes, to protect
the actual wish you make.
Use them to guard
against misinterpretation, whether wilful or unwilful.
“The last three wishes are mitigation wishes,
wishes to make sure that another wish doesn’t come along and undo the wish you made. The power of magic is always in flux and seeks to find balance. An unprotected wish may seem okay today, but other wishes will seek to
undo what you have done. Unless
you mitigate your wish, it will be undone.
“The fifth wish is usually the best wish to be
your actual wish, but you must know the nature
of the granter, if there is a granter. There are some who just detest the fifth
wish. If it is a wish using natural
forces, then five is the best because nature favours the number five.” The Doctor held up his left hand spreading out his five fingers.
“Use the fourth wish to protect
that the wish does
not later become unbearable. We call this
the Midas protection.
“The sixth wish is
a wish that allows you to reverse
the wish you just made in case
something went wrong. We call this the escape wish.
“Your studies over the next year
will be difficult, let me warn you. You need to learn
how to harness the power of nine wishes to make a wish to help undo a
wish that has gone wrong. And, rarely, for the pure benefit of the wish itself. Most of you won’t be able to
do it. Most of you will be sent home. But maybe one of you or two of you will
learn to do it and be
granted tuition for a second year.
“I wish you well,” the Wish Doctor said.
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My dream, not wish, is to visit that wine and sand bar someday and see all the seas, hear all the tales and feel all the across the mile hug feels. It is, it's true, what the good wish doctor prescribed. Thanks for bring your tales and love of puns ot the page.
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