[dreams]

Constance briefly considered pulling out her revolver, again.

"Good Lord! Mother has reincarnated!"

You know, I really like this Constance!

I love the characters and the story. I can't wait until you have it ready for us to read the whole thing.

The only part that took me out of the flow of the story, was the longer involved explanation of Knacks. While reading, I had pretty much figured out what it was from your story. Maybe, shorten the background of Knacks?

"Well, it's still weird. Let's go over to the trolley and pick up the mail."

Vivaldi had become a talking dog after Armistice's Knack had reappeared last year. Knacks are an inborn part of all humans and as it turns out the occasional dog. They are, obviously, magical. What few people understand is that they are in fact, everything about magic. Even those who practice what they pompously refer to as High Magick are dealing with Knacks.

Knacks are the little things that people can do. Everyone has a knack and needs to discover it in order to use it. Knacks can range from something as inconsequential as making paper clips line themselves up on their own in the drawer and as powerful as being able to directly manipulate the flow of the reality stream as it flows about the user.

The Knack seems to be genetic in nature. Families with powerful magicians tend to begat powerfully magical offspring. Families with Knacks that run to making cheeses taste slightly more cheesy tend to shoot off children who can make cows turn right on command.

Armistice’s Knack was that he could make an animal talk. Just one at a time. His first and, up to Vivaldi, only animal that he had made talk was a steer at his parent's farm back in Riverside, Iowa as a young teenager. Of course, the whole thing about being a steer on a farm was that you eventually got eaten. Armistice had been so devastated that he hadn't used his Knack for almost twenty years.

Then had come that night when a confluence of rum, a small grey dog, and an ill advised bet came together to inflict Vivaldi on the unsuspecting world.

pshrynk, I just know that this is going to be a very fun read.

I already found myself cracking up over some of the character lines and the pictures in my mind that your words created. Eagerly, awaiting your finished book..