It came down to the wire, but I managed to get this thing complete, with the help of a short deadline extension.

Thanks to Wattpad for hosting the ONC competition and motivating me to write this story and thanks to everyone who has read, commented, or wished me luck along the way.  You're the best.  

I also have to thank whoever among the ambassadors came up with the prompt I used.  In past years, I didn't even look at the whole list of prompts because one prompt ignited an idea in me and I went off to the races.  This year there were several I was intrigued by, but I couldn't settle in on one for a while.  Indeed I came very close to choosing a different prompt, but finally the weird premise of this one hooked me enough that I decided to go with it.  I do enjoy a mystery.

The thing is, I didn't totally realize until I got into the weeds with this that there isn't just one mystery set up by the prompt.  There are actually several.  What happened to make two months seemingly disappear? What happened during those two months?  Where did every living creature go? Why were these two neighbors spared from whatever happened?  How are they going to fix things?  And how the heck did a pet who died three years ago come to life and show up in this scenario?

I did not have it figured out at all when I started writing.  There were obviously some sort of time shenanigans going on so I was thinking about some kind of time travel plot.  For a long time I thought I was going to introduce cops or agents from some sort of time agency, but I feel like I've seen that done a lot recently.  Both Loki and The Umbrella Academy have featured something along those lines and I'm sure there's other stories out there that do.  I just happen to have watched both of those semi-recently.  I really thought I needed to go in another direction and the best thing I know of to explain the inexplicable is magic.  So a witch became the primary antagonist and Magic Al came into the picture to help explain the mystery.  There wasn't anything in the prompt that said they couldn't eventually meet other people, so I went with it.  Once I'd established the idea that lost objects and living things could slip through the crack in time I couldn't resist adding Amelia Earhart to the mix.

I came up with Shannon and Antony because I thought the idea of putting a snooty writer type together with a washed up 80's rock star would provide an interesting dynamic.  Then I had to figure out how these two people could possibly solve the predicament they were in.  They needed a magical assist for sure, but I liked the solution I came up with.  

I decided to set the story in 1994, partially because I didn't want Antony to be like 60 something years old and also I didn't want the characters to be too sophisticated with modern technology like the internet and cell phones.  I was in high school in 1994, so I remember it pretty well and had a good sense of what was and wasn't around back then.  It helped me to write it without having to do too much historical research.  :)

Thanks again for the reads, comments, and votes.  Writing is fun, but sharing it with readers is even better!