Chapter Twelve

The Great Flood tale is a story that is shared by many cultures, so I thought, why not alpacas, too? Actually, this is an idea that I’d had for quite some time before I found a place to put it. Originally, I wanted to write a story about a groundhog that went looking for the Groundhog Ark, who was secretly substituting for Santa Claus. (Yeah--my mind works like that.) When my writing group suggested that I increase the amount of alpaca mysticism in Cavern of Babel (which at the time was just referred to as Buttersby), I first thought of doing something with the Tower of Babel. Later on in the book, I already had references to languages and how they emerged, and if I had more of a Tower of Babel story, then it would let me call the Cave where Buttersby learns the Universal Tongue the Cavern of Babel, which I really liked as a name. Once I connected the Flood Tale with the Tower of Babel, I just had to put a strong alpaca spin on it, and the end result is Chapter Twelve.

There’s not really much to add about this chapter, except that--if I ever get to write the sequel--there are elements in this chapter that would figure prominently in the next book. It’s now been almost two years since I was working on Buttersby. I’d really like to get back into that world--I liked being there, talking with Meander and Ozzy. It’s strange, when you write a book. I get to know the characters, and I find myself missing them from time to time. I know that there’s nothing stopping me from revisiting that world (except all the other worlds demanding my time), but it takes effort to reinvest myself into a project, and it’s not something I want to do unless there’s a chance of it getting published, or at least getting read. I’ll most likely get my Buttersby “fix” in a while by writing a short story about her and her friends. I’ve already started it, but I haven’t had time to go and flesh it out.

Anyway--I guess none of that has anything to do with this chapter, and that means that I’m just rambling at this point. This is a signal for me to stop for this week. TTFN.

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