Monday, August 10, 2015

Cookies and Stories and Meddling Kids

I spent most of the morning starting my next WENN fanfiction. This one is set towards the end of the second-season episode "Behind Every Great Woman." Betty is frustrated over Hilary claiming her voice on the air, Scott's behavior, and Ruth Getty's snobbishness. She's supposed to be adapting The Little Mermaid to the air...but as usual with Betty, her own problems intrude....

Did a few episodes of Scooby Doo before and after writing. "Shiver and Shake, That Demon's a Snake" is unusual in that it's one of the few Scooby stories I've seen to be set in more than one location. The gang's cruise from Haiti to Miami to New Orleans is disrupted by a nasty snake demon. He keeps following the kids...but why? And what's hiding in the boat?

"The Scary Sky Skeleton" is attacking an air circus, where Daphne's friend Windy is the star performer. If the gang doesn't figure out what the skeleton is after, the show will be shut down for good.

"The Demon In the Dugout" presents a similar mystery across the sea in Japan. This time, it's a Dragon Demon attacking a stadium and trying to force it to close in the middle of a game between a Japanese and American team. While Scooby and Shaggy taste-test the local sushi, the other three try to figure out who wants to get rid of the stadium.

Work was on-and-off steady, not much different than it has been all summer. It gave me the chance to work on yet another fanfiction idea. Babes In Toyland is one of my favorite Christmas fantasy stories. I actually had it in mind for WENN as far back as the late 90's, but I could never figure out how to work it and went with The Nutcracker instead. Shirley Temple's version gave me a little bit of an answer - go back to the source.

The prologue opens during "Christmas In the Airwaves." Two kids are left waiting for their parents in the studio after the disastrous "Tell It to Santa" broadcast. The little boy is a typical rambunctious kid. The little girl, however, is quite grown up and sophisticated. She insists that there's no Santa, regardless of whether Mackie or Pruitt plays him. Mr. Eldridge reads them a story to convince them otherwise.

The two kids fall asleep and dream they walk through a door and find themselves in a magical world. Pretty secretary Betty Blue is engaged to half-gypsy former thief Scott Piper. They both work for nasty Barnaby (Pruitt), who holds the mortage on Betty's mother's (Gertie) shoe. Barnaby is determined to take Betty as his bride and force Scott to give up his inheritance and his claim on her. The kids and the other citizens of Toyland help to keep the two together and defeat Barnaby.

My relief was one of the new college kids and was actually early. I got out with plenty of time. The day remained cloudy, cool, and humid - just right for baking. I had leftover chicken with a tomato-cucumber-cheese salad for dinner, then made Coconut-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies while running more Scooby and Scrappy.

"The Hairy Scare of the Devil Bear" takes us to the Grand Canyon. The ghost of an Indian bear demon has been scaring off members of an archaeological dig. The bear is said to be guarding the treasure hidden within the caves. Could it be the grouchy old hermit who is upset that the dig pushed him out of his home....or is someone else after the treasure?

The gang goes "Twenty Thousand Screams Under the Sea" when they check out a cliff diving competition in Acapulco. A sea beast is scaring off divers and fishermen. Velma convinces a fisherman to help them locate the beast and find out what it's really after.

"I Left My Neck In San Francisco" takes us and the group on a whirlwind tour of the City By the Bay. A famous thief left jewels at Alcatraz Island, jewels that are now scattered in hiding places around the city. A Lady Vampire seems to be after the jewels. Thanks to her flaming red hair, Shaggy and Scooby think she's Daphne. Velma, Scrappy, and Fred have different ideas.

Shaggy and Scooby aren't singing "When You Wish Upon a Star Creature" when an alien from a newly discovered star comes to Earth and immediately frightens everyone away from the local observatory. Scrappy just wants to trap it, but Velma suspects this star-struck monster has more Earth-bound reasons for keeping everyone away from the huge new telescope.

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