Shimmer has already completed her mission, and she knows she isn’t supposed to kill the boy, but she may be in a bit of trouble here now…

I realized that I’ve fallen into the same trap of not introducing a character properly before I’ve brought them into the story.  No one has actually said the boy’s name yet, and he’s been here for several pages.  You’ll be hearing his name next week.

I was watching the Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do recently, and one of the major characters is only referred to as ‘The Bass Player.”  I wonder if Mister Hanks, who wrote and directed it, fell into the same trap of never calling out the name of a character until it was too late….

Oh, well. Something for me to work on as far as writing technique going forward.  Don’t be surprised if new characters begin yelling out their names as soon as they burst onto the scene.  It’ll be awkward, but it will solve the problem.