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    Magic by the Dollar: A Skeptic, a Scrooge, and Two Kids in the Kingdom of Orlando
    Magic by the Dollar: A Skeptic, a Scrooge, and Two Kids in the Kingdom of Orlando
    Magic by the Dollar: A Skeptic, a Scrooge, and Two Kids in the Kingdom of Orlando
    Ebook44 pages44 minutes

    Magic by the Dollar: A Skeptic, a Scrooge, and Two Kids in the Kingdom of Orlando

    By Melissa Yuan-Innes

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    About this ebook

    One family. Three days. Two theme parks. Will they survive?
    The players.
    Code name: The Skeptic. When he was a kid, his parents would drive him and his sister down on annual torture-trips to Florida, with the dog sandwiched between them. The Skeptic hates crowds and noise, and barely tolerates his own family. Theme parks=the most excruciating place on earth, to him. So why should he submit to this hell? Because of...
    Code name: The Scrooge. She got a deal on cheap hotel rooms in Happyworld. All they have to do is listen to a time share presentation. No big deal, in exchange for a few days of magic and wonder in Happyworld and Blockville. Because they’re bringing...
    Code name: Mad Max. Seven years old. All of his classmates have already been to Happyworld. Some of them have already gone twice! One of them missed two weeks of school! It’s not fair! And...
    Code name: Anger-stasia. Three years old. Barely out of diapers, usually cheery, but prone to screaming fits if things go wrong.
    But nothing goes wrong in Happyworld and Blockville.
    Ever.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOlo Books
    Release dateJan 24, 2014
    ISBN9781927341308
    Magic by the Dollar: A Skeptic, a Scrooge, and Two Kids in the Kingdom of Orlando
    Author

    Melissa Yuan-Innes

    Melissa Yuan-Innes is an emergency room doctor and writer who lives with her husband, one son, one daughter, two cows, and too many mosquitoes outside of Montreal, Canada. She writes thrillers and science fiction/fantasy under Melissa Yuan-Innes, mysteries under the name Melissa Yi, romance under Melissa Yin, and children's/YA under Melissa Yuan. "Mixing mystery in with sheer humanity and splendid characterization, Yuan-Innes's story is a delight." --Alicia Curtis, A&E Editor, The Stormy Petrel "Melissa Yuan-Innes delivers a Bradburyian shocker" --Paul Di Filippo, Asimov's "Yuan-Innes employs a fresh use of language to spin a storyline that is at once universally familiar and intriguingly original." --Brian Agincourt Massey, judge of the 2008 Innermoonlit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel, in awarding first prize to _The Popcorn Girl Meets Darwin Jones_

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      Book preview

      Magic by the Dollar - Melissa Yuan-Innes

      Magic by the Dollar:

      A Skeptic, a Scrooge, and Two Kids in the Kingdom of Orlando

      by Melissa Yuan-Innes

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2013 Melissa Yuan-Innes

      Cover art © 2013 Nicolas Raymond

      http://freestock.ca/

      Why Happyworld? The Scrooge Speaks.

      Happyworld was the first, and possibly the only, family vacation that I really enjoyed. I got to miss the last few days of first grade. I was the envy of my classmates. I flew on an airplane for the first time, and I was super excited that they gave me a Danish for breakfast, although I had to pick all the raisins out.

      As an adult, I saw Happyworld as a gigantic corporation making factory-loads of money, but my son Max wanted to go. He was seven, already older than I was when I went, and I was afraid that if I waited too much longer, it wouldn't be a magical experience. He might like the fast rides and the shiny lights, but he wouldn't believe. He wouldn't be transformed.

      On the other hand, our daughter, Anastasia, was barely three. And my husband, Matt, had long ago stated that he didn't want to travel until the kids were out of diapers. So that let him off the hook until she got toilet trained over the past half-year.

      In November, when I was booking a hotel room, they offered me a deal on Orlando hotel rooms for three nights for $150, as long as Matt and I listened to a two-hour time share presentation.

      I considered my options. Max was still young enough to believe and old enough to walk around. Anastasia was barely out of diapers, but at least she was old enough to start forming long-term memories. I was planning to take Max on safari in Africa, but that trip fell through, and it didn't look like we'd learn Chinese in time to get anything out of travelling to China.

      A time share was annoying, but we could spare two hours.

      And if we booked now, we could escape the cold. We hadn't had a family vacation since 2010, over three years before.

      I said yes.

      Matt wasn't thrilled. His parents used to drag him and his sister down to Florida every year. They'd drive down, crammed in the car for days, with the dog sandwiched between them. They'd walk the dog at rest stops, but once his sister yelled, He's $^@$ing!

      Evidently, the dog hadn't gotten enough of a rest stoop.

      But we'd promised Max that we'd take him to Happyworld someday, and someday was hitting us in the face.

      And that's how my skeptical husband, my cheapskate self, and our two kids ended up on a plane ride to Florida on Friday, January tenth, 2014.

      Packing

      The day of our flight, I was f-ing losing it.

      Max was asking, MooooOOOOOOOOooom? and throwing his crap everywhere, while I was still trying to pack three water bottles, five days' worth of snacks, and other stuff I don't really have to bother with when it's just me travelling.

      Max followed me around. Mom, if you were Shaggy and Daddy was Scooby, do you think he would jump in your arms and then you would chatter?

      He was driving me Bananagrams.

      I enunciated to him, Go turn off your radio and the light. You don't need it, you're not in your room.

      He stared at me. You're scaring me.

      Part of my problem was packing instead of writing. It made me crazy.

      As Franz Kafka wrote, A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.

      So I decided to write about the trip, and felt better already.

      Money

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