The Adventures of Austin Girl and the Legend of Diablo

By Carrie Crain

THE ADVENTURES OF AUSTIN GIRL AND THE LEGEND OF DIABLO is a quirky adventure fantasy, upper middle grade novel, set present day in the Ordinary World of the fictional town, Checkered Past, Texas and the New World, Planet Disco. The story features, heroine Austin Girl, a dispirited thirteen-year-old, girl-next-door who grows up without parents. Desperate for a car, she works at her eccentric Grandpa Lucky’s antique store part-time.

The plot shifts into first gear when the story’s bumbling trickster, Tabby, goofs up her mission and kidnaps Grandpa Lucky, instead of locating a missing battle sword belonging to the villain, Diablo. Tabby scribbles a kidnap ransom note, leaving it behind for Austin Girl to find, and tosses the geezer in the back of a 1960 Chevy Pie Wagon. They fly back to Planet Disco where the old man endures the painful sounds of the 70’s, and the rotten stench of shag carpet and Turtle Wax.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carrie Crain
• Release date: Nov 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9780615635309

Carrie Crain

Author of quirky tween novel, THE ADVENTURES OF AUSTIN GIRL AND THE LEGEND OF DIABLO, for sale on Amazon, BandN.com & select indie bookstores. Comedy Writer. Golfer. Housewife Expert. She's your girlfriend stuck in too small a Ralph Lauren dress, arms flailing, begging you to rescue her. Buy her book! You're welcome.

Book preview

THE ADVENTURES OF AUSTIN GIRL

AND THE LEGEND OF DIABLO

by

Carrie Crain

ONE HECK OF AN ADVENTURE

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2004 by Carrie Crain

Two Crain Publishing, LLC presents:

The Adventures of Austin Girl and the Legend of Diablo

Written by: Carrie Crain

Story by: Carrie Crain

Cover Illustration by: Nap Warden

Proofing & Editing Services by: June Heinze and Garry D. Crain

Back Author Photo by: Andrew Shapter

A Two Crain Publishing, LLC Book

This novel is a work of fiction, names, characters, places and incidents either are the produce of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Carrie Crain

Illustration by © 2004 by Nap Warden

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher.

Two Crain Publishing, LLC

Oklahoma, OK 73025

www.carriecrain.com

www.twocrainpublishing.com

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Crain, Carrie, 2004 –

The Adventures of Austin Girl and The Legend of Diablo

Summary: Austin Girl, a dispirited teenager, discovers a magic Samurai sword, leading her on a journey to Planet Disco to save her kidnapped Grandpa from the nefarious Diablo, and return to Earth before she becomes a permanent guest.

ISBN-13: 9780615635309 (Paperback)

ISBN-10: 06156350X (eBook)

First published in 2012

Dedicated to my husband, Garry, without your tireless encouragement, this story might still be a figment of my imagination. And, for my parents, who allowed me to play in the sandbox, create magic, and live a creative childhood.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An enormous thank-you to the following people who helped me:

Keith Giglio – professor of screenwriting at Newhouse School at Syracuse. If it weren’t for your UCLA screenwriting treatment class, the conception of Austin Girl may not have occurred.

Scott Myers – screenwriter (K-9, Alaska, Trojan War), screenwriting teacher, consultant, and mentor. Host of Go Into The Story, the screenwriting blog of the Black List. His teachings were simple truths, yet powerful lessons and from those lessons I learned.

Gabrielle Birchak – Project Breakout’s award-winning comedic pundit. Thanks for motivating me and being my friend.

This novel comes with a warning label:

I LISTEN TO DISCO

CONTENTS

THE KIDNAPPING

AUSTIN GIRL

DIABLO

LUCKY’S ANTIQUES

THE SAMURAI SWORD

MYSTERY TRUNK PERSON

THE GEISHA

THE GYPSY: MADAME URSA

CONTACTING ALL DIABLOS

HOT ROD CUSTOM STYLE

STAR AND HAROLD

DEMON IN DISGUISE

THE GAME ROOM

THE HOVELS

STEAL DIABLO’S BLING

DIABLO WOMAN

BOB

MUSIC PLAYLIST

DICTIONARY OF TERMS USED IN NOVEL

CHARACTER BIOS

FUN FACTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

MORE ADVENTURES COMING SOON

Wish You Were Here.

The Kidnapping

The sound of a backfire rattled store windows on the downtown street as Lucky Stevens parked his piece of hippy junk on the East side of Lucky’s Antiques located at 13 Concho Avenue. He drove a flower power Volkswagen bus. The bus was one of those rare 23 windowed jobs with curtains—a residence on wheels. Straightening his suspenders, he stepped out into the dusty landscape, newspaper in hand. He moseyed past a 1960 black Chevy Pie Wagon parked up ahead, admiring the car. The hot rod was decked out custom style with red and orange flames painted horizontally across the sides and hood. He tipped his beaver Stetson hat to the female driver and grinned handsomely. The pink-haired woman was preoccupied with talking to a Magic 8 Ball and didn’t notice the fifty-year-old cowboy.

Scratching his chin, he leisurely strolled up to a period oak and stained glass door. He reached in his Wrangler jeans front pocket and extracted a set of keys. He put the key in the lock and opened the door to a familiar sight. His antique store was housed in a red brick building in Checkered Past, Texas. He could sniff out valuable antiques just by employing his sixth sense. Lucky adjusted his string tie that matched his belt that matched his ostrich quill boots. He was in love with ‘vintage everything’ including his clothes and gentleman accouterments. Ambling through the door, he removed his Panama Jack sunglasses. His gait was deliberate, like a sore racehorse. Bells jingled like rowels on a spur letting out the sounds of commerce. Lucky may have been a little deaf, but he wasn’t so deaf that he couldn’t hear money jingle in the pockets of those who entered into his world. Lucky flipped on the lights and made a silly face at the store’s security camera.

Lucky laid his morning Austin American-Statesman newspaper down on the cracked countertop beside the turn of the century cash register, and looked at the time on his 40 year-old Rolex he’d won in a bidding war at an estate sale of one of Lyndon Johnson’s cousins so many years ago. It was still early for shoppers, just a little half past seven a.m. on Friday.

A set of white pine plank stairs off to the side began to creak. They led to the attic. Lucky housed antiques there that were part of his private collection, including one secret item in particular that oddly wasn't for sale. He ditched his attention to the paper and walked over to the bottom of the stairs, looking up into the darkness. Skinny, you up there? Lucky hollered sharply. His young stock boy didn’t answer. Shrugging, he turned around to walk off. A thump on his noggin sent Lucky crashing to the hardwood floor. His Stetson flew off of his gray haired head and skidded across the floor like ice on marble. Staggering to his feet, he rubbed the back of his head. What the—?

Where’s the sword? the female driver of the Pie Wagon asked. Her voice was sharp. She waved a Magic 8 Ball in his face. Lucky glimpsed the black ball in his foggy state and thought, Did this crazy lady just hit me with a nostalgic toy? Lucky came to enough to savvy what the woman said, and a certain but profound panic triggered internally. He staggered, his back facing the stairs.

Lucky’s speech slurred as his lips struggled to form words, What sword? Ah — I don’t stock swords, he answered in a semi-unconvincingly manner. Sweat poured from his brow and ran into his keen steely colored eyes. A thin stream of blood dripped from his temple and onto his shirt. He anxiously scanned the room for his hat. He always wore his hat, except in church. The only time he wasn’t going to wear his hat was when he was dead and buried, which wasn’t going to be today if he had a say in the matter.

The shapely woman swung her closed palm and clobbered Lucky upside his jaw, knocking him back into the stair railing. The fall smarted his back. He didn’t know what hurt worse: his back or jaw.

Hey, who do you think you are? What is going on here? he asked, risking a stare at the intruder’s black leather outfit and purple thigh-high boots. He pretended to be interested in her attire. Going to a costume party? he joked, rubbing his jaw. If so, you’ll need a cat mask. Then you can go as Puss and Boots, he said, to deliberately stall for time. He needed to reach the phone, which was across the room beside the cash register to call 9-1-1. He looked over in the direction of his Colt single-action revolver with a history dating back to the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. If the revolver had been loaded, he would have snatched it in a heartbeat. But, for safety reasons and because it was for sale, there were no bullets. He was beginning to think he was up the Concho River without a paddle.

Her thick lips pursed, and her nostrils widened. She grabbed him by