Amy in Wonderland

By Kari Kilgore

Curiouser and Curiouser

Amy gets the chance to relive a cherished childhood memory.
To revisit a beloved movie, and remember a night full of wonder.
A solo trip into the past both sweet and melancholy.
But sometimes the past makes other plans.
What will Amy discover on her unexpected visit to Wonderland?

Also available in the collection Stepping Out of Reality

An excerpt from Amy in Wonderland:

Right On Time for A Most Important Date

Amy stepped through the door the White Rabbit held, and she found herself bobbing down into a passable imitation of a curtsey for some bizarre reason. Up close, she couldn't see a trace of makeup on his white face, or how his constantly twitching whiskers could possibly be attached.

"Do be sure and enjoy your refreshments," he purred. "We made them especially for you."

Even though Amy's stomach loudly demanded popcorn now that the scent was thick in the air, she headed toward the burgundy velvet curtain leading to the auditorium. She had no desire to get too close to any of the other actors.

Unfortunately Tweedledum and Tweedledee had relocated themselves to either side of the entrance, and they each held a silvery tray.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spiral Publishing, Ltd
• Release date: Apr 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201926175

Kari Kilgore

Kari Kilgore started her first published novel Until Death in Transylvania, Romania, and finished it in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where Stephen King got the idea for The Shining. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction. Kari’s first published novel Until Death was included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel in 2016. It was also a finalist for the Golden Stake Award at the Vampire Arts Festival in 2018. Recent professional short story sales include three to Fiction River anthology magazine, with the first due out in the September issue. Kari also has two stories in a holiday-themed anthology project with Kristine Kathryn Rusch due out over the holidays in 2019. Kari writes fantasy, science fiction, horror, and contemporary fiction, and she’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of the woods with her husband Jason Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about. Kari’s novels, novellas, and short stories are available at www.spiralpublishing.net, which also publishes books by Frank Kilgore and Jason Adams. For more information about Kari, upcoming publications, her travels and adventures, and random cool things that catch her attention, visit www.karikilgore.com.

Book preview

Amy in Wonderland

To Mom

---

For an unforgettable night

at the Lyric with Alice

---

and so much more

Amy in Wonderland

Kari Kilgore

Spiral Publishing, Ltd.

Amy in Wonderland

Amy Holbrook couldn’t remember exactly what the marquee for the Lyric Theater looked like when she was five years old.

But judging by photos she’d seen—and more importantly, by the reactions of people old enough to have their own clear memories—the little Appalachian mountain town of Estonoa, Virginia, had done a fantastic job with the restoration.

The old-fashioned three-sided sign glowed with orange and yellow lights all around, contrasting wonderfully with the theater’s two stories of red brick scrubbed clean. The bright white space for letters looked almost like a lined notebook, with red letters announcing the Flashback Friday Feature of the week: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The live-action version from the early Seventies, too, not the cartoon, with a trivia-worthy glimpse of Dudley Moore as the Dormouse and Peter Sellers as the March Hare. The kind of movie obscure to a whole lot of people, but deeply loved by the passionate few.

Amy was very much on the passionate side.

Thank goodness enough people who lived in Estonoa back then had fond memories of the extra-special showings. Bringing it back to the restored Lyric was an easy choice.

Amy also hadn’t been the only one heartbroken when the original marquee collapsed a few years back after over thirty years of neglect. The boxy building with so much magic inside had sat empty and abandoned since the Lyric closed in the late Eighties. She didn’t try to hide how