[version history and scanner's info]

Version 1.0-scanned, OCR'd and spell-checked from first edition (ISBN 0-399-15106-0).

Version 2.0 -September 21, 2003-proofread and corrected by The_Ghiti from first printing (release date: August 15, 2003). A number of obvious errors in the original were corrected, as I regard bookz as new editions, not mere "reproductions." If you find errors, please fix, increment version number by 0.1 and re-post, but please refrain from changing the series numbering.

Version 2.1-September 23, 2003 converted to html and reproofed by Highroller.

Some things just aren't meant to go together. Things like oil and water. Orange juice and toothpaste.

Wizards and television.

Spotlights glared into my eyes. The heat of them threatened to make me sweat streaks through the pancake makeup some harried stagehand had slapped on me a few minutes before. Lights on top of cameras started winking on, the talk-show theme song began to play, and the studio audience began to chant, "Lah-REE, Lah-REE, Lah-REE!"

Larry Fowler, a short man in an immaculate suit, appeared from the doors at the rear of the studio and began walking to the stage, flashing his porcelain smile and shaking the hands of a dozen people seated at the ends of their rows as he passed them. The audience whistled and cheered as he did. The noise made me flinch in my seat up on the stage, and I felt a trickle of sweat slide down over my ribs, beneath my white dress shirt and my jacket. I briefly considered running away screaming.

It isn't like I have stage fright or anything, see. Because I don't. It was just really hot up there. I licked my lips and checked all the fire exits, just to be safe. No telling when you might need to make a speedy exit. The lights and noise made it a little difficult to keep up my concentration, and I felt the spell I'd woven around me wobble. I closed my eyes for a second, until I had stabilized it again.