Last week I gave some clues to the mysterious bobbles that are so highly valued in HereAndNow. I do have to warn those of you just beginning the book: Though the Prologue and first chapter provide a lot of info about bobbles, as you progress in the story you’ll begin to see some aspects of the bobble that aren’t immediately clear. But, we’ll talk more about that at a later date…

So, what about those tempters? Well, I bet the name itself has already filled in a lot of the blanks. A quick look at the dictionary gives a simple definition: “a person or thing that tempts.” That isn’t the only thing you’ll find if you look up the word, but for now it’s enough to know. In the case of the tempters of HereAndNow, the “person” is using the “thing” to tempt. At least that is the initial appearance of what’s going on.

When Annette and Brad and I started thinking about these tempters, we pictured them as carnies at a Carnival. Have you walked through the rows of games at the Fair and had the carnival workers “bark” out at you to come and play their games? For just a quarter or a dollar or more, you could compete to win an eye catching bauble! (Or should that be bobble???) And if you’re extremely skilled, or reasonably persevering, you could grab the prize! But at what cost? And was it really worth what you had to pay?

So what role do the tempters play in this story? At first glimpse the tempters look very much like the Fair carnies: Make you want bobbles and think you need them. They may even make it look like the chance of a lifetime, but the bobbles they offer come at a much higher price than a pocketful of spare change.

But there’s one thing you better not miss: You can tell the tempters “No!”