Poisoned

Dear Diary,

I guess I’m officially important now. Someone tried to assassinate me.

It started when, thankfully, we found the Valforte’s village, settled in a temporary tent city a few miles from their original village. And…I mean, they’d just had their homes burned, all people could see was this Andrian “princess” walking into their midst…I can understand why it happened. To make a long story short, I was poisoned.

I nearly died—I should have died. Actually, from what I hear, I did die for a few seconds. The amount of poison I was given probably would have killed the entire village, but I suppose my sorceress constitution wasn’t taken into account.

Not long after, Koen and I got into an argument, about me putting myself between him and the other Valforte in danger. He says I’m too important, that each and every one of them can and should die before me, if it comes down to that. Obviously, I have a problem with watching my boyfriend and, let’s face it, my family, lay down their lives for me while I stand back and quiver.

It’s not the way I’m made. If it was, we wouldn’t be here. I’d still be back in that cottage Halryan brought me to, staring at my cell phone in the hopes that service bars would suddenly appear. I wouldn’t be running around, risking everything I have and even things I haven’t got yet for a world I’m not even sure I believe in. I think he understands now. At least, we’ve agreed to disagree.

It got me thinking, though. What would have happened if the poisoning attempt had been successful? If I’d died…the world would have ended.

If it weren’t such an annoying burden to bear, man, would I have the biggest head in the universe.

--June

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Displaced

Dear Diary,

We finally arrived at Koen’s village…or what’s left of it. Koen and the twins thought the Andrians caught wind of the fact that they were helping me, and burned his people out.

I have to call them that, the Andrians, even though they’re ‘my’ people. I can’t align myself with them. All I have in common with them is skin color, and they’re attacking the people I’ve eaten with, slept with (ha, in more ways than one, now), and loved. I hate them. I hate my own people.
We have no idea if any of the Valforte made it out; we haven’t found any bodies, but the village is burned to the ground—

I’m going to try and do a search for them. God, I hope I find something.

--June

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At Last...

Dear Diary,
“Happiness” is such a limiting word. “Elation,” “ecstasy,”…I could go through the whole thesaurus (if I had one) and not find a word to even approach what I’m feeling right now.

Koen and I are together. He came and found me after the whole Halryan debacle last week and, well, things went from there.

He’s felt about me the same way I’ve been feeling, but the whole societal separation thing kept him from telling me how he felt. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have believed a line like that, but a) it’s Koen, he doesn’t lie, and b) we both got cornered directly after we “came out,” for a lecture on how dangerous our relationship is—for Koen especially.

That knocked me for a loop and made me reconsider everything, but Koen refused to let me back out, and told me I was more important than the threat of—well, let’s not talk about it.

Am I weak and selfish for believing him, for continuing to be with him, when the
consequences could be so severe? Is it naïve to keep thinking, even after all this time and everything we’ve been through, that love could really conquer all?

June

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Done

Dear Diary,

I’m done. I can’t do this anymore. I don’t care what happens. I can just sit right here in this little clearing while the world disappears around me.

If whoever’s running this whole little circus is trying to drive me nuts, well, congratulations, you succeeded. I just killed a man, which to me proves I’ve gone right over the deep end.

Someone’s coming.


June

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Sunlight At Last

Dear Diary,

Sunlight, at last. For the past, well, I don’t even know how many days, I’ve been held captive in another of the Eid Gomen’s underground lairs. It would have been the most horrible experience of my life, even if I didn’t have a rotting corpse as a roomie. Tamsik died the same night I arrived, but not before she imparted some really weird info and gave me a very strange ‘gift.’

The guys rescued me, even after I expressly told them to go for help if anything happened. This just goes to show you how wonderful democracy is. I was outvoted, and I’ve never been so grateful in my life.

But when Koen came into my cell with the rest of the guys, and I saw his face, after thinking I’d never see him again—I had to face something. This isn’t some crush I have; I’m falling in love with him. Actually falling is wrong, since it would signify that I’m not already there. I love him. And I don’t think he loves me back.

June B

Buy Surviving Serendipity at Amazon or Quake Direct!

Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com

Flying through the air

Dear Diary,

We finally did it. After weeks of tramping through the woods, across the wettest desert in history, and starving to death with seemingly no purpose—we got the first piece of the tablet.

It sounds kind of strange, but up until this point, I’d almost forgotten what we were supposed to be doing here. That there actually was a point to torturing ourselves in the wild, that we hadn’t just been transported to some kind of hellish purgatory.

We even managed to get a ride. The dragons—who are big and scary looking, but apart from the Valforte, the most civilized “people” I’ve met here, have agreed to fly us to the coast, where the map on the back of the tablet says we’ll find the next piece. I am so grateful I can’t even speak; it would have taken us months to get there on foot, since we let the horses go in the desert. (And no, I’m not talking about that, because I still want to cry every time I think about Rosie. So we’re just not.)

In a few hours, we’ll be flying dragonback to the next part of the journey. Fingers crossed.


June

Buy : Surviving Serendipity at Amazon!

Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com

Crossing the desert

Dear Diary,

We’ve been in trouble before, but this is the first time I’ve really believed we could die here.

We’re in a desert. It’s raining. Yeah, I know, that makes no sense, but it’s a salt desert, apparently, so it can rain all it wants and nothing will ever grow. Looking on the bright side, we don’t have to worry about water, at least. We can just tilt our heads back and drink to our heart’s content.

That’s about the only bright side there is, though. We’re starving, soaking wet, we’re eating saddle leather—and we can’t even see if we’re even making progress toward Fire Mountain.

I don’t know how much further, but…trees, I’m sorry. I have cursed you over and over again, and I am sorry. I miss you. Please come back.

June






Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com

From Bad To Worse:

Dear Diary,

Things are starting to get damn serious. A few days ago, I caught my first glimpse of an Eid Gomen, one of the creatures Halryan says are trying to destroy the world. I can’t even write it down, I’m still so freaked out, but let’s just say that glimpse was a revelation and a half.

There was a really bad accident with Koen, too. One that made me realize just how isolated we are. If someone gets hurt or sick, there isn’t anyone to call for help. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so small or alone.

Also, it seems that Halryan was right. I do have—God, this is so crazy to write!—magical abilities. I can heal myself, move things with my mind, and a bunch of other stuff that’s harder to describe. Like seeing faraway or invisible things, throwing up shields. It’s insane. I really wish I was dreaming all this up, but I have to admit, my mind is not whacked enough to come up with this crap.

So now we’re on our way to meet the faeries. Yes, the faeries, I said faeries, I still can’t believe I’m talking about faeries. And from what I’m getting so far, I have a feeling they’re not going to be buzzing around on cute little butterfly wings.

--June

P.S. Found out my real name. I’d write it here, but then I’d have to burn the page. Absolutely foul. If it wasn’t for bad luck…

Still not enough for you? Order Surviving Serendipity on Amazon.com or Quake Direct! And don't forget to follow June on Twitter!

Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com

Yeah, It's Real

Dear Diary,

Wow, what a week.

First, I’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that this is not a hallucination or joke television episode. This is real. I am really on another planet, I’m really speaking a language other than English, and I really look like this. But it’s not all bad, weirdly enough. I’ve stopped freaking out every time a crazy-looking woodland creature jumps out on the path (although freaking isn’t exactly an overreaction, since the first creature I met was the draek, which is this absolutely disgusting creature that lures its human prey by imitating a crying child).

And I actually think I’ve made some friends; the Valforte, who are the blue guys I wrote about last time. They’re nice, they’re down to Earth, and I feel really bad for them. Because, as I found out when we stopped in a village, Halryan isn’t the only one who treats them like dirt. Shame, because I haven’t met a single one of ‘my’ people (Andrians, I guess they’re called) worth the breath insulting them would cost. I understand now why the Valforte were so cautious, when they first met me, though…they probably thought I was a jerk, just like the rest of the people who look like me. But we’re getting along pretty well now. Except for Minogan, but he’s just a little strange, I think.

But now we’re back in the woods, moving on with the quest. I’m starting to get a little performance anxiety here; everyone’s still banking on the fact that I’m a sorceress, and I’m still positive I’m not.

--June

Can't wait to read the rest? Buy Surviving Serendipity on Amazon or Quake Direct! And don't forget to follow along with June on Twitter!

Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com

Back to Basics

Well, I had kind of hoped to have a completed cross stitch to post a picture of, but…no such luck. Definitely next week, though. I’m almost done.
As for my other adventures this week:

-Thursday, dinner with Emily. I gave her a little bottle of help to get her through her weekend, and she gave me tips on asserting myself.

-Friday, my surprise day off, I took myself on a date to the movies to see The Uninvited. Freaky movie, more so when you’re one of only three people in the movie theater.

-Sunday, Mom’s birthday! Went over and celebrated with her and Dad. Was nearly attacked by a chicken on the way, when I stopped to drop some books off at a friend’s house (yes, that's the chicken, top left). And I launched Project June, where you can follow the main character from my book on Twitter. You can also catch her diary entries every Tuesday right here on Serendipitous Times.

-Monday, got pulled from my usual Monday location to work another one. Of course, this was the day everyone in town decided to get their bloodwork done. I stuck thirty people by lunchtime, but surprisingly was able to be moderately productive when I got home.

This week, I’ve also had to come up with a plan to get more writing done. See, when I started writing Surviving Serendipity, it was in notebooks. Then, my husband got me a laptop. Then I got on MySpace. And Facebook. And now, finally, Twitter. So, I get home, I’ve got emails from Twitter and Facebook, Tweetdeck is chirping at me every thirty seconds…I can’t get anything done. So, I’m going back to the beginning. From now on, when I want to write, the computer goes OFF. And if I need a thinking moment, I can have a thinking moment, not a “well, let me see if anyone posted something interesting on Twitter,” moment. That’s the plan, anyway…let’s see how well it works.


Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com

Ink in My Hair

Dear Diary,

I honestly don’t even know where to start. I’m still not convinced that somebody didn’t slip me a Roofie or something at the bar—didn’t that used to happen in the sixties? Where people would go on bad trips and just…never come back?

I’m having a hard time deciding which would be worse—lying comatose in a hospital bed somewhere, trapped inside my own brain, or here, in this weird cottage, on this weird planet, with these weird people. Yes, I said planet. As in not Earth.

Aside from Halryan, who is the “sorcerer” (so he says) responsible for getting me here, there are four other guys, Koen, Minogan, Errigal and Feoras. They’re blue. Like Smurfs, but a different shade. Yeah, tell me pharmaceuticals are not involved here.

Oh, and did I mention I’ve changed color, too? I used to be Undead pale, but now I look Hispanic. Also, I’m speaking a different language.

Please, God, let this not be real.

June

P.S. Borrowed dip pen (quill? whatev) ink and paper from Halryan for this. No one tells you how messy these things are. I have ink in my hair.



Get the whole story, and buy Surviving Serendipity at Amazon.com or Quake Direct!

Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com

Intro to June

This week, I’d like to introduce someone very special to me: June, the main character in my YA fantasy novel, Surviving Serendipity.

See, June came home from a lovely twenty-first birthday out, but rather than collapsing in her bed, she found a guy in her apartment, a really weird guy with horrible fashion sense. One minute, she’s running for her life, the next—she’s been kidnapped, pulled through space and time by Mr. Fashion-Don’t to a strange, faraway world.

Now, she’s all alone, stuck with her kidnapper and four oddly-pigmented warrior guys who are insisting they accompany her on a horseback trek across the country to save the world. Oh, yeah, and she’s a sorceress/princess.

Thank God for Twitter, though. She’ll be updating regularly at her new Twitter page, and you can read her diary entries every Tuesday right here. So you can follow her every step of the way and read her reactions to the strange flora and fauna, disastrous toilet-paper replacements, and the unsettling mystery unfolding around her.

Or, if you don’t feel like waiting to find out what happens, you can always buy the book at Amazon.com or at Quake's direct buy page.
Happy reading!


Beware the sound of crying children, watch out for the barmaids, and whatever you do, don't let the Pegasus spit on you.
Surviving Serendipity--http://www.sylvaniamania.com