Old Magic Rediscovered in a Fantasy World Inspired by the Ancient City of Petra
Hello! I’m a speculative fiction writer from Virginia. I’ve been writing since as far back as I can remember. I used to create my own retellings of my favorite fairy tales before I even went to kindergarten, with my own pictures as the illustrations. Then I wrote two Nancy-Drew-esque mystery stories in fifth and sixth grades. I also enjoy screenwriting and writing poetry–I love the written word in all of its forms!
I’m a former teacher. While I was teaching, I directed the school play and wrote the play the students performed one year using fractured Greek myths.
In my spare time, I enjoy reading and playing the piano. I teach piano lessons and have played for several musicals in my local area.
I enjoy speculative fiction of any kind. I am not one for flowery writing–I like getting to the point as quickly as possible. I love worlds that I can fall into and suspend all belief, ones I want to come back to again and again. I love quirky characters–ones who have deep dark secrets, ones who are grouchy ogres with soft teddy bear insides, ones who are hardened and scarred by difficult life events.
The romance genre is not my favorite, with erotica as a hard pass. I especially don’t want to read detailed sexual violence that takes place “on-screen.”
Josias, a mysterious street musician, finds himself drawn to the city of Bozrah, a bustling metropolis carved into the rock of the desert canyon walls, at the crossroads of all the world. A scrounger without family heritage or inheritance, he has no desire to spend any time there, but finds himself trapped within the city heights by his equally mysterious fiddle with its enchanted powers.
Johana is the daughter of Jambres, a high-ranking Alchemist in the king’s court. A millennia ago, the old magic was lost, and Alchemists rose in its place, albeit largely unsuccessful with their swirling potions and esoteric incantations. Of noble Sidonian blood, she wants for nothing, but to be free of the secrets her family hides from the king. She has an opportunity at an audition for his elite dancing troupe in a week’s time to seek an audience with the king, to expose the truth and free herself. As she stumbles across Josias performing in the city square, she finds that his fiddle alone has pure magic untainted by the shadows.
Josias’ fiddle orchestrates a meeting between the two. Even more so, it acquaints them with the old magic and its powerful author Yireh, the famed Wizard who also disappeared a millennia ago. This story is inspired by the ancient city of Petra, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, as a retelling of the story of Josiah from the Bible.
I am planning on returning to my first novel to revise it–it’s a dystopian with two Evelyns, who have never met one another, but their worlds come crashing down around them as fate brings them together. I always enjoy writing poetry, so I find myself diving into that as a procrastination method from my current WIP. ((Face Palm))
I also have a screenplay pilot of a comedy that takes place in a library–any CPs’ eyes on that would also be much appreciated if that’s something you would be interested in reading.
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