April 2023
Flower of the month: Sweet Pea
While April actually has two birth month flowers (the other being the daisy), I wanted to focus on the sweet pea this time. These stunning flowers remind me of a resting butterfly and come in many shades from light pink to red to deep blue. (But not yellow, surprisingly!) Their meanings are just as varied, ranging from blissful pleasure to goodbye to thank you.
Sweet peas are climbers, taking every opportunity before them to reach greater heights. We too, can be like these blooms–never shying away from a chance we’ve been given to grow. They’re also known for their scent, which changes with the time of day and the weather. How noble that though our circumstances may change, their fragrance can still be sweet to those around them!
Reading
- Reign Returned by Katie Keridan
- I had the pleasure of meeting this author at the Festival of Books this year, so naturally I had to check out her work! Aside from sharing a genre and audience, we connected over some similar experiences with writing and publishing. If you enjoy YA fantasy with intriguing worldbuilding, quests for lost history and mythical artifacts, and lots of magic, this book is for you!
Research
- While reading through the Bible in a year, I’ve been really struck by the story of the children of Israel, particularly their wanderings in the desert. This has led me down many interesting roads of study, including different Hebrew words for wilderness, the uses and etymology of various desert plants, and the geography of the ancient world.
Updates
- Project Jumpstart launched this month and fundraising is in full swing. To visit my page on the Redemption Press website, click here.
- More fundraising endeavors are in the works, and I’m hoping to share about them later this month.
Lore
A cold, damp mist hangs over the surface of the still water. Although the only visible light comes from the algae and various life forms pulsing with bioluminescence, beneath the water itself a soft glow emanates. On one shoreline, a large wooden raft lies beached on the rocks, and two long wooden poles rest a few feet away in the darkness. There is a humanoid skeleton clutching one of the poles, but other than that there is no indication of where the raft came from.
Though it reeks of danger and insanity, you step onto the raft and push off into the shallows. As you venture farther into the mist, you begin to feel strange, like there’s someone–or something–watching you. But aside from the fish with scales like glittering gems that dart beneath the raft, all is still.
After what seems like ages, a few rocky formations sprout above the water, forming a rough circle. You make no sound, but the raft bumps to a stop against one of the islands, causing a slew of ripples. Instead of dying down like you expect, the disturbance increases, and the light beneath the surface grows in intensity. Just when you can’t bear the light any longer, the water erupts with showers of droplets.
You try to catch your breath as you take in the gray scales glimmering like mica and a green crest like seaweed framing the face of the largest creature you have ever encountered. Its silver eyes fixate on you as a silky voice echoes in your mind.
It has been many years since mortals dared enter the waters of the Elgin.
Before you can craft a response, the serpent speaks again.
I know why you’re here. You seek answers, like all those who came before you. But I must warn you not to delve too deep into the nature of magic, or you will become entangled in its web.
Intrigued? Enter the world of Alderdale in my fantasy novel, Lily’s Passage, to encounter this and other locations of mystery and magic.
As the wind blows,
Sydney Frusti
