"Song of the Daystar"
Fourteen-year-old Curron is an outcast working as a stable boy in a secluded fort. Haunted by the unjust death of his guardian, cursed as a burden, and beaten into submission, Curron’s secret faith in Anahdor, a deity outlawed by the king, is tested when he is thrown in prison and sentenced to death. Despairing, Curron believes things couldn’t possibly get worse – until the fort commander’s long-absent brother, Caellahn, breaks in to rescue him.
Now wanted criminals, Curron and Caellahn are forced to flee for their lives, but when Curron starts to hear music that no one else can hear, their situation worsens. Could the music be coming from the mythical Daystar, a stone said to possess a small portion of Anahdor’s power? Legend says only the Song Keeper can hear the music and wield the power of the stone, bringing restoration to the Believers of Alayia. However, Curron’s faith is already stretched thin and with all the dangers rising up around him, the last thing Curron wants to do is declare himself the Song Keeper. Besides, what can a 14-year-old boy do against the mighty word of a king?
Currently I am working on yet another rewrite of this book, and it will remain under "current projects" until it is (finally) published, whenever that may be. :) There are two books in this series, so far, the second of which is currently titled "Tome of the Scribe".
"Eldrei"
Siblings Tibain and Arien find out that their entire life has been based on secrets of another place, another time, another world. Now they discover that they are more than just a part of this world... they are the only hope of it's survival. A darkness has arisen in the south -- an evil come from beyond the start of time -- and it means to destroy the children and the world along with them. The only chance of defeating the evil is for the children to be returned to a home they've never known through a land they've never seen. They have unknowingly been training for this their entire lives. However, they've never trained against anything quite like this and the journey will take all of their courage, all of their skills, and quite a bit of extra help if they are to make it home alive.
Eldrei has been a work in progress since I was 16. The RD was well over 100k, and I'm not sure how long the rewrite will be. Currently it is almost 32k long. It will remain under "Current projects" until it is published. There are 9 books total in the Stare Chronicles -- three trilogies. Eldrei is book 1 of the first trilogy.
"The Spinner's Apprentice"
In the Land of Telltale, the most important person is not the King, or Queen, or even a Hero; it is a little old gypsy woman sitting at a loom and weaving. But don't be deceived by her outward appearance, for great magic lies within the threads of her tapestries. She is The Spinner, the one person responsible for spinning every kind of tale ever told, And after hundreds of years at the loom, the time has finally come to seek an apprentice.
Aura is a mischievous young rover – a nuisance, as some call her – with a knack for getting into trouble. Even without being the Rogue’s daughter, who could honestly trust a girl with such unnerving blue eyes? Surely such eyes are unholy -- unnatural. Such a creature must not be fully human. But Aura has never believed in such things…
Until one day her curiosity carries her a little too close to an old gypsy woman's cart.
"The Spinners Apprentice" was the story I worked on for Nanowrimo in 2009. The rough draft was never finished, but it sits at almost 34k. I don't know when I will ever finish this story. So far there are two books total based in Telltale... the second book will be called "The Guardian" and will be about Aura's younger sister.
Other Projects
"The Dragon Portal" Series
Once, thousands of years ago and after the second flood, the Seven Worlds were shared by humans and creatures out of the old stories, the greatest of which were the dragons, guardians of wisdom and keepers of the sky and the seven Portals of Eir. The dragons were friendly with the humans until one knight, a man named Larkor, turned on the dragons and hunted them. His actions provoked the dragons' wrath, and in the onslaught that followed, the humans turned against the dragons and the dragons were forced to close the Seven Portals and barricade themselves within the realm of Skieh where the humans could never reach them.
Every three hundred years they drop a key down to the earth, a star fragment that, if bonded to a creature of pure heart while it was still hot, would open all of the portals for that person and that person would become Dragon-kind. For thousands of years the Dragons dropped the key, hoping beyond hope that one human of pure heart would find it... one human with the ability to reunite the seven fallen worlds, one with the cunning of a serpent but the manner of a dove. But no one ever found the key...
Until now.
This story is only conceptual so far. All that the story is, is what you are seeing before you. :P It is I guess what one might call a Post Apocalyptic piece... only the "Apocalypse" in this book is a second world wide flood. It's supposed to be futuristic, but after the flood, the world reverted back to a more medieval age and style. I haven't figured out all the details yet.
Untitled...
Throughout history, major natural disasters have struck and taken down whole civilizations with them. But when the dust clears and the sounds of screaming voices are silenced, something ELSE awakens...
Levi is the son of Head Archeologist, Dr. Jacob Braceton, whose current job is to help with the continual uncovering of the ruined city of Pompeii. When a beautiful stone statue of a girl is uncovered in excavation, hardly hurt at all by the devastation that entombed her, the last thing anyone expects is that she might not be a statue after all... that she might have once been a real human being. Even more unbelievable is the fact that she might not even be dead.
And if that is possible, then who knows what other secrets might be burried amongst the rubble... maybe even a gate into a past now only remembered through the dust and bones it left behind...
(I haven't finished thinking this story out either. :P It's mostly based on a dream I had years ago that I woke up and somehow remembered vividly. I have no idea when I will ever get it finished, or if there will be more than one book)
"The Stars of Valor" Series: Star Kindler, Star Walker, Star Gypsy
“Long ago, in an ancient age now remembered only by the written word the art of which to decipher has long been forgotten by all except myself, there were the Knights of Elloth, an ancient order put in being to protect the world of Myrna against the onslaughts of the evil King Molan. But at the height of their grandeur all of the knights were destroyed in a battle on the plains of Dehersa when Molan revealed the sword, Mylehan, forged by Jards in the caves of secrets. Only one knight escaped though he was mortally wounded, Cillin of Andl-derf, and he swore vengeance on Molan with the oath of the ancient kings, that one day Molan would find his fate at the end of the sword of a young Knight who would discover his place in the histories and reinstate the order of the Knights of Elloth.
“Many years now has it been, many hundreds of years since Cillin foretold Molan’s death, and Molan died long ago on the shores of Pirnastol, his remains wiped away by the tides of the ages. Now his descendant, Meallan has taken the throne of tyranny and I fear that times are now worse than ever they were under Molan’s reign. If ever there was a time for Cillin’s prophesy to be fulfilled, it would be in the days soon to come, for young King Meallan has rediscovered the sword Mylehan and wields it without mercy. No one can say what magic was forged into the sword by the Jards, for those creatures went into hiding a long time ago and now it is questioned if they ever existed at all, but I know that they did and they do for my best friend is the Jard, Laina. Together she and I have searched the histories for any sign that would be given at the time for the new Knight to arise and we have discovered something very important, something that holds the balance of the future on the edge of a knife: in an ancient text written so long ago that it was never given a name, we discovered Cillin’s prophesy written down in his own hand word for word, and he states that:
‘when the light of emerald birth, from heaven falls unto the earth
In unanticipated form be tyranny’s death, so be forewarned!’
“Laina and I have been watching the sky for any sign of the Light of Emerald Birth, and it was that just two months ago we saw a light fall from the skies and disappear in the southern horizon. It was not completely emerald, admitted—there were only bare hints of green streaming behind it in fiery ribbons—but it is the single such thing that has been seen for hundreds of years. Laina and I are preparing to go out and search for it, however long it will take us to find it.
***
Aislin, Aislin, Child of dreams
Yours is written destiny
Forged with neither flaw nor seam
Wove into eternity
Yours are gifts uncomprehended
Seeping through forgotten past
Yours the voice by Heaven tended
Yours the light by emerald cast
Yours the gift to creatures spoken
And of beauty never marred
Yours the heart that will be broken
Yours the eyes marked by the stars
Yours the doubt in hearts be conjured
That great fear of you be roused
Yours the fate that will be pondered
And a friendship never doused
So my child, Aislin Vespera,
Vision of the Whitest Star,
Find your place as Heaven’s Kindler:
Discover who you really are
The Butterfly King
I am Elsa. To look at me, you wouldn’t think much of me. When I look in the mirror, my straight mouse-brown hair reminds me of the color of mud, and according to the other girls, my thin, pale face is too ordinary to hold a man’s love, but at the age of thirteen, what do I care for men or boys? They are all the same to me.
I am not beautiful. One year I had the pocks and it marked my face, perhaps for eternity; at least the palace physician says he doubts the marks will fade with adulthood, so deeply was I scarred. But I am content to live a quiet life and enjoy every moment of each day.
I wasn’t always like this.
At one time I would have pitied myself for my faults, or “deformities” as they were looked upon by some, but this is not to be a story of self pity, nor one of ill-founded complaints. No, this is to be a story of something wonderful, a story of something beautiful: a story of how the ordinary was turned extraordinary. This is my story, my account of how something amazing happened to me that changed my outlook on life and proved that even the plain, the marked, the commonplace are unique: inimitable.
This is the Tale of how I met the Butterfly King.
(A story of discovered purpose, magic, and the beauty found in just being one's self. Concept.)
Fae Unleashed -- your average fairytale will never look the same...
Natalie may look like an ordinary girl, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Over 300 years ago the fae kingdom was endangered by humans and forced to go underground to survive. Now they are trying to resurface and claim once again what is rightfully theirs. And they are led, of course, by Natalie the daughter of the late Quean Arivella. But in order for Natalie to take her place as Queen and lead the Fae out of hiding, she must marry, and the marriage has already been pre-decided; she is to marry her best friend Kase. However, in order for a Fae marriage to work, the most powerful aspect of marriage must be present... Love. And neither Kase nor Natalie feels that way about the other. Which could indicate certain disaster, because the fae are in danger of going extinct deep beneath the earth, and if she doesn't lead them out soon, the magic of the world may die with them.
Ray Johnson is a bounty hunter, but not the usual kind. He doesn't seek out criminals with a price on their heads... he goes for the big money: the kind that can only come through illegal trade in magical creatures. So when he's told to hunt down the Fae Queen's daughter, all he can think about is the payoff at the end of the job. But while on his hunt he accidentally stumbles into the Fairy Court, located in an old run-down building scheduled for demolition, and there comes face to face with Natalie for the first time. And yes, she's beautiful, and yes she's fae, and yes she is his next paycheck... but there's something more to her than that... something secretive, mysterious... alluring. And after she whips his butt good and solid and leaves him on the ground in pain, he vows that he will find her, discover her secret, and help her in any way humanly possible, even if it destroys him.
For such is the curse of all who look into the eyes of Royal Immortal blood.
(ok, so I know this piece sounds like it's leading up to some sort of romance, but that wasn't the original intention... For one thing, I'm not very good at writing romance -- or reading it -- and I prefer to write and read action instead. So this piece may or may not ever get finished. We'll have to wait and see...)
This work by Nichole J. White is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. No part of this may be copied, pasted, printed, typed, or stored on any type of storage device without the author's previous written consent.
