Anne Elisabeth Stengl wrote the series 'Tales of Goldstone Wood,' a fantasy book with dragons, princesses, princes, faeries....even a unicorn in one book.
The first book she wrote was Heartless, then Veiled Rose, Moonblood, and Starflower. Starflower is not out yet, but it will be available in October, I believe.
I follow Anne Elisabeth's blog at anneelisabethstengl.blogspot.com and every now and then she hold contests and giveaways.
I won Moonblood from a giveaway; my name came up on the randomizer, but to enter, I had to write a blog post about one of her books. I did a while back, if you remember.
A recent contest, one of my dear friends Clara won third place! It was a short story (or poem) contest. There were 24 submissions in all. I entered in a poem (see post below) and very much enjoyed reading the judge's critiques and comments.
But Clara!! I was very excited for her. :)
Well, one of these days I'm hoping the Anne Elisabeth will hold another fanfiction contest. When I wrote the poem in the post below, I had no book to reread to see if I could have put something else in that I had forgotten.
Now, since I own Moonblood, I have a book to work with.
So I went ahead and did a poem for the Moonblood prologue, where you can read the prologue (yet you don't get all of it, because sometime I left out something) but this is to get you interested or tell me what you think of the poem. Be honest! Please. Pretty please with a cherry on top. :)
The Palace Var
The land of the Veiled People
In Vahe's land, far,
The Queen of Arpiar
Gave birth to a daughter
The Princess Varvare.
King Vahe cried,
"A daughter! A pretty daughter,
my pretty bride."
Queen Anahid was afraid
And when Vahe left,
Anahid turned to her maid.
"Bring me clothes and a cloak of midnight."
But the maids did not stir for fear of Vahe.
They just stared, frozen in fright.
The queen stood, and the princess cried.
The maids leapt to attend to their needs.
A maid went to the crib where the babe lied,
Gently lifted her out, and gave her to the queen.
"Tell no one I have gone," she said, striding to the door.
Anahid made her ways through the corriders, unseen.
"I swore I would never call upon you again,"
she said, but it was from the voice of her heart.
Breaking her vow made it feel like a sin.
An answer came close to her ear in the voice of birdsong.
I am always waiting for you, child.
Anahid stepped onto a Path, feeling gratitude, and feeling wrong.
She followed the birdsong, until the Path ended finally.
Anahid took a breath and almost gagged.
"The Near World," she said. "I smell mortality."
But the birdsong just said simply, Follow me.
The unicorn sang, Anahid started to run, but fell.
The birdsong reassured her; the queen got to her feet, moving unsteadily.
Anahid placed the babe underneath a bush,
A rose bush, with roses big and red
And leaves so green and lush.
Your child is safe in my protection, now and always.
"Then I shall return to Arpiar glad."
The bird told her she was not bound, that she may stay.
"I will return," she said.
"Oi! Who's there!" an old voice cried out.
A stocky mortal man knelt under the roses red.
I claim her as one of mine, sang the wood thrush to Anahid.
The queen watched the gardener lift her child,
Then unwilling to see more, the queen bowed her head.
Then she vanished down the trail, into the Wilderlands below.
The unicorn met her there.
Ta Da!! That's all I have for now, but I'll be working on it some more. I found that I am better at poems than I am for short stories about the book, so there will probably be more poems coming up.
Don't worry, they're not all about the prologue. :)
Cheerio, and I hope you liked my poem! Tell me if there's anything wrong with it!
Molly
