Guest Blog Author: MOONDANCER DRAKE

When I was asked to talk about myself, I thought “what am I going to say that I haven’t said before?” There’s always the basics, where I grew up, where I live now, favorite color and foods. Those seemed less then interesting to talk about at my very first author chat. Then, as future would have it, I was talking to a friend about what first got me writing for more than just my own enjoyment when it hit me. Why not talk about that?

You see, growing up as a Cherokee woman, whether in the rural areas of West Virginia, or later on in the cities of the Midwest, one comfort remained constant for me. Books. They were my company when I spend summers at the library, while my mother worked. When I had trouble making friends, because we moved around a lot and I was always so different than the kids around me, stories were where I found moments of solace. Now as much as I loved reading, the relationship between myself and books was never a perfect romance. It was hard to find stories where strong, independent women were the heros, much less Native American women.

Yes later, on one of my many years as a Wiscon attendee, I was sitting in on a panel where authors like Tempest Bradford and Nisi Shawl were taking about their own frustrations growing up, about the fiction they loved and the fact neither they or the other panelists ever saw anyone like them in that fiction. I think it was Nisi I spoke to after the panel when I said “some days I think I should just write the stories instead of waiting for someone else to!” She smiled at me and said, “Well, maybe you should.”

So nearly three years later, and numerous hours writing and loving my new obsession, my first novel, Ancestral Magic, is finally a reality. The story started like many of my stories do, from a dream. And from that frozen moment of inspiration the Story of Sky and Meg unfolded into something I could’ve never imagined. I’ve learned character will do that to you. You have an idea for a story, even might write out what you foolishly think is w perfect outline to go by. In the end you let the characters take you where they will. It’s always for the best that way.

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In a world where magic has become no more than childish fantasy or cinematic illusion, secret towns exists beyond the sight and understanding of mundane humanity.

Green Grove is such a town.

Sky Hawthorn is a single mother struggling to support herself and her blind son, on nothing more than a waitress’ salary and hardheaded determination.

Meg has spent years watching Sky stumble through one doomed relationship after another with the wrong men, never daring to reveal the secret love she has for Sky

When a lawyer arrives to tell Sky that an aunt she’s never known has left her a manor house in a place she’s never heard of, her family’s life is turned upside down and Sky is left with a big choice to make.

At that moment, with that single decision, the three of their lives change forever.

Hidden away in northern Wisconsin, inaccessible to anyone without magic in their blood, Green Grove’s secrets prove to be big ones. There’s a dark underbelly to the friendly town called the Sect, and they want Sky’s home and the magical place called Sacru Teren, a place her family is bound by ancestry to protect.

With the arrival of Roger Thompson, a charming local doctor that seems determined to sweep Sky off her feet, Meg is left with little but jealousy and doubt. Will the handsome doctor steal away their chance to be happy together, or will visions of Sky’s past and the dark secret that past holds change everything?

Ancestral Magic by Moondancer Drake

Coming April 2009 from PD Publishing. Available online through Starcrossed productions or from you favorite neighborhood bookstore.