The Writer's Voice 2014

I would like to present for your consideration ALMENDRA'S JOURNEY - a fantasy novel aimed at a young adult audience. It is approximately 60,000 words in length and it follows the story of Almendra - the seventeen-year-old High Lady of the Upper Kingdom - once a magical kingdom, ruled only by women, that shall lie in ruin and isolation on top of Mount Neemren until such a time when these words come true:

Once love is settled on this earth and vow is sealed by kiss,

The queen will be again a rose - her country will find peace.

Fifteen years ago, a band of shawlweavers attacked the kingdom in order kill Almendra and her mother, put an end to the race of the High Ladies and take over the land. However, Almendra, her granny and Woo, her wolf guardian, survived the attack. In their retreat, the shawlweavers left behind a curse that isolated the Upper Kingdom from the rest of the realm. In order to get rid of the curse Almendra must fulfill the fate-line that predicts the rebirth of the kingdom once she finds true love. 

Her granny believes that the fate-line refers to Prince Frederick of Lowland Kingdom and tells Almendra to put on her Throne Room Dress (that weighs no less than a baby elephant) and spend long, boredom-filled hours, day after day, in the Throne Room, waiting for him to come and set them free. However, when an unlikely messenger arrives and tells them that Prince Frederick has been poisoned and that the only thing that can save him is magic, Almendra decides that the time has come to fulfill the fate-line and that she must go to Ombropolis – the capital city of Lowland Kingdom – in order to do it. 

In the company of her wolf guardian and the messenger, she travels through the Realm of Ethelgrad towards her goal, equipped with a healing potion, a number of helpful magical contraptions and wrapped in an enchanted shawl with outstanding powers she is yet to discover. During her journey, Almendra unearths a heart-breaking secret of the past, buried deep under Spiderwood Manor – the shawlweavers' lair; not knowing that her life is in danger, because the plot to destroy the Upper Kingdom and its High Lady is still on, and that Prince Frederick might not be the one after all.

At present ALMENDRA'S JOURNEY is a stand-alone novel, but I'm thinking about the possibility of its sequel - ALMENDRA'S KINGDOM. Also, I have big plans for the Upper Kingdom, its High Ladies and the Realm of Ethelgrad as I intend to write more stories set in this constantly expanding fantasy world of my creation.

Thank you very much for your time. 

Yours sincerely, 

Farida Mestek 

ALMENDRA'S JOURNEY 

Almendra opened her eyes on the seventh chime of the clock. She quickly sat up, stretched and smiled. Just then the door to her room opened and in entered a large grey wolf with a tray on his back. 

 “Good morning, Woo,” said Almendra, her face splitting into a grin. She pecked the wolf on the nose and took a large mug of hot tea from the tray. Breathing in the familiar scent of mint, she clutched the cup in her hands and raised it into the air like one would a goblet at a feast, her hazel eyes alight with humour. 

 “Cheers!” she said loudly. “And may today be the day!” before bringing the cup to her lips. 

 Woo walked towards the window and drew back the curtains with his teeth – the sky outside was dull grey. Almendra drank her tea and placed it back onto the tray on Woo's way out of the room. 

 In one leap, she bounded out of bed, ran across the carpeted floor and hid behind the screen, her long, brown hair flying in her wake. 

Behind the screen, Almendra picked up a thick rope, lying in a coil on the floor, with an iron hook on one end, then wound it around a huge wheel it was fixed to on the other end, opened the window and threw the rope down. 

A second later the hook hit the ground with a clunk.