Little Prairie Girl

Today I felt nervous. I have a lot of new things I'm doing/trying and today I felt really nervous. I tried to read something and my brain just would not accept reading as a calming activity. I was too fired up... but in a bad way.

So, suddenly I got the idea to go on Pinterest and look at pictures of the prairie. It was really amazing at how well it worked to calm me down. Actually, it was almost embarrassing. Whenever I was anxious as a teen, I'd go for a walk out to nowhere. And it really was nowhere. It used to be my ambition to write stories that took place in my hometown, but it always failed, because nothing ever happened there. Nothing could happen there. And I was not able to write a proper novel until I had spent enough time in Edmonton to set a story there.

My hometown was the place ideas went to die. But there was always a gust of wind and a sunset and a view of the mountain range far away. There was clover growing in big itchy or cooling clumps (depending entirely on the position of the sun), and there was a sky so big, you wouldn't know what was happening on all nine sides of it at once. And yes, the sky had nine sides. Big clouds. Cemeteries. Sometimes it seems impossible that I met and married a man there, because my memories of my hometown are remarkable void of people. Sometimes I became a person who spent too much time alone. Wandering on the edges of fields that didn't belong to me or people I knew. I pet the noses of their cattle since they were the only ones curious about what I was doing there. Home wasn't home. And nine sides of sky were not always welcoming. And there wasn't much to think about. Doing anything would start you doing more than you could stand. Can't sing. Someone could see me and call me weird again, because being or doing anything would be weird. And their view of me might make me more alone.

After all my griping about how I couldn't think an idea for a story to set in my hometown, I finally gave up writing a novel and wrote a short story called 'Blog Entries of the Brokenhearted.' And it really is all that my hometown was... but like I shone a spotlight on it and then cut the cord to set it free.

Here's a link to it. Free reading. Leave a comment if you like.

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2706114/1/Blog-Entries-of-the-Brokenhearted

Excerpt of 'Behind His Mask'

Welcome to the excerpt of Behind His Mask.  This is the part of the blog where I include a segment of my new book for your reading pleasure.  I read this excerpt in my liquid romance voice when I do reading in public.  Please enjoy reading here since it is the next best thing to hearing me read it out loud.

I only had one spare that day and it was during second to last period. It wasn’t until then that I got a chance to crack open Evander’s book. I went to the library, found a cozy spot in the corner on one of the couches, and pulled it out of my bag. The book itself smelled great. It looked great too, just like one of those beautifully bound books on the shelf of a nineteenth century library. I was excited as I flipped open the cover and found the title of the first part. It was called The Lord of the Capricorns.

Insert girlish scream—which was immediately squelched by the grouchy librarian's glare.

I started reading.

Once upon a time, there was a land of greenness unlike any other. It bordered no seashore, no desert, and no mountains. It was a land touched by the grace of the goddess of rain. There, the sun shone golden, covering the land in light and beauty. It was a place of peace where the fields had not absorbed the blood of war and where dead warriors were not buried. Flowers were as valuable as gemstones. Images reflected on a clear lake's surface were more prized than those on foreign mirrors.

The kingdom was known as Lilikeen. In the center of all gracefulness and goodness was their greatest prize, Princess Sarafina. Her beauty caused aches of longing throughout all the neighboring countries. Her head was blessed with soft, sunlit, curls that fell in voluminous waves to her slender waist. When she wore rings on her fingers, the rings seemed enormous and made her fingers more elegant. Her eyes were green like the green that unfolds in the curve of a newborn leaf.

Love for her was inevitable.

Reading it made me hate Evander, too. Of course he liked that kind of girl. It sounded like a female version of him, except for the green eyes. But even after having my fears about him confirmed, my disgust didn't negate my interest in what he had to say, so I kept reading.

At the age of fourteen, she stood in her personal library. It was a beautiful room designed with enormous panels of glass in the ceiling to let in the light for the weightless vines that clung to the bookshelves, adding color and freshness. She was meant to entertain a prince, but not just any prince. The youth invited was the second prince of the Kingdom of Bellique—a country with a strong political hold on Lilikeen.

Bellique lay to the south. It was a great arching country that covered the entire continental coast and cradled a multitude of small kingdoms in its arc. It was the shape of a crescent moon and Lilikeen was like a star dangling from the top corner of it. Bellique sat in a rather difficult position, for it was constantly under invasion from the countries across the sea. It was stained in blood until the earth was red, and if Lilikeen and her neighbors wished to keep their lands pure from warfare, they had to pay a heavy tribute. The money kept Bellique's soldiers paid, their weapons sharp, and their boats afloat. Each and every citizen of Lilikeen paid some of their income to keep Bellique's war machine ticking.

The morning Sarafina entertained Prince Murmur of Bellique, the Queen of Lilikeen watched with great interest from a balcony above.

Murmur entered. Sarafina stood by an empty fireplace with nothing on her mind particularly. She had already learned she did not need to exert herself particularly when dealing with prospective suitors. She did not need to think of witty conversation. They were happy enough to talk about themselves and the time would soon pass.

For Murmur, the effect of her beauty was devastating. Because she did not speak much, she opened his imagination up for what she could be instead of exactly what she was, which was bored, underdeveloped, and childish. He didn't know this. The combination of her obvious acceptance of him and her outward perfection made him believe, even though he was too young to marry her then, that he could have no one else as his wife.

The next day he was carried away back to Bellique's impenetrable capital, but two months later a very royal missive was received by the King and Queen of Lilikeen. It was an official request for a betrothal. An excellent offer it was too, for it offered to have the tribute sent to Bellique reduced by half during each year Sarafina was married to Murmur. However, the King and Queen did not accept it. The Queen knew what their kingdom had—they had a daughter capable of mystifying a prince in one afternoon. From that moment on, the Queen began plotting for a better marriage for Sarafina. What good was Prince Murmur? He was not the Crown Prince. He would never be a king. Instead, she set her heart on his older brother, Prince Tremor.

Tremor was a legend. It was not Murmur who protected the entire continent from the threat across the sea, but the Crown Prince. If Sarafina could have the tribute halved by marrying a prince who would never be a king, how much could she have it reduced if she married the man who would be? Tremor was an unmarried soldier, a general, and a prince who would be a king.

The Queen wrote a letter inviting Tremor to Lilikeen. There was no response for over six months and when the epistle was received, it was opened to uncover his refusal. He could not leave his fortress at Sealoch to go courting. To the Queen, it was a minor setback. This was a different kind of warfare, one for which a queen was well equipped. She would have her daughter married to the Lord of Sealoch!

Welp, I hope y'all enjoyed that.  Now please, be captivated, mesmerized and thirsty for more.  Please buy my book on amazon. Here's the link to amazon.ca and below that the link to amazon.com.  

https://www.amazon.ca/Behind-His-Mask-First-Spell/dp/1981024735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533585096&sr=8-1&keywords=behind+his+mask+by+stephanie+van+orman

https://www.amazon.com/Behind-His-Mask-First-Spell/dp/1981024735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533663990&sr=8-1&keywords=behind+his+mask