The Magical Things Collection have birthdays in July! Elle's Magical Shoes turns six on July 3, and Elle's Magical Books turns two on July 26. I thought I'd share a little from each book to celebrate. This is copyrighted material. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information browsing, storage, or retrieval system, without permission in writing to Carla Reighard. Section From Chapter 2 Are Fairies Real? Elle couldn’t stay in bed when her mind was wandering, so she got up to look out the bedroom bay window to ensure the things in the yard weren’t blowing away. The wind was horrendous in Lochbuie as it often blew creating an awful howling sound, which sent a chill down her spine. There were lots of open fields in Lochbuie, which produced plenty of tumbleweeds. Elle didn’t like the ugly brown prickly things so in her mind she changed them into soft fluffy animals she called, Tumbees that came in all kinds of colors: blue, purple, red, orange, yellow and green. Elle also pretended she had fairy friends who would talk to her through her bedroom window at night. In Elle’s Dreamland everything was brightly colored. Colorado might have been called Colorful Colorado, but in many places it was anything but colorful, so Elle used her imagination to spruce it up. In the winter, the snow had become glittery fairy dust that had given all the creatures of the meadow warm clothes and fire to help them endure the winter. Her mind had created quaint hearths and wee coats for the fairy folk. These tales had given Elle a cozy feeling much like she had gotten when snuggling under a soft warm blanket. In the summer, the Dreamland trees had grown unique fruit, lollipops and candy bars. When Elle had gotten too hot, she had imagined that some of the fruit had been like blended flavored ice drinks that had caused her tongue to freeze, and had cooled her body as the juices had slid down her throat. Her thoughts had been so powerful she had physically felt a part of the world she had created. The hollow, isolated feelings had wafted away as her mind had explored a world full of impossibilities. It was during day time that Elle had struggled to pretend. She had known she couldn’t be like Anne Shirley in the Anne of Green Gables books where imagination had gotten her into trouble. Elle had kept reality close and had known when it had been all right to pretend and when it had not been beneficial. Even though the wind continued to howl and her roommates’ loud breathing persisted, Elle’s eyes finally began to droop as fatigue washed over her. Just as she was about to leave the window to go to bed, a little blue light in the distance startled her into being wide awake. As the light moved towards the bedroom window it grew. Is it a strange firefly? Elle hadn’t seen too many fireflies in her life and never in Lochbuie. The blue light headed straight for Elle’s window. Before she could blink, it seemed the light was in front of her. Suddenly a loud bump sounded as the unidentified object hit the glass. Elle then realized what was producing the strange glow as a dazed miniature blue face peered at her. She jerked back in surprise, and her heart skipped a beat. What in the world? Elle thought. She hoped the noise wouldn’t wake her roommates. The blue face began to mouth the words, “Come outside.” Connected to the face was a small delicate body of a tiny girl who wore a sparkly azure dress. Elle thought she might be a fairy because she had wings. After looking closer, she realized the fairy’s skin wasn’t really blue, only her hair was. It was the illumination produced by the wand that made her skin appear that way. Elle rubbed her eyes and blinked, hoping she wasn’t seeing things. Dreamland had never looked so realistic, and Elle was afraid she might be hallucinating. Could my mind games be causing me to lose a grasp on reality? Again the little mouth formed the words, “Come outside.” This time the little fairy showed irritation. Elle decided it wouldn’t hurt to follow this figment of her imagination. She slipped into her shoes and put her coat on over her Tinker Bell nightgown. Elle moved slowly down the stairs away from her bedroom, trying to avoid the places she knew creaked in the floor. She didn’t want to wake anyone in the house and have to explain she was going outside to talk to a fairy. As she exited the back door leading from the kitchen, it emitted a tiny squeak, but luckily no one seemed to stir in the house. As soon as Elle was outside, the fairy led her into the garage and yelled, “Finally! It’s too windy for me out there! Why didn’t you come sooner?” The fairy had a surprisingly loud voice for a being so small. Elle responded tentatively. “Um, I guess because I didn’t believe what I was seeing.” “Really? That stings. Since I have ways of spying on you, I know you tell your roommates stories about fairies and other creatures. I figured with your imagination, you would believe what you were seeing with your own eyes. Besides, how many miniature girls have you seen fly into your window with wings? That hurt too! You saw me so I assumed you would open the window and the next thing I know, whack, I’m hitting glass!” the feisty fairy said as she smacked her hands to imitate the sound. “I’m sorry you got hurt, but despite the stories I tell about fairies, I know how to separate reality from fantasy. Fairies only live in my dreams, until now.” “This is your lucky day, Elle. We don’t show ourselves very often to people. Sometimes a person with true imagination and character gets a chance, but we can’t trust just anyone. If the wrong person knew, they may hurt us.” “So you know my name, what’s yours?” “Now I’m being the rude one. My name is Florena, but you can call me Flor. You won’t be seeing too much of me, this is a one-time mission, but I was given a special job to present you with a gift.” “A gift?” Elle was bewildered. She didn’t know if the twirling feeling in her stomach was from excitement or nervousness over the possibility that this was some kind of prank. Was she going to turn around and see a camera while someone yelled Gotcha? “Besides the gift of seeing me,” Florena chuckled, “you get something of great value. Tomorrow a package will be delivered to you.” “What will be in the package?” Elle’s curiosity replaced her doubts. “Shoes of course!” Florena said as if it were the obvious answer. Section From Chapter 18 Creatures Island Cameron and Maddie were on top of Shimmer. Elle and Rebekah rode Glisten as they flew into the sky above. The horses went straight to the cloud portal. All of them, with the exception of Maddie, had arrived through the same opening earlier that day. As soon as they disappeared from the realm of magic, Rebekah felt and smelled the difference in the air. Glisten led the way, but she wasn’t taking them to Lochbuie, Colorado. Rebekah noticed the clouds change colors the farther the horses took them. The air felt thicker and smelled unfamiliar. Glisten spoke, “I’m taking you to the place where I was born. My kind are not original natives to Serenity Island. Our realm is full of magical animals.” Rebekah asked excitedly, “Why?” “I’ll tell you once we are safely there.” They entered another cloud portal. As soon as they passed into the magical land, Rebekah knew it. The smell of magic was in the air once again. It was a blend of sweet and clean with a little mischief – if that could be an odor. It was delectable. There was a rainbow off in the distance with a pink unicorn grazing on grass that looked like green straw candy. Rebekah thought it looked like an illustration out of a storybook. Then a crimson colored majestic bird flew by them with wings that reminded her of fire. Rebekah recognized that is was a phoenix, an immortal bird that died in flames of its own making and then was reborn. “Did you see that?” Elle exclaimed. “Yes, and I believe we are now in the best magical place of all!” Rebekah replied. Just as she said it, a purple and green polka-dotted dragon zoomed by, singing a familiar song about being late for a very important date. Elle looked at Rebekah and laughed. “Did I hear that dragon sing a Disney song?” Glisten replied, “Yes, we are big Disney fans here on Creatures Island. We love to see our relatives on the big screen. This place is where all magical animals are born. Some of us get to live in other realms. I’ve been lucky enough to live in two other dimensions besides this one. Many take vacations to the human world, and some glamor themselves – like I camouflage my wings – so they can live around people. You would be surprised how many spoiled pets aren’t really cats or dogs.” Glisten gently glided down near a waterfall where a patch of plush moss grew along a stony bank that edged a lake. The small body of water seemed to swallow up the falls. Fish that looked like actual cats jumped in and out of the water, frisking about like kittens having playtime. Rebekah was stunned into silence from the magnificence of the island. She was hardly ever at a loss for words, but this time, she didn’t know what to say. Her senses were in overload. Shimmer landed near Glisten. Cameron and Maddie got off her and looked at Elle and Rebekah with bewilderment. Cameron asked, “Where are we? Why aren’t we home?” Glisten explained, “You’re on Creatures Island. Florena whispered into my ear to take you to a place where we can’t be spied on by the fairies. The crystal flowers were only designed to look at the humans so that the fairies could make sure the plants they made for people were surviving. Cameron probably doesn’t know this, but the fairies main joy in life is to create all the things that grow on earth. They make the seeds, the petals, the stems, and the stalks of each plant. That is their main purpose. Although sometimes their other inventions, like marshmallows, get brought into the human realm, but they are never as good as the fairy-designed ones.”
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Before I jump to the fun stuff, I need to say something that has been weighing on my mind. Go to the next blog if you want a little light reading where I put excerpts from The Magical Things Collection. This blog will not be fluffy or light. I didn’t do my normal first of the month blog in June, and I didn’t send out my monthly newsletter because the cancel culture trend started to overwhelm me. I’ve moved past that and decided to post two blogs for July. For weeks I have been debating whether I should write this or not. At my age, I hope I have the wisdom of hindsight and experience. That doesn't mean getting older makes you wiser, but I'm always willing to learn. In my later teens and twenties, I would have hastily and vehemently expressed my opinions. Back then I easily judged people who thought outside my boxes. Thankfully social media wasn't around for me to share my too-quick-to-judge words, because time has taught me that sometimes I change my mind on certain topics and I also realized that some of my views had been too harsh, naïve, uneducated, or just cow poop. Truthfully, my perspective can still be incorrect because I’m human, but at least I wait before I shovel out my manure to the world. Social media has created a monster where people can attack hastily and harshly without knowing or even trying to seek all the facts. The same monster thinks if they tell someone they should, “kill themselves”, that their criminal words will bully that person into thinking like them. Yes, this happened to a young mother and wife I follow on Instagram who has been vocal about her beliefs on certain topics. She’s kind and never harsh to those who disagree with her, so why was she treated so horrifically? She shared the hateful messages sent to her on one of her posts just to show that she has risen above the violence, and hasn’t changed her beliefs despite it all. Several authors are coming under attack with the same type of vile behavior just because they don’t use their platform the way certain individuals think they should. I have fortunately not been attacked, which may be due to the fact I reach such a small group of people. There are atrocious individuals and groups in the world who think people deserve to die for not believing the way they do, but what makes their opinions or convictions better than anyone else’s? What human gets to decide the standard for everything under the sun? Unless you want to enter into some futuristic dystopian world where mind control can be easily done, I think there will always be people on opposite sides of an ideology or belief. That doesn't mean one group gets to be murdered literally or figuratively for it. Here are some things I wished the angry mob or individuals would consider before they attacked:
I'm reminded of a famous pop song that for copyright reasons I can't quote, but it says every person should look in the mirror first before trying to correct everyone they meet. If you want to make the world a better place, it starts with you. Work on you, not your neighbor. Truth doesn’t require hatefulness to spread. I know it will eventually win in the end. |
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