The New Enchantress by Sunayna Prasad
GENRE: Middle Grade Fantasy
BLURB:
Cursed by a sorcerer’s hex, Alyssa McCarthy finds herself in a fight she can’t afford to lose, or everything she knows will be lost!
After she finishes her final year of junior high, fourteen-year-old Alyssa faces an uncertain future in more ways than one when a sorcerer casts a hex that leaves her with involuntary magical powers that are too dangerous to remove.
Unable to control her newly gained abilities Alyssa’s end-of-middle-school sleepover ends in disaster when she knocks her friends unconscious when her powers go out of control. If Alyssa can’t learn to master her magic soon, she will be cursed to forget her loved ones and serve as the warlock’s slave for all of eternity.
Her only hope is to focus on controlling her emotions if she is to break the curse. However, the difficulties of adolescence, along with the perils and growing disasters she faces, make Alyssa struggle even more. From putting her friends’ lives at risk to losing their trust, she continues to fear what will become of her if she fails.
Will Alyssa be able to break the hex and become the enchantress that she was meant to be, or will she become enslaved to the sorcerer forever?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Guest Post
Why I Will Narrate My Own Audiobooks From Now On
I’ve worked with ACX to have audio versions of my books performed since some sites say that they could increase sales. So, I submitted the manuscripts to it.
However, I canceled 2 of the audiobooks. One of them was because I’d taken that book off of the market since I wasn’t exactly the right person to compose it. Another was because the narrator did not voice some of my characters believably.
One of them is still on the market. However, I also want to remove that. While some of the characters were voiced well enough (and a few exactly to my envision), one of the characters sounded nothing like how I envisioned his tones and mannerisms. This character (my protagonist’s godfather and guardian) is supposed to be sweet, nurturing, and gentle, as well as enthusiastic when he’s in a good mood. Unfortunately, the narrator portrayed him sounding pretty much the opposite.
A couple of times, I asked the narrator to redo 2 chapters since that character talked to my MC angrily when she was upset, which is not like him. So, she had him sound calmer. But he sounded exhausted to me, as well.
There is also a long chapter where something a lot worse happens to my MC, where she cries into the other character and lays on his lap later. When she tells him that she didn’t get to eat breakfast, he says that he doesn’t want her skipping another meal, that she should eat something, but it doesn’t have to be heavy. While I pictured that soundly softly, the narrator made him sound angry, which is completely out of character for him, especially in that particular situation. In fact, it’s out of character for him in general.
I would have asked the narrator to redo that line. However, this was a long chapter, so she’d have to read the entire thing again. Therefore, I refrained from requesting the change.
But that’s bugged me since then, even now. I even recorded my own version of the specific line where the godfather says it softly and sent it to the narrator.
I have also asked her to cancel publication of the audiobook, especially since it was not really selling. Sadly, she declined.
Nevertheless, I am still going to produce the audiobooks myself and eventually publish them – the entire series. I already started with the first book. This is the only way where the characters’ voices and tones will match my specific envisions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt One:
Alyssa played the video she’d made for the upcoming teen film festival. If she submitted it, she would earn five extra points to add to her 70 in math. That would allow her to drop the mandatory extra-help class for students with final scores less than a 75.
She watched the clip, experiencing watery eyes when she heard herself discussing losing her parents in a car crash when she was seven and other tragic events in her life. It concluded with how those times had shaped her into the person she was today, Friday, June 10th, 2011. She exported the project and would upload it to the festival’s site later. The deadline was not until Monday, 7 P.M. So, after this, she could focus on the end-of-middle-school sleepover that would happen today.
But the screen froze, and a small popup stated, “Cannot export file.”
“Huh?”
How could a two-month-old device encounter issues already? Alyssa had had to wait until her last birthday, in April, and needed to maintain good grades at school to get her own computer. She recalled what her godfather, Alex, had told her in February after her math substitute had informed him about her scores dropping. “Alyssa, if you don’t get your grades up in math, you might not earn that laptop.” He loved and cared for her like a daughter yet shared no blood relation to her family members. She’d lived with him since turning thirteen last year.
Her breathing caught at the popup—a new model should not have a virus already. But she told herself, I’m fourteen and am going to start high school this fall. I can fix this.
The computer turned itself off, closed itself, and crushed Alyssa’s fingers.
“Ow!” she cried.
The device slid off her lap and under her bed. She looked underneath it—without warning, dust blew onto her, covering her petite body.
She coughed as the soot settled. Then she brushed the dirt off her black shirt and its straps on her narrow shoulders, followed by her short shorts and skin. She shook bits out of her straight, pale-blonde hair, which fell a few inches below her hips.
She’d dealt with enough sorcery already, once last year in March and again this past fall. However, neither she nor anybody in her life possessed magic in their blood. From age eight until two springs ago, she’d believed that magic hadn’t existed.
She had interacted with a few magicians when dealing with supernatural situations that no one as young as she should have to experience.
She planned to find that idiot who just ruined her summer by stealing her laptop. A folded piece of paper appeared on her bed and seemed to include the word, laptop, so she read it.
Alyssa,
Your laptop is going to become a new brain-domination computer. The International Magic Control has disabled all the existing ones and has banned any magic from transforming enchanted technology into mind-managing devices. But your laptop is needed exclusively for my particular process.
Also, don’t remove your new magic powers. If you try, you might die.
Anonymous
The note vanished into thin air. Alyssa touched her forehead and breathed since wizardry shouldn’t work on standard technology. Possibilities advanced over time, but they still had numerous everlasting limits.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Sunayna Prasad enjoys writing fantasy books for children, as well as cooking, creating artwork, watching online videos, and blogging. She has also written The Frights of Fiji and A Curse of Mayhem. She is passionate about modern-day life in fantasy stories, worldbuilding, and even humor. She is constantly brainstorming new ideas and using her creativity.
Sunayna graduated from college in 2017 and lives in New York.
splashesofjoy 