Erina loved listening to her Uncle Bower's stories, even now when she was only eight hafmons from adulthood. She loved the excitement, the adventure, the magic and the heroes, where good always conquered evil and the damsel was always rescued by the dashing knight. She was also certain none of those things would ever happen to her, safely trapped as she was in her quiet village life. She had no idea that every five thousand turings one person was required to save the world from decent into an eon of cruelty and suffering at the hands of the Shadis. Nor that she could be forced to take on such a perilous journey to the Isle of Cloud, where good and evil are not so easily identified, and where legends and monsters leap from their fairytales to become sword-wieldingly larger than life. The trigger in those tales was always by the arrival of a mythical creature, like a white unicorn, which Erina saw this morning...
About the Author: Residing in Northern New South Wales, Australia, Melody lives a quiet life with her husband, four children, and menagerie of children's pets. Inspired as a teenager by the works of David Eddings, Tolkien, The Dragonlance series, and Jim Henson's Creature Workshop, writing became an obvious interest and now a life passion. Heart of the Messenger is Melody's first novel and is the result of a ten year journey that proves the most important factor in achieving a dream is determination, and there is magic in every moment of life! When asked what she hoped readers took away with them from this first book, Melody replied: 'Several. The first is that you don't have to be an epically awesome hero to make a difference, everyone is a hero in their own life. Little things can make a bigger difference than big things. Another message woven into this tale is, regardless of what you want to do, sometimes there are no other options, it is your reactions to situations presented to you that will decide the future. From the historian side of me I have incorporated the need to read between the lines to find the truth that is often hidden, be it on purpose or by accident. Likewise, that good and evil are never easy to define and often appear where they shouldn't. What this book has taught me is how the world is a lot more complicated than we think. For each situation there are a dozen different ways of reacting, and that reaction determines what happens next, or the future. Also how much we just walk by, rush by, without taking note of at all, like light breezes and the warmth of the sun. I also learnt that if you set your mind to it, you can do anything. Likewise, bravery is a choice you make, not a pre-determined trait that only heroes have. So finally, I think the overarching message I am trying to get across is 'Would you take on an Adventure that would change your Life, and the World?' Finding a unicorn is just a bonus!'