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She features in the title of my series, but who, or what, is Melusine? I’ll concentrate on the literary and historical versions for now. My version will come a bit closer to the release of Amber’s Lure.

The most famous story of Melusine was compiled in the late 1300’s by Jean d’Arras. However, several ruling families from Europe (including the English Plantegents and French Anjous) claimed decent from Melusine. These dynasties came into being several centuries prior to d’Arras’ writing, so this points to the original story of Melusine being somewhat older, maybe tenth or eleventh century. The various legends disagree on some points, but all of them seem to agree that Melusine wasn’t human and was associated with water (river, spring, well). 

Melusine was the daughter of a human and a fay named Pressine. If one reads anything about human-fay marriages, one knows they tend to go sideways more often than not. In this case, a broken promise to Pressine induced her to leave, and take her triplet daughters Melusine, Melior, and Palatyne with her to Avalon. Fast forward about a decade and a half, and Melusine catches wind of what happened between her mother and father. Suffice to say…it wasn’t pretty. Melusine rounds up her sisters and convinces them to help her imprison their father in the mountain he ruled. 

Pressine wasn’t happy.

For the murder of their father, Melior and Palatyne were imprisoned for the rest of their lives, and Melusine (being the ringleader) was cursed to become half human, half snake every Saturday (or Sunday). Sometimes she has two tails, sometimes one, and sometimes she has wings on top of that. Regardless, one day of the week it will be glaringly obvious that there’s something up with Melusine. If she can marry someone who will agree to never see her on a Saturday, Melusine will have a happy and contented life.

You can probably see where this is going.

Fast forward again some number of years, Melusine does manage to attract the attention of a young man named Raymondin (the supposed ancestor of the previously mentioned ruling families). They get married, have a double-digit number of kids, and all is well for a while. Then, as usually happens in human-fay unions, the manure hits the fan. Raymondin becomes too curious as to why he can’t see Melusine on Saturdays. Some versions say it was her habit of skipping Mass that aroused suspicion, sometimes it’s a relative or two unable to keep their mouths shut, sometimes it’s the fact that (according to some stories) each of their children had some kind of deformity. Either way, Raymondin broke his promise and spied on Melusine on a Saturday while she was in her bath, and saw that which could not be unseen. He kept his silence for a while, but eventually let it slip. Most of the stories regarding this incident center around one of their children killing his brother, and Raymondin calling Melusine something along the lines of ‘hateful serpent.’

Now that the Smilodon-sized cat was out of the sack, Melusine reverted to some non-human shape, either a full-blown dragon or a human with an snake tail and sprouting wings. She flew away, leaving only two gold rings to her family. The only time she comes back is to become a banshee-like figure, singing or screaming when there is going to be a death in the family. 

So, what is Melusine? From a folklore standpoint, it would not shock me if she and her sisters were dim memories of local goddesses. The pattern of goddesses appearing in triads is relatively common in European folklore, be they sisters or mother-children setups. According to the stories, Melusine brought her husband land, wealth, fertility, and power, which again, points to her being some sort of goddess-figure, even if she wasn’t remembered as such by the time of Jean d’Arras’ writing. 

Yeah, if your wife asks you not to bother her on a Saturday, maybe listen to her? Best case, you annoy her. Worst case, she turns into a human-snake-winged lizard mashup and flies out a window.

A weird idea came into my head the other night, and I’m going to run with it.

Vintage Book Trailers.

Okay, hear me out. What if one could make trailers for old (like, public domain old) books to increase interest in them? I’m not just talking about known classics like Dracula and The Time Machine, though those are plenty cool in their own right. Did you know Bram Stoker wrote other books? They are just as good, if not better, than Dracula. The Jewel of the Seven Stars in particular is amazing. If nothing else, it would give me a little more practice with Canva, though I am getting better and better. Here’s the link to the video:

I guess I want to encourage people to read something a bit more off the beaten path. I’m not short of choices in my house…I’m the child of a librarian, and we have probably over a thousand books in my place (no, I’m not exaggerating…my mom’s room itself has over two hundred). I might upload them to my YouTube channel, along with other stuff I’m working on for Melusine’s Endgame. 

I am considering picking up an extra stock video subscription. Canva does have a good library, but I figure the more I have access to, the better. The two I’m looking at are Storyblocks and Envato. If anyone has any experience with either (or preference), let me know. Price isn’t really the issue for me. Ease of use and a diverse library are more important. 

Hilary

Ooof…talk about your roller coaster weeks!

The school year did get extended (boo!) but they also pushed back MAP testing by a week (yay!). I doubt we will get all of the current unit covered by the end of the year, but we should be good for what is actually tested on. I admit, I’m having a load of fun…nothing like having an amateur paleontologist teaching a unit on Evolution. 

I did get a migraine, this time related to the storms we’ve been having lately. A bit concerning, since the weather hasn’t triggered them before this past month. However, the new medication my new doctor prescribed? I don’t usually call something a ‘miracle drug,’ but that’s what this stuff was! It knocked the migraine out in about an hour. Imitrex usually took at least two, and that was if it took the headache away entirely (and lately that has been hit-or-miss). Best of all, no ‘Imitrex hangover’ as my doctor put it. If you’ve never taken Imitrex, it does leave you feeling weird for a day or so after. This new stuff, nothing. I’ve never tried ODT (oral dissolving tablets), so I wasn’t sure what to expect. 

It tasted like those spun sugar mints. Really quite tasty! I was expecting bitter, or tasteless, but not, you know, pleasant. My doctor said that Imitrex was a wonder drug when it first came out decades ago (and it still works for a lot of people), but there are more targeted therapies now. This new one, Nurtec, targets a specific nerve implicated in migraines, with fewer (and in my case, no) side effects. The anatomy/chemistry nerd in me is always amazed by how far medicine has come in a comparatively short time. I’m not meaning to turn this post into a drug ad, but when one has dealt with these headaches as long as I have, anything that gives relief is a godsend (especially relief with little to no side effects).  I just hope that I don’t pass these on to my kids, since they can be hereditary, though neither of my parents or other family have or had them, so maybe I’m just a one-off. 

In another first, I had an MRI. It was interesting. Loud as heck, though the earplugs helped. Not going to lie, I wasn’t a fan of the dye contrast injection, since my veins suck and the technician had to use my hand instead of my arm. Oh well…at least it was my non-dominant hand. They let me keep my rings and bracelets on, and I could feel them vibrating the whole time. The tech said that meant there was at least a little magnetic material in them, but not enough to get hot or get pulled too strongly. An experience, to say the least.

Hilary

I write paranormal/dark fantasy. 

However, I’m also a science teacher/scientist at heart. At the risk of sounding cliche, I think that makes my writing unique. I try to ground my fantastical beings in some manner of realism. Heck, I taught human anatomy for over a decade, and I’m an amateur paleontologist by hobby. I’ve got loads of material to draw from, and it makes the characters/critters even more fun to write. I think it helps me to give myself constraints. It helps me be more creative. 

Here’s an example. 

In the Melusine’s Endgame universe, sea serpents are a thing. Forget the stories of scary critters that go out of their way to nuke boats. While large (well over 200 feet in length for an adult), they are shy and usually won’t come within twenty or so miles of the shoreline. If they approach a boat, it’s out of curiosity. They also prefer deeper water, though might venture closer to the surface at night or during storms. A boat is more likely to be damaged by accidentally running into one than being attacked. They will eat anything small enough to fit in their mouths.

My sea serpents have an unusual appearance. In terms of body shape, they are very serpentine, with a thick body reminiscent of an anaconda. Unlike most modern snakes, their jawbones do not separate effectively, so they are limited to swallowing what will fit in their mouths. They are venomous, and are ambush predators, similar to modern sea snakes. What sets them apart is the presence of feathery dermal denticles all over the body from head to tail. From a distance, they almost look furry, but if one could get close enough to touch a sea serpent, the denticles would feel more like fine wire. The colors run the gamut from pale gray all the way to black.

I model the overall appearance on an extinct shark called Listracanthus. Sadly, the one good body fossil that has ever been located crumbled to dust not long before it was found. Supposedly the paleontologist who saw this specimen was able to write down a description, but didn’t get the chance to take pictures. He described an eel-like animal covered in those strange denticles. Here’s the wrinkle in the story, though. Similar denticles have been found associated with another early shark, but with an entirely different body plan. So, we don’t know exactly what Listracanthus looked like, but it’s a safe bet it was a strange critter. Hopefully a good, complete specimen eventually turns up. I’ve got two Listracanthus specimens in my museum, one a single denticle, and the other a massive plate that has several dozen. Here is how artist Ray Troll envisioned Listracanthus. It’s the eel-looking one.

The person who sold me the plate said there might be more inside. It’s shale, and decently foliated, and I’ve located a spot that is already partially split. Do I dare try to open it up? I might at some point, but I’d be scared that I would fracture it beyond repair. But hey, no risk, no reward, right? Worst case scenario, it breaks. Middle ground, the plate’s fine, but nothing’s inside. Best case is that I have a partial or full Listracanthus staring me in the face, which means I will be taking a load of photos immediately and sending them to the Field Museum. 

Hilary

Well that was enlightening.

I changed doctors, this time to one who specializes in migraines. They have gotten much worse in the past couple months, including me getting two weather-induced ones. That’s never happened before, so it was a touch concerning. Also, my current medication isn’t working as well as it used to. I’m not sure if I’m getting multiple headaches, or just one long one that is outlasting the pill. I’m already at the maximum dose, and I already experienced an accidental overdose of that medication once before. It almost caused a collapse, and I’m glad a couple of my students were right next to me and able to steady me against a lab bench. Not fun. 

The first order of business is to keep a headache journal, so I can pinpoint any triggers besides the ones I already know (hormones and bright fluorescent lighting). Second, my meds are being switched! No more sumatriptan! The doctor said that medication was a miracle drug when it first came out, but now there are more targeted therapies that work better with few side effects. Don’t get me wrong…the sumatriptan kicked the pain, but some of the side effects were almost as bad as the headache. The new one targets the specific nerve that misbehaves during a migraine and calms it down. From a research and medical standpoint, it is so cool how much migraine treatment has advanced. As anyone who has these delights…they can and will wreck your day. 

Here’s the real freaky part. My doctor thinks there is a possibility that my migraines might be related to the car wreck that I was in. In 2008. Yes, you saw that right. A wreck from about eighteen years ago could be causing issues today. I did have whiplash (though being T-boned, spun, and flipped by someone going 60 mph will generally do that), but little other physical damage. My doctor asked if an MRI was done, and while I did have some kind of scan that day, I don’t think it was an MRI. 

So guess who’s getting an MRI in a couple of weeks? This author! My doctor said he orders one for all of his migraine patients as a rule, but this will also let him see if I do have lingering damage from the car wreck, or any other problems like closed off sinuses. It will be an experience…I’ve never had one, and the Anatomy teacher in me is curious as to what they are like. He also recommended some PT to address the tension in my neck and shoulders. Gee…why would I have tension? It’s not like my job is stressful.

Oh.

Wait.

Never mind.

Hilary

It’s dang near midnight (and will be past that by the time I finish this). Time for a spooky story!

My dad and I are history nerds. Battlefields are the go-to vacation for us, especially American Civil War. I know…weird for a lady. One vacation that I took with a friend, we stopped at the Kernstown battlefield site. It’s not big, and not one of the larger engagements of the war (though nearby Winchester, VA is definitely worth a visit), but the volunteers there are top notch. One of them approached my friend and asked if he had any questions about the battle, and he actually directed them to me, saying I was the historian of the pair. From the look on the volunteers’ faces, they were not expecting a twenty-one year old blonde college student to be asking the questions. I guess it’s more of a guy thing, but they were impressed. I then dropped a couple hundred at a nearby bookstore (hey, cut me a break…I’m a librarian’s daughter).

Anyhow…

Gettysburg is a must-stop on these trips, and the last one I took out there with my father was no exception. I had just finished my first year of college, and didn’t do summer school that year. My dad and I went all over PA and VA, and MD for good measure. The hotel in Gettysburg where we stayed was literally right in the middle of the battlefield for the first day’s engagement. Sadly, that hotel is now gone, but it was really neat to walk out my door and see where General Buford’s cavalry hunkered down, or where the highest ranking casualty of the whole war sustained the wound that killed him. Yes, like I said, the hotel was IN the battlefield. 

Now, Gettysburg has a reputation for being haunted. It is. Full stop.  A given area of ground can’t catch that many bodies and not end up harboring a few spirits. I experience something. I want to preface this by saying I have never been frightened there. I’m sure there are some less-than-pleasant customers out there, but I’ve not run into them yet. Frankly, I’m more scared of the ticks than the ghosts. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few who won’t go out of their way to make one uncomfortable. Case in point…

I made my first trip to Gettysburg with my parents when I was in middle school. There was one spot where I was unnerved, and it was right by the Reynolds Monument. For those who have never been to the battlefield, the monument itself is on a small, manmade mound, and is maybe a twenty or thirty feet from the tree line. This is the spot where Major General John Reynolds was hit by a sniper, and died shortly after. Being from a military family on both sides, I am never going to be the one to show disrespect to a war monument of any kind. Mainly out of respect, partly because my parents would have kicked my butt ten different ways if I even considered the notion.  I’m facing the monument with my back to the trees, and I feel something come up behind me. I also picked up on a bristling hostility, like somebody really, REALLY didn’t want me there. The temperature also dropped a solid twenty degrees, and with how hot PA summers tend to get, it’s noticeable when this occurs. I walked away from the monument, and the feeling dropped off when I was about twenty feet away. 

Creepy, right?

Fast forward to the trip with my dad. I’m now nineteen, though I don’t look a whole lot different than I did at thirteen, except being taller and losing the coke-bottle glasses. Went by the Reynolds monument again. Same thing over again. Temperature drops, and I feel like something is rushing up behind me, same feeling of hostility. Nineteen year old me is having none of it. I whirled around and said something to the effect of ‘dude, I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m not hurting anything. Chill out.’ The feeling receded, and the temperature went back up. Here was the weird bit…I got a flash of something in my brain, maybe a fraction of a second. I saw a kid (not me) with some kind of object chipping at the monument. 

That night, I went out at twilight to the road across from the monument. My dad was about fifty feet away from me, and I was looking up at one of the trees. Then I hear footsteps walking up to me on the gravel. Spoiler alert…there’s nobody out there but me and my dad. The steps stopped a few feet from me, but there wasn’t the feeling of hostility from earlier. My gut told me this was the same person. I greeted him (that’s one thing I usually do…treat spirit like people, and politely, unless the give me a hell of a compelling reason not to), and asked if he needed anything. No response, not that I expected any, but the vibe was very relaxed. I went off a few minutes later. I don’t know if that more restrained approach was this individual’s way of apologizing, but that’s how I took it. 

We took another trip a few years later, only this time it was me and my husband. Same spot, same feeling. This time, however, no hostility. If I had to guess, maybe he recognized me? I didn’t look very different from when I was nineteen, and I made a point to say hello when I got to the monument. I think we’re good now. It just took over a decade.

So, what is going on with this spirit? I don’t have anything concrete, but I can make a few educated guesses. I’m going to assume he was Union Army, based on how protective he is of the memorial to a Union general. Maybe he was part of Reynolds’ corp. From observations of other families each time I’m at the battlefield, teenagers don’t seem to like being between the monument and the tree line. From that little flicker of insight I had, my assumption would be that a teenager, or perhaps multiple teenagers, at some point either attempted to vandalize the monument, or succeeded. I’m thinking that this spirit really doesn’t like teenagers, probably from that association. One of the park guides said that vandalism unfortunately does happen, though it’s usually caught quickly. No idea when the desecration event I was shown happened, but I don’t think it was super recent even at that time. All I could tell was that it was a boy and his back was to me. 

We might take a trip out there in a couple years, once the kids are older. So, person guarding the Reynolds monument, be on the lookout for me, and try not to freak out my kids, okay? I’ll make sure neither of them do anything naughty. Peace out until then.

Hilary

Yes, the conference was amazing. Yes, I am still exhausted. Two agents asked for partial manuscripts for Queen’s Night, so we shall see where that goes. I’ve still met my goal of being traditionally published, so this would just be icing on the cupcake.

I also posted a video on the main Melusine’s Endgame page. It’s mainly me poking around with Canva, but I’d say it looks pretty good. It’s just a list of all the books in the series, but I was able to play around with images, color, and font.

On a more amusing note, I love toying with scammers. They infest most of the writing and author groups on Facebook (though some groups are better than others about policing). The fishing posts are pretty easy to spot. Lots of broken English, and they usually start with some generic opening like ‘what’s the hardest thing about writing’ or something like that. Respond, and one of two things will happen. Some will ask you to friend and DM them. Others go straight to messaging you. Nearly all of these people are selling marketing and book trailer/website creation services of some kind. All of them are crap. I’ve had a bunch lately who show me screenshots of some little test they run on my website so they can say ‘it’s not optimized…I can optimize it for *some amount of money.* Yeah, sorry sweetie, I can do that myself. It’s not hard. 

But dang, are they persistent. I’ve had a few become downright threatening. You know, saying things like it will be my fault my book didn’t sell because I didn’t hire them. It would be funny if I didn’t know how many people get scammed by these jerks. They prey on those so desperate to be called authors that they don’t think to research who they are talking to and what they really need. Chatting with them for more than a couple minutes reveals that English is not their first language. Some of them even offer to edit my books. Okay, first of all…your English isn’t great, which means you will either do a poor job, or use some AI program to edit, and then charge me for that service. No thanks.

The books trailers they show are…trash. Some are even stolen from other places, or not authorized. When I run across those, I contact the real author and ask if they knew about the trailer. Most of the time, the answer is no. One I was shown was legit, but it was so bad that the original author accepted my offer to make a new one for her, free of charge (I can use the practice on Canva).  Another one was not even about the book it claimed to be advertising…I contacted that author too…boy was he mad. I’ve had a bunch demand that I send them my trailers so they can ‘compare’ them with ones they made. Pro tip: don’t do that. That’s an excellent way to get your trailer stolen and used by these folks who will say they are their own. 

I’ve been able to get some of them to lose interest by telling them I am traditionally publishing, and there is nothing they can do that my publisher and I can’t do for free. It looks like these types mainly prey on those who self-publish and don’t know any better. Very predatory, but luckily they all follow a similar script. Sometime this week, I will transcribe a particularly amusing multi-day interaction I had with one of these scammers, ‘Grace Williams.’ This chat started pretty standard, then escalated to the point of ‘Grace’ showing me profiles of famous authors who used her services. Long story short, I contacted the agencies of both of the authors in question, and they confirmed the profiles were fraudulent. When confronted with this information, ‘Grace’ first tried to call (yes, call) me, then block me. 

Funny thing…ever since this interaction, I haven’t gotten any DMs from scammers. To me, this means one of two things. Either word is out about me and that I will troll these people for my own deranged amusement, or there are actually a comparatively small number of these types and they just have multiple profiles. I’m not sure which is more plausible.

Hilary

Guess who’s writing this from the Warwick-Allerton Hotel in Chicago? This girl!

After the couple of weeks I had, this conference will be a well-earned break. The students have been off the chain in anticipation of Spring Break, the greyhounds are nuttier than usual (and given that Jonah is a walking psychotic event, that’s saying something), and my younger child decided it would be a fine idea to swallow a Band-Aid last week. He’s fine. It came out the traditional way. I can’t say the same for my sanity. In his defense, he is only fourteen months old. 

Since the Let’s Just Write Conference doesn’t start until about 6pm today, I spent the day at the Field Museum. Yeah, my Facebook and Threads are getting a workout.  The Chicago Archaeopteryx was amazing! Sue was her usual awesome self, and I got to have breakfast and lunch right under Maximo the Patagotitan’s rear end. I’d say it was a most excellent start to the day. 

On to the actual conference!

Hilary

One week until Spring Break. Just one more week. We’ve got this.

I’ve only got a couple more days before I drive up to Chicago for the Let’s Just Write! Conference.  This will be the biggest conference I’ve gone to, and I’m excited and nervous. It will be nice to go back to Chicago for a bit, and yes, I am going the the Field Museum to see the Archaeopteryx. I do have a cast of the Berlin Archaeopteryx in my museum, but it’s going to be that much cooler to see a real one. Fitting, as there is an Archaeopteryx in Melusine’s Endgame. 

A lot of research went into that character. I looked up everything from best guesses about appearance to behavior to flight ability. From a distance, an Archaeopteryx could have been mistaken for a raven or large crow, though with a much longer tail. Based on fossilized pigments found in feather impressions, Archaeopteryx was likely either mostly black or completely black, with iridescent flashes. Sadly, the feathers of the head of the specimen in question weren’t preserved, so it can’t be said for certain what the color of the uppermost body was. 

Behaviorally, Archaeopteryx would have been active in short spurts through the day  and evening. This is based on its eye structure. In that sense, they would act a lot like modern birds, with burst of activity followed by an extended period of chilling out. Most of the activity would be hunting, as this critter was a predator, though a smaller one for its ecosystem. Its home would have been islands and archipelagos, and may have hunted in the shallow, tidal waters. All of the Archaeopteryx specimens have been recovered from what was once watery sediments (which is ideal for preservation). 

For flight, Archaeopteryx would have been capable of flying, though it wouldn’t have moved with the ease and grace of most modern birds. Its wing structure, as well as its torso, indicate it would have flown similarly to how a pheasant does. So, capable of powered flight, but a touch on the awkward side. That said, if Archaeopteryx was sticking to the trees and just going from trunk to trunk or branch to branch, it wouldn’t have needed to be super competent, just functional. Now, climbing would have been a different story. A close look at the feet of Archaeopteryx reveals a sickle claw on the second toe similar to that of a dromaeosaur (raptor), revealing that relationship. 

I did have to get creative with vocalization. Since that is soft tissue, it doesn’t tend to fossilize (though some mosasaur soft tissue bits have been preserved, and those are pretty wild). I chose to make Petrie the Irate Archaeopteryx capable of vocalizations similar to a parrot, meaning he would use a syrinx. If you watch a parrot ‘talk,’ you will see that they aren’t moving their mouths. They are generating their voice from the syrinx, and organ in the neck. Petrie will ‘talk,’ and though his vocabulary is limited, he is more than capable of communicating his needs. My main character, Natalie, suspects (correctly) that Petrie is male based on his behavior toward other males (aggression) versus females (affectionate). 

Luckily, even if Petrie does nail you, he can’t do much damage.  He’s two pounds on his best day, and has tiny teeth. The claws on his feet, however…best avoid those.

Hilary

Why yes, I’m a nervous wreck. Why do you ask?

It’s totally not because I’m pitching Shattered to an agent in two weeks. Not at all.

Yeah, I am so lying. 

On a happier note, I’ve decided to branch out and support other artists! Aside from the whole ‘bracelet with every book complete’ thing, I’m also trying to commission some of the critters. Right now, I’m in an awesome collaboration with a crochet artist to make Moonfire, a baby wyvern. We finally settled on the color scheme, and Moonfire is going to look fantastic! I wish I had that level of talent with yarn. I can straight crochet and make a blanket or a scarf, but that’s about it. Moonfire won’t show up until later in the Melusine’s Endgame series, but I saw this person’s work, and had to get in on it. She has even expressed interest in taking a stab at Petrie the Irate Archaeopteryx! 

The school year is starting to wind down. We are in the last week of 3rd quarter, and after that, let’s just say 8 weeks will fly by. If you’re in education in any way, you know that there tends to be so much crammed into 4th quarter that it seems like everything is spinning (which is weird, because 3rd quarter is usually an almighty slog). MAP testing, end-of-year trips, 8th grade graduation for me, Spring Break, all of that in the next few weeks. Oh, and I have to finish two more units in that time. May or may not happen…I’m not so sure there’s enough days in the rest of the year for that to work. At least the last unit is Evolution and Common Ancestry, which is totally my wheelhouse as an amateur paleontologist. 

I will admit, the end of the year is shaping up to be strange. Renovations have started in the building (yes, even while students are still in session), and the changes are already drastic. Tiles being taken up, lockers removed, displays gone…all this in the past couple of days. The halls are going to look mighty strange in the next couple of weeks. I get where it’s going, and I do think it will look amazing in the end, but it’s a bit of a culture shock right now. 

Now to work on Moonstone Wish. I broke 50k words last night! I’m a little over halfway done!

Hilary