Fallen Ruler:
For sixteen years, Lya, has lived as a normal human, until her father,
Walter, gets involved with the wrong people and puts Lya’s life at risk. During
a visit to Miami, Lya’s older sister is kidnapped, and Lya and her father are
subsequently taken hostage by Walter’s associates and forced to board a plane
to India. When the plane lands in Delhi, Lya is rescued by three monks and
taken to a Monastery. There her reality is shattered, when she learns the true
identity of her rescuers and, even more surprisingly, herself. Lya is now faced
with the toughest decision of her life. Can she live up to her ethereal destiny
and save her family?
Author bio
Eleanor T. Beaty is a Young Adult Paranormal author. A worldly person
born in beautiful Brazil and spent much of her childhood in several places
(Argentina, Switzerland, and the US to name a few). She holds a BA in English
Literature and is published in both Brazil and Turkey.
Eleanor loves spirituality and magic - both have allowed her to gain a
strong grip on life and enjoy what it has to offer. She believes that
everything has a reason and understanding those reasons help us deal with the
difficult moments. Eleanor currently enjoys life with her husband in Brazil.
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Andrea, the character vs. the inspiration.
By Eleanor T Beaty
I based Andrea, Lya’s older sister, on a childhood friend. I
did exaggerate a bit of her meanness but not too much. Her role, as a secondary
character, was meant to contrast Lya’s kindness. I intended Andrea to be
extremely dislikable, but many readers have reacted warmly towards her.
Concerned even. An unexpected reaction, but a welcome one. This childhood
friend of mine was a year older than me, and I was fascinated by her. For the
sake of this blog, I will call her Mary.
Mary was my alter ego. I was shy, she wasn’t. I never lied,
she always did and so on… that should be enough to get an idea of how opposite
we were. Even physically. I was tall and thin, she was short and curvy. What we
did have in common was; complicated parents of foreign origin, the same school
and the tendency to get into trouble. We were drawn to each and did practically
everything together through our early teens.
However, we did have a few falling-outs. I was somewhat short
tempered and Mary was a provoker. Once, when we were at summer school together,
we fought and went from best friends to worst enemies. I had a roommate I
didn’t like much and Mary knew it. She decided to befriend the so-called
roommate to annoy me and would come around to provoke.
It didn’t take much to make me lose it. My roommate and I
had split the room in half with tape and I stated Mary could never step on my
half. Until that day I had never released my wrath on Mary. She had no reason
to think I would. Mary walked in, saw the tape and put her foot on my side. I
warned her to remove it. She didn’t. I pounced on her and scratched her from
head to toe. She ran out, straight to the infirmary where she was given a
tetanus shot. Maybe she didn’t explain that the nails that scratched her were
FINGERNAILS. Seriously, who gets a tetanus shot because of fingernails?
Well there went my reputation for the rest of the summer.
Mary never challenged me again, physically, but when she could, she would put
me down verbally, or go for the guy I had a crush on. Even so I couldn’t help
but like her. She was funny and creative, had a great sense of style and got
whatever she wanted. Unfortunately, when a teen we don’t see the down side to
having our every whim fulfilled. What Mary didn’t have was a family that cared.
I didn’t have much of one either, but somehow it was more
than she had. My parents imposed more rules, I didn’t get almost anything I
wanted-even though my family was also well-off, and I got shipped off to
boarding school for three years. Summer camps filled in the gaps between school
terms. Mary went to a boarding school for one year and was allowed back. But
not me. I could beg until I was green, my parents didn’t care. I only managed
to come home in ninth grade after getting kicked out so many times, my parents
ran out of options.
During my years in boarding school, Mary started drinking,
not on the weekend or at parties, like the rest of us, but during school. She
would take orange juice and vodka with her everyday. By 15 she was an
alcoholic. Then going out with Mary to a party became a not-so-fun adventure.
Most of the time the night would end with either my sibling or I carrying an
almost unconscious Mary back to our house.
In Fallen Ruler, the scene on the stairs where Lya has to
get Andrea up to her room was based on Mary. Every time Mary would argue with
me all the way up, saying she could do it alone, until one day I got tired of
being mistreated and let go. She tumbled down the stairs. I went back down and
asked her if she was ready to try again. That was the last time she berated me.
In my bedroom I put her down on the mattress, took off her clothes and covered
her. She asked me to untie a bead necklace. For the love of God, there was no
way I could undo the knot, and she insisted I get it off. I did, with scissors.
When she woke up the next morning she saw all the purple marks on her body and
her bead necklace strewn across the floor. I told her I had no idea how any of
that had happened. If she wasn’t go to remember, why should I, right?
We slowly grew apart as her drinking got worse. So many
people tried to help her get off that path of self-destruction but she didn’t
want to change. By the age of twenty, she had such a bad reputation no one
would take her seriously, nor give her a chance, or even want to be with
her. It made me angry and sad at the
same time that a person with so much potential would choose to be a drunk. And
even though I know alcoholism is a disease, she had so many opportunities, the
friends, and money to get the treatment and help she needed, but she chose not
to. Mary died in her early fifties, leaving only the memory of a sorry drunk as
her legacy. Andrea is a tribute to Mary, and a reminder that children require
and need guidance, not things. Not luxury, not freedom but rules, well defined
rules, to be able to cope with life.
Fallen Ruler Excerpt #3
The older, gray-skinned being
Lya had seen in her dream now helped her off the soft bed. She was still
disoriented. Her head felt detached from her body, like she had been on a
rollercoaster for hours. She stared open-mouthed at the weird looking bald
being, while she allowed herself to be led. Lya had a vague memory of being
lifted from the green gel by him and the younger being. The younger one wasn’t
around now. Lya’s feet touched the ground. She wasn’t dreaming. Oh, this was
bad.
Her pain had subsided somewhat.
Lya looked around the room. It reminded her of those sci-fi movies: clean and
modern, with lots of glass. Aside from the narrow, high bed, the only other
item in the room was a ten-inch panel, with rows of light running the length of
the far wall.
She turned back to study the
gray being’s face. He was ugly. He had no hair. The thick membrane around his
eyes looked like fake eyelashes. Odd, pulsating veins covered his body.
“Who are you?” Lya’s voice
sounded like a rasp. With every word she spoke her head throbbed. “Where am I?”
“In Ray.”
Lya frowned. “Is it near Delhi?”
“A few light years away. It’s a
planet, in a parallel universe.”
His words acted like an
electrical discharge, jolting Lya awake. She was hallucinating. She knew she
was. There was no other explanation. She reached out and touched the gray
being. She felt him. Okay, hallucination was real. Her mind was distorting her
vision. That sounded plausible. Don’t freak out. Lya smiled. “Is it close to
those Streams?”
“It’s beyond that.”
The smile faded from Lya’s
lips. “You’re screwing with me, right?”
“Don’t you worry, everything
will be fine.”
Lya continued to stare at the
gray… man—she guessed he was a man—as his words echoed in her brain. They
triggered an image. She saw this same being placing her into that green tank,
saying those very same words. Or not her... Lya. Although it felt like her, and
somehow she knew it was her, but it was really the albino. The albino didn’t
want to leave. She hesitated, grabbing onto the tank’s edges, and asked what it
would be like? Would she ever come back? She turned to the older gray being and
said, “Natuc, will you bring me back?”
“Natuc?” Lya whispered.
The gray being smiled. “You
remembered. Good. Keep alert for those sudden burst of images, that’s how you
will get your memory back.”
“My memory?” Lya searched
Natuc’s face. “Please tell me this is all a mistake. A punishment for…” Lya
couldn’t think of something she should be punished for, she hadn’t done
anything all that bad to deserve being locked up in… what was this place?
“Calm down. You’re not
hallucinating, Tsaen.”
“Who?”
“Tsaen.”
“Tsaen? The albino, Tsaen? I’m
not Tsaen.” Lya bit down on her lower lip. “I’m not Tsaen….”
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