Alex’s life turns upside-down when she’s kidnapped by the Rock Elves. What do they plan to do with her? And who betrayed her?
Title: Ten Gold Coins: Book Two of The Golden Harvest Series
Author: Joni Parker
Publication Date: March 3, 2024
Pages: 354
Genre: Fantasy/Scifi
Lady Alexin (Alex), the Keeper of the Keys for the Elfin Council of Elders, returns home to Eledon to help her grandmother clean out the warehouse, but she’s kidnapped and forced to use the magical Keys of Eledon in a series of life-or-death missions with consequences that span across the realms. Her captor, Lord Fissure of the Rock Elves, demands her magical help, but once he’s done with her, he turns her over to the Marsh Elf Sawgrass, a criminal, who sends her into the treacherous depths of Hades’ kingdom in the Underworld for his own benefit. To save herself, Alex calls upon the powers of Poseidon, but he enlists her help with the Golden Harvest for Olympus before the Mentors arrive. His brothers, Zeus and Hades, are the only ones who know where the gold is stored, so Alex follows their trail into the mortal world, only to find they aren’t ready to return. What must she do to get them back to Olympus so she can return home to Eledon?
You can pick up your copy at Amazon at https://amazon.com/dp/B0CW1GJDPH .
Book Excerpt:
Cleaning out the warehouse wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for my vacation, but my grandmother thought it was a great idea. Several years ago, my grandparent’s house in the Elf city of Meridian had burned down, but the contents in the basement had been spared and moved to a local warehouse. No one knew how the fire started, but I suspected arson, especially after someone reported seeing a group of Rock Elves nearby.
The Rock Elves had this vendetta against me—I guess because I had one against them. They had yet to provide one knot of actual gold for the Golden Harvest, even though they were supposed to be the Elfin experts on mining. Go figure. They claimed they couldn’t provide any gold because they were too busy moving from Tulon on the southern continent of Sudin to Nexus Island. Come on. It wasn’t that far, and they had nearly 4,000 years to prepare for this Golden Harvest, just like the rest of us. So, I didn’t buy their excuses.
And the Mentors arrived early to collect our gold because of them and the Star Elves, after they tried to steal our stored gold. We already told the Mentors we didn’t have the full amount, but they came to stop anyone from trying something else. The Mentors’ ships showed up slowly at first, but now, there were a dozen or more in our skies every morning.
Since the Mentors didn’t need my help with this phase of the Harvest, my grandmother thought it was a perfect time to empty the warehouse. She assumed the leadership role of our inventory team. Lady Anteron, a Crystal Elf and the Antiquarian for the Council of Elders, and my grandmother would inventory the items, while I opened the boxes and moved them around. In addition, we had help from Vortex and Scala, two androids given to me for my heroic acts on the planet of Oltria. They had proven to be a godsend to my grandmother, who had trouble taking care of our house by herself. In the warehouse, they would provide whatever manual labor we needed to move our stuff around. My grandmother estimated the warehouse project would only take a week. Famous last words…
Whenever we finish, I will then have time to kick back and relax before I return to the mortal world. I really needed to decorate my new flat. I had bought it with the help of Andrew Miller, my manager, and the owner of the modeling studio I work for. I knew nothing about buying property in the mortal world, but Andrew did. He had dabbled in real estate before he got into the fashion business years ago. He even had the previous owner leave all his furniture in the flat since I didn’t have any. The only problem was the color scheme, which was white with brown and gray accents. I needed more color.
My vacation was scheduled to last three months until the end of August, which was longer than normal, because my mortal boss, Étienne, a world-famous fashion designer in Paris, and his boyfriend, Philippe, got married on June the first, followed by a long honeymoon to some tropical island I’d never heard of. To get the time off, we crammed six months of work into three after finishing the spring show in February. We stored the fashion collection in a vault, only to be opened on September first, three weeks before the fall show, but with enough time to make any necessary changes and adjustments.
On June the first, Étienne and Philippe held the largest wedding I’d ever been to. There were thousands of guests, with celebrities and non-celebrities alike in attendance, and with extensive press coverage. It was the social event of the season in Paris. The next day, the ecstatic newlyweds left for their honeymoon, while I went to my flat in London. I lived there because it was closer to the portal I used to get back home to Eledon, and I wasn’t fluent in French.
I arrived late in London on the Eurostar, the bullet train from Paris, and spent the night in my flat. Early the next morning, I jogged to Hyde Park with my travel bag and strolled over to the bushes where the portal to Eledon was hidden. After I made sure no one was around, I said the spell to make the portal appear and stepped through the glowing white arch. I closed it quickly to prevent unwanted visitors from wandering in. It happened before.
Myths and Fantasy
Greek mythology was
one of those classes I took in school and thought I’d never use. After all, the
Greek Gods weren’t real. No one could control lightning or create storms,
right? Maybe the Greeks were the first fantasy writers in history.
Or were they?
Research has shown
that many of the ancient myths and legends have a common beginning with the
gods coming to Earth from the stars. Could they have been ancient astronauts
who came to Earth, searching for a great place to live? Well, why not? Earth is
a pretty, nice planet with abundant resources. One of the more memorable
episodes of Star Trek had Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise
meet Apollo, the Greek God, on their exploration of space.
After the Romans took
over the mythology and Rome fell, the gods and goddesses were gone, replaced by
new religions and beliefs. So, what happened to them? Just as the humans forced the Elves
to leave Earth for Eledon, the gods and goddesses left Earth. The Mentors, the
Elf guides, created a place for them to live somewhere in space called Olympus.
The exterior of the globe was uninhabitable and covered with rocks, but
interior had a flat surface on which people could live. Everything inside
replicated what was on Earth, so it was as if they had never left.
Until they wanted to
go back.
In my book, Ten
Gold Coins, Zeus and Hades have returned to Earth to start new lives, even
though they weren’t allowed. Zeus had embarked on a successful political career
in Greece, while Hades was upgrading the Underworld into a theme park. It’s up
to Alex, my main character, to get them home in time for their Golden Harvest
so she can return to Eledon.
Joni Parker was born in Chicago, Illinois, but moved the Japan when she was 8, so her father could become a professional golfer. Once he achieved his dream, Joni and her family returned to the U.S. and moved to Phoenix, Arizona. After high school, Joni served her country for 22 years in the Navy and another 7 years in federal civil service. She retired and lives in Tucson, Arizona, devoting her time to writing, reading, and watching the sunrise.
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