Spiritually Awakened

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About the author

Simon Skiles

My job used to be GIS Planner for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. In October 2017, I decided to leave that life behind to focus on other pursuits, one of which is writing.

I was born in Pasadena, California in 1973, and like most boys, I cared not one whit about unicorns. To me, they were the stuff of children, and more specifically, girls. They were fluffy and pink and dumb. I was your typical teenage boy with a much greater interest in dragons. Dragons were cool with their fire and scales and general destructive nature. Well, all that would change one August day in 1989.

I was visiting my uncle's house in Glendora, California when my cousin showed me a set of postcards. These postcards were reproductions of unicorn artwork painted by Andy Mack. We spent part of that summer day laughing about the ridiculousness of these illustrations. I went to sleep thinking nothing more about them. But the next morning I found myself unable to think of anything else. I looked through them again (alone because I didn't want my cousin to see) and there were two that grabbed my attention.

The first was a white unicorn who was inside Stonehenge. Four blue crystals protruded from the ground, and from those crystals were four blue energy "ropes" that had captured the unicorn. The unicorn was rearing and the rope around her neck had broken, but the other three remained fast around her legs. The light of the ropes made her appear blue except for her mane and tail. I could see the fear in her eyes and a strange feeling came over me. I looked at the back of the card and it said "Broken Enchantment."

The second card was a black unicorn with red eyes. He was in mid-gallop across a flat desert. It was night, the ground was interlaced with glowing, red cracks like those formed in a dry lake bed, and there was a mountain range in the far distance behind him. Sparks streamed from his horn and hoofs. Somehow, I felt he was trying to save the unicorn in Stonehenge who was his mate. I looked at the back of this card and it said "Avenger."

After that day, scenes with these two unicorns started to play out in my mind, and I even dreamed about unicorns. A few months later, I put pen to paper for the first time and began a journey which would lead me to what you see now: six novels, with a seventh on the way.

The adventure continues...