The Wanderer: 2018

I'm pleased to announce that there will be a third narrator alongside Citlalli and Raina in the 4th Changeling Sisters Book: Yong Sun Bin!

Catch her viewpoint here (warning: major spoilers for the earlier books):

https://www.wattpad.com/651970520-year-of-the-rat-changeling-sisters-4-sneak-peek

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters #4) Second Sneak Peek - Raina

Second Sneak Peek into Year of the Rat available on Wattpad!

A country away in Japan, Raina first hears about the attack on Seoul:

https://www.wattpad.com/637386174-year-of-the-rat-changeling-sisters-4-sneak-peek

Saturday, September 8, 2018

Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters #4) First Sneak Peek!

Catch the first Sneak Peek here:

https://www.wattpad.com/story/160638185-year-of-the-rat-changeling-sisters-4

*Warning: contains MAJOR spoilers for Changeling Sisters #1 - 3!

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Thailand Travel Series: Loy Krathong at Ao Nang, Thailand

This is Part 9 of the Thailand and Cambodia Travel Series. Read Part 1 Here.

THE LOY KRATHONG FESTIVAL is well-known for how it is celebrated. In November, people across Thailand gather at the banks of rivers or the sea to set candle-lit floats adrift. Krathong refers to a piece of wood wrapped in banana leaves and flowers with a candle on top. It is a time to show respect to the water from which much of Thai agriculture and lifestyle revolves around, as well as to say goodbye to misfortune and make wishes for the coming year. Loy Krathong is based around the Lunar New Year, so the exact date it falls in November will vary each year.

One of the most exciting places to be during this time is in Northern Thailand: Chiang Mai. That is because Loy Krathong often occurs around Yi Peng, which is the famous lantern lighting event that graces many magazine covers. However, we enjoyed our time in Ao Nang as well. It was certainly quieter, but we found a hotel that taught us how to make a krathong and then we gathered on the banks of the sea to set them off. Of course with these festivals, ecological factors are a big thing to consider. Krathong options that are biodegradable (like those made out of bread) are becoming more commonplace, but avoid ones made out of Styrofoam.

Being part of Loy Krathong was a great wrap up to our journey. We had one train ride left to depart back up to Bangkok, because it was time to say goodbye to Thailand.

Upcoming Blog Post: Traveling By Train: Southern Thailand to Bangkok

Disclaimer: the above is depicted as fiction, not fact

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters IV) Cover Reveal

“Welcome to the Red Night. Scurry, scurry, little mice. Wait too long and the Lords of Walking Death shall find you…”

THE DRAGON’S PEARL has shattered in the heart of Seoul, unleashing a storm of curses great enough to drive people into a mindless zombie rage. Sensing an opportunity to crush the Were Nation’s stronghold once and for all, the Frost King Aleksandr lays siege from the north with an army out of Slavic legend. Meanwhile within the city, something more terrible still haunts the frightened civilians.

Still reeling over the shock of betrayal, Citlalli Alvarez has been separated from her half-sister Raina and her family. Now trapped inside a nightmarish Seoul and unable to make contact with the outside world, Citlalli’s werewolf pack teams up with the dragon-shifter Yong twins in a desperate last stand. As Were agencies from across the globe intervene to stop the spirit world’s secret from leaking out, Citlalli, Sun Bin, Ankor, and Vampyre Prince Khyber attempt to find the lost Dragon King, who may be the only one powerful enough to save Seoul.

Meanwhile, Raina gets drawn into Rafael’s crusade for revenge that takes them deep into the mountains of Japan to the Vampyre Court’s notorious Death Palace. However, a familiar face from Rafael’s past reemerges, and Raina is faced with a choice of how far she will go for vengeance.

As the war against the Vampyre Court engulfs the streets of Seoul, no one is safe and nothing is certain. Before the Red Night can end, the price of power must be paid.

YEAR OF THE RAT (Changeling Sisters IV) eBook expected publication: December 2018. Stay tuned for chapter sneak peeks!

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Thailand Travel Series: Ao Nang, Thailand

This is Part 8 of the Thailand and Cambodia Travel Series. Read Part 1 Here.

UPON OUR DEPARTURE FROM RAILAY BEACH, we asked our hotel front desk the night before about the ferry’s departing schedule to Ao Nang Harbor up the coast. Due to the tides, the departures happened early. We caught a longtail boat and in just about 30 minutes, we stepped off at the pier of Ao Nang.

Ao Nang is a busy coastal town in Krabi Province. By this point in our trip, we were looking forward to spending a couple days of relaxing on the beach. We also picked Ao Nang as a jump off point to Wat Tham Suea, or Tiger Cave Temple. This is a 1237 step climb up a steep cliff to a beautiful temple. There is also a main temple grounds and cave for exploration if you’re not looking for a strenuous work out! I would say allow 3-4 hours for up and down if you’re in moderate shape so you have some to enjoy the area and main grounds, too. Those in extremely good shape can probably do it in 2 hrs or less. Keep in mind the humidity and heat is intense so bring lots of water, and also to dress appropriately for the temple. Also keep in mind that there will be a spectacular view!

There is no shortage of places to stay in Ao Nang, from everything from $10 night accommodations to luxury. We stayed at Krabi Tipa Resort which was friendly and accommodating, a quick walk up the hill from the harbor (we used our phone to navigate). Open space, continental breakfast, and there was an outdoor pool which was quite nice. The TV reception was a bit fuzzy but we weren’t there to watch TV.

There are plenty of restaurants and shopping excursions as well. Shout out to Bussaba Thai Restaurant - wow this place was good! My dish came in a woven bowl of noodles, all edible, and the aesthetic quality to the drinks and eats was top notch! A bit more pricey, but worth it. Absolutely delicious. It was pretty close to Krabi Tipa Resort.

We were really impressed with the communication at one stall that sold wood carvings. My spouse stopped by and really liked a dragon candle that breathed smoke when you lit the incense candle at the bottom. Of course, he couldn’t buy it right then since he had to ask my permission! So we returned the next day, and the shopkeeper wasn’t present. We asked the vendor next door if she would be back. The vendor didn’t speak much English, but went off to a neighboring restaurant. He came back with a woman who had been working in the kitchens there. She didn’t speak much English but she whipped out a smartphone and pulled up the shopkeeper on Facetime. It turns out the shopkeeper was off doing laundry, but they all looked out for one other. She recognized my spouse and after laughing about it, we agreed on a price. We gave the money to the lady from the kitchens and departed with our dragon carving. She even gave us a discount!

We found a tourist stall to set up our Tiger Cave Temple trip. There were various brochures available to do half or full day. We did a full day which included the Temple, elephant riding, a lunch at a natural pool, and a dip in a hot springs park. Our mistake was not asking how long we would have at each place. Definitely ask! You’ll need at least 2-3 hours if you want to climb all the steps up to Tiger Cave Temple and not be in a rush. Some of them only allow 30 minutes to just walk around the main temple grounds and not go all the way up to the top. Again, keep in mind you’ll get what you pay for. There are taxis around that you could pay to go just to that destination, and there were a lot of drivers waiting in the parking lot to go back to Ao Nang. There’s also probably public bus options as well for the best deal.

On the tour, we actually had a centralized meeting point near the tourist stall where we boarded the bus. It was quite an operation. We were each given a different color sticker depending on our tour package and then divided into different groups.

The Tiger Cave Temple was so much fun. This is a sacred Buddhist temple in the northeast of Krabi Province. There are tiger paw prints in the cave in the cliffs. We didn’t have much time to explore the main grounds because we wanted to do all 1237 steps to the very top. Come prepared in good hiking shoes and again, can’t stress the water and sun screen enough! Bug spray too, since the majority of this tour is in a jungle. The stairs can be stall and it’s steep, back and forth in short zig-zags up a cliff. Monkeys will be watching you closely – one innocently allowed a group of weary hikers to pass and then made a swipe for one of their hats, so keep your stuff close whenever you pass them!

The view is just breathtaking. There is a large golden Buddha statue and dramatic, plunging views of the nearby valley. There were many other shrines as well and small but intricate carvings that are exciting to explore. We really enjoyed this. Getting back down took half the time, but our legs certainly felt like rubber after! Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to explore the rest of the grounds because we were on a time crunch for our tour. To be honest, having 3 hours here would have been best to really explore/do the steps and not feel so rushed.

We visited Krabi Emerald Pool (Sa Morakot) after where we had a nice stew lunch. There was a boardwalk that led you through the jungle to the Emerald Pool, which quite lives up to its name. The waters were crowded with visitors but everyone was spaced out enough. There were also little fish darting in and around the pool. I really liked the boardwalk through all the mangrove trees and seeing the jungle and birds. It’s quite a unique environment than our colder climate.

The last spot was a stop at a local hot spring park. It was pretty cool, after a short 10 minute walk, we passed by a number of different hot springs. One was more family friendly near a playground, and another natural hot springs with copper deposits overlooked a river. And that water was truly a real hot springs – the temperature was blazing!

Once we returned back, we couldn’t rest too long. Loy Krathong, the Festival of Lights, was the following evening.

Upcoming Blog Post: Loy Krathong

Disclaimer: The above is depicted as fiction not fact.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Thailand Travel Series: Railay Beach, Thailand

This is Part 7 of the Thailand and Cambodia Travel Series. Read Part 1 Here.

TRULY THIS IS A SPECIAL PLACE. Memorable for all the right reasons. Every vacationer’s dream. Railay Beach is only accessible by boat. It is a peninsula cut off from Ao Nang by dramatic limestone cliffs and surrounded by a sapphire Andaman Sea.

On the ferry ride over, I realized that every single face on board was a foreigner. No locals going here. We journeyed over from Phuket. Our same tour agency stall we’d gone to for setting up our Phrang Nga Bay trip and our Deep Sea Fishing trip helped us out here as well. We stopped by them two nights before to say we needed help getting from Kamala Beach to Rassada Pier and purchasing two ferry tickets down to Railay Beach. They hooked us up – after a few quick conversations on the phone, they handed us an envelope with our agenda: we’d receive a hotel pick up in a mini van that was making the rounds with the other northern beach hotels and then drop off at the southern Rassada Pier.

I had debated quite a while how to get the ferry tickets. There were some online options that I was unsure if those tickets would be honored, but at the end of the day, I’m glad we went with the local tourist agency. (These booths will be a dime a dozen.) Never hurts to let them know that you intend to purchase multiple tickets, too – that typically always results in a price discount. The van picked us up and dropped us straight where we needed to go. An operation was in place to herd all of the varying tourists onto the ferry to go to their respective destinations. They even gave us different colored stickers to mark what destination group we belonged to. This ferry would cross the bay and have a stop at Ao Nang, the neighboring city to Railay, and then divert the Railay Beach folks onto longtail boat for their drop off.

The ferry ride worked well. They had us stack our luggage up top which left me wrestling with my paranoia to leave any suitcases unattended, but I hugged my backpack tight to me inside the cabin. I was also the first one to zip up there once we reached Ao Nang, but our luggage was untouched.

After the Ao Nang group transferred to their longboats to drop them off in the harbor, the Railay Beach party was directed to ours. We left the busy ferry drop off pier behind and soared across crystal blue waves. Stunning limestone sea stacks came into view, and everyone fell silent staring. White sand beaches peeked from around the skirts of vermilion cliffs and iridescent emerald jungle. Unusually shaped peaks, like Chicken Island, speared up from the spitting sea spray. We had come to Railay Beach.

The longtail boat spluttered up as close as it could to the beach. They only leave a couple times a day depending on the tides. We jumped into the water (wear shorts and sandals you don’t mind getting wet and pack light!), held our luggage above our heads, and trekked up one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen. Coastline resorts greeted us upon arrival.

There is a limited number of accommodations in Railay so book early, far ahead of time. We originally tried to stay at Tonsai Bay Resort which is on the isolated Tonsai Bay next door to Railay Beach. It offers bungalow style housing up to lavish accommodations and some of the most memorable rock climbing overlooking the sea that you can hope to come across. However, that was booked up at least 6 months before when we tried to book it. We booked Railay Bay Resort and Spa which was pricier but met every one of our expectations. It is directly on Railay Beach. It is near Rayavadee, which the most luxurious upscale resort spilling out onto its own beach near Princess Cave with infinity pools and what have you. There was also Sand Sea Resort next to us which seemed to be a better price wise option. There also looked to be some smaller bungalows and bed and breakfast locations in the jungle and on the western side of the island, so I would advise shop around, but shop early to find yourself a spot here, because it will get booked.

Railay Bay Resort and Spa is literally right at the longtail boat drop off spot. We actually wandered around it for a while before realizing that yes, we were in our hotel – it is a very expansive resort. From there, we found the check in office on the western side of the beach. Our room was wonderful and had its own bath tub and shower, which was a luxury. There were also more friendly cats wandering around, happy to jump up on the porch and meow until you gave them attention.

The restaurant was right on the beach. We wandered past a large inland swimming pool, a convenience store, and an excursion booth to get there. There was a second beachside pool with a bar, and a giant inflatable pink flamingo that was fun to float around on. The beach was absolutely beautiful. Really watch the tides to know when to swim and when to explore the sea caves that get exposed once the tide pulls out enough. There is also a steep clifftop jungle trek you can do up to a viewpoint at the far west end of the beach but keep in mind the signs warning to be down before sunset to avoid injury.

Wandering toward the east, we came to a trail that took us inland to a thriving tourist village. There were tons of thatch roof cottages and shopfronts, plenty of tour agency booths that are a better deal to book trips from then the ones on the resort, and many delicious restaurants and food stalls. Bob Marley was also a big presence in this tucked away jungle village. It was extremely fun to wander through there and grab a snack of pancake slathered in chocolate sauce, as well as feast on some delicious curry for dinner. I tried a Thai cashew chicken dish which was spicy but soo good. We wandered until we needed boots to go much further; the road veered off into a series of dirt paths. Some of them intersect to the west side of the island, where there are some low key bungalows and a Muay Thai boxing ring set up. There was a fight going on that night, and the bar scene comes alive then as well. Not only people-watching can be done here – we also spotted a rare slow loris clambering its way slowly and ponderously along a wire once night fell. Monkeys chatter in the trees, and we spotted a few dusky langurs hanging around our hotel. There were also a few giant birds, which I think were some kind of hornbill.

We had planned to go to Koh Phi Phi on a snorkeling day trip from Railay Beach. However, at this point in our trip, we were a bit tired of the constant travel and a bit leery since we’d heard Koh Phi Phi is tourist central. As such, we decided to just rent a sea kayak from some folks on the beach (equivalent of about $11 US for the day) and set out to explore the sea stacks.

This was by far the best decision we could have made. The sea kayaking was so much fun. It was just us, the ocean, and tons of small islands to explore. We kept close to the shorelines and didn’t encounter problems with the currents. We first paddled out through some sea caves and arches to land at the Princess Cave beach, where we explored the cave and snorkeled. There were longtail boats docked here offering yummy mango sticky rice and an assortment of other goodies for a snack.

Then we set out in our kayak again and circled all the way to the west side of the island, where there were lots of mangrove trees and monkeys chattering. There were neat lone trees that appeared to be growing up out of the ocean itself. Then we circled back and paddled all the way out to Ton Sai Beach. There were plenty of seabirds nesting in the cliffs. There was also some neat rock climbing spots – one was a tight rope walk over the ocean. The other was a rock climb up a sheer face with nothing but the sea below. We spotted some rock climbers and pulled into Ton Sai to watch.

At this point, as we were journeying back in open ocean, it began to downpour. It was a tremendous, dramatic storm with the violet clouds splashed against the sapphire blue depths that turned black as the gale moved in. We began to paddle like mad to make it back to our beach. I spotted two boys spring up from out of nowhere on the mudflats of Ton Sai, they made thin shadows as the rain and winds howled. Our kayak was fast filling up with water but it was certainly a sturdy boat – we made it back in time and ran up onto the beach with it. The locals we had rented the kayak from were surprised to see us – they had taken cover under a nearby building. We returned the kayak to them and ran back to our hotel room to take a nice warm bath.

This was such a memorable moment. The rest of our time at Railay we were safe sunbathing, but this is a very dramatic and unforgettable place to visit. It has something for everyone whether it’s sea kayaking, rock climbing, or if you prefer to do a tour out to one of the neighboring islands to snorkel, and the atmosphere is very village-oriented and you feel as if you’re secretly hidden away from the world. We had a really great time here.

You can ask your hotel for help or a local agency, but longtail boats will come at certain times to pick up those departing from Railay Beach to head back for the mainland. For us, we departed pretty early in the morning to head over to Ao Nang Town, where we would be during the Loy Krathong Festival.

Upcoming Blog Post: Ao Nang and Loy Krathong

The above is depicted as fiction, not fact.

The Wanderer

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Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters #4) Published!

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Countdown to publication begins! Year of the Rat Coming Dec 2018 - Read the Final Sneak Peek on Wattpad!

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters #4) - 3rd Sneak Peek!