In a land of oppression where light is stone cold blindness and snow and ice claw all form of resistance to pieces, darkness is waiting to arise, rage bubbling from the embers of the earth to meet its fire embrace.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest and including direct citations from the play, My heart is The Tempest is a dark reimagining of witch Sycorax, here portrayed as a 12-year old olive-skinned, black-haired human girl trapped in a land of cruel insect-like creatures who worship light and snow loathing everything deviating from their personal truth ̶ including her, deemed to be a threat to their infallible world. After unconsciously awakening her grandmother Miranda to life, Sycorax slowly comes to realize that the land she has always yearned for actually existed in the past, before being erased from everybody’s memory. Now, thanks to Miranda’s help, Sycorax can make that land erupt again, but she will have to learn how to welcome darkness first.

With an accessible but richly visual and lyrical style, My heart is The Tempest is a dark tale of self-discovery focusing on an anti-heroine figure learning how to face a world of light made of terror and violence and embracing her hidden powers thus becoming a conscious instrument of darkness. The novella is also meant to be the first of a dark fantasy trilogy, each volume representing a different stage of life, from teenage years (Volume One) to adulthood (Volume Two) and old age (Volume Three), focusing on the themes of rage, vengeance, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Sacha Rosel

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