ASHLEY ANGLIN
Undiscovered
Undiscovered
Sometimes truth is stranger than folktales.
Bilingualism and plate tectonics were the only kinds of shapeshifting Arden Araujo's troubled geoscientist dad prepared her for. But it turns out, the outlandish prediction that wrecked his career–a devastating North Sea tsunami–might not be the unlikeliest truth he took to his grave.
In the 2097 tsunami's aftermath, environmental first responder Arden expects her mission in hard-hit northeast Scotland to involve the usual grunt work, maybe a little freediving if she's lucky. Instead, she stumbles upon a critically endangered species of Orkney and Shetland legend, hiding in plain sight among the refugees.
They trust that she can help restore their kind, despite storms, aftershocks, and policy decisions way beyond her pay grade. Increasingly at home on the shores of their life-giving sea, she may have found her calling; true love might not be a mere children's story either. Yet the deeper she's immersed in their tale, the less sure she feels that she's the right hero to protect the hidden treasure of their existence.
The first real novel Ashley Bevilacqua Anglin read, age 6ish, was The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Never looking back, she’s still hanging out with valiant female protagonists at the intersection of contemporary fantasy, climate fiction, and the spiritual. Her passion for storytelling led her to a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Linguistics. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in Panthology, also from Shadow Spark; in Everything Change, Vol. I (as runner-up in ASU Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative’s Climate Fiction Short Story Contest); and online in Miniskirt, Minison, Full Mood, and Tree and Stone magazines.
Ashley lives with her Jamerican family in Virginia, where she is a longtime community college professor of Italian and Spanish. You can find her on Twitter @dalyashleydrH2o, and her previous work (including other glimpses of the Undiscovered world) at https://linktr.ee/ashleyb.anglin