Catching Pathways: The Five Realms, Book One

A crown is always heavy, or it is not a crown.

It has been fifteen years since Maeve Almeida stood beneath the twin suns and foreign moon of The Five Realms, and she believes she has left magic and adventure far behind her. On Earth, though she publishes the truth of her teenage life in the guise of fiction, she misses the place she once thought of as home.

Rodan, deposed Fae king of the Realms, has been searching. Walking from one world to another, he knows that someday he will find her: the woman who cost him his crown and his empire. When he does, it is not revenge he seeks but her aid in running the official trials.

Sebastian Sekou, the new High King and Maeve’s old friend, has committed atrocities during his rule. The Realms, never safe, are more chaotic than ever. Whisper and rumor say that the High King no longer has a grasp on his territories, or his sanity. Maeve and Rodan must work together to fix what has been broken.

As the two travel together, they find that their connection—first felt on a night fifteen years previous—may be even stronger than they could have imagined.

Catching Embers: The Five Realms, Book Two

“Time is not on our side.”

Maeve has run to Earth, locking the pathways behind her so that Rodan may not follow. Alone and awash with new power, she struggles to control the new magics coursing within her, but she may not be as isolated as she believes.

Rodan must complete the trials, or lose the Realms forever, but without Maeve he is adrift. Filling the power vacuum in Visantium left by the Basu family, he waits in hopes that she returns to him. The Realms need a true ruler as they continue to be beset by shadows from Attica and the ongoing reign of Sebastian the mad king.

Yet there is more at stake than just one empire. Much hangs in the balance, as Maeve and Rodan influence the course of history on worlds beyond counting.

They are rapidly running out of time…

The sequel to Catching Pathways, Catching Embers is the next step in the ongoing Five Realms series.

Listen, I hate writing these things.

I just do.

I write all day. All damn day, every day, since my psych medication cocktail became a near-perfect blend in April 2019. But writing an, ‘About Me’? Makes me want to gag.

Part of what I write are journal entries, but to be honest, the thoughts that rattle around in this brain aren’t what I would consider fit for public consumption. In fact, that will be the name of my memoir if I ever deign to write it: “Not for Public Consumption.”

Yet, I would like you to know me.

You, my audience, my readers, my patrons.

I am writing this on August 24, 2021. I might change it, and soon.

I often do. If you follow me at all, you know this about me.

So, hello. My name is Danielle Berggren. I’m… very human.

I have PTSD, ADHD (AKA, I am a neurodivergent), MDD, and GAD. An alphabet soup of psychiatric conditions.

I turned to writing and to artwork, to shelter and soothe and work out demons when I was younger. It turned into something that I became quite good at, and eventually it bloomed into me being playful and creative with just about anything. Photography, graphic arts, needlework, typography, etc.

I attended college, and though I have enough units under my belt for a four-year degree, it’s such a mix of different subjects that I can’t even scrape together an Associate’s.

I’ve also been married twice, divorced twice, lived in 33 different homes, and feel like the gods of chaos and mischief are quite intent on my fate string. I’ve been through, well… a great deal.

Most of all, I just want you—the lost and the lonely—to know that you’re not unseen. Not so long as we have this method of communication.

With that in mind, sign up for my newsletter. It’s just getting off the ground, but it’s where I’ll do the most communication with you, specifically, moving forward.

Much love. xoxo