THE ADVENTURES OF MAYANA by David Perry (Belize)

The Adventures of Mayana: Falling off the Edge of the Earth is the story of a 17-year Belizean girl named Mayana who finds herself on an adventure in a fantasyland of magic, monsters, and intrigue. She crosses over from her homeland of Belize to an alternate reality where the laws of nature and science are very different from what she learned. While she attempts to find her way back to Belize, she befriends a young man named Shifu who mysteriously appears, and speaks only in parables. He helps Mayana use her new-found magic powers to fight monsters and witches and to attempt to find her way home. Shifu also helps her to discover the meaning of life, how to understand why people are the way they are, and most of all how to understand herself.

All during her journey, she relies on the recollections of conversations that she had over the years with her skeptical father who taught her that magic, miracles, gods and supernaturalism are all just hocus pocus. Mayana has to reconcile the teachings of her father with what she experiences in this new land where everything she learned is wrong.

About the Author

David Perry has worked in education for more than 30 years serving as a classroom teacher from kindergarten through adults, a Title 1 director and a school principal. As a teacher, David learned how to present material to students in a way that is comprehensible, engaging and meaningful. Learning how to put himself inside the heads of others allowed him to do this and he applied this strategy to his new book hoping that it would create a higher level of intrigue and interest in the story.

This is David’s first book and he was able to complete it when the Covid pandemic freed up some time. He had been wanting to write a book for a long time and he hopes to write a second one, perhaps Part 2 of this work.

In addition to writing, David plays the piano, cross country skis and figure skates. He and his wife love to travel and they have been all over the country, usually camping along the way.

David has a wife, a son and a four-year-old granddaughter whom he and his wife adopted as their daughter. His wife, Anaceli is from Belize, and David lived in Belize as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two and a half years. David and Anaceli go to Belize every year or two to visit family.

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The Adventures of Mayana: Falling Off the Edge of the Earth
David Perry (Belize, 1985-87)
Independently published, 2021
Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction
Target Age: High School/Young Adult
268 pages
$9.99 (Kindle)