About “June”. Je suis Juniper.

When I was still just deciphering what word best described the sadness I felt, I started a blog resulting in ‘Vela June‘. At the same time, I started using ‘June’ as a pen name. Taken from the site name, at the time it made sense to don the name “June”. It made it easier to promote and remember.

The significance of the name does have meaning and became the basis for the creation of ‘June Sketches’ three and a half years later.

All things considered, June has stuck with me as if it truly was the name I was born with. Back then, June filled the bits about me that I was afraid existed. Today, June is me.

Why ‘June’ Sketches?

When I was in high school, I read this manhwa, Girl Queen, where the main character’s name was June. I wanted to emulate that which I thought was beautiful and aesthetically pleasing.

So, I created a character named June and based her off of me while styling her like the manhwa.

The basis of her story was about a girl who gets taken into a different world— Isekai.

Isekai (Japanese: 異世界, transl. “different world”) is the portal fantasy sub-genre of Japanese light novels, manga, anime, and video games. Isekai works revolve around a normal person from Earth being transported to, reborn, or trapped in a parallel universe, usually a fantasy world.

I kept bits of ideas from that story and scrapped the connective tissues and so, Juniper Vela Black was then born. Her story is based on the Harry Potter Series as an Alternate-Universe Timeline.

Interested in seeing her initial ‘design’? Check out: Cover of my fanfiction by SpiceMeUp @ Wattpad: The Tale of Juniper

Yes, fan fiction.

About the origins of Juniper Vela Black.

I started reading Harry Potter at a time when my life was just going no where, and I couldn’t talk to anyone. The series became a refuge for me. And along the way, I accepted that I had become a part of the fandom: Potterheads.

I started writing stories based on the characters original to the beloved series.

When writing became more prominent in my life, I started tackling the story of four siblings (based on me and my own siblings) who get sucked (Isekai) into this time portal that land them or more accurately worded, hurled them from the ceiling of the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

The story is about a girl’s death and how that came to be her chosen fate.

I was writing this during a time when I was still so heavily influenced by my depression and loneliness. As a result it reflected heavily on my writing.

Juniper Vela Black had a seemingly balanced hold on life, but the loneliness gnawed at her where silence dwell. Despite it, she was forced to carve out a path where none existed, she sought to be the solution of not only her own problems.

The name ‘Vela’ originated from her as well. Plus, my blog ‘vela june’ came to life as I continued to write her story in the empty library of the art school I ended up dropping out of. However, that’s a whole different story not for this time.

I have since used these same emotions to write my first novel: Listening to Georgiana.