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Tuesday 29 June 2021

Wednesday Wanderings: Marian L Thorpe takes us to Dunadd Fort, Scotland...


visiting around and about,
wandering here and there...


Dunadd

Dunadd Hillfort: Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0
(via Wikimnedia)

About 50 kilometers south of Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, a low, rocky hill rises in a series of natural terraces. Not a very high hill: only 54 m – and yet an important hill, in both history and my life.

In the early 80s, both my husband and myself were graduate students at a university with a Scottish Studies department. We were not members of this department, but we were both interested in history, and the course Early Scottish History was offered in the evenings through Continuing Education. We signed up. The lecturer was a Scot, Ted Cowan, newly moved to Canada to teach in this department, and a born storyteller. 

One of the many stories he told was of Dunadd, the stronghold of the kings of Dál Riata, with the boar and the footprint carved into the rock. How the man who would be king had to place his foot in that print, up under the sky on the hilltop, his lands below. 

Boar carving:  Johnragla, CC BY-SA 3.0
(via Wikimedia)

In 1986, we’d saved enough money for a delayed honeymoon, and we were both defending our theses in October. A holiday beforehand seemed like a good idea. So we found a charter flight (remember those?) to Scotland and flew for the first time as a couple across the Atlantic, landing at Prestwick in the early morning. The first few days we spent visiting relations, and then we were free. 

Dunadd must have been one of the first places we went: I no longer remember. I remember parking, and climbing up the path past the white house at the base on a partly sunny and windy day. I remember the rolling fields below us, and the river. We looked at the carved boar, and the footprint, and I placed my foot in that petrosomatoglyph* (and in 1986, I think it might still have been the real one, and not the replica that is there now) and a shock of ‘what did I just do?’ ran through me.  

And at that moment, although I could not have defined it at the time, landscape and history and legend and story became something more than the sum of their parts. Ted’s stories weren’t just entertaining tales; they were rooted in this land, this hill, and these carved symbols that had been here for fifteen hundred years or longer. A kingdom that had risen, and flourished, and fallen, but was not forgotten, its marks still on the land, its traces still in blood and language and memory. 

In my fifth book, Empire’s Reckoning, young Gwenna is with her teacher Sorley, on his family’s land.

“But you still love it here.” She shook her head in frustration. “That’s not right. More than love, but I don’t know how to say it.”
“Dùthcas.” She looked up at me quizzically. “I can’t translate it,” I said. “Belonging is close. It’s as if I carry this place deep inside me, and I hear it calling to me, always.”

From that moment on the summit of Dunadd to the world of my books there is a line. Not a straight one: my fictional world has many influences, but what I write about, at its heart, is the intersection of landscape and history and story, and the way language and memory and place hold people – and those themes moved from abstract to, at some visceral level, understood, that September morning thirty-five years past. And although it’s never come up in the story, I rather think that the Teannasacha of Linrathe, the chosen chieftains of the land north of the Wall, are acknowledged in their authority on a hill with a carved boar and a footprint in the rock, the sky above them and their land spread out below.

*petrosomatoglyph is the posh name for any body part carved into stone. 

Amazon UK
Amazon US

How many secrets can one family have?

For 13 years, Sorley has taught music alongside the man he loves, war and betrayal nearly forgotten. But behind their calm and ordered life, there are hidden truths. When a young girl’s question demands an answer, does he break the most important oath he has ever sworn by lying – or tell the truth, risking the destruction of both his family and a fragile political alliance? Empire’s Reckoning asks if love – of country, of an individual, of family – can be enough to leave behind the expectations of history and culture, and to chart a way to peace.

Book of the Year, Historical Fantasy 2020, The Coffee Pot Book Club Historical Fiction Awards

for more information about
her books
go to
Marian's Website

 * * *   * * *

Helen's Latest Release


A new edition with new additional scenes

When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?

Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.

He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...

An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.

“I really enjoyed the insight offered into Jesamiah's backstory, and found the depiction of our teenage hero very moving.” Anna Belfrage, author

*** ***
Helen's cosy mystery set in 1970s north London 

The first in a new series of quick-read,
cosy mysteries set in the 1970s.
A Mirror Murde
https://getbook.at/MirrorMurder

Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.

But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram,  a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered...

Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police investigation into  murder?

Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s, which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader Review

< PREVIOUS POST

Monday 28 June 2021

Tuesday Talk Guest Spot - Tony Riches and ESSEX - Tudor Rebel

 

where guests can have their say about...
anything they want!

Book two of the Elizabethan Series

New from Tony Riches, Author of the best-selling Tudor Trilogy  

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, is one of the most intriguing men of the Elizabethan period. Tall and handsome, he soon becomes a ‘favourite’ at court, so close to the queen many wonder if they are lovers.

The truth is far more complex, as each has what the other yearns for. Robert Devereux longs for recognition, wealth and influence. His flamboyant naïveté amuses the ageing Queen Elizabeth, like the son she never had, and his vitality makes her feel young.

Robert Devereux’s remarkable true story continues the epic tale of the rise of the Tudors, which began with the best-selling Tudor trilogy and concludes with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Links:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09246T7ZT

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09246T7ZT

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09246T7ZT

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09246T7ZT

 

Author Bio

Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of best-selling Tudor historical fiction. He lives in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the history of the Wars of the Roses and the lives of the early Tudors. Tony’s other published historical fiction novels include: Owen – Book One Of The Tudor Trilogy, Jasper – Book Two Of The Tudor Trilogy, Henry – Book Three Of The Tudor Trilogy, Mary – Tudor Princess, Brandon – Tudor Knight and The Secret Diary Of Eleanor Cobham. For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and his blog, The Writing Desk and find him on  Facebook and Twitter @tonyriches


*** ***
Helen's Latest Release

A new edition with new additional scenes

When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?

Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.

He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...

An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.

“I really enjoyed the insight offered into Jesamiah's backstory, and found the depiction of our teenage hero very moving.” Anna Belfrage, author

*** ***
Helen's cosy mystery set in 1970s north London 

The first in a new series of quick-read,
cosy mysteries set in the 1970s.
A Mirror Murde
https://getbook.at/MirrorMurder

Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.

But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram,  a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered...

Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police investigation into  murder?

Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s, which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader Review


< Previous Post 

Monday Mysteries with Francesca Catlow and The Little Blue Door


Mysteries, thrillers, crime novels, who-dun-its,
cosy mysteries
 ... real mysteries, historical mysteries...
it's all a mystery to me!













My guest today... mysteries are not always about murder and mayhem, sometimes a romance can have elements of mystery..

Francesca Catlow

I’m Francesca Catlow and my first novel ‘The Little Blue Door’ is out on the 28th June 2021... Today!

Upon writing my very first novel I had to decide what genre it was. It’s a romance, but it is so much more than that – most stories are. When I wrote The Little Blue Door, I threw down the first draft of forty thousand words as a “Freewrite” in four weeks. That’s to say, I was as surprised to find out what happened next as anyone! This was particularly true of the opening. I wrote of a girl with green eyes who despite only being thirteen unnerves the protagonist, Melodie. 

The mystery set up at the start soon begins to unravel, but triggers another line of mystery alongside the developing romance storyline. 

 

The Little Blue Door is not in the ‘mystery’ genre, it’s a romance. Even so, I’m compelled to write novels and short stories with twists and mystery, because it’s what makes me finish reading nine out of ten stories. It makes me carry on – even if it’s a book I’m not enjoying! I can’t be alone in this, in fact Writers Online confirms mystery/crime/thriller novels are the top selling genres in the UK and US market[1], so I know I’m not on my own here.  

Almost all stories have some layer of mystery when you look at them. It can be as simple as “will they won’t they?” or a character with a dark and compelling past. If there wasn’t something mysterious about it, would anyone read it? Even in life writing, it’s the idea there is a new perspective – one unknown – that makes picking up *another* Princess Diana biography a must. The idea of cracking the mystery of any person or story, real or fictitious, is appealing.  

So, when someone says they like romance, sci-fi, historical non-fiction... 

Maybe they just love a well written mystery?  

About Francesca:

The Little Blue Door is Francesca's first novel – written during the lockdown of 2020 while feeding her baby in the early hours. It’s available NOW...

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Waterstones

The Little Blue Door is the first in a series. 

More about Francesca - stay in touch!

www.FrancescaCatlow.co.uk

Facebook

Twitter @FrancescaCatlow


*** ***
Helen's Latest Release

A new edition with new additional scenes

When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?

Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.

He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...

An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.

“I loved this little addendum to the Jesamiah series. I always had a soft spot for the Lorelei stories and enjoyed that the author cleverly brought her over from the Rhine valley to fit into the story.” Amazon Reviewer

*** ***
Helen's cosy mystery set in 1970s north London 

The first in a new series of quick-read,
cosy mysteries set in the 1970s.
A Mirror Murde
https://getbook.at/MirrorMurder

Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.

But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram,  a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered...

Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police investigation into  murder?

“Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s, which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader Review


< Previous Post 

Monday 21 June 2021

Tuesday Talk ... my Guest Today, Anna Belfrage is in a bit of a Whirlpool...

 

where guests can have their say about...
anything they want!






http://myBook.to/WoT

How this writer ended up in a century she didn’t want to be in

In my recent release, The Whirlpools of Time, I suddenly found myself in the 18th century.
“Suddenly?” you ask, thinking this must be a very strange author who has no control over what time her book is set in. You have a point. But the thing is, I was never going to write about the 18th century. Nope, not me. I’ve always had a bit of a problem with the century that went all wild and crazy over hair. Powdered hair, I might add. Hair that was arranged into impossible, towering creations that reasonably must have given the poor women balancing all that hair a crick in the neck.

Marie Antoinette wearing the distinctive
pouf style coiffure;
her own natural hair is extended on the top
with an artificial hairpiece.
(Wikipedia)

Fortunately for me, my book is set in the early part of this rather eventful century—before hair became an issue. (Not entirely true. There were a lot of gigantic wigs around.)  Leaving aside my dislike for all that hair, I have to admit there’s a LOT of stuff going on in the 18th century, starting with the Union of the Crowns very early on and going all the way to the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in the wake of the French revolution. In between, we have the golden(?) age of piracy, several Jacobite rebellions, numerous wars in Europe, the War of Independence in America, thinkers like Rousseau and Montesquieu.

So why am I in the 18th century? Well, that is all due to maths. When your protagonist has featured as a small child in other books, you’re sort of bound by logic. If said protagonist is born in 1686 and you want him to be adequately grown up, you end up in the 18th century.

So there I was in 1715 with Duncan Melville. The next obvious step was to start considering just what aspects of history I wanted to weave into my story. I discarded the humiliating Swedish defeat at the hands of the Danes in the naval battle of Fehmarn. Neither could I find a way to somehow squeeze in the sinking of the several Spanish galleons outside the coast of Florida. Louis XIV died in September, but Duncan is nowhere close to the French court. But hang on: someone else was very close to the French court, someone who was of an age with Duncan. I am talking about James Francis Edward Stuart, a.k.a. the Old Pretender. Suddenly, I had a historical storyline, one in which Duncan is affected by the Jacobite Rebellion.

James Francis Edward Stuart
by Alexis Simon Belle

I was somewhat hesitant: say Jacobite rebellion and half the world goes “Ah, Jamie in Outlander.” And yes, the sequence of events that culminated in the tragedy of Culloden are the final act in the Jacobite Rebellion(s), but the roots behind all this upheaval lie in 1688, when James II was ousted from the throne by his very Protestant peers and his son-in-law, William of Orange.  This is a major simplification, but you do not want me to give you the long version as I can talk for hours and hours about William, his wife Mary—James II’s eldest daughter—and the events leading up to James being deposed, first among them the birth of his long-awaited son, James Francis Edward. A Catholic son born to a Catholic father…oh, woe, said the very anti-papist Englishmen, shivering at the thought of a Catholic dynasty.

James II was a capable warrior which is why it is surprising that he never put up much of a fight to defend his right to the throne in 1688. Some years later, the Jacobites (after the Latin for James) were defeated at the Battle of the Boyne. William of Orange was no mean warrior either and had the advantage of more men and better trained men. 

James II retired to France there to lick his wounds and nurse his bitterness.

I imagine little James Francis Edward grew up hearing over and over again that the English throne by right belonged to him—he was the rightful heir. 

By 1715, James II had been dead for over a decade and his son was recognised as James III & VIII by the Jacobites and Louis XIV and the pope. Not by the English, though. Or the Scots—well, with the exception of some of the Catholic Highlanders. 

James Francis Edward could have become king of England peaceably if he’d been willing to renounce his Catholic faith and instead embrace the Anglican Church. He wasn’t. No, our James was of the opinion that the throne belonged to him, and if the English were fools enough to deny it to him, then he’d take it anyway, supported by his loyal followers and God.

Well, that didn’t happen, did it? The rebellion of 1715 was a major failure. Too bad memories are short, as thirty years later a new generation would once again attempt to replace the Hanover king with a Catholic Stuart. Wouldn’t work that time either—but the consequences for those that fought for Charles Edward Stuart would be dire.

As you can guess by now, I decided to drop Duncan in the Scottish Highlands just as the rebels are beginning to assemble under the banners of the Earl of Mar. But before Duncan makes it to Scotland in the autumn of 1715, I send him on an itty-bitty detour to the year 2016. You see, I felt there was something lacking in Duncan’s life, and Erin Barnes sure needed someone in her corner. What she didn’t need—or so she says—was to be dragged back to 1715. Methinks she protests too much: because seriously, if she has to choose between a life in her time sans Duncan or one in 1715 with Duncan it’s a dead easy choice.

“We could both be in 2016,” Erin protests giving me the evil eye. 
Ah. Well, no, that would never work: after all, there are no Jacobites in 2016, are there?

He hoped for a wife. He found a companion through time and beyond.
It is 1715 and for Duncan Melville something fundamental is missing from his life. Despite a flourishing legal practice and several close friends, he is lonely, even more so after the recent death of his father. He needs a wife—a companion through life, someone to hold and be held by. What he wasn’t expecting was to be torn away from everything he knew and find said woman in 2016…

Erin Barnes has a lot of stuff going on in her life. She doesn’t need the additional twist of a stranger in weird outdated clothes, but when he risks his life to save hers, she feels obligated to return the favour. Besides, whoever Duncan may be, she can’t exactly deny the immediate attraction.
The complications in Erin’s life explode. Events are set in motion and to Erin’s horror she and Duncan are thrown back to 1715. Not only does Erin have to cope with a different and intimidating world, soon enough she and Duncan are embroiled in a dangerous quest for Duncan’s uncle, a quest that may very well cost them their lives as they travel through a Scotland poised on the brink of rebellion.  
Will they find Duncan’s uncle in time? And is the door to the future permanently closed, or will Erin find a way back?

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England. 
 
Anna has also published The Wanderer, a fast-paced contemporary romantic suspense trilogy with paranormal and time-slip ingredients. Her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk, has her returning to medieval times. Set against the complications of Edward I’s invasion of Wales, His Castilian Hawk is a story of loyalty, integrity—and love. Her most recent release, The Whirlpools of Time, is a time travel romance set against the backdrop of brewing rebellion in the Scottish highlands.


Find out more about Anna, her books and her eclectic historical blog on her website, www.annabelfrage.com or check out her Amazon page
Follow Anna on twitter or on FB


Buy Links:
The Graham Saga http://myBook.to/TGS1
The King’s Greatest Enemy http://myBook.to/TKGE
His Castilian Hawk: http://myBook.to/HISHAWK
The Whirlpools of time: http://myBook.to/WoT


*** ***
Helen's Latest Release

A new edition with new additional scenes

When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?

Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.

He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...

An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.

“Ms Hollick has skilfully picked up the threads that she alludes to in the main books and knitted them together to create a Jesamiah that we really didn't know.” Richard Tearle senior reviewer, Discovering Diamonds

“Captain Jesamiah Acorne is as charming a scoundrel as a fictional pirate should be. A resourceful competitor to Captain Jack Sparrow!” Antoine Vanner author

“Helen Hollick has given us the answer to that intriguing question that Jesamiah fans have been aching for – how did he start his sea-going career as a pirate?” Alison Morton, author

“I really enjoyed the insight offered into Jesamiah's backstory, and found the depiction of our teenage hero very moving.” Anna Belfrage, author

“I loved this little addendum to the Jesamiah series. I always had a soft spot for the Lorelei stories and enjoyed that the author cleverly brought her over from the Rhine valley to fit into the story.” Amazon Reviewer

*** ***
Helen's cosy mystery set in 1970s north London 

The first in a new series of quick-read,
cosy mysteries set in the 1970s.
A Mirror Murde
https://getbook.at/MirrorMurder

Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.

But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram,  a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered...

Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police investigation into  murder?

Reviews

“A delightful read about an unexpected murder in North East London.” Richard Ashen (South Chingford Community Library)

“Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s, which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader Review


< Previous Post 

Sunday 20 June 2021

Monday Mysteries - Mermaids...? with Helen Hollick


Mysteries, thrillers, crime novels, who-dun-its,
cosy mysteries
 ... real mysteries, historical mysteries...
it's all a mystery to me!












When I decided to write a prequel short read story for my Sea Witch Voyages, I grabbed the opportunity to fill in a few gaps left (somewhat gaping) from my Jesamiah Acorn's past. An opportunity to write the story of how he became a pirate, and how he originally 'met' the eventual love of his life, the white witch, Wise One of Craft, Tiola. (Say it Tee-o-la, not Tee-oh-la) - and to write a story about a mermaid.

The first edition was published as an e-book only by Silverwood Books, but this year (2021) I obtained the rights back and decided to re-issue it as e-book and paperback - with a brand new cover and a few additional scenes.


For that original edition I had been limited to forty thousand words, maximum, now, doing it myself I could expand a little, so I decided to add a few scenes of Tiola's early life as well. (There have been hints about her background in the main Voyages - her Cornish home, her abusive father, her discontented - nay, unhappy - mother. Her 'witch grandmother...)

That original, and the new edition, was a challenge because I had to ensure the continuity. What happens in When The Mermaid Sings had to tie in with everything from my characters' lives in the other books.

In Sea Witch, Jesamiah is in his early twenties, in Mermaid he is not quite fifteen when the story opens.
https://viewbook.at/SeaWitch

Tiola is younger. She is a child still, although her 'Craft' is awakening and mentally she is older than her physical age.

My challenge was to bring in the mermaid, the character from the title, and to bring her in realistically. Mermaids do not exist, but that's not going to stop authors writing about them is it? 

To the sailors of the past mermaids were very much real creatures, with the caveat that all sailors, like fishermen, were capable of exaggerating tall tales. (Or should that be fishy tails?)

Mermaid, On The Bow, Evening, Gloomy Sky
Mermaid figurehead

Mermaids are aquatic creature half-female or male (mermen) and half-fish. They have been characters of fictional tales since early times.  Assyria has the accolade of the first (as far as we know) stories, with the goddess Atargatis, who changed herself into a mermaid for accidentally killing her human shepherd lover. (Why the connection between shepherd and a mermaid I've no idea). Human-like creatures with the tails of fish are in Mesopotamian artwork from the Old Babylonian Periods. They seem to have been regarded as protective figures - as the figureheads on seventeenth and eighteenth-century sailing ships seem to have been.

Folklore associates them with floods, shipwrecks and storms, often enticing sailors to their doom, although other stories depict them as the opposite - of rescuing drowning sailors. Alexander the Great's sister, Thessalonike, in Greek legend, became a mermaid of the Aegean sea after her death. She would appear to passing sailors and ask if King Alexander still lived. A positive answer of "He lives, reigns and conquers the world" would result in her disappearing into calm waters. Woe betide a negative response, for she would create a terrible storm and sailors would drown. Which is a very inventive way of explaining unexpected storms at sea!

Most tales have some element of romance between a human and a mermaid.

Greek myth depicts the mermaids as the Sirens, most notably they appear in Homer's Odyssey, although Columbus, during his exploration of the Caribbean states an account of seeing mermaids. But then, he had been on a long journey and there's no record of how much rum was aboard... 

Sailing off the coast of Hispaniola in 1493, he reported seeing three "female forms" which "rose high out of the sea, but were not as beautiful as they are represented". The pirate, Blackbeard, apparently ordered his crew to steer away from certain enchanted waters for fear of mermaids, which he had seen for himself and believed wanted to steal his ill-gotten plunder. Mind you, as most pirates of the early 1700s were usually on the wrong side of sober, these were probably drunken sightings of various aquatic mammals, plus it's quite likely that Blackbeard was madder than the Mad Hatter.

Little Mermaid, Ariel, Disney

Possibly the most well-known mermaid tale, alongside Disney's animation,  is The Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale (1836). 
A statue to her is in Copenhagen harbour.

Little Mermaid, Statue, Copenhagen


Durham Castle's Norman Chapel, built by Anglo-Saxon stonemasons circa 1078, shows what is most likely the earliest English mermaid. Some folktales tell of mermaids in British lakes and rivers, while the tale of the Cornish village of Zennor tells of a mermaid listening to the singing of a chorister, Matthew Trewhella. They fell in love, and Matthew joined with her at her home at Pendour Cove, where, on summer nights, they can be heard singing together. The Zennor Church of Saint Senara has a six-hundred-year-old chair decorated with a mermaid carving. 


For When The Mermaid Sings, I loosely based my idea on The Lorelei Rock, a 132m (433ft) slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine in the Rhine Gorge at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany. The name "Lorelei" translates as something akin to "murmuring rock", although another theory is that it means "lurking rock" because it was the scene of many accidents - this is a particularly narrow (and busy) part of the river, and I have fond memories of a wonderful river cruise with dear friends that took us past the Lorelei Rock. 

The Lorelei Rock, Rhine Gorge

The story goes that the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, was accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to die, the bishop sent her to a nunnery. On the way there, escorted by three knights, they passed the Lorelei rock. She pleaded permission to climb it and view the Rhine for one last time... but she fell to her death and the rock still retains an echo of her name and her tears for her lover.

Mermaid, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Sea

It was that last bit that inspired me. A mermaid figure, grieving for her lost lover haunts the young lad, Jesamiah...

But here's the mystery: did he really see her, or was she nothing more than  his imagination?

Read the story and make up your own mind! 


A new edition with new additional scenes

When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?

Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.

He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...

An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.

“Ms Hollick has skilfully picked up the threads that she alludes to in the main books and knitted them together to create a Jesamiah that we really didn't know.” Richard Tearle senior reviewer, Discovering Diamonds

“Captain Jesamiah Acorne is as charming a scoundrel as a fictional pirate should be. A resourceful competitor to Captain Jack Sparrow!” Antoine Vanner author

“Helen Hollick has given us the answer to that intriguing question that Jesamiah fans have been aching for – how did he start his sea-going career as a pirate?” Alison Morton, author

“I really enjoyed the insight offered into Jesamiah's backstory, and found the depiction of our teenage hero very moving.” Anna Belfrage, author

“I loved this little addendum to the Jesamiah series. I always had a soft spot for the Lorelei stories and enjoyed that the author cleverly brought her over from the Rhine valley to fit into the story.” Amazon Reviewer

*** ***
Helen's cosy mystery set in 1970s north London 

The first in a new series of quick-read,
cosy mysteries set in the 1970s.
A Mirror Murde
https://getbook.at/MirrorMurder

Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.

But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram,  a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered...

Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police investigation into  murder?

Reviews

“A delightful read about an unexpected murder in North East London.” Richard Ashen (South Chingford Community Library)

“Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s, which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader Review

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