publication date: 17th June 2026
e-book pre-order
(paperback also June 17th)
Today we feature
Marian L Thorpe
| The Phoenix by Marian L Thorpe |
Ésparias, a fictional country bordering the western sea circa
AD 900
A mother’s dilemma? To keep them safe – or let them go?...
trailer/animation by Jean Gill (A.I. generated)
cover graphics by www.avalongraphics.org
(some stories have an adult content others a 'you will need tissues' warning)
Fifteen short stories about Courage
featuring authors:
The Sentry - Noricum AD 395
The Saxon - Southern Britain AD 471
Marian L Thorpe
The Phoenix - a fictional country circa AD 900
Judith Arnopp
Siflede - London 1066
Annie Whitehead
Daisy Chain - England 1141
Anna Belfrage
Stepping Between - England 1308
Carolyn Hughes
Confronting Plague - England 1361
Patricia Furstenberg
Kate’s Letter - Transylvania 1478
Amy Maroney
The Portrait’s Secret - Paris 1536
Jean Gill
Legacy - England 1558
Cathie Dunn
Darkness Rising - Venezia 1923
Helen Hollick
A Taleteller’s Tale - The Caribbean 1709
Elizabeth St.John
The Gate - London 1900
Antoine Vanner
A Sack of Potatoes - The Netherlands 1954
Kathy Hollick-Bater
Grumpy Old Grandfather – Anywhere, Present-day
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| About Marian's story |
The Phoenix, my contribution to the Courage anthology, is a bridging story between my first series of books, the eight-volume Empire’s Legacy, and the new series-in-progress. Set in an alternate world that bears some resemblance to Europe and the pan-Mediterranean world in the early middle ages, there are a few hundred years between the end of Empire’s Passing, the last book in the Legacy series, and An Unwise Prince, the first of the new books.
Key to the plot of An Unwise Prince is a pendant, given to a character who’s just two years old at the end of Empire’s Passing: Piása. In The Phoenix, she’s eighteen, in love, and determined to travel east with her beloved when he’s asked to take up the throne of his mother’s country.
Courage, one of the characters in Empire’s Legacy says more than once, comes in many forms, and in this short story the courage isn’t Piása’s – she’s young and in love, and heedless of the dangers that await – but her mother’s. Hers, and the courage of the mother of the prince who has been asked to claim the throne. In the 10th century (more or less) world mirrored in the story, travel is long and hazardous, messages slow to arrive; help, even when asked for, can be too slow in coming. How would it feel to be those royal mothers, knowing the dangers, knowing you would likely never see your child again? But, still, sending them off with all the love and support that you can – including a promise.
A promise that won’t be forgotten, and several hundred years later, Piása’s pendant will be returned, a plea for the help pledged so long ago. But that’s another story!
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| a snippet from The Phoenix by Marian L Thorpe |
Ésparias, a fictional country bordering the western sea circa AD 900
A mother’s dilemma? To keep them safe – or let them go?
The envoys arrived late on a spring afternoon, asking to see me immediately. I gave them the courtesy of an audience, but only to greet them. Two men, one grey-haired, the other younger, both travel-stained and weary. Their message, I said firmly, could wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, there were baths and wine, comfortable beds, a quiet meal in their rooms.
I told them all this with my throat tight and a sense of cold creeping along my spine. Of all the places these men might have been from, Halachia was not one I might have expected.
About Marian:
My novels are historical fiction of an imagined world, one that is close to Britain, Northern Europe, and Rome, but isn't any of them. My short stories, either in multiple-author anthologies or my own collections range from urban fantasy to historical fiction, slice-of-life to climate fiction.
After two careers as a research scientist and an educator, I decided it was time to do what I'd always wanted, and be a writer. My first book was published when I was in my mid-50s. My life-long interest in Roman and post-Roman European history provided the inspiration for my first series, while my other interests in landscape archaeology and birding provide background.
Website: www.marianlthorpe.com
Amazon Author Page: https://relinks.me/MarianLThorpe
coming soon:
Generations after the end of the Empire’s Legacy series, and after the short story ‘The Phoenix’ we meet five point-of-view characters in An Unwise Prince (coming in 2027)
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more great anthologies featuring various authors |
> Next spotlight tomorrow: Judith Arnopp
You might also like books written by
Helen Hollick
cosy mystery series
nautical supernatural adventure
historical fiction:
King Arthur / 1066 era
non-fiction:
Ghost Encounters
Pirates /smugglers
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