Author’s Inspiration ~ Lisa Dawn Walder #timetravel #Romance #Historical @lisadawnwadler

 

It is with great pleasure that I welcome the Award Winning, Time-Travel Historical Romance, author, Lisa Dawn Walder, onto the blog. Lisa is going to tell us all about the inspiration behind her latest book….

The Draig’s Woman

Rescuing the man tied to a tree seemed like a rational decision. Claire is a smart, capable bookkeeper who happens to work at a martial arts academy. She has no idea the door she walked through to save the bound man would leave her trapped in 13th century Scotland. She is unable to regret the night of passion shared with Ian, even though it happened with the threat of death just outside the door. She pretends to be content with Ian’s friendship, knowing his people must come first. Compelled by honor and tormented by desire, is being his woman, while he marries another, enough?

Ian, Laird of the Draig Clan, is a man trapped by fate. Forced by necessity to marry a woman he has never met, her dowry is essential to save his clan. However, he is in love with the woman who saved his life and then spent one night in his arms. Duty prevents Ian from being able to marry Claire as custom, honor, and his heart demand. Drawn to her, believing they share the same desires and dreams in life, he finally offers her the only option available, a place by his side and in his bed.

Claire and Ian are bound together in love and then ripped apart by deception and a plot to destroy the Draig clan. Facing the final battle alone and unarmed, Claire saves them all. The ultimate challenge is forgiving Ian for sending her away.

Author’s Inspiration

The question of inspiration for the story involves a personal journey into becoming stronger. Roughly six years ago I began taking martial arts with my kids, at first to make them happy and then because it made me feel strong and capable. While working with an instructor - a fourth degreed black belt, complete with a shaved head and loads of tattoos - I was learning how to escape a hold and then flip the opponent onto the floor. When I actually managed to do the move correctly, I reached down to help him up and he called me a bad ass. I will never be able to explain how much that single compliment filled me; how it tapped into a place I never knew I had inside. Seriously, I’m a middle-aged mom…

Later that night, after the kids were in bed, I settled in to continue reading my historical romance book. The heroine had found herself in a precarious situation and was being held virtually the same way I had been in class. In my head, I saw her escape from the threat, but in the book she had to wait for the hero to come save her. It left me disappointed - I wanted her to be physically strong. Unable to find an historical romance book that filled this need, I sat down to attempt to write one.

As a huge fan of historical romance, I wanted to see physically capable heroines within my beloved genre. Having read multiple time travel romances, I knew this would be how I placed martial arts trained women into a world where women weren’t expected to be able to save the day or themselves. To shake it up a bit more, my heroines are the true heroes of each story. They save the day and the Laird, while finding their happily-ever-after.

In my second book, Time of the Draig, I explain my version of what makes time travel possible. No magic or mysterious fogs. The door that leads to medieval Scotland in each of The Draig books comes from a science fiction foundation.

Book three, The Draig’s Wife, will be released 5/31/17. Don’t worry about what order you read the books, it’s a stand-alone series.

Links for Purchase

Amazon US

Amazon UK

  

Goodreads

About the author

Lisa began writing after reading yet another romance novel where the heroine needed a man to rescue her from physical harm. While a firm believer in the strong alpha-male hero in any story, she wondered what would happen if that hero met a woman who was able to take care of herself physically. Using her several years of Tae Kwon Do training and mixing in time travel, her multi-award winning debut novel, The Draig’s Woman was born.

Lisa lives in the Chicago suburbs and is married to her high school sweetheart. They have two children and one very spoiled dog. And yes, she finally earned her black belt 3/17!

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#bookreview ~ Child of the Kindred: The Rinefield Chronicles: Book 2 @Mtmagee1013M #fantasy

Child of the Kindred

(The Rinefield Chronicles: Book 2)

By

M.T. Magee

 

Enter the realm of Rinefield, where love, danger, adventure and romance awaits you. Their world is changing and a new era has begun. Princess Laurel finds her kingdom of Gwenlais, torn and shattered from a bloody siege. Her people now looking to her, to help them rise above the ruin and misery inflicted upon their once peaceful and sheltered realm. Laurel and her beloved Prince Caleb, must find a way to unite their kingdoms, as never before. The enemy from a distant land makes a bold and savage attempt, to thwart the unity of the two kingdoms of Gwenlais and Heathwin. The odds have never been greater against the realms or the two lovers that hold the kingdoms together. Will their people and their love survive all they have lost? Will new life rise from above the ruins?

What did I think of the Book?

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and sometimes war is inevitable...

Princess Laurel is being held captive by the cruel and wicked, Warrick. Her beloved kingdom, Gwenlais, has been overcome with Warrick's men. There is blood on the street as Warrick's army plunders the kingdom. Laurel's only hope is that her husband, Prince Caleb, will bring the army of Heathwin to liberate Gwenlais. But time is running out for Laurel. Her life is in Warrick's hands, and Warrick is not in a merciful mood.

Well, M.T. Magee certainly kept us waiting for the second part of The Reinfield Chronicles, but boy, was it worth the wait!!

Filled with drama, war, love and hate, Child Of The Kindred did not disappoint. With elegant prose and characters that jumped off the page, this is a world that is very easy to get lost in.

Although both Gwenlais and Heathwin are fantasy kingdoms, it doesn't feel that foreign. I could envisage the grandeur of the Highlands of Scotland and the beauty of Ireland as I read. It is certainly a magnificent backdrop for a compelling read.

The characters are fresh and very real in the telling. Like before, with book 1, I loved the characterisation of Aiden, who despite being a secondary character is so much fun to read about. He is definitely my favourite character in this series thus far. I also adored Queen Alana. She is beautifully portrayed.  Queen Alana is a very loving, but strong woman. I liked her.

What I really liked about Child Of The Kindred is the realism, despite it being a fantasy world. When something bad happens to one of the characters they don't just brush themselves off and act like it never happened, they suffer, and sometimes it takes a long time to get over the event. I thought this especially applied to Laurel, Marina and the children. But despite the suffering their is also much humour in this book. I found myself crying and laughing almost at the same time! Not many books can pull that off! Well done, Ms. Magee.

If you are looking for escapism with a heavy dose of romance, then this is the series for you. Although on the blurb the author states this isn't a standalone, I think it wouldn't take a reader much to catch up with the story. But saying that, I do recommend starting with book one because it would be a shame to miss out on such truly unforgettable characters.

I Highly Recommend.

Links for Purchase

Amazon US

Amazon UK

About the author

My name is M.T.Magee I write bestselling YA Historical Medieval Fantasy that is beautifully romantic with whispers of Gaelic legend. On Mar. 31st The Treasure of Gwenlais received the 2015 Silver Medal Winner of Ireland's Drunken Druid Award Finalist for IAN Book of the Year Award 2016 for First Novel on Aug. 31st. On Sept.1st 2016 I received the Finalist Award for Readers' Favorite Book Awards Voted #1 On Listopia's Best Fantasy Romance (not urban).

I live in New England on our small farm with my husband and son. We raise an assortment of silly goats, quiet rabbits, far too many ducks and chickens, and a high strung Border Collie cross named Gronk.

 

And the award goes to…The Du Lac Devil #Historical #Fantasy

Chill With A Book Award

I am celebrating on the blog today ~ 

The Du Lac Devil has been awarded a 

‘Chill With A Book Award.’ Yay!! 

 

Chill With A Book has a five point criteria when evaluation books and thankfully The Du Lac Devil ticked all the right boxes!

 1. Were the characters strong and engaging?

2. Was the book well written?

3. Did the plot have you turning the page to find out what happened next?

4. Was the ending satisfying?

5. Would you tell your friends?

A big thank you to all the reviewers at Chill with a Book who thought The Du Lac Devil worthy of such an honour 

 

Links for Purchase

 Amazon US

Amazon UK

Author’s Inspiration ~ Glen Craney #HistFic #Historical @glencraney

Please give a warm Coffee Pot welcome to historical fiction author, Glen Craney. Glen is going to tell us all about his inspiration behind his fabulous books...

The Fire and the Light: A Novel of the Cathars

In medieval France, heretics protect an ancient scroll that holds shattering revelations about the Roman Church. Swept up by the Albigensian Crusade, a charismatic noblewoman defies a powerful pope and champions her persecuted Cathar faith in this epic of religious intrigue, troubadour valor, and star-crossed love.

* Foreword Magazine Book-of-the-Year Finalist/Honorable Mention Winner for Historical Fiction

* Nautilus Silver Award Winner

* IPPY Silver Award Winner

* NIEA Award Winner for Best New Fiction

The Spider and the Stone: A Novel of Scotland's Black Douglas

As the 14th century dawns, the brutal King Edward Longshanks of England schemes to steal Scotland. But a frail, dark-skinned boy named James Douglas, inspired by a headstrong lass from Fife, defies three Plantagenet kings and champions the cause of his wavering friend, Robert the Bruce, to lead the armies to the bloody field of Bannockburn. A thrilling historical saga of star-crossed love and heroic sacrifice during the Scottish Wars of Independence.

Chaucer Award First-Place Category Historical Fiction

Foreword Magazine Book-of-the-Year Award Finalist

indieBRAG Medallion Honoree

The Virgin of the Wind Rose: A Christopher Columbus Mystery-Thriller

While investigating the murder of an American missionary in Ethiopia, rookie State Department lawyer Jaqueline Quartermane stumbles upon the infamous Templar Word Square, an ancient Latin puzzle that has eluded scholars for centuries. To her horror, she soon discovers the palindrome has been embedded with a cryptographic time bomb. Separated by half a millennium, two global conspiracies dovetail in this historical mystery-thriller to expose the world's most explosive secret: The real identity and mission of Christopher Columbus.

Books & Benches Scéal Book of the Year Finalist

indieBRAG Medallion Honoree

Author’s Inspiration

Readers are fascinated by how authors find the ideas for their historical novels. When I tell them my characters choose me, they assume I’m speaking metaphorically. I’m not.
Inspiration for my books often comes in dreams—not the usual mishmash of subconscious dross, but in lucid sleep visions that are vivid in color, rich in emotional feeling, and studded with symbols, names, and images. The experience is like having one’s brain downloaded with a compressed digital file that must be unzipped to decode its message.

The first time this happened, I had an intense dream of a robed woman walking toward me across the ruins of a mountain castle. I heard the word “crusade” chanted while around the woman’s feet sprouted dozens of crosses that shifted between possessing two and three horizontal beams. These crosses seemed to mark the location of forgotten graves. I was struck by their resemblance to the logo used by the American Lung Association in its modern crusade against tuberculosis. The woman, bathed in a lucent white radiance, beckoned me with outstretched arms and pleaded, “Peace, child, let the Light.”

This dream launched me into weeks of research. I learned that the triple cross was a watermark used by the medieval Cathars, a sect of pacifist healers. Although raised a Roman Catholic, I had never been told of the Albigensian Crusade, the 13^th-century war of extermination sanctioned by the Church. As my investigation into these pacifist Christians deepened, I couldn’t shake the feeling that my mysterious muse had brought a warning for our own time, plagued as it is by religious intolerance and terror.
Months later, I was climbing the heights of Montsegur in the Ariege region of southwestern France. That desolate mount and its haunting castle ruins looked strikingly similar to the landscape in my dream. And that encounter would be only the first of many déjà vu experiences in Cathar country. The Fire and the Light: A Novel of the Cathars was the result of my quest. 

In another dream, I was a mounted knight caught in a death struggle along a stream with a black-robed hag who attacked me with a sickle. The scene then shifted to a celebratory photograph of seven knights standing around a seated monarch. Below this tableau, a caption appeared: “Americans Aid the King at Bannockburn.”
I wrote this down, even though it made no sense. If I had heard of the Battle of Bannockburn, its significance had long since been lost to my school days. And the caption under the photograph was particularly baffling. Robert the Bruce, after all, won his unlikely Scot victory against the English in 1314, nearly five hundred years before the United States was even an idea. 

Two months after that dream, I was in Scotland walking along the burn of Bannock with Stirling Castle looming in the distance. That stream looked similar to the one in my dream. I realized that I had been given another writing assignment. Eventually, I deciphered the meaning of the dream’s intimation that Americans aided King Robert at the battle. That experience led to The Spider and the Stone: A Novel of Scotland’s Black Douglas.

A few years later, I awoke from an extended dream that consisted of a single word repeated through the night: SATOR. My first thought was of the Japanese word for wisdom, Satori. Yet as I dug deeper into its etymology, I discovered the existence of an infamous magic word square, a Latin palindrome often called the SATOR Square. As I worked to solve its message that has eluded scholars for centuries, one clue after another led me to write my dual-period historical thriller, The Virgin of the Wind Rose: A Christopher Columbus Mystery-Thriller.

I’ve learned to pay careful attention to these inspirational dreams. Now, if only the muses would write the books, I’d have it easy. But, alas, that remains the toil of we mere mortals.

Links for purchase

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Kobo

iTunes 

About the author

Glen Craney is a novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. He holds graduate degrees from Indiana University School of Law and Columbia University School of Journalism. He practiced trial law before joining the Washington, D.C. press corps to cover national politics and the Iran-contra trial for Congressional Quarterly magazine. The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences awarded him the Nicholl Fellowship prize for best new screenwriting. He is also a three-time indieBRAG Medallion Honoree, a Chaucer Award First-Place Winner, and a three-time Foreword Reviews Book-of-the-Year Award Finalist. His debut novel, The Fire and the Light, was recognized as Best New Fiction by the National Indie Excellence Awards. His books have taken readers to Occitania during the Albigensian Crusade, to the Scotland of Robert Bruce, to Portugal during the Age of Discovery, to the trenches of France during World War I, and to the American Hoovervilles of the Great Depression. He lives in southern California.
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#Newrelease ~ Child of the Kindred: The Rinefield Chronicles: Book 2 @Mtmagee1013M

Child of the Kindred

(The Rinefield Chronicles: Book 2)

By

M.T.Magee

 

Their world is changing and a new era has begun. Princess Laurel finds her kingdom of Gwenlais, torn and shattered from a bloody siege. Her people now looking to her, to help them rise above the ruin and misery inflicted upon their once peaceful and sheltered realm. Laurel and her beloved Prince Caleb, must find a way to unite their kingdoms, as never before. The enemy from a distant land makes a bold and savage attempt, to thwart the unity of the two kingdoms of Gwenlais and Heathwin. The odds have never been greater against the realms or the two lovers that hold the kingdoms together. Will their people and their love survive all they have lost? Will new life rise from above the ruins?

The award winning epic historical fantasy saga continues. Enter the realm of Rinefield, where love, danger, adventure and romance awaits you.  

Links for Purchase

Amazon US

Amazon UK

About the author

My name is M.T.Magee I write bestselling YA Historical Medieval Fantasy that is beautifully romantic with whispers of Gaelic legend. On Mar. 31st The Treasure of Gwenlais received the 2015 Silver Medal Winner of Ireland's Drunken Druid Award Finalist for IAN Book of the Year Award 2016 for First Novel on Aug. 31st. On Sept.1st 2016 I received the Finalist Award for Readers' Favorite Book Awards Voted #1 On Listopia's Best Fantasy Romance (not urban).

I live in New England on our small farm with my husband and son. We raise an assortment of silly goats, quiet rabbits, far too many ducks and chickens, and a high strung Border Collie cross named Gronk.

King Arthur is awesome ~ he pulled a sword out of the stone after all! #Arthurian #kingarthur

“Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil,

is Rightwise King Born of all England”

Thomas Malory

What a romantic thought. No one can take the sword from the stone unless he is the rightful heir to the throne. It beats spending hours looking at a patent of nobility and then going to war if you don't agree with the outcome.

Arthur, the unlikely warrior, if Disney is to be believed, pulls the said sword from the stone. Yes!

Arthur is the King. Fantastic. But it gets better because Arthur is the best King in the history of Kings. He is the best King in the future of Kings. No on can be better him. This is it. He is it. Hazar!

 "What right do you have to the throne of England?"

"I pulled this sword out of a stone."

 "Oh, well, if that is the case..."

Arthur wasn't just a king. He was a king with a vision. Perhaps his vision was ahead of its time, or maybe it was before it. It is so confusing. He certainly wouldn't fit in nowadays, would he? Can you imagine…?

"Good man, I need a Round Table, a large one. And find me some Knights, the noble kind."

"The noble kind, Sire?"

"Yes. The kind who ride around the countryside and rescue maidens, battle dragons and do other noble things."

"Right, I'll just get on my bike then."

"You do that good man. I shall wait here in my castle that I have named Camelot."

Arthur believes in equality. He has a Round Table commissioned for goodness sake. He wants his knights to have a say in how the country is run. It is like parliament, only better, because the Knights are trying to outdo each other in chivalry. They all want to be seen as heroic and honourable. There is no corruption at Arthur's court. No backhanders. No claiming for expenses, unless it involves the Armourer because we all know how much he charges. Oh, and don't forget the livery of the horses, that comes to a pretty penny too. But apart from that...Oh hang on, we are forgetting about the Christmas parties ~ they need to be paid for. But perhaps we can get the Green Knight to pay for it this year. He did make a heck of a mess of the Hall last year with his ridiculous Beheading Game.

And so Arthur sat down with his knights. Life was perfect. There was no scandal, nothing for the Sun to get their hands on and put on the front page for everyone to read over their cup of tea at breakfast. Everyone is happy. The country is at peace. Those pesky Saxon's have been put in their place. Everything as Lego would say, "is awesome!"

Oh come on, this isn't much of a story.

Bring on the drama. Bring on the war.

Maybe Arthur's golden court is not that different after all. I mean Arthur's best friend ran off with his wife. That caused a bit of a scandal. And then there was the dramatic rescue were Lancelot rode into the courtyard like an avenging angel and rescued Guinevere from the pyre ~ as if Arthur was really going to let his wife go up in flames ~ Lancelot should have had more faith. And to make matters worse, while Arthur is away trying to restore his honour by going to war with Lancelot, his nephew, Mordred takes control of the kingdom.

Stop! Rewind back to the beginning....

That was the abbreviated and rather tongue-in-cheek version of King Arthur's life. It was the gilded version of Arthur's life. Let's be honest, the fictitious version of Arthur's life.

So how did this fantasy come about?

Arthur's story is so ingrained in the collective imagination of a nation that we believe what we are told. In fact when Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his great work in the 12th Century, his every word was taken as fact. Well, when I say that, not by all. The 12th-century historian, William of Newburgh wrote.

"…It is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from Vortigern onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others…"

But for the most part, Newburgh was ignored. Our ancestors liked this version of events, and you know what, so do we, whether we like to admit it or not. Arthur wouldn't be the same without his Round Table and his Knights. We want Arthur to be this formidable warrior but also a genuinely nice person. He is the best. No, he is better than best, he is...I can't think of a word...ummm...He is just awesome!