Magical Lights by Eileen O'Finlan

 

                          

                                               Click here for purchase information

Have you ever felt as though you had just walked into the pages of a fantasy or science fiction book? I had that sensation recently. I'm a member of the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in the nearby town of Boylston, Massachusetts. Every year starting around Thanksgiving and ending on last day of December they have an amazing light display called Night Lights throughout the grounds. This year was the first time I've had an opportunity to see it. It was more than worth the price of admission.

After leaving the ticket center, visitors are greeted with this:

How could you not feel like you had just stepped into a magical realm?

As visitors progress along the pathways, the sights become even more spectacular and the feeling that you are no longer in your own world increases. Perhaps you've entered a fairy land? Narnia? Hogwarts? Or, maybe you've left the planet completely:

Taking your eyes off the lights long enough to look at other visitors, you can see your own expression reflected in theirs - eyes wide in wonder, mouth smiling or agape when the next tableau takes your breath away.

A stunning experience, it must be especially transportive to those of a creative nature. Fantasy and science fiction authors could surely find unending inspiration here. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

From Memory to Action Helen Henderson

 

Windmaster Legacy by Helen Henderson
Click the cover for purchase information

Organizing old photographs, cleaning out family papers, or sorting boxes of ephemera all can bring on reminiscing. To me the word "reminisce," means to think, talk, or write about remembered events or experiences. A favorite cartoon I used to carry with me to book signings of my local histories dealt with memories and reminiscing. An author researching a book interviews all the old-timers in town. All said nothing exciting happened in the area. Until the book is published and at the signing, the same old-timers change their story. Now each one had a legend or story that should have, and would have been included, if the old-timers had only told the author. Fiction writers can have this same problem of "Why didn't you?" But, it may result more from an ending or why a character acted a certain way than a missing piece of history.

Although at least one dictionary uses the word "pleasant" to describe a reminiscence, In the 1990s, psychologists Lisa Watt and Paul Wong classified reminiscing into six types. Sometime reminiscing can be pleasant, some negative, or used to transmit history, values, or culture from one generation to another. In fiction, when a character reminisces, it can be a way to introduce their backstory, evince an emotion or to show the true personality of the character. If a memory has become obsessive, the character will act using that memory or emotion as a filter. But, for the reader to understand he needs to know the background. 

The snippit below is an example of how a memory impacts a character's action. Which is fortunate as the unnamed youth of this battle in Windmaster, returns in Windmaster Golem. This time as an experienced, skilled fighter, and friend to the man who saved his life.

Dal closed the distance to Ruaridh’s fragile protection. He lunged forward and knocked the sword from the soldier’s hand. Beneath the askewed helmet, Dal saw frightened eyes within a pale face.

He could not be more than sixteen turns, Dal realized. “Unless you want to join him, I suggest you leave.” The hope that flickered across the youth’s face brought a memory of another boy who stood disarmed before a superior warrior. He heard Telarim the Red’s words again, as if for the first time. I might as well use Telarim’s technique. “Return to your home,” Dal ordered the youth. “If in two turns you still want to soldier, find Telarim the Red. Tell him Lieutenant Dal sent you. Telarim will teach you well if you’re willing to learn.”

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

Now that you have the result of a character's youthful memory, next month a few of my own triggered by the season. As a teaser, an image from that time.

 ~Until next month, stay safe and read.  

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter .

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. 

Starting Over by Helen Henderson

Fire and Amulet by Helen Henderson
Click the cover for purchase information

Spring is traditionally a time for renewal and starting over. Gardens are turned over. Seedlings are  lovingly cared for until the ground warms enough for planting. Even the trees shed the last of the puff balls that stubbornly clung to the branches through ice and snow storm. In a way, this post represents a transition much as the warming temperatures of spring replace the more frigid ones of winter. The fantasy series, the Windmaster Novels, is now complete and a new tale is begun. The parting of ways with Ellspeth, Dal, and the other mages is replaced by the welcoming of new friends, Deneas and Trelleir.

Fire and Amulet is a twist on a dragon shifter tale. Trelleir is the last dragon. Desperate for companionship, he uses his magic to take on human form. Deneas is his best friend. There is just one problem. She is a slayer, sworn to kill all dragons.

New projects can take on different forms. Some reveal themselves in a sequence of scenes, rolling through your mind like a movie. Others fight every step of the way, refusing to divulge what comes next.Then just when you think you're done, the characters refuse to leave. Whether there will be more adventures of slayer and dragon remains to be seen. Until the decision is made, learn about her world as Deneas explores it.

To help celebrate the release of Fire and Amulet, my participation in the 2022 AtoZ Challenge is dedicated to the people, land and creatures that inhabit the world of Fire and Amulet. Hope you'll visit my blog to check it out.  

What might be the best part of having a new release is the cover. I love it. If you look closely, you can see the dragon's tear. Having a slayer as a friend is dangerous when you’re a dragon

To purchase Fire and Amulet: BWL

~Until next month, stay safe and read.

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter.

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. 

When I Don’t Write, and When I Do by S. L. Carlson

 

I am S. L. Carlson, a proud and grateful BWL Publishing Inc. author. My books can be viewed and purchased by visiting https://www.bookswelove.net/carlson-s-l

 

WHEN I DON'T WRITE AND WHEN I DO  by S. L. Carlson

I am an author. I have been telling stories since I was a kid, with captive audiences wherever I could find them – siblings, cousins, friends, gullible adults. I have been writing down my stories for decades. I love writing. I love observing. My husband once bought me a T-shirt which read, “Be Careful! You may end up in my Novel.” <Raising my eyebrows about the truth in this.>

 

One time I was in Mississippi helping with hurricane relief. While our crew was taking a break, one man came up to me leaning against the tree shade to ask what I was scribbling: writing gobs of notes on things I saw, heard, and felt. It was all for potential future stories. He seemed relieved, as he thought I was some sort of spy keeping an eye on the group. Not quite sure if he was kidding or not. Not quite sure he was wrong, either.

One neighbor used to greet me from across the street with a dog howl. It wasn’t until after said neighbor returned from a long trip, that I told him I missed his howling greeting. He looked so hurt. “It wasn’t a howl,” he informed me. “It was a train whistle.” <Raised eyebrows again.> Yes, that one actually got rewritten into a book.

 

I write when I get an earworm – an idea, a conversation, an entire scene unfolding, etc. That used to happen at night until my husband complained of the clicking of the pen. When I switched to a pencil, he complained of the bed jiggling when I scritch-scratched on the paper on the nightstand. I then used to wake and type on the computer, but these days I mostly just sleep.

 

I love the pathways of outside adventures and experiences.

Subbing something (up to 3,000 words) once a month to my critique group keeps me writing during my darkest or most hurting times. We’ve been together a long time, and I’d hate to disappoint.

 

Three on-line writing groups I’ve been involved with are NaNoWriMo, the Goodreads 750 Group, and a now defunct BIW. That doesn’t count the several online critique groups I’ve been in for periods of time. I’ve done six rough drafts of novels during National Novel Writing Month, trying to keep up with the 1,667 words per day.  In Goodreads, all writers who sub less than 750 words to topic, then vote on the best story of the month. I won 1^st place several months in a row, so that it got boring and I stopped; but I will probably do that exercise again. I loved the personal encouragement of Book In a Week. You set a goal of so many pages to write, and then the first week of the month, tried to reach that goal.

 

I find it quite difficult to write while on vacation, or the holidays, or playing with the grandkids, or when there are major house or yard projects going on, or a tornado, or when there’s a pandemic (and moving in the midst of that), or when I get injured. These past 3 years have been difficult on the writing side of life.

 

Yes, there are several reasons why not to write, and I’m sure other writers can continue that list. But there are many more, very pleasant reasons why I do write. Now…off to revise chapter 16, which I sent to my critique group last week. Will our hero be able to save his village against all odds?

 

S. L. Carlson Blog & Website: https://authorslcarlson.wordpress.com

BWL Inc. Publisher Author Page: https://www.bookswelove.net/carlson-s-l

Lights Aglow by Helen Henderson

Windmaster Legend by Helen Henderson

Click the cover for purchase information

For the upteenth time, I'm changing my mind about this month's post. I wanted something dealing with traditions, but everything I came up with has changed. There are the unofficial traditions such as raking leaves before Thanksgiving dinner, or watching the Tournament of Roses or Macy's Thanksgiving parades. Football games on television or at the local high school field fulfilled those interests; while some of us preferred the National Dog Show. My Scotch blood cheered when the Scottish Deerhound won best in show even as my sentimenal side had rooted for the collie to win.

In disclosure:
Bumps was not an award-winning collie,
but he did have a way of herding sheep and children on my childhood farm.
After hours of brushing, there are no burrs in his coat.

The gatherings of 20 people from our various family households were reduced to those who live under the one roof. During those larger gatherings, I was in charge of the children's table. And yes, it was a table set aside just for the younger members who ranged in age from 18 months or so to teens. A rite of passage was when you got to go from the picnic table and low benches to a real chair at the adult table.

Not saying things haven't changed before 2020. Locations for the holiday gatherings varied depending on the family's situation at the time. If someone had a newborn or young children, they were given the option to host or visit, whichever they thought was easiest for them. Other times we gathered at the home of the oldest member so that they wouldn't have to travel. Then when the time came, to avoid adding to the holiday emotions with those raised by an empty chair, we would gather up those who could no longer drive and take them with us. Over the years, seating has been on living room couches, around dining room tables (after we filled our plates buffet style in the kitchen ) or sitting on the steps leading to the upper floor. All meals were potluck with everyone contributing their specialty. And if someone couldn't cook anymore we made sure they felt like they were contributing even if they only brought the dinner rolls or a plate of cheese and crackers to nibble while visiting. However, for the majority of the years, the host household was chosen based on one thing-- who had the most room.

Image by Vuong Viet from Pixabay

In the dark days of winter, whether from white bulbs outlining the roof or covering trees and bushes, or luminaries lining sidewalks, lights help brighten moods and are a tradition onto themselves. In the spirit of reflection and giving thanks, a note about another tradition of lights, the lantern rising festival from Windmaster Legend. Inspiration came from two events, the lantern float held annually on Memorial Day on Oʻahu’s south shore and the sky lantern festival of Taiwan. In one, lanterns are set afloat on the water in a personal and collective moment of remembrance and offering of gratitude to those who have gone before. In the other, sky lanterns are released into the night sky with people's wishes written on them. The one sky lantern launch I’ve seen in person combined both water and sky. A grieving family sent a single lantern aloft over the water in memorial of a loved one’s passing. I couldn’t see if it bore handwritten wishes or if only a picture of the loved one was carried skyward.

The Windmaster Legend festival has several traditions related to it. Local residents wrote note on the lantern itself. Some were thanks for a profitable year, while others were prayers for the one to come. Many were poignant remembrances of loved ones who had passed beyond the veil. The lanterns were sent aloft from the decks of ships just offshore so that the breezes could take the lights skyward. A necessary item because a lantern that caught fire before reaching the clouds would never be fulfilled.

On a lighter note the lantern rising had another pertinent connection to one of our world's winter holiday tradition -- a stolen kiss beneath the mistletoe. In the land of the Windmaster Novels, whether onboard a ship out on Botunn Loghes or watching from the shore, when lanterns fill the sky, a man—or woman can claim a kiss from anyone they chose.

You’ll have to read Windmaster Legend to see if the tradition was followed … and which of the two men in Pelra's life was the recipient.

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

As this is my last post of the year, a special wish. In the upcoming year may your dreams come true, and you once again fall in love with reading. Helen

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter.

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky and a retriever who have adopted her as one of their pack. 

Continuity by Helen Henderson

Windmaster Golem by Helen Henderson
Click the cover for purchase information.

The original inspiration for the title was the post,  My Grandmother by J. Q. Rose. It was expanded with the approach of the holiday season and the reflections and traditions that come with it. In many ways, I can blame (oops, I mean credit) my heritage for my writing in the fantasy genre. My mother and both grandmothers taught me a love of reading. I grew up knowing the simple life of a farm and my favorite hangout was the county library. Yet I had the contrast of technology due to the aviation flight crew career of my father.

The past may give way to the present and form the basis for continuity into the future, but not always. My one grandmother was a skilled seamstress. However that particular talent skipped not one, but two generations on one branch of the family tree. As you read through my books you might notice that I don't focus on food. Grammy B gave us her Old World recipes. While there have been many attempts over the years to re-create her halupka (filled cabbage), some dishes, especially lokse and pierogies just don't measure up. So in my writing I turned to another part of my heritage and the themes of duty and honor due to my kin (and kin-in-laws) who served in uniform from the Civil War to the present time.

A heritage recipee- Lokse

 

A question I worry about when writing these posts is not only sharing too much personal information, but also too much about my books, an issue with a series. Sometimes the characters can seem as real as the person next door. They have their own lives and family history and possibly their own version of continuity. However, their full story can give away a book's ending.

To celebrate the release of Windmaster Golem, let me introduce Kiansel, the lovely lady on the cover at the beginning of the post. I first heard of her when her father sent her away to protect her from the attention of the leader of the false oracle's mercenary troops. Now years (and books later,) she is an instructor at the Temple of Givneh, which is now led by her brother.

And for the future? Magic calls Kia with its siren lure. She has an intolerable decision for to study the Way of magic, means abandoning her heritage, her family, and rejecting the teachings of the temple. I don't like spoilers, so I'm not telling what the future holds.

~Until next month, stay safe and read. Helen

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
 

Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter.
 

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky and a feisty who have adopted her as one of their pack.

New Year’s Resolutions, Tweets, and Confessions for 2019 By Connie Vines

Personally, I don't make many New Year's resolutions because I always end up being one of the 80 percent of people who abandon them by February. It's hard to change habits. and these Twitter tweets prove I’m not the only one.

And, if your New Year's resolution is to simply keep your head above the water in 2019, you're in good company.  I’ve shared a medley of Tweets I found on Twitter Moments.

1. Abby Russell: My New Year’s Resolution this year is to finally throw away those three empty Domino’s Pizza boxes sitting in the bottom of my fridge. This was my resolution last year, too, but 2019 feels like a year for change.

2. Monika:  My new year's resolution is to pretend i have the willpower to magically fix all my problems   **Monika I’m adopting this resolution as my own!”*

3. Introverted Life:  New Year’s Resolution: avoid getting talked to by a stranger while waiting in a line of any kind.

If you I’d to lower the bar for your New Year’s Resolutions, these sure-fire successes:

4 Pet more dogs.


5 Drink more coffee.

However, I must confession that I, too, am a repeat offender when it comes to multiple attempts at New Year Resolutions.

• To maintain the illusion of control, I purchase numerous calendars/journals (because my IPhone calendar isn’t always accurate).  To date I have in my possession: a purse size Academic Calendar for my purse, a small calendar for my car, and an elaborate calendar/journal from my husband, “She Lives Life in Her Own Little Fairy Tale” which he purchased at B&N (which I carry with me everywhere).  He also gave me a wall calendar for my office (Yes, he is an enabler), a back-up wall calendar—just in case (of what, I’m not certain).

• Obviously, I have a bit of a stationary fixation too.  I have stationary, notebooks and binders, pens and pencils that match.  No, I do not have every color available (I do have self-control, after all). Pink, Purple, and light blue (Cinderella Blue). Since I reside in SoCal, my office has many Disneyland items (photos of which I’ve share on Instagram, FB, and my website). 

• 2019 is the year I’m evoking Tweet #2 (wink).  Since I’m on Winter Break (and if you’ve studied Numerology, I’m entering a # 7 year—Creative Expression) I’ve begun to sort and organize my house—currently I’m my office.

• I’ve also managed to ‘confine’ myself at the gym for 45 minutes 3 – 4 evenings a week.  I’ve substituted green tea for 1/3 of my day coffee consumption. And, I no longer eat “Green Bean Casserole” at family gathering/ church/ school potlucks—nor do I make excuses. Oh, I also ordered a daily food tracking (purse size logs) because I can’t always use my iPhone to log into my Fitness Pal app.

Purchase Connie's eBoosk/ Books

Do you have any confessions about failed Resolutions? 

Any pending New Year’s Resolutions you’d like to share?

Warm Wishes and Happily-Ever-After in 2019,

Connie

KRAMPUS CHRISTMAS

An antidote to our relentless diet of Christmas sugar is the Krampus, a German/Austrian devil who comes to winter celebrations, usually on December 5, which is also Saint Nicholas' day. For a very long time in Bavaria and in the territories of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, he’s been the dark companion to their Good Spirit of the season. He’s doubtless a good deal older than the red-coated, croizier-toting saint, with his horns, furry pelt, and long tongue. Krampus arrives to punish bad children, right beside Saint Nicholas, in, some commentators have noted, a kind of bad cop/good cop routine. He carries chains which he shakes and a bunch of birch twigs, with which he threatens punishment.

 

Old Christmas cards from the region, especially from the 19th Century, show Krampus—sometimes portrayed as a female—delivering spankings in classic bondage attire. However, I believe that Krampus is in essence, male, particularly because of the enormous horns, trophies taken from the iconic mountain Steinbock, which are usually part of the headgear. Surviving from ancient times, despite more than a thousand years of intervening Christianity, there’s still a magnificent horned god who dances in German streets during this cold, sunless time. 

 Nature, in the form of the Teutonic Goddess, Mother Perchta, is no longer fertile, no longer generous to her children. The Wheel of the Year has turned. Now she whips the land with winds, ice, and snow. The birch is sacred to her, and is represented by the rune Berkana.  Are these demonic creatures wielding birch rods her minions?
Are they  avengers--or the agents--of Evil? After all, they are said to carry bad children away in sacks for late-night snacks! 
Are they chasing Winter away or are they the pain and cruelty of Winter itself?

The answers to these questions were lost a very long time ago. 

For the second part of my “Magic Colours” series I wanted to create a shape-shifting creature who lived in the Austrian Alps. Krampus came at once to mind, so I decided to use his legend, changing it here and there to fit my ideas about the character. 

In Black Magic, a disillusioned young soldier, Goran, returns home from the Napoleonic wars to find his family estate semi-abandoned in the wake of more than a decade of European war. During the "year without summer" (1816) thousands of  people in the northern hemisphere sickened and starved, for beside the cold and dark, there were torrential rains. (We now know this was caused by the cataclysmic eruption of the Tambora volcano.) In the alps, all the extra precipitation caused devastating avalanches.

Home at last, depressed, and aimlessly wandering, Goran stumbles into the seasonal celebrations of his tenants. It appears to be a traditional Summer Solstice party, celebrating the start of a warm and sunny year. There is food, beer and the possibility of sex, but after the talk, the drinking and dancing, he finds, too late, that he's walked into a trap. His tenant farmers have their own ideas about what their newly returned young lord can do for them.

When he awakens the next day, he finds himself changed into a sort of local god, not only the horny talisman of fertility, but an avenger of wrongs, a caretaker of man and beast. Now another link in an ageless chain, Goran will “wear the horns” and share, whether he likes it or not, the life of all who dwell on his  mountain.


~Juliet Waldron
 http://www.julietwaldron.com/

BLACK MAGIC is available at these sites:

http://bookswelove.net/authors/waldron-juliet/

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/black-magic-21/

 http://amzn.com/B00P9TW046/

https:/ https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-blackmagic-1858985-

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/563523/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-magic-juliet-waldron/1122410281?ean=2940152058475/