Meeting A Lady by Helen Henderson

Exiled to distant posts, given impossible challenges
 and threatened by an unknown assailant,
Iol and Pelra only have the hope of a future together to sustain them.
But can their love survive the accusation of witchcraft?

https://books2read.com/windmaster-legend/

First, since I haven’t been here for a while, I want to reintroduce myself. I am Helen Henderson, the author of the Windmaster Novels. I like to hang out with mages and fly with dragons.

But we are not here to talk about me. One of the fun things to do as a writer is to visit with our characters. Today’s guest is Lady Pelra of the House of Pirri from the third book of the Windmaster Novels, Windmaster Legend. In most of my novels, a myth or legend is told and Pelra is the subject of one of them. She was first introduced in Windmaster (Book 1 of the Windmaster Novels) when Captain Ellspeth told the tale of a pair of star-crossed lovers.

Q:  Your title says you are from the House of Pirri. Can you tell us a little more?

Pelra –Pirri is one of several trading companies. Each house is ruled by a guild master and a council of up to ten senior officers. We refer to them by their seat number of which the guild master is First Seat. The current First Sea is my mentor. I studied under him since my parents sent me to apprentice with the House of Pirri when I not much more than ten turns.

Q:  Your rank of sub-commander is equivalent to that of the first officer of a sailing vessel. Have you ever sailed, and which do you prefer, land or sea?

Pelra – I had to complete a solo sail up the coast to earn my ensign’s stripes. I’ve also served as first officer on a trans-ocean sail to the island continent of Tarekus.

A smile brightened her eyes.

It was the most successful trading trip the House of Pirri ever had and I was in charge of the negotiations and running the caravans. But, I do admit I don’t particularly like the deep blue and prefer to run land caravans rather than voyage the southern seas.

Q:  I’ve heard you’re an accomplished musician. Do you also sing?

Pelra – A quick chuckle was her initial response. NO, I don’t sing. While on night sentry duty on one of my first trading trips, I followed instructions and sang to the hauler beasts to keep them complacent. Instead they stampeded. It took a day to recover them all. According to the Bard Guild who are the masters of all aspects of all culture including music, history, and law, there is a timbre in my voice the animals don’t like. So now when on night duty, I play a flute and the beasts are happy. When there is enough space to bring a small guitar, I use it to compose little ditties and play it for the men under my command to help pass the long, cold nights.

Q:  Care to tell us about any special friends and how you met?

Pelra – I count Conall, a journeyman of the Bard Guild, as a friend. I don’t have the time to dedicate to formal musical training so he has helped me with private instruction in instruments and composition.

Eirik is the son of the rulers of Clan Daimh and one day when his parents retire to their cottage will take over as chieftain. I met Eirik when I spent a cold season at his clanhold providing insight and training on contracts. Conall was also there and the three of us spent many hours together.

Q:  Who is Iol?

Pelra – Ensign Iol is a member of a competitor, the House of Cszabo. Unlike me he loves the deep blue and someday hopes to have a vessel of his own. We met on the night of the summer captain’s while I waited in the gardens to take the stage. The bard who was supposed to perform the special composition I wrote for the event was stranded on the wrong side of a flooded river and couldn’t make it. No other bard was available. Conall said Iol was the only one with sufficient skill to perform the piece, so he conscripted him to replace the missing member of our trio. He also interferred when I rejected the advances of Leod, another member of my trading house.

Q:  I’ve heard whispers about you and magic.

Pelra – Eirik’s mother is also the mother of Dewin, Archmage of the World. I escorted her to the Isle of Mages so she could watch her grand-daughter take the first step to becoming a mage. However, I am NOT a wizard. I worked too hard, fought against too many obstacles, to achieve my rank to throw it away for the lure of magic.

Thank you, Lady Pelra, for sharing with us. I hope everyone will consider adding Windmaster Legend to their to-be-read pile to learn more about you.

~till next time, Helen

https://bookswelove.com/authors/henderson-helen-fantasy-romance/

https://helenhenderson.author.blogspot.com

My Best Job Ever

I'm blogging today at Books We Love Insider Blog. Hope you enjoy the post.

My Best Job Ever by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

Apart from a love of writing, many authors have come from a background of teaching, and specifically teaching English, or working in some capacity with publishing or books. So, it is no wonder that from August 1972 until August 1985, I worked for Alan and Joan Tucker, owners of The Bookshop, in Station Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.

During those years I have no idea of the number of books I handled. I sometimes unpacked stock for 

the children’s shop, the adult shop and, very exciting as you never knew what treasures you might find, the second-hand shop. These dedicated shops were all managed from the hub of operations, the old Station Master’s House. Here, in a room with large windows and bare board floor, surrounded by bookshelves (what else) and that dry-as-dust smell peculiar to old books, I unpacked, re-invoiced, and repacked school textbooks for over two hundred school accounts.   

 

I was fortunate enough to get the job as, the first time around, I turned it down. I was looking for something that would not interfere with my family life and I thought this would fit the bill. Invoicing schoolbooks sounded like just the thing. I’d get school holidays off, right? Wrong. That was when the school supply department of the business was busiest. Teachers submitted their book orders right at the end of the summer term or crammed them in (we neeeeed them now!) before the autumn term began. The timing did not work for me. I thanked Mr. Tucker for the opportunity and went home.

Two weeks later everything changed. I received a letter from Tucker’s offering me the position. Would I be interested in going to the office to discuss my hours? As I had just hired a new child-minder, I phoned to make an appointment for a second interview. How could I be so lucky? My hours during the school holidays were from 9 am to 1 pm, Monday to Friday, ideal for me and my child-minder who was also looking for more hours. During term-time, I worked from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm, perfect for dropping my kids off and picking them up from school. There was never a problem with making up hours on the weekend if we needed time off in the week because a kid was sick or we needed to make an appointment for the doctor, dentist, or whatever.

The Bookshop, Station Road, Stroud
Photo credit: Sylvia Giles

Those were golden years. My bosses and my colleagues, as a group we were nicknamed the Tuckers’ Angels, were more like family. We could do each other’s work when necessary, knew each other’s ups and downs, knew each other’s children who all came to work with us at some time or another, and all the while the businesses hummed along like clockwork. Most importantly for me, I had a dedicated group with whom I could discuss my writing ambitions.

Alan and Joan Tucker are now deceased, Joan in 2013 and Alan in 2017 at the grand age of 83 years old. The Station Master’s House became a funeral director’s premises. For a while, the children’s bookshop was an estate agent’s office and the adult bookshop has long been a taxi business. The business may be long gone, but those years were special and will always be lodged in my memory.

Victoria Chatham

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