Imperfect Heroines: Aridela

Today, author and guest blogger Rebecca Lochlann talks about about her Imperfect Heroine, Aridela, from her debut novel, The Year-God's Daughter.

To view the YouTube book trailer, click here.

For time beyond memory, Crete has sacrificed its king to ensure good harvests, ward off earthquakes, and please the Goddess. Men compete in brutal trials to win the title of Zagreus, the sacred bull-king, even though winning means they'll die in a year.

Two brothers from predatory Mycenae set out to thwart the competition and their deaths as they search for exploitable weaknesses in this rich, coveted society.

Hindering their goal is the seductive and fearless Cretan princess, Aridela, an uncommon woman neither brother can resist, and ancient prophecies, which predict that any threat to her people will spark Goddess Athene's terrible wrath in a calamity of unimaginable consequences.

(Want to win a paperback copy of The Year-god's Daughter? Enter the giveaway at Goodreads, going on now!)

*****
"I would like to explore my heroine, Aridela, rather than one of my heroes, for one reason: current stories seem wont to portray women as flawless, lacking even the perfectly normal “flaw” of not having as much physical strength as males. In Aridela, I wanted to create a protagonist who is strong, yes, but real and believable. I wanted to show how she acquires her strength, rather than simply shoving her out there already formed, as if by magic.

Child of privilege, daughter to the Queen of Crete, she has never known want or suffering. She has never experienced betrayal, humiliation, subterfuge or fear. Renowned tutors educate her. She learns how to discern truth from lies in the Chamber of Suppliants. Ten years old at the book’s outset, Aridela is an indulged, sheltered princess. Adventurous, bold, and charismatic, Aridela is inherently ready, yet profoundly unprepared, to take the throne of Crete. The people adore her, her mother dotes on her; she impresses even the hard-nosed royal counselors. Like many of Crete’s citizens, Aridela reveres beauty and beautiful things. She doesn’t realize how shallow she is, because most around her are the same. The reader might be excused for thinking this child will grow up to be a spoiled, independent woman, emphasis on “spoiled.” But naturally, I wanted more for her.

When Aridela meets and crushes on Menoetius, it’s easy to understand why. He’s a gorgeous, charming, seventeen year old foreigner with a delightful accent. What ten-year-old girl wouldn’t fall for a guy like that? But he goes home. Aridela grows up and hankers after another youth—no surprise that the object of her affection is a dazzling, celebrated bull leaper. It’s when the warriors of the mainland converge upon Crete, determined to win the Games and become the next bull-king, that real challenges begin chewing away her comfort zone. Chrysaleon, the arrogant prince of Mycenae, introduces Aridela to passion. Again, it’s easy to see what draws her: he’s good looking and a prince. It takes her awhile to realize the guard he’s brought with him is none other than her first love, Menoetius, but a profoundly different Menoetius than the boy she knew. No longer beautiful, he is the first challenge Divine Athene sets in her path. How will she deal with this angry, wounded man? She has no experience with the kind of pain he’s suffered. Harpalycus, another mainland prince, introduces her to cruelty and shame. Harpalycus is Aridela’s first exposure to humiliation, to fear, to a sense of her weakness. He and the other mainland competitors lay bare the encroaching danger of the world outside her safe island paradise.

Aridela, a coddled princess, faces challenges that will either destroy her or incorporate the necessary components needed by all rulers from antiquity to the present: humility, caution, empathy, and compassion. Immortal Athene takes her child into the blackest pit where life no longer holds value. From that place, Aridela will survive and recover, honed by adversity, or become what her oppressors want. Either way, she will be very different from the child who brazenly entered the ring and joyously danced with a wild bull."

The Year-god's Daughter can be found here:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords
OmniLit

Rebecca Lochlann's blog/website

*****
Bio:
Rebecca fell in love with the stories and myths of the ancient Greeks at a very early age. It took about fifteen years to research the Bronze Age segments of the series, and encompassed rare historical documents, mythology, archaeology, ancient writing, ancient religions, and volcanology.

"The Year-god's Daughter" is her first novel: Book One of "The Child of the Erinyes" Series. Its sequel, "The Thinara King," will follow in a few months.

Though she cannot remember actually living in the Bronze Age, the Middle Ages, the Victorian era, and so on, she believes in the ability to find a way through the labyrinth of time, and that deities will sometimes speak to us in dreams and visions, gently prompting us to tell their forgotten stories.
*****

Thanks for sharing, Rebecca!

Happy reading,
Gemi

Giveaways for The Honor Due a King

I almost forgot to mention (*head/desk*) two giveaways that are running now:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Honor Due a King

by N. Gemini Sasson

Giveaway ends November 27, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Check out the Goodreads giveaway (signed paperback copy) above or hop on over to Unusual Historicals (paperback or Kindle copy)!

If you want to put a paperback of The Honor Due a King on your Christmas list, Amazon.com still has it at a discount for $12.25 right now. No guarantees on how long that will last, though.

Huge thanks to all those readers who have put The Honor Due a King on Kindle's Top 100 Bestsellers' List for Historical Fiction this past month.

Tomorrow, tune in for guest blogger, author Rebecca Lochlann, as she talks about one of her characters from her new novel, The Year-god's Daughter.

Happy reading,
Gemi

Imperfect Heroes: Archer Hamilton

(Artwork credit: B. Lloyd)

Today, novelist V.R. Christensen is jumping in and telling us about her Imperfect Hero: Archer Hamilton from her book, Of Moths and Butterflies.

Blurb:

Archer Hamilton is a collector of rare and beautiful insects. Gina Shaw is a servant in his uncle’s house. Clearly out of place in the position in which she has been discovered, she becomes a source of fascination . . . and curiosity.

A girl with a blighted past and a fortune she deems a curse, Gina has lowered herself in order to find escape from her family and their scheming designs. But when she is found, the stakes suddenly become dire.

All Gina wants is the freedom to live her life as she would wish. All her aunts want is the money that comes with her. But there is more than one way to trap an insect. An arranged marriage might turn out profitable for more parties than one.

Mr. Hamilton is about to make the acquisition of a lifetime. But will the price be worth it? Can a woman captured and acquired learn to love the man who has bought her?

*****

"Perfect people are boring. I cannot understand them (because I don’t know any, myself) and I cannot sympathise with them. I do, however, have a deep appreciation for those who strive to be good, despite their weaknesses, despite their downfalls. A hero who is too good is unbelievable, and yet...one that is too flawed...well, they are difficult to root for. It’s hard to find that balance.

I acquired, several years ago, a very battered collection of George Meredith’s works, and I’ve been trying to read my way through them. He writes such amazing women, strong and good, if sometimes rebellious, which I like. That was quite a flaw in the Victorian era, female independence, you know. And his heroes? They are equally flawed. Perhaps more so. Richard Feverel (The Ordeal of Richard Feverel) for example is too obedient and it becomes a tragic flaw. And yet you follow him with rapt fascination toward and into that tragedy. Evan Harrinton, on the other hand, is what they call a ‘managed man’. His elder sister tells him what to do and where to go and whom to love and what to make of his life. And for the most part he does it. And when he doesn’t want to do it, he wallows around feeling sorry for himself and wondering why he cannot get up the gumption to stand up to her. I found him difficult to sympathise with. Perhaps because I’m a woman with a fiercely independent spirit. But it is, nevertheless, a truism that those who must fight for what they want appreciate it most, while those by nature blessed rarely take full advantage of their opportunities. At any rate, Evan was a difficult book to engage in.

And so I knew, when it came time for me to write of my own ‘managed man’ that I had to walk a fine line.

Archer Hamilton is young and he has much of youthful ambition and willfulness about him. And yet he doesn’t always use these to the best effect. He is controlled, manipulated by his uncle who has raised him, and who has raised him to believe he will inherit...if he observes his duty. And chiefest of his duties is to marry a fortune. This is all well enough until he meets the unfortunate Miss Shaw, who he later learns is a servant in his uncle’s house. He cannot marry her, and yet he is irresistibly drawn to her. He considers, and very seriously, breaking with his uncle over the matter, but then...he has no money of his own. He is powerless.

Miss Shaw, as it turns out, is not the penniless misfortunate she would like people to believe her, and when it is discovered she’s actually the unwilling beneficiary of a sizable fortune, Archer’s uncle arranges their marriage. Archer does not object, in fact quite the reverse, but the blessing of having the woman he wants comes with an enormous price. He is now his uncle’s puppet. Sir Edmund has seized the money and taken control of everything, and Archer is helpless now to do anything for himself. Neither has he the respect of his wife. And without this, perhaps the most important thing of all, he has nothing.

Archer is not entirely without strengths, however. From his mother he learned the value of earning the love and respect of others, which has been his primary motivation in remaining loyal to his uncle. Sir Edmund might, should Archer manage to please him, be the father he never had. More than anything, though, he must grow up, something he has so far not bee required to do, with everything he’s ever needed handed to him on a plate. He learns, and quickly, the value of worthwhile loyalty, and that family pride, money, tradition, the opinion of the masses, these mean nothing when you have not the love and respect of those most important to you. For these he learns to fight, whatever the cost.

As a work entirely fictional, it seems, and perhaps is, an impossible story. And yet there are parallels to modern life. The book is about the various forms of abuse, mostly (though not entirely) psychological, and about the barriers we allow to be placed in the paths to our own success and happiness. Those barriers are most often the direct results of our own flaws and weaknesses. We may blame them on circumstance or on others, but we always have a choice what we will do with the obstacles placed before us, and, too, with the opportunities. Sometimes they are not, after all, entirely different.

I am a champion of the underdog, of the honestly flawed. To have weaknesses and to be honest about them speaks of a person who is trying to do and be better, rather than pretending to be something he is not. I cannot help but respect that. It’s true we have too few heroes in this world, but I’ll take a flawed hero over a perfect one any day."

(Thanks so much V.R.!)


V.R. Christensen's web site

Blog

Facebook


Of Moths and Butterflies is available at:

Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords




Happy reading,
Gemi

Imperfect Heroes: James Douglas

In the coming month, I'll be featuring some Imperfect Heroes from fellow historical novelists. These are the guys who tip the scales, rise victorious from conflict and (hopefully) get the girl in the end, but they aren't without their flaws.

We could discuss the (exemplary) archetypal hero vs. the (contrary) antihero, but what about those protagonists who fall somewhere in between? As in reality, literary persona run the gradient of good and bad traits. For those of you who have read Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales, Uhtred Uhtredson of Bebbenburg, on first impression, is about as antihero as you can get. He's cynical, ruthless, and far from being the romantic type. But over the course of the stories, you see a clear pattern evolve - he keeps his word, he's courageous and he's more than willing to take action to get what he wants. And that makes him admirable.

Perfect heroes are boring. Let's face it - Prince Charming is very one dimensional. He's handsome, he's rich and his kiss alone can wake Sleeping Beauty from a seemingly interminable coma. All very convenient for our wilting maiden, but in fairy tales like that, it's external circumstances, not the characters themselves, that need to be overcome for a happy ending.

As we get older, we come to realize perfect people don't exist. And in real life, happy endings aren't always guaranteed. We can identify with flawed characters. We feel their angst, understand their fears. We root for them. Cheer when they succeed. Mourn when they fail.

When I started to write The Bruce Trilogy, the first chapter I put down was about ten-year old James Douglas, standing on the parapets of Berwick at his father's side, witnessing the assault on the castle and subsequent massacre led by the ruthless Edward I (Longshanks) of England. That event - the atrocities and his father's humbling submission - determined his life's path. It filled him with the want for retribution, hatred for his enemies, and the determination to put things right in the only way he knew how - by force of arms. Unfortunately, being so young then, he could only bide his time. How serendipitous that when he finally came of age, Robert the Bruce was making a bid for the crown of Scotland. He became King Robert's most loyal soldier and, renowned for his cunning and stealth, was given command at a young age.

Perfect? Hardly. He was right for the role he played in Scotland's history, but as a man he was an imperfect being. What few descriptions we have of him are that he spoke with a lisp and then not often. One gets the impression that he was shy with words, maybe even a little uncomfortable in social situations with the opposite sex, even though his male friendships were like Super-Glue bonds. I focused a lot on this awkwardness in The Honor Due a King, where his reticence keeps the woman he loves at bay, and his loyalty conflicts, more than once, with winning his life's love. Even as I was writing him, I kept wanting to grab him by the collar and say, "Speak up, man! How is anyone supposed to know how you feel if you keep pushing it back down inside you and denying it? You deserve her. Go for it, will you?"

In time, his loyalty and thirst for revenge became traits that even he began to question. Numerous times he recaptured, ruined and even razed his own boyhood home, Douglas Castle, because he did not want the English to have it.

As for the girl - well, I won't tell you if he gets her in the end. You'll have to read the book to find out.

P.S. The guy on the cover of The Bruce Trilogy books - that's James Douglas. But if you've been thinking all along that it's Robert the Bruce, please continue to do so.

Happy reading,
Gemi

Giveaway for The Bruce Trilogy over at Musings of a Book Junkie

If you still need to catch up on reading The Bruce Trilogy, Allison over at Musings of a Book Junkie is hosting a giveaway for one copy of a book from the series (The Crown in the Heather, Worth Dying For or The Honor Due a King), your choice of either Kindle or paperback (and yes, international entries are fine). Contest deadline is November 1st - so hurry over and add your name and contact info.!

To enter, click here.

Meanwhile, The Honor Due a King has stealthily found its way into the Top 100 for Historical Fiction on Kindle and I'm spending my days in 14th century England, working on the sequel to Isabeau. My desk is being overrun by research books, highlighters and Post-It notes.

Happy reading,
Gemi

Razing castles

Hi All!

I'm guest blogging over at Sarah Woodbury's on razing castles in the 14th century. Follow me over there and check out Sarah's incredible blog, filled with historical articles!

Best,
Gemi

The Honor Due a King (The Bruce Trilogy: Book III)

It's been a marathon week and as evidence to that, it's nearly noon and I'm still in yesterday's clothes. I just finished a backlog mountain of laundry at midnight last night and the grass has grown a foot since last mowing.

The end result is that the final installment in The Bruce Trilogy, The Honor Due a King, is now available as an e-book at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Smashwords (for Nook, Ipad, Sony and Kobo). I'll post here again when it's directly available from Barnes and Noble, etc. The paperback should be available on Amazon well before the end of the month.

As I caught up this morning with e-mails from readers to let them know about the new release, I realized how the interest has snowballed over the past year and I got a little... misty. It's been a challenging year, both frustrating and rewarding in turns. But nothing worth doing is ever easy. So whatever your dreams and goals are - go for them! There are people out there who like to squash dreams by criticizing, dismissing or talking bad about you. Forget about them. As Oprah says: "Surround yourself with angels."

Now, here's the blurb for The Honor Due a King:

In the dawn of a kingdom, loyalties and lies collide.

The truth will change England and Scotland forever.

In the triumphant aftermath of Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce faces unfamiliar battles. His wife Elizabeth, held captive in England for eight long years, has finally returned home to Scotland. With his marriage in ruin and hopes for an heir quickly fading, Robert vows to fulfill an oath from long ago—one which will not only bind his daughter to a man she does not love, but challenge the honor of his most trusted knight, James Douglas.

While Ireland falls to the Scots, King Edward II of England must contend with quarrelsome barons. Hugh Despenser is the one man who can give him both the loyalty and love he so desperately craves. War with France looms and Edward’s only chance at peace rests with his queen, Isabella—a woman who has every reason to seek her own revenge.

Tormented by his past, James returns to a solitary, ruthless life of raiding into the north of England. When a bewitching spy promises him the ultimate victory, James must weigh whether to unveil the truth and risk losing her love—or guard his secrets and forever preserve Robert’s faith in him.

Happy reading,
Gemi