Book Quote Wednesday

Hello my lovelies.  Today's word is TIGHT and it's contained in the excerpt below from Prologue in The Matchmaker's Mare.  In the distant past. Rhiannon flees on her trusty mare, to escape an arranged marriage, hoping to find her gypsy lover, Sion Sienco.

A snippet from a review on my recent Blog Tour: 

(Read wholeReview HERE)

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Welsh Myths and Legends Twm Sion Cati

Today's legend is a day late since I was hosting a fellow author yesterday.

The male romance lead in The Matchmaker's Mare,  my latest release, is a horse trainer, Glyn Phillips, who not only love horses, but also sharing Welsh myths and legends (a bit like me then!😄)

This is one of the tales that he mentions.

It's not just Sherwood Forest that has a famous outlaw who stole from the rich (although it's not confirmed that he gave his ill gotten gains to the poor, but we'll gloss over that.)

As a child, growing up in the area of west Wales where he lived, I was enthralled by the tales of Twm Siôn Cati. (Tom son of Cathi). He  may have become a legendary figure in Welsh folklore. but it seems he actually existed. Thomas Jones was of noble blood, born around 1530, supposedly the illegitimate son of the squire of Porthyffynnon (Fountain Gate), near Tregaron, mid west Wales and Catherine (Cati), the illegitimate daughter of one of the ancestors of Syr John Wynn of Gwydir. (a rather immoral lot some of these noble families), although it is actually more likely he was  the son of a farmer, Sion (John) son of David ap Madog. It was  common practice in rural Wales, traditionally a matriarchal society, for children with common names to be nicknamed after their mothers, so he became known as Twm Sion Cati.

Twm Sion Cati earned his reputation, roaming the rugged west and mid regions of Wales, relieving well to do travellers of their riches. It is thought he had some formal education and  was a talented poet. He appears to have progressed from being a a common thief and highwayman into quite a crafty and clever conman.
 
 According to one well known tale he once stole a fine chestnut mare from a farmer named Powell. Twm then painted the animal grey and sold it back to the farmer - who didn't find out how he'd been cheated until rain washed the paint off the horse!

Another tale tells how Twm stayed an inn overnight and learnt that a certain highwayman planned to  rob him the following day. He had a large sum of money with him and allowed the rumour to   get around that he had the money hidden in the pack saddle of his horse.The next day, Twm rode an old, broken winded nag along the track which the highwayman frequented. When the robber accosted him, Twm tossed the pack saddle in the middle of a pool. While the highwayman waded into the pool to fetch it, Twm  switched horses and galloped off on the highwayman's own horse, a fine, swift stallion.

Another time a shopkeeper tried to cheat him by selling him a pot with a hole in it, while claiming the it was sound. Twm dropped the pot over the man's head, saying that there was certainly a hole in it or he would not have been able to fit such a large thing as the shopkeeper's head inside it. He then made off with the other pots!

He was reputed to be compassionate though, and to have avoided hurting those from whom he stole. It is said he was able to secure his victim by firing an arrow which would pin the rider to his saddle, rendering him unable to move, but unharmed.

Twm often hid from his arch enemy the Sheriff of Carmarthen in a cave on the slopes of the rugged, densely wooded Dinas Hill, about 12 miles north of Llandovery, close to the village of Rhandirmwyn. Beneath the cave, the mountain river Pysgotwr joins the larger River Towy and thunders through the rocky gorge below. These days Dinas Hill is on RSPB nature reserve and  can be visited by tourists and visitors interested in the legend of Twm Sion Catti.

When Elizabeth 1st came to the throne he was pardoned and returned from Geneva where he had fled to escape the law. He served as steward for the lordship of Caron and later a Justice of The Peace and geneologist, becoming wealthy and marrying an heiress widow. becoming much loved and respected until his death in 1609.

There are several books written about this loveable rougue, including Lynn Hughes' book about Twm, entitled 'Hawkmoor', which was serialised by the BBC in back in 1977.

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the death and life of Lucy Westenra

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Today is my stop for Rosie Fiore and her book. Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of the first paranormal books I read, so Im excited to learn about this new take on the story. Here's a little about Rosie's novel:

The Death and Life of Lucy Westenra

What desperate steps will Lucy Westenra take to save her own life? Hillingham in Hampstead, once the home of the well-to-do Westenra family, is now divided into apartments. When teacher Kate Balcombe sets about renovating her flat in the attic, she finds an unsent letter written 130 years before by Lucy, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the house.

You may know Lucy from Bram Stoker’s Dracula... a pretty, flirtatious girl with three ardent suitors, she is Mina Harker’s best friend. When Lucy falls mysteriously ill and dies, Van Helsing identifies her as a victim of the vampire.

But what if the monsters who hunt Lucy are much closer to home?

As Kate begins to investigate Lucy’s story, she meets James Harker, Mina’s great-great grandson, and together they uncover a long-hidden story of deception and murder.

Purchase Links https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Life-Lucy-Westenra-ebook/dp/B0F3Q4GZK6/ https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Lucy-Westenra-ebook/dp/B0F3Q4GZK6/

Author Bio –

Rosie Fiore is the author of eight published novels, including Wonder Women, After Isabella and What She Left, as well as The After Wife, written as Cass Hunter. She is a teacher of creative writing and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow. She lives in North London with her family, and can frequently be found wandering on the Heath or haunting a churchyard.

Social Media Links – 

https://x.com/rosiefiore 

https://www.facebook.com/rosiefiorewriter 

https://bsky.app/profile/rosiefiore.bsky.social

Now for a little 'Question and Answer Session. (I do love finding out more about my author guests and their books

What made you make the shift from contemporary fiction to historical fiction?

 I’ve always been an avid reader of historical fiction. I love a dual timeline story, like those Kate Morton writes, where we look for the echoes of the past with a modern-day character. I wanted to have a go at a Dracula retelling, and in doing so, absolutely fell I love with research. I write the first draft in lockdown, when I had all the time I the world to go down all sorts of online rabbit holes. It’s such fun to add depth and colour to a story with things you have learned.

What part of the research did you enjoy most?

I bought a Victorian A-Z, which shows maps of London. I spent hours with a magnifying glass, planning where my characters might walk, or live, or visit. Knowing modern London well, it’s fascinating to find how names and places have stayed the same and changed. For example, the rather plainly named Regent’s Park Road in Finchley, near where I live, was once called Ducksetter’s Lane. Much more exciting!

Lucy Westenra in your version of the story is feisty and feminist and acts in quite a modern way. Have you given her twenty-first century views in a Victorian story?

I was really careful about that: I wanted her to think and behave like a young woman of her time. So I did lots of research into what books and magazines she might read to think in the way she does. It seemed within the realms of possibility that she might pick up a copy of the North American Review in March 1894, and read Sarah Grand’s famous article, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question”: 

“Man deprived us of all proper education, and then jeered at us because we had no knowledge. He narrowed our outlook on life so that our view of it should be all distorted, and then declared that our mistaken impression of it proved us to be senseless creatures. He cramped our minds so that there was no room for reason in them, and then made merry at our want of logic.”

Stoker references this article in Dracula, and suggests that Mina and Lucy may have read it. It made me feel that the version of Lucy I was writing really could have existed and been as brave and forthright as she is.

Do readers need to have read Dracula to enjoy the book?

I think everyone should read Dracula! Seriously… it’s so brilliant, and it’s very modern. There are Kodak cameras, phonographs and typewriters and speedy train travel across Europe. You don’t need to have read it to enjoy The Death & Life of Lucy Westenra, but there are so many little easter eggs which will enhance your enjoyment if you have read it!

Tell us something about Dracula and Bram Stoker we don’t know!

Dracula is the most adapted story ever: more than 700 film versions and 1200 stage, comic and other adaptations! Many people also don’t know Bram Stoker was a theatre manager at the Lyceum Theatre in London, where the Lion King is performed! There’s a plaque with his name on it at the back of the theatre.

Thank you so much, Rosie, that was fascinating. I'm off to purchase your book!

Check out another of my series 'Welsh Myths and Legends' here tomorrow.