Happy Monday

Apologies for being quiet for so long.  It's been a difficult few weeks but I'm hoping to be more active in the future. I'm looking forward to getting the release date for my latest book - The Matchmaker's Mare.

I was recently featured on Literal Literary. If you haven't seen it, here's the link:

https://literalliterary.com/author-features/author-spotlight-hywela-lyn/

(Several other authors you may recognise and their features are really interesting  - if you visit drop a line in the comments, always apppreciated!)

Instead of my usual Welsh Legends, I'll be doing a piece on Welsh Halloween Customs on Thursday.

If you're going to a Halloween party, or Trick or Treating, have fun!

THE MATCHMAKER'S MARE 

Who knew a haunted cottage and a stray pony could bring two wounded hearts together

 

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Black Dogs and Arthur's Seat - Welsh folklore.

Welcome to another episode of Welsh myths and legends

In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn  ("hounds of Annwn") were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh myth. They were associated with a form of the Wild Hunt, presided over by Gwynn ap Nudd. Christians came to dub these mythical creatures as "The Hounds of Hell" or "Dogs of Hell" and theorised they were therefore owned by Satan. However, the Annwn of medieval Welsh tradition is an otherworldly paradise and not a hell, or abode of dead souls.

They were associated with migrating geese, supposedly because their honking in the night is reminiscent of barking dogs.

The Cŵn Annwn also came to be regarded as the escorts of souls on their journey to the Otherworld.

The hounds are sometimes accompanied by a fearsome hag called Mallt-y-Nos, "Matilda of the Night". An alternative name in Welsh folklore is Cŵn Mamau ("Hounds of the Mothers").

Hunting grounds for the Cŵn Annwn are said to include the mountain of  Cadair Idris, where it is believed the howling of these huge dogs foretold death to anyone who heard them. The locals claim that the mountain is haunted, and that anyone who spends the night on top of Cadair Idris will wake up either a madman or a poet. Different legends surround the mountain and one of the earliest, claims that the giant Idris lived there. Three large stones rest at the foot of the mountain, and legend says that Idris got angry once and kicked them, sending them rolling down the mountainside.  Other Welsh legends state, however, that  King Arthur made his kingdom there, hence the name Cadair Idris: or the Seat of Idris. Being Welsh, of course I subscribe to this theory myself!

Cadair Idris



THE MATCHMAKER'S MARE

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Legacy of the Runes - Review and Highlight

Legacy Of The Runes

A bond that even time cannot break

Storm Berger has never forgiven himself for his younger sister Madison’s disappearance. Suspecting she’s travelled back to the ninth century in the footsteps of other family members, Storm can only make sure she’s safe by going after her. Raised unconventionally as her father’s only child, Freydis has never been content to simply accept her fate. So, when she’s promised in marriage to a tyrant, she’s
determined to find a way out of the arrangement. Help comes in the form of a mysterious and attractive stranger stranded on her island’s shores: Storm.   

The only way Freydis can truly be free is for Storm to marry her himself. But that would mean entwining lives that, until now, have been separated by centuries. . . 

Purchase Link–

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Legacy-Runes-spellbinding-conclusion-adored/dp/1472293258/

https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Runes-spellbinding-conclusion-adored/dp/1472293258/

Author Bio–

Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden–hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a VicePresident and former Chair and of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012)and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes.

LEGACY OF THE RUNES (time travel historical romance published by Headline Review 15thAugust 2024) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).

Social Media Links–

WEBSITE: http://www.christinacourtenay.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/christinacourtenayauthor?fref=ts

X: https://twitter.com/PiaCCourtenay

 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/ChristinaCourtenayAuthor/

BLUESKY; https://christinacourtenay@bsky.social/

MY REVIEW

I  have long been interested in learning about the Viking period and its legends, and really enjoyed Christina's previous books so it's a little sad that this will be the final one. Even if you have not read any of the previous  books, you will have no problem reading this as a 'standalone', although I suspect you will end up wanting to read the previous ones as well. As always, the author quickly drew me into the 9th Century and Nordic life in that era, and the developing romance between Storm and Freydis is beautifully written. The research that has obviously gone into this and the previous stories in the series makes the reader feel that they are right there with the main characters, and the novel is beautifully written with the ring of authenticity.

This is a fitting and very satisfying conclusion to the 'Runes' series, and the family reunion in the, Epilogue is the 'icing on the cake.'  Highly recommended.

Journey to the Dark Galaxy - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A mysterious signal from deep space. Mischief and murder at a military base.

Earth’s leaders are given an ultimatum: deliver Sam Sanderson to Logom, a planet known to house a hostile AI civilization, or face interplanetary war.

When Sam receives a strange letter drafting her into the Great Alliance for Interplanetary Affairs as a matter of international security, she expects to get answers. But instead of receiving a warm welcome, she finds that most people under the surface are distant, cold, and have built walls of silence. While grappling with her unique power and the consequences of her actions, she learns that the organization she’s supposed to serve has a chilling past and guards a dark secret.

While Earth’s scientists scramble to defend their world and the planetary alliance from the AI threat, Sam is forced on a mission to the Dark Galaxy. A place where dangers lurk, tensions run high, and things are never what they seem.

But will the journey change her forever?

As Sam desperately navigates a maze of lies, dark secrets, and finds herself at the heart of a dangerous journey, she discovers that it will take much more than her courage and power to save humanity.

Time’s running out, and there’s no turning back now…

From the award-winning author of Journey to the Hopewell Star comes the highly anticipated sequel that’s sure to be a thrilling ride!

Read an Excerpt

Sam Sanderson woke, her heart beating rapidly. A nightmare lingered—images of enemy alien

ships, of giant, black, egg-shaped pods descending from the sky. And inside them, those

menacing creatures. Like giant spherical jellyfish, a hybrid of AI machinery and organic flesh.

Their mutating bodies, slick black bubbling masses. Those gleaming metallic barbed tentacles

slicing through the air. They hovered on purple pockets of energy, racing to locate and destroy

their victims…

She rubbed her eyes, trying to erase the frightening images. Dense grogginess and a pounding

headache put her on edge—a raw, pulsating ache that only intensified as she took in her

strange surroundings.

This wasn’t home. At least, it wasn’t her home on Maple River Drive in Moncton, New

Brunswick, with her grandfather. And this wasn’t her comfortable bed. This confining, gloomy

room with drab white walls was definitely not her residence quarters at the military base, either.

So where was she?

She bolted upright. A bed, a sink, and a toilet. No windows. Where there should have been a

door, instead were thick, impenetrable iron bars.

She gulped, her mouth dry. She pulled her blanket closer, the damp coldness of the air

threatening to seep into her bones.

Her mouth gaped open in sudden awful awareness. This was no nightmare.

They’d captured her.

About the Author

Hannah D. State is an award-winning Canadian author. She graduated from McGill University with a BA and earned her MPL from Queen’s University. Hannah is bothered by inequality, violence, greed, complacency, snakes, entering a dark room, and not getting enough sleep. She enjoys writing about strong-willed characters who don’t fit the norm and who overcome great obstacles with perseverance, self-discovery, and help from others. Sometimes Hannah can’t keep up with her characters’ ideas and plans, so she takes breaks, drinks coffee, does yoga and tai chi, and takes nature walks to calm her mind and really listen. Journey to the Dark Galaxy is her second novel. You can find her author page on Facebook.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannahdstate/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20560327.Hannah_D_State
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahdstate/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Dark-Galaxy-Book-ebook/dp/B0CPB1ZM2P/

Read for free on Kindle Unlimited

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

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Of writers' Block and Welsh myths

Writers Block' strikes us all at times.  As a fantasy and Science Fiction writer, I often find reading old myths and legends will get the creative juices flowing again, and wake up the muse.  Reworking old legends to a modern setting is a good way to start, and I usually find a story will evolve in my mind which is completely different to the original idea that sparked it  and, while going off in a totally different direction, provides the 'starting point' and sometimes even a character, to build on.My native Wales is a land full of myths and legends, with  its fair share of ghosts, and is a rich source of ideas. Usually, it is the beautiful landscape itself, and the many pools, waterfalls and mountains that provide the settings for these stories, rather than old houses or castles.

My upcoming romance 'The Matchmaker's Mare' started that way and the hero, a horse dealer and trainer, loves re-telling the Welsh myths, himself.

Here are just a few tales of hauntings from various parts of the Principality. (Apologies in advance for some of the 'hard to pronounce Welsh names!)

THE HAUNTING OF LLANIDLOES

the Short Bridge, Llanidloes

A lady who could not rest in her grave because of her misdeeds haunted the locals until they could stand it no more.  Somehow they enticed her to shrink and enter into a bottle, after appearing in a good many hideous forms; but when she got into the bottle, it was corked down securely, and the bottle was cast into the pool underneath the Short bridge at Llanidloes, and there the lady was to remain until the ivy that grow up the buttresses should overgrow the sides of the bridge, and reach the parapet.  In the year 1848, the old bridge was blown up, and a new one built instead of it.

 

THE GHOST OF LLANDEGLA

A small river runs close to the secluded village of Llandegla, and in this mountain stream under a huge stone lies a wicked ghost. This is how he came to be there:

It  not is not known why Ffrith Farm was troubled by a ghost, but when the servants were busily engaged in cheese making the Spirit would suddenly throw earth or sand into the milk, and thus spoil the curds. The dairy was also visited by the ghost, and there he played havoc with the milk and dishes. He sent the pans, one after the other, around the room, and dashed them to pieces. The terrible doings of the ghost was a topic of general conversation in those parts.

The farmer offered a reward of five pounds to anyone who would lay the Spirit. One Sunday afternoon,  an aged priest visited the farm yard, and in the presence of a crowd of spectators exorcised the ghost, but without effect.

Llandegla  Bridge

The farmer then sent for Griffiths, an Independent minister at Llanarmon, who enticed the ghost to the barn. The ghost changed its appearance to the form of a lion, but  could not touch Griffiths, because he stood in the centre of a circle, over which the lion could not pass. Griffiths tricked the ghost  into appearing in a less formidable shape, and it changed into a mastiff, but Griffiths demanded that it change to something smaller. At last, the ghost appeared as a fly, which was captured by Griffiths and secured in his tobacco box,  This box he buried under a large stone in the river, just below the bridge, near the Llandegla Mills, and there the spirit is forced to remain until a certain tree, which grows by the bridge, reaches the height of the parapet. When this happens, the spirit shall have power to regain his liberty.  To prevent this tree from growing, the school children, even to this day, nip the upper branches to limit its upward growth.

THE GHOSTLY GIANT OF PONT-Y-GLYN

Pont y Glyn

There is a picturesque glen between Corwen and Cerrig-y-Drudion, down which rushes a mountain stream, and over this stream is a bridge, called Pont-y-Glyn.  On the left hand side, a few yards from the bridge, on the Corwen side, is a yawning chasm, through which the river bounds.  Here people who have travelled by night affirm that they have seen ghosts—the ghosts of those who have been murdered in this secluded glen. A man who was a servant at Garth Meilio, said that one night, when he was returning home late from Corwen, he saw before him, seated on a heap of stones, a female dressed in Welsh costume.  He wished her good night, but she returned him no answer.  She, got up and grew to gigantic proportions as she continued down the road which she filled, so great were her increased dimensions. Other spirits are said to have made their homes in the hills not far from Pont-y-Glyn.

THE GHOST OF TY FELIN
Now for one which doesn't concern a bridge! An exciseman, overtaken by night, went to a house called Ty Felin, (Yellow House) in the parish of Llanynys, and asked for lodgings.  Unfortunately the house was a very small one, containing only two bedrooms, and one of these was haunted; consequently no one dared sleep in it.  After a while, however, the stranger induced the master to allow him to sleep in this haunted room. He had not been there long before a ghost entered the room in the shape of a travelling Jew and walked around the room.  The exciseman tried to catch him and gave chase, but he lost sight of the Jew in the yard.  He had scarcely entered the room, a second time, when he again saw the ghost.  He chased him once more and lost sight of him in the same place.  The third time he followed the ghost, he made a mark on the yard where the ghost vanished and went to rest, and was not disturbed again.

The next day, the exciseman got up early and went away, but, before long, he returned to Ty Felin accompanied by a policeman, whom he requested to dig in the place where his mark was.  This was done and underneath a superficial covering, a deep well was discovered, and in it a corpse.

Under interrogation, the tenant of the house confessed that a travelling Jew, selling jewelry and such items, once lodged with him, and that he had murdered him and cast his body in the well. The ghost had his revenge!

For insider news and subscriber-only info, subscribe to my occasional Newsletter. I promise not to spam and your in-box will only see an email from me every 3 or 4 months or so - unless of course I have something really Newsworthy to share!
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Welsh Legends,- A Castle, A Golden Bowl and a Mouse

Dyfed is a county in Wales that used to be called Cardiganshire or Ceredigion and has now reverted back to Ceredigion again.  (The British government did love to change boundaries and rename counties, but lets not go down that road.)  It is my home county - having lived in the Aberystwyth area all my life, until I 'emigrated' to England when I married. An old legend about Dyfed, goes as follows:

A magical mist descended  Dyfed, and all animals and people perished, apart from Pryderi, Manawydan, Pryderi's wife, Cigfa, and Rhiannon, Manawydan's new wife who was also Pryderi's mother.  They supported themselves by hunting at first, then moved to England where they made a living making saddles shoes and leather shields, the quality of which was so high that the local craftsmen were unable to complete, and threatened to kill them out of jealousy. Eventually they fled back to Dyfed and became hunters again. While  hunting a white boar  Pryderi and Manawydan  came to  a mysterious castle. Pryderi, against Manawydan's advice, ventured inside and did not return.

Rhiannon went to find him and eventually came upon Pryderi clinging to a beautiful golden bowl, transfixed and unable to speak. When she tried to help him get free,  the same fate overcame her and another mist descended and the castle disappeared, taking them with it. Manawydan and Cigfa returned to England  but once again were driven away and forced to return to Dyfed and take up farming to grow
food for themselves.

They sowed three fields of wheat but the each crop in the first two fields disappeared before it could be harvested. Manawydan kept watch over the third field and realised that mice were responsible for the disappearance of the grain. He caught one and prepared a mouse sized gallows, intending to hang it the next day as punishment.

A scholar, a priest and a bishop in turn offered him gifts if he would spare the mouse but he refused. The bishop said he was willing to pay any price he wanted in  return for the mouse's life and at length
Manawydan relented and demanded  the release of Pryderi and Rhiannon and the lifting of the curse over Dyfed in return for releasing the mouse. The bishop agreed,  because the mouse was, in fact, his wife. He revealed that his name was Llwyd, son of Cil Coed, the other mice were actually lords and ladies of the court and that he caused the enchantment on Dyfed in revenge for the insult against his friend Gwawl, whom Pwyll, Pryderi's father had humiliated, by tricking him out of a marriage with Rhiannon. 

Manawydan handed over the mouse and as agreed, Rhiannon and Pryderi were released from their enchantment and returned, and  Dyfed was restored.

the Destiny Trilogy - each book can be read as a 'stand alone' and  includes some of the same characters

Coming soon - watch out for details of my new paranormal romance 'The Matchmaker's Mare'

For insider news and subscriber-only info, subscribe to my occasional Newsletter. I promise not to spam and your in-box will only see an email from me every 3 or 4 months or so - unless of course I have something really Newsworthy to share!
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