#BookQuote Wednesday - QUOTE

 

She hated the situation between them and CRAVED for things to get back to the way they had been.

(If you've read the book you might notice a teeny weeny bit of poetic licence!)

EBOOK OR PAPERBACK AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

(also available at most other on-line retailers)

(published by The Wild Rose Press)

Some more Welsh myths

I thought I'd post a few Welsh 'horsey' legends and an old Welsh custom. I have posted these before but I think they bear repeating!

MARY GRAY

This custom was first recorded in 1800, although it has been recorded in the twentieth century. Mari Lwyd was a tradition performed at Christmas time by groups of men who would accompany the a the horse around the local area. Not a real horse, but the skull of a horse, mounted on a pole covered with a white sheet and decoarated with ribbons and glass baubles for eyes. These groups typically included an individual to carry the horse, a leader, and individuals dressed as characters such as Punch and Judy. They would carry the Mari Lwyd to local houses, where they would sing to request entry. The householders would be expected to deny them entry, again through singing and the two sides would continue back and fro like this until the householders eventually relented,and  the team would be permitted to enter the house and would be given food and drink. (Not too sure what this has to do with Christmas, but like many old Celtic customs it's probably a throwback to an old Pagan ritual originally performed around this time.)

WATER HORSE

The Ceffyl Dŵr, literally translated into English means the 'Water Horse'. It is most commonly considered a counterpart to the Scotish Kelpie, but has also been compared to the  the Irish puca. The ceffyl Dŵr appears as a white or grey horse, or sometimes black, with a white mane and tail, sometimes glowing or wings. It is said to inhabit mostly mountain pools and waterfalls, although it has been known to frequent rivers and the sea as well.

Depending on which region of Wales mentions the stories, the Ceffyl Dŵr was believed to shapeshift, as well as having the power of flight. For example, in North Wales, it is represented as being rather formidable with fiery eyes and a dark foreboding presence, whereas in South Wales is seen as merely mischievous. She also is known to walk on her hind legs and disappear down the well in the graveyard of St Illtyds church in Oxwich Bay, or to simply evaporate into the sea mist. Over the centuries there have been many sightings of Ceffyl Dwr mostly around St Illtyds church. Although it appears solid, it can evaporate into a mist. In one legend the Ceffyl Dŵr leaps out of the water to trample and kill lone travellers. In another legend, the Ceffyl Dŵr rises from the sea and entices the unwary traveler to ride her, then takes to the  air, and evaporates, and the unfortunate rider falls to his death. 

Okay - on to something a little less scary:

RHIANNON    

It just so happens that Rhiannon is the name of the matchmaker in The Matchmaker's Mare!

Rhiannon was married to Pwyll, the Lord of Dyfed. When Pwyll first saw her, she appeared as a beautiful woman dressed in gold, riding a magnificent white horse. Rhiannon managed to outrun Pwyll for three days, and then when he shouted to her to stop, allowed him to catch up. When he said he'd fallen in love with her and wanted to marry her, she scolded him for not telling her  to stop before, and making his poor horse work so hard. Then she said she'd be happy to marry him, because it would save her from marrying Gwawl, who she despised and who had tricked her into an engagement. Rhiannon and Pwyll conspired together to deceive Gwawl and thus Pwyll won her as his bride. 

Three years after they married,  Rhiannon gave birth to a son, but he disappeared at night while his nursemaids, who were supposed to have been watching over him, fell asleep. Frightened of the consequences, the nursemaids smeared the blood of a dead puppy on the face of their sleeping queen. When she awoke, Rhiannon was accused of killing and her son and eating him. As penance, she was made to sit outside the castle walls, and tell passers by what she had done. Pwyll, however, stood by her,  refusing to send her away or have her more severely punished.

The newborn child had been in fact found by\ Teyrnon, the lord of Gwent-Is-Coed. He was a horse lord whose beautiful mare gave him a foal every May Eve, but  each year. the foal would disappear. Before his mare had her next foal he took her into his house and sat vigil with her. After her foal was born he saw a monstrous claw trying to take the newborn foal through the window, so he slashed at the monster with his sword, before rushing outside. He found the monster gone, and a human baby lying by the door. He and his wife cared for the boy as their own, naming him Gwri Wallt Euryn (Gwri of the Golden Hair). The child grew rapidly, and had a great affinity for horses. As the boy grewTeyrnon who once served Pwyll as a courtier, recognised his resemblance to his father. He was an honourable man, and so he returned the boy to the Dyfed royal house.

Ah, I love a happy ending - and there is a happy ending in The Matchmaker's Mare, of course.

Available now, as ebook or paperback, on Amazon and other on-line retailers.

When Megan Johnson inherits an old cottage in the Welsh countryside, she seizes the opportunity to cut ties with her past life, after a broken romance. Her nearest neighbour, a horse trainer, is also something of an enigma. Single dad Glyn Phillips does his best to balance his love of horses and hard work, with his devotion to his son. When he meets his new neighbour, he knows he should resist any attraction. A feisty pony mare which mysteriously appears on his land adds to his problems, but another, larger problem lies ahead. Two matchmaking spirits find their carefully laid plans may not go as smoothly as they hope.

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matchmakers-Mare-Hywela-Lyn-ebook/dp/B0DYF6L15C

US: https://www.amazon.com/Matchmakers-Mare-Hywela-Lyn/dp/1509259880/

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)

GET YOUR COPY HERE

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.

Buy your copy HERE

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.

#Book Quote Wednesday - #DEEP

It's  #Book Quote Wednesday again. Today's word is DEEP

This snippet is taken from the first chapter when Megan comes to live in the old cottage in Wales she has recently inherited.

5.0 out of 5 stars"A gentle story that carries you away from the everyday." Suzy M

Thank you so much for the beautiful Review, Suzy M. 

Full Review and Purchase Link HERE