Sundays are for...Bellona

Sunday is almost over and I intended this to be posted a lot earlier today but as they say- time and tide- wait for no man.

I've been doing further writing and editing of 'Agricola's Bane', the current title of the fourth book in my Celtic Fervour Series, that's been a long time in the creation process.

My tiny research slot of yesterday and today was spent finding a goddess to whom Agricola could plead to make his 'warring' with the unpredictable Caledon allies be an easier task. Things aren't going well for him in the bleak northern territories of Britannia after his confrontation with the amassed Celtic tribes at Beinn na Ciche (my version of Mons Graupius). He's a superstitious man so I had to go sleuthing for plenty of lesser known gods and goddesses for him to pray to and sometimes to put blame upon when things don't quite go his way.

Today's offering is Bellona, sometimes called Duella. I find that duality of names interesting immediately. Duel - Duella!

Here are a few representations of Bellona that I've found. I know which I like best but wonder about you? The thing is that it's all about interpretation and that for me is why history and archaeology are so fascinating because one person's interpretation can vary so much from another.

In the same way as looking at, and admiring, the artistic interpretation of a theme or ideal a historical author dealing with pre-history has to choose which archaeological or historical interpretations to accept or follow and then interpret in his or her own way.

Bellona - Phillip Galle 1574 Bellona inspires the creation of arms

Bellona - Louis Jean Francois Lagrenee 1766  Presenting reins to Mars

Bellona - Jan Harmensz Muller after Bartolomaeus Spranger 1600 Leading the Imperial armies against the Turks

Marie de Medici as Bellona - Peter Paul Reubens 

I've found a few more, which one of these days, I'll add to a Pinterest Board.

And now....back to more writing and editing.


Slainthe!

All of the above in the public domain. 

#5 #Saturday Shorts-with #Lynn Forth

Good morning- it's Saturday! 
And that means a Saturday Short interview. 

The days are disappearing so quickly just now that I can hardly credit we're back to the weekend again. Regardless of what I've achieved in my new writing, the mornings are getting lighter and that's progress in itself (I've been consistently editing and writing all week).  Though, as well as managing some new writing, I'm also getting to know author friends a lot better - especially those who are popping on here to my blog. Let's see what we can learn about a fellow Crooked Cat author, Lynn Forth who is popping herself onto my lovely Saturday chair. 

Hello Lynn. Take a pew and let's get going! 

Hallo Nancy and thank you for inviting me on to your blog.  Although I’m a northern girl from Accrington, I have lived with my family in Worcestershire for many years.

Having always had a fascination with words and people, I had a lovely long career as a Lecturer in English at the local College. I left before the paperwork and procedures sucked all the joy out of an occupation I loved. And so now, at last, I can concentrate on my life-long ambition to write.
As an ex primary teacher I'm so sad that many in our general teaching profession have got to a scunnered level, and nothing to do with the students/pupils they were teaching. 

When is your best time to write?

I like to wait till the afternoon to start actually writing. I have usually spent the morning warming up to it as I go about all my daily jobs, or exercising at Zumba classes or attending meetings etc. Then, after lunch, I feel the rest of the day and evening is mine to write the words that have been tumbling through my head all morning. 

Lynn Forth

Which social media platforms do you find most comfortable to use?

I’m more of a Facebook fan but do try to keep up with Twitter as well, especially now we can write much more than before 

I like Facebook but am not so hot at tweeting. I'm still at the 140 characters stage and have to get used to the 'more is possible' scenario.  

Please tell us what your latest book is about and its genre.

My debut novel, Love in La La Land is a romantic comedy set in the glittering, glossy bubble-world of Hollywood.
I read your novel not long after returning from the Los Angeles area ( Pasadena) where I actually met quite a few 'Hollywood types'  at my niece's wedding who do TV comedy and TV shows that I'm not sure I'd actually want to watch. Individually they are all lovely people but there is a collective hype, that 'tinseltown' glow, that just isn't me. 

Did anything in particular influence you to write it?

I’ve always been equally interested in both books and films so have had a long fascination with the adaptation process when a book is made into a film. Hence the idea for my first novel when my author heroine, Jane Jones, rails against all the changes the movie scriptwriter, Jack Clancy, has made to her precious story. I liked the idea of exploring the process from both angles and thinking of all the modifications Jack needed to make to transform one storytelling medium into the other.  Both Jane and Jack are creative people, both proud of what they do and so the seeds of their disagreements are sown.

Did it require any specialised research?

I did want to get the setting right.  Obviously I’ve have seen a lot of movies set in and around Hollywood, but I did spend quite a bit of time on Google Earth searching round the starry suburbs of Tinseltown to get the ambience of Scott Flynn’s ’s house as accurate as I could. I have been to San Francisco but also researched the possible location of a hospital there. 

Who is your main character?

My main character is Yorkshire novelist, Jane Jones, who goes to Hollywood to try to sell her second novel to interested producers.  She was really thrilled when her first novel was snapped up and adapted into a film, starring her favourite heart-throb, Scott Flynn. She’s even more thrilled when she gets a chance to spend a day on the movie set actually watching him perform. 

What’s your main character’s greatest weakness?

Her main weakness is probably pride and a certain literary snobbishness. This causes her to look down on screen writer, Jack Clancy, as a mere movie hack without appreciating the skills he has brought to the adaptation process.

What’s your main character’s greatest strengths?

But her pride is also her greatest strength, that, and her integrity. In the end she can’t, and won’t, go against what she feels is right, even if it means losing everything.

It's a while since I read the novel but I warmed a lot more to Jack, than Jane, which might be odd since he's the one whose been living in the bubble of tinseltown- though it's because you do ensure that he's a very grounded guy. 

Are you a lover of editing your work?

I quite like editing, up to a point. The story and characters have tumbled out headlong on to the page so I love going back and doing all the polishing and refining which beds it all down and makes everything shine. However, after the umpteenth time of reading, I find it can lose its charm and I worry that funny scenes are no longer making me laugh and sad scenes are becoming trite. And by then, I’m itching to get on to my next book.

What’s your favourite occupation? (apart from writing) Do you have a favourite place to ‘hide’ out from life?

Favourite occupation apart from writing is, as you might expect, reading, especially when ‘hiding out’ on holiday. If I’m away, I feel I can indulge guilt-free reading without the pressure of feeling I ought to be doing something else. 

Favourite food and drink?

I have so many favourite food and drinks choices, but I’m a big fan of fruit and nuts, so if they were to be combined in a chocolate bar, served with a nice cup of builders’ tea, that will do me. Not very exotic is it? But I feel my Yorkshire heroine would approve.
Cadbury's Fruit and Nut is my all time favourite chocolate bar - so long as it's the original proper full fat taste! I'm not so sure that what it around now has that original yumminess!

If you’d like to add anything else about your recent release please add it here:

My next novel has, in fact, just been accepted by Crooked Cat for publishing in the autumn. It’s another romantic comedy, this time set in Nice and is called Love, Lies and Café au Lait. Can’t wait to start polishing it.

If you love an amusing quick read then I can definitely recommend Lynn's work. 

Love in LA La Land is available as both eBook and paperback from Amazon HERE

You can find Lynn at these places:
Website: lynnforthauthor.wordpress.com.

Twitter: @lynnforth

Facebook Page: Lynn Forth

Author Page: Lynn Forth Author

Thanks for coming today, Lynn and best wishes with all of your new writing. I'll be looking out for Love, Lies and Cafe au Lait when it's available! 

Till my next #Saturday Short, have a fine week. 

Slainthe! 

#5 Someone to #lean On- Tyrnan from The Taexali Game

Friday means it's time to give those supporting secondary characters a bit of the limelight!

Sometimes a booked guest has mitigating circumstances and doesn't manage to pop in and that what's happened today. Ill health isn't always something you can plan for but adapting to the situation is what writing is all about. 

I've a lot of really fine secondary characters in my novels who should get a turn under the spotlight and my Tyrnan would have been featured at some point anyway because he really is a lovely character.

My trio of kids in The Taexali Game- Aran and his twin friends Brian and Fianna - first meet Tyrnan in quite perplexing circumstances. The Rubidium Time Leap function, developed by the twins father for a Virtual Reality game, spectacularly sends them back to A.D. 210. Though, at the point they meet Tyrnan they have yet to work out where they are, and what era they have been sent to. 

Tyrnan is terrifying at first sight when they encounter him in the forest of Bendauch. He's the personal guard of Seonagh, the local 'Taexali' chief's daughter and a 'princess' of her tribe, and takes his guarding job seriously. The unexpected arrival of my trio of adventurers is suspicious. Tyrnan frogmarches them to Balbath, the local roundhouse settlement. Tyrnan doesn't trust them because the enemy is roaming the lands, the enemy being the Ancient Roman Emperor Severus who marches to Taexali territory with 30,000 legionary and auxiliary troops.  

www.123rf.com
This Tyrnan isn't so fierce but he is watchful!

Gradually my  teens realise that the fearsome Tyrnan is actually looking after them as well as Seonagh. The following is an extract from the novel - at the point when an auxiliary cohort of Emperor Severus attacks Balbath. A major problem at this point is that Aran is treated as an adult and has been sent off with the adults of Balbath to a nearby copse where a Beltane sacrifice is taking place. The twins are still regarded as children and are in a vulnerable position of being inside the hillfort along with all of the Balbath children, protected by a minimal guard since attack by night is not expected!  

Aran finds himself in a very difficult situation but help is not far off... 

"

Where to go now was his next question? Where would he find the twins? He raced towards the children’s gathering place, yet could see that Orla and Seonagh had had no luck there, because they charged back towards him. The clamour of weapons got even louder, the battle cries of the Celts fierce and terrifying. Aran knew that the senior Balbath warriors must now be defending the main entrance but Brian surely wouldn’t have gone there.

A sudden screech rent the air.

Fianna.

Aran knew that particular howl only too well. She wasn’t screeching out of fear, but out of sheer fury. Running between two roundhouses he could see her frantically kicking up at a single Roman soldier who was bent over her, his sword poised and ready to strike. Brian dangled from the soldier’s back and pounded away at the auxiliary’s helmet with his free fist, trying to dislodge it, his other arm a vice around the auxiliary’s neck. Little Caitlinn cowered nearby in a huddle of skins and cloaks.

Thank Taranis it was just the one soldier, though he thought it was unusual there was only one Roman auxiliary in the vicinity.

Aran daren’t use his spear this time because he’d likely kill Brian or Fianna. Instead, he whipped out the long knife from his pouch. Brandishing it in front of him, he charged forward, shrieking his own challenge. The soldier whirled around, attempting to dislodge Brian as the man forced himself upright to investigate what the howling was behind him, Brian’s arm still wrapped around the Roman’s neck. Aran watched as Brian slipped off and rolled away, the momentum tipping the auxiliary backwards. Aran lunged with his long knife, the blade heading for the soldier’s bare arm.

Th…whomp. Huumm. Twaaang!

This time it was Aran who felt the singing passage of the spear go right past his ear. By Taranis, it was terrifying! The contents of his stomach lurched up as quickly as he’d lunged out with the long knife. Once again, Tyrnan’s spear hit the mark, but this time not the ground. The Roman soldier lay pinned to the earth; the spear a direct hit through his throat, having precisely landed between the long earflaps of the helmet. The Roman Auxiliary’s death gurgle was a feeble blood-bubbling mutter since the man truly didn’t know what had hit him.

Aran slumped to his knees willing himself not to vomit—though he was so close. The soldier beside him, prostrate and pinned to the ground, was likely dead but he couldn’t bear to check. A rush of something like gratitude flushed through him because it hadn’t actually been his blade that had killed the Roman soldier. Not his. It had been Tyrnan’s spear.

What if Tyrnan hadn’t turned up? Aran’s stomach rebelled for real as he puked up the contents of his stomach with a few violent heaves at the side of the soldier. As the last of the vomit emptied out, he knew he would have driven his long knife into the Roman auxiliary if it meant that Fianna would be safe from the Roman’s gladius, the sword now lying alongside the body. Playing in a game, killing the enemy seemed so easy but in real life it was sickening. When he’d stopped heaving, through the fug of his shock, he eventually heard the plea beside him.

“Hurry.” Tyrnan urged them all as if nothing of note had happened. “Get away from here.”

Adrenalin kicked-in in good time as Aran struggled to his feet. He swiped a hand over his mouth before he passed Fianna one of the spears, and a sharp little knife. He felt in limbo: a place where he imagined all that had just happened. Brian lurched to his feet and picked up the gladius, as though fighting a Roman soldier was an everyday occurrence. It was all incredible.

None of them commented on the fact he’d just heaved his guts up.

Tyrnan scooped up little Caitlinn, and they rushed towards the nether. He followed on still rickety legs. As they approached the exit Seonagh and Orla headed towards them from another direction, their cries of relief and joy a delight to behold when they caught sight of them.

“By Taranis, I am so pleased you are all safe!” Orla bawled her head off.

Only when they were well up the hill did Tyrnan relinquish a silent Caitlinn to her mother’s arms, ordering them to rush to the safety of the woods.

“Seonagh and Taexali warrior, Aran!” he cried. “You must defend the people of Balbath who shelter in the Sacred Grove. There may be only a few branded warriors up there, so the care of those up there lies in your hands. Do not fail them.”

Tyrnan sped off back down the hill leaving Aran open-mouthed.

I hope you enjoyed this taster. If you haven't yet read The Taexali Game you can buy it HERE across the Amazon network, or you should be able to read it FREE with #Kindle Unlimited. 

Till our next Secondary character pops in, enjoy the weekend and the week ahead. 

Slainthe!