Sunday, February 24, 2019

Meet Kim Headlee & Check Out Her Latest in the Dragon's Dove Chronicles, RAGING SEA


Raging Sea
The Dragon's Dove Chronicles Book 3
by Kim Iverson Headlee
Genre: Historical Fantasy 

Outcast, clanless, and but a junior officer in Arthur the Pendragon’s army, Angusel struggles to rebuild the life stolen from him through betrayal by the person he had held most dear. His legion allegiance thrusts him onto the campaign trail as one of Arthur’s forward scouts, stalking Angli troops and being among the first to clash with these vicious enemies at every turn. But the odds loom high against him and his sword-brothers, and they will need a miracle just to survive.


Pressured to make the best choice to ensure her clan’s future leadership, Eileann struggles with her feelings for Angusel, whose outcast status makes him forbidden to her as a mate. When Angli treachery threatens everyone she loves, she vows to thwart their violent plan to conquer her clan. But she is no warrior, she has no soldiers to command, and she will need a miracle just to survive.

How can one soldier make a difference? How can one woman save her kin and clan? In the crucible of combat, Angusel must surrender to the will of the gods, and Eileann must invoke divine power to forge the most dangerous warrior the world has ever known.



**only 99 cents!!**



Morning's Journey
The Dragon's Dove Chronicles Book 2

Magnificent.” ~ Kathleen Foley, author of the Faith in Uniform series


In a violent age when enemies besiege Brydein and alliances shift as swiftly as the wind, stand two remarkable leaders: the Caledonian warrior-queen Gyanhumara and her consort, Arthur the Pendragon. Their fiery love is tempered only by their conviction to forge unity between their disparate peoples. Arthur and Gyan must create an impenetrable front to protect Brydein and Caledonia from land-lusting Saxons and the marauding Angli raiders who may be massing forces in the east, near Arthur’s sister and those he has sworn to protect.

But their biggest threat is an enemy within: Urien, Arthur’s rival and the man Gyan was treaty-bound to marry until she broke that promise for Arthur’s love. When Urien becomes chieftain of his clan, his increase in wealth and power is matched only by the magnitude of his hatred of Arthur and Gyan—and his threat to their infant son.

Morning’s Journey, sequel to the critically acclaimed Dawnflight, propels the reader from the heights of triumph to the depths of despair, through the struggles of some of the most fascinating characters in all of Arthurian literature. Those struggles are exacerbated by the characters’ own flawed choices. Gyan and Arthur must learn that while extending forgiveness to others may be difficult, forgiveness of self is the most excruciating—yet ultimately the most healing—step of the entire journey.







Dawnflight
The Dragon's Dove Chronicles Book 1

What if King Arthur’s queen was every bit as heroic as he was? Find out by immersing yourself in this epic story of the power couple whose courage and conviction would shape the destiny of a nation.


Gyan is a Caledonian chieftainess by birth, a warrior and leader of warriors by training, and she is betrothed to Urien, a son of her clan’s deadliest enemy, by right of Arthur the Pendragon’s conquest of her people. For the sake of peace, Gyan is willing to sacrifice everything...perhaps even her very life, if her foreboding about Urien proves true.

Roman by his father, Brytoni by his mother, and denied hereditary rulership of his mother's clan because of his mixed blood, Arthur has followed his father's path to become Dux Britanniarum, the Pendragon: supreme commander of the northern Brytoni army. The Caledonians, Scots, Saxons, and Angles keep him too busy to dwell upon his loneliness...most of the time.

When Gyan and Arthur meet, each recognize within the other their soul’s mate. The treaty has preserved Gyan’s ancient right to marry any man, providing he is a Brytoni nobleman—but Arthur does not qualify. And the ambitious Urien, Arthur’s greatest political rival, shall not be so easily denied. If Gyan and Arthur cannot prevent Urien from plunging the Caledonians and Brytons back into war, their love will be doomed to remain unfulfilled forever.

But there is an even greater threat looming. The Laird of the Scots wants their land and will kill all who stand in his way. Gyan, Arthur, and Urien must unite to defeat this merciless enemy who threatens everyone they hold dear.







Kim Headlee lives on a farm in southwestern Virginia with her family, cats, goats, Great Pyrenees goat guards, and assorted wildlife. People and creatures come and go, but the cave and the 250-year-old house ruins--the latter having been occupied as recently as the mid-twentieth century--seem to be sticking around for a while yet.


Kim has been a published novelist since 1999 with the first edition of Dawnflight (Sonnet Books, Simon & Schuster) and has been studying the Arthurian legends for nigh on half a century.





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Tuesday, February 12, 2019

My Interview with Author Jerome Charyn and a Giveaway of his New Book

Jerome Charyn, a master of lyrical farce and literary ventriloquism, published his first novel in 1964. A columnist for Charlie Hebdo, and the author of Johnny One-Eye, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, and dozens of other acclaimed novels and nonfiction works, he lives in New York.

Last week I hosted Jerome and included my review of his latest title THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING. 

Purchase THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES on Amazon
Read my interview with Jerome, below. 






Have any favorite authors influenced your writing? Who were they? 
Emily Dickinson, William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov, Gabriel García Márquez 

What’s the strangest thing you have ever done in the name of research? 
Attending John Gotti’s trial, trying to stare him down.  He won.

Do you encounter any obstacles in writing? If so, how do you overcome them? 
The greatest obstacle is time.  It takes hours to fall into the music of language and you need those hours.
 
Do you start with an outline, index cards, etc., or write from the seat of your pants and make it up as you go along?
 
I start with the music of the first sentence.  If you find that magical first sentence, the novel is already written.

Where and when do you write? Tell us about your favorite work place and time.
 
I am always writing, even when I am not writing.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?
 
If you really love to write, don’t let anyone or anything get in your way.

Which book that you’ve read (not one of yours) is the closest to your heart? Why? 
 
Hamlet.  It has a genuine music of despair.

Some writers edit excessively as they write; others wait until a novel is finished to do the bulk of editing.  How about you? 
I revise every line every page every chapter from beginning to end.

If you could be dropped into any book as a character, who would you be and why? 
Hamlet (again.)  Just to hear the beauty of Shakespeare’s music.

What are you reading now?
 
I am reading a biography of Louise Brooks, my favorite actress.

Do you listen to music when writing or do you need silence?
 
I need silence.

Describe yourself in one word. 
Half-starved.





Tuesday, February 5, 2019

I'm Happy to Host Author Jerome Charyn

Jerome, a master of lyrical farce and literary ventriloquism, published his first novel in 1964. 
A columnist for Charlie Hebdo and the author of Johnny One-Eye, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, and dozens of other acclaimed novels and nonfiction works, he lives in New York.
Read on for my review of his latest title and check in next Tuesday for my in-depth interview 
with Jerome.


Jerome recently released THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING: A NOVEL OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND HIS TIMES. When Rachel Gul of Over the River Public Relations asked me to host Jerome featuring this book, I knew this was no mere coincidence, because at this moment I'm writing my current biographical novel: FIRST LADY, FIRST DAUGHTER about Edith and Alice Roosevelt, Theodore's wife and oldest daughter.

Jerome is giving away copies of this book and his previous historical novel I AM ABRAHAM about Abraham Lincoln. Please Email me at diana@dianarubino.com if you'd like to enter to win. I will give a copies of the books to the first and second persons who can tell me the three historical figures they'd most want to meet. 


I was happy to read and review the book:

What Really Made Teddy (though he hated that nickname) Tick

Theodore was an author, politician, naturalist, and athlete, but he was a cowboy at heart. It always amazed me how a New York Knickerbocker aristocrat could adapt so naturally to the badlands, but Theodore took to it like he’d been born there. Jerome Charyn tells Theodore’s story as a memoir in first person, and his voice is not at all stiff or formal, as in the style of Theodore’s day and age. He tells us of his early life in Manhattan as a sickly asthmatic child whose doctors didn’t give him much time to live because of an alleged weak heart, and he defied them at every turn, taking up vigorous exercise, wrestling, and became fit and trim. 

We learn about his courtship and first marriage to Boston belle Alice Lee, who tragically died two days after giving birth to their daughter Alice, and to add to his grief, his mother died in the same house on the same day. He went against the custom of the time to court and marry his childhood sweetheart Edith Carow (widowers never remarried). 

He doesn’t go into great detail about his career as Assemblyman, Police Commissioner, governor of New York, Ass’t Secretary of the Navy, authorship of his many books, or having the Vice Presidency thrust upon him and subsequently the presidency after McKinley’s assassination, but tells us enough about it to let us know he’s still trying to find where his destiny lies. The bulk of the story is written about his exploits—the USS Maine, making a courtesy visit, was blown up in Havana Harbor and a few hundred Americans were killed. But President McKinley refused to declare war at first. A few days later, McKinley sent a declaration of war to Congress. Theodore wanted to serve as Lieutenant Colonel. His first U.S. volunteer cavalry became his Rough Riders, made up of a wide variety of men, cowboys, farmers, Indians, Mexicans, elites from the Ivy League colleges, socialites, and his brother-in-law. He had no trouble getting men to join. They flocked to him. His charge up San Juan Hill made him a hero. So, among all his other attributes, he was a military man—one of the most well-rounded figures in American history.


I recommend this book to anyone who’s already familiar with Roosevelt as president, but not with his life leading up to it. 

Purchase THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES on Amazon

Connect with Jerome:

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The Perilous Adventures FB Page
The Perilous Adventures on Twitter


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