A big huge welcome to Rose Vanden Eynden who brings to us her spin on one of the world's most intriguing Arthurian man and legend in Merlyn's Raven.
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Merlyn’s Raven
By Rose Vanden Eynden
Soul Mate Publishing
Short Blurb
For a young woman, falling in love is the ultimate magic.
But what if the object of her affection is Merlyn, destined to be King Arthur’s
legendary advisor? Can Gwendydd work her own magic to capture the heart of the
world’s most powerful enchanter, or will her desire destroy her and the people
she loves most?
Back Cover Blurb
Falling in love is the ultimate magic. For Gwendydd, a young
woman in 5th century Wales, it seems an unobtainable fantasy. She dreads the
day her chieftain grandfather will marry her off to increase his allies among
the warring tribes of Britain. When she meets the mysterious and handsome druid
apprentice Myrddin, Gwendydd realizes just how difficult falling in love can
be. The ire of her disapproving grandfather is not her only obstacle. Myrddin’s
clairvoyant visions of a king who will unify the battling tribes and bring
peace to the land become a dangerous obsession that threatens to obliterate
their union. Can Gwendydd support her beloved, the man destined to become the
world’s most powerful enchanter, King Arthur’s legendary Merlyn? Or will her
devotion destroy her and everything she holds dear?
I never thought of myself as a romance writer. I’ve been
writing for many years, since I was in grade school, and my stories have run
the gamut of genres. Romance, however, was not something I read on a regular
basis or even really considered as I wrote. If someone fell in love in my
stories, that was all fine and good, but I suppose I didn’t see it as the core
of the tale.
Writing Merlyn’s Raven certainly changed all that. I’ve been
a fan of Arthurian legend since high school and have read many, many stories
set in that enchanting universe. I always thought it would be fun to write
something to add to the Arthurian lexicon, but really, after thousands of
years, is there anything new to explore?
Then, one day, I came across Vita Merlini, a cycle of poems from
the 1100’s by the Welsh-Norman writer Geoffrey of Monmouth. In these poems
following the later life of Merlin, King Arthur’s legendary advisor, I
discovered a new character I’d never seen before in all my Arthurian
exploration. Her name was Guendoloena, and she was Merlin’s wife. My head spun.
Merlin? A wife? Now there was an interesting idea!
And so Merlyn’s Raven began. I wanted to create a story
centering around a younger Merlin, told through the eyes of the woman who loved
him. I sought to explore their relationship and find out what kinds of
struggles and triumphs they might have together. I hope I accomplished this in
the novel. For me, it was an extraordinary and rewarding writing experience.
Thank you, Mila, for letting me appear on your blog today! I
hope everyone reading this will step into the magical land of Merlyn’s Raven and
accompany Myrddin and Gwendydd, my versions of young Merlin and his beloved, on
their journey.
EXCERPT:
The scream hung in the air like the waxing moon outside my
window. I touched my face, expecting to feel the wound there, my skin cut
somehow as Myrddin’s had been in the dream. My trembling fingers came away
clean. My heart raced as my mind recovered, but I tore from my bedchamber
nonetheless, darting through the shadowed hallways of Grandfather’s household,
avoiding the guards that stood, dozing, at the ends of corridors. I knew I’d be
beaten if I was caught, but nothing was as important as getting to Myrddin.
I reached the familiar door and slipped inside. He lay on
his simple pallet beneath the window casement, but his eyes were open in the
moonlight. They sparkled like dew on the grass, as did the sweat that dampened
his hairline. His hand lay against his cheek, searching for the phantom wound.
“What is it?” I breathed, my heart still pounding as if it
had never pumped before. “I had a nightmare about you.”
He sat up, his body shaking, and I pulled the blanket up
over his shoulders as tremors wracked him. He gripped the cover with one hand
and took mine in his other. It was not a fit, I knew, but an icy chill stole
over me. “I had a vision.”
“It was you, was it not?” I forced the words out, even
though they pained me to say them. “Trapped?
Tortured?”
He nodded. I could bear it no longer, and flung myself into
him, burying my face in his chest. He hesitated, but then his arms came around
me, and I nearly gasped from relief, from knowing he was with me, warm and
alive and safe.
“What does it mean?” I moaned.
“It is the future we see.”
I tilted my chin up to look at him, and he stared down into
my face, one brow arched as if puzzling over a new plant he’d found while
scavenging. “How is it that we see it together, raven? How is it that we are
connected?”
“I love you.” The words, so sacred and yet sounding so
simple, tumbled out. I did not care. Here in the dark, where there was no one
else, the rest of the world seemed frozen, unimportant, and far, far away.
Blaise, sleeping in the next room, was forgotten. I did not think of my
grandfather and his plot to find me a husband, or of his threats to kill any man
that stood in the way of that.
Only this moment between us mattered. Myrddin had to know
that I thought of nothing but him, sought naught but his presence, heard only
his voice with the pounding of my heart. It was bold and brash and dangerous,
it was everything I wanted to be, my own true self, and I knew he understood
that.
“I know,” he whispered. “And you should not.”
He tried to pull his hand away, yet I clung to it, my voice
hardening. “Why do you say that? You are everything to me.”
“You speak of love, Gwendydd, and yet you have told me
countless times how you long not for a husband, but for freedom.”
“You are my freedom. Do you not see? You, who have taught me
healing and storytelling and magick. . .so many things. You are right—I did not
know what I longed for until I met you, and then I understood.” I lifted my
hand, daring to touch his cheek, and he allowed it. “This must be love, for it
to seep so deeply into me, into my very soul.”
Softness settled into his gaze as he stared at me. “You are
a poet, raven.” He teased, I knew, to turn the subject, but I would not be
abashed.
“It frightened me, Myrddin. The dream. I cannot bear to be
without you, or to have you hurt.”
“And yet there is no way to stop it, if it is my fate.” He
gathered me against him and pushed us both up to our feet, shaking the blanket
from his shoulders. He guided me toward the door but did not pull away, and I
savored his closeness. “Come. You must go back to your chambers. If Brychan
finds you here, or if someone sees us and informs him, he will kill us both.”
We shuffled in silence along the corridors, slipping past
the sleepy guards undetected. When we came to my quarters, Myrddin placed his
hands on my shoulders and looked at me sternly, as Betrys sometimes did when
she preached her gospel of Jesus.
“Blaise has told me, Gwendydd, that unrest stirs in the
land. The Cymry chieftains like your grandsire cannot quell it, and it will
come to call here very soon. But these changes, all of them, no matter what
they are, must unfold as they are meant to. We may never understand all that
happens, but that is our challenge in life. And that includes whatever this
vision may portend for me.”
I matched his seriousness with my own. “Whatever happens, we
are meant to be together. I understand that much.”
His hand moved underneath my loosened hair, cupping the back
of my head like a pillow, and his expression of wonder made me dizzy. “It is
foolish and reckless, raven, but yes. I think I understand it as well.”
left me standing there in a pool of moonlight, my mind
spinning as the stars overhead, replaying his words over and over again to seal
them permanently in my memory.
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About the Author:
Rose Vanden Eynden has always believed in magic, which
probably explains how she is able to be a writer as well as a wife, mother,
medium, massage therapist, minister, and instructor. She resides in a suburb of
Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, twin teenaged sons, and a dachshund named
after Rudyard Kipling. In her spare (!) time, she enjoys performing in live
theatre, watching films, reading, and walking in the woods. An avid believer in
a balanced life, she meditates and eats chocolate daily.
Light Journey Enterprises
Read Rose's blog, STANDING BETWEEN THE WORLDS www.vandeneynden.biz/blog
Rose's books, available at all major bookstores:
SO YOU WANT TO BE A MEDIUM? A DOWN TO EARTH GUIDE
METATRON: INVOKING THE ANGEL OF GOD'S PRESENCE
ASK A MEDIUM: ANSWERS TO YOUR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE SPIRIT WORLD
Do you Twitter? Follow Rose: http://twitter.com/RoseofAvalon
Rose on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RoseVandenEyndenOfficial
Look for Rose's first novel, MERLYN'S RAVEN, coming April
17, 2012 from Soul Mate Publishing.
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1 comment:
Thank you so much for coming Rose. I am just like you. I absolutely love Arthurian legend. But great idea using such a figure!
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