Callista Hunter's Blog, page 2

Get Goddess for Free March 2nd-3rd!

I am excited to announce that Goddess will be free on Amazon on March 2nd and 3rd! Grab your copy while this great deal lasts.

What would you risk to discover your power?

Olivia is a sixteen-year-old Vestal Virgin, a happy devotee of her beloved goddess Vesta in her home nation of Parcae. But when her faith in Vesta is shaken, Olivia illegally experiments with her own divine power, making a discovery that could save her country from war – if she’s brave enough to share it.

She’s devoted to her goddess – until she sees the eternal flame sputter out…

After an accidental revelation proves Vesta is fake, Olivia and her fellow Virgins are tempted by a charismatic academy boy, Cassius, to invoke the real gods. Although they risk death if they are discovered, Olivia and her friends test their skills in secret experiments. But their games take an unexpected turn when flighty blonde Lucia reveals surprisingly deadly powers.

Now she’s got some dangerous ideas.

Gaius, a brilliant military student, must protect the girls and plan for war against an enemy nation while ignoring his growing attachment to Olivia. As a Vestal Virgin she has taken a holy vow of chastity, and the consequences of breaking it are severe…

Lovers of mythology will enjoy this story featuring the ancient Roman pantheon. Drawing from original Latin poetry to shape her fantasy world, Callista Hunter brings the ancient gods to life in this thrilling and humorous tale.

Get your copy today!

 

Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my blog! Thanks for stopping by. I’m planning to use this space to share news about my book Goddess and other upcoming projects, to post reviews, and to share reflections on the life of an #indieauthor. Feel free to get in touch at author.callista.hunter@gmail.com.

4/5 Stars from Cullen House Books!

"He's definitely book boyfriend material!"

Rachel from Cullen House Books has just written a review of Goddess for her book blog (and has some kind words for my character Gaius)!

You can see it and other great reviews by Rachel here:

http://cullenhousebooks.blogspot.com....

Ornery Characters

Many years before I began writing Goddess, I read an article where an author described coming up with the plot of his latest book. He explained that he was going for something different, but he couldn't "make the characters do what he wanted them to do."

"How silly," I thought. "You're writing them. You can make them do whatever you want."

It was only after drafting a few chapters of Goddess that I realized how truly right he was. I don't know how it works, but your characters *can* fight back, and they can determine their own opinions and their own course. For example, I had planned for two characters to be romantically involved, and then it turned out they just had no chemistry together! I had also planned for a character to be selfish and spoiled, and she fought me every step of the way to reveal her true personality.

I'm sure there is some kind of scientific explanation, but I'm not sure I want to know. That's the joy of writing fiction - sometimes you control the page, and sometimes the page controls you.

Ovid's Metamorphoses

When I was young I studied Ovid's Metamorphoses, the major work of the poet Ovid. Learning Latin and studying classic Latin poetry is an experience that will stay with me forever. My book Goddess contains an excerpt from Book XIV of the Metamorphoses: the story of Pomona, the goddess of orchard fruits. Below is an excerpt of an English translation by A.S. Kline:

Pomona lived in this king’s reign. No other hamadryad, of the wood nymphs of Latium, tended the gardens more skilfully or was more devoted to the orchards’ care, hence her name. She loved the fields and the branches loaded with ripe apples, not the woods and rivers. She carried a curved pruning knife, not a javelin, with which she cut back the luxuriant growth, and lopped the branches spreading out here and there, now splitting the bark and inserting a graft, providing sap from a different stock for the nursling. She would not allow them to suffer from being parched, watering, in trickling streams, the twining tendrils of thirsty root. This was her love, and her passion, and she had no longing for desire. Still fearing boorish aggression, she enclosed herself in an orchard, and denied an entrance, and shunned men.

My characters in Goddess use this as a prayer to Pomona to help them germinate a dried fig - but what happens next is totally unexpected.