Tracy Cooper-Posey's Blog, page 18
July 21, 2022
Truthsense and Other Talents…And a New Fantasy Romance Release
When I was five years old, my mother started the process of enrolling me in my local primary school, and took me along for the formal enrollment process.
Looking back over too many years to announce here, I can couple up my young perception of that school with my adult experience, and understand why I didn’t like the place.
It was a large school (for Perth, Western Australia, at that time). It was a post-war building, long and narrow, with the distinctive Aussie verandahs with “x” cross beam railings, painted blue and white.
It’s likely the whole building was constructed out of framing and asbestos sheets, because they had not yet figured out how lethal asbestos was. The building was surrounded by a sea of black tarmac, which is what the kids got to play on.
I’m pretty sure the school had been thrown up in the wake of WWII because the wave of baby boomer children demanded extra schools…extra everything. I was born on the very end cusp of the baby boomer period, and the school had been educating thousands of children in over-stuffed classrooms for at least a decade.
Even I wasn’t thrilled with the place, and I was only five. What did I know?
My mother extricated herself from the enrollment interview and a few days later, she walked me to a brand new primary school in the complete opposite direction from the warhorse we had first visited.
Our house was on the very edge of the school intake district for the vintage school and was, in fact, closer to the brand new one my mother took me to see.
I loved the new school right out of the gate. It was built among tall, shady trees, and was reached by a driveway that seemed very long to me, which meant it was very far back from the road, and nearly invisible among the trees. The buildings were low, modern, and blended in with the trees, which had been left standing right up beside them. Mown grass ran between them.
The school was called, appropriately enough, Woodlands Primary School.
My mother settled into the enrollment interview, with me beside her, and the headmistress throwing quick smiles in my direction as she went through the forms.
Everything went swimmingly until she asked my mother for our address. My mother quoted the address, the headmistress sat back with a regretful expression and shook her head. “We can’t accept Tracy. She doesn’t live within our intake area. She will have to attend–” and she named the other school.
My mother looked stunned, as if this was the first time she’d been acquainted with that fact. I was pretty damn sure she already knew.
Then my mother became upset and may even have wrung her hands. She explained at length her disappointment and her concern about my health and how I had to come to this school, as it was a shorter walk than to the other one.
I had a heart murmur when I was young. It’s an echo in the heartbeat that could mean a small hole in the heart, or any number of usually benign conditions that usually sort themselves out as a child ages. In my case, this happened — I outgrew the condition.
I don’t remember having any symptoms, and even though I’d heard about the heart murmur before, this was the first time I’d heard that it was a “condition” that required “managing”.
Now, I was only five, but I distinctly remember sitting there, watching my mother explain all this to the headmistress, and I just knew my mother was laying on the wax really thick and proper.
I didn’t get scared that I had a deadly disease. I didn’t for one moment wonder if I was really much sicker than she had let me know when I had first learned about the heart murmur. I just knew my mother was…well, not quite lying, but she was blowing everything out of proportion to convince the headmistress to let me into her school.
Here’s the thing that baffles me about that moment, though.
How did I know? How was I so sure she was performing to get what she wanted–i.e. me enrolled in a school she considered “better”? My mother hadn’t discussed any of this with me. I had been pulled along by the hand to attend the two enrollment interviews, and that was all. I still wasn’t entirely sure what “school” was, for those talks with my mother were yet to come.
But I knew exactly what my mother was doing, and why.
Now, perhaps I was just very intuitive at that age and picked up subtle clues from all over the place, including conversations my parents may have had over the top of my head. I will never know for sure.
Whenever I read in fantasy stories about a character with “truthsense” — the ability to tell if someone is lying or not — I always think of this moment. In my mind, that moment is an example of what the fantasy characters experience when they detect truth, or not. They feel a complete sense of certainty. They know what the real score is.
Catrin, in Touched by Maen Llia, which was released today, has a similar moment of gut-level utter conviction that what she believes is right, and everyone else is wrong.
The interesting thing about Catrin’s certainty, and my own certainty when watching my mother stretch the truth with the headmistress, was that I wasn’t aware of the parallels when I wrote the book. I only tripped over the entry about primary school in my journals this morning, and instantly spotted the connection.
A few days ago, I was asked how much of my life experience I put into my books. I’ll give you the answer I gave then: If you’re looking for wholesale events in my personal history picked up and dumped into a story, you won’t find them. Sorry. But if you know me very well, you will spot facets of my life and experiences in every single story I write. They seed themselves while I’m not looking.
And this is a perfect example of that seeding process in action.
By the way, I did end up attending Woodlands Primary School. 
Catrin is a handmaiden to the old Queen of Dyfed, whose husband and king, Geraint, has died without an heir, leaving the kingdom ripe for plucking. Yet Dyfed is the birthplace of King Arthur’s enchanter and adviser, Prince Merlin, who travels to the troubled kingdom to settle the question of who should be king.
Marcus Jorath is a newcomer to Camelot and wants only to serve King Arthur, whose peace has brought such a difference to the life and prospects of his family. Yet he is assigned to travel with Merlin to the out-of-the-way kingdom of Dyfed instead.
When the Dyfed mage, Ianto, declares it is mid-summer’s day, the maids of the kingdom visit the Maen Llia to make a wish. Catrin disputes it is the solstice, for she can read and is learned in the ways of tracking seasons and more, but no one listens to her, and she is forced to visit Maen Llia with the other women.
Merlin’s company of armed men come across the women, and Marcus finds himself drawn to the fiery redheaded Catrin and her blunt, direct way of speaking and thinking about the world. Their attraction puts them in the path of Ianto, who is more than the kingdoms’ inadequate mage, and has plans of his own he will not let a mere slip of a girl interfere with…
This story is part of the historical fantasy romance series, Once and Future Hearts, set in Britain during the time of King Arthur.
1.0 Born of No Man
2.0 Dragon Kin
3.0 Pendragon Rises
3.5 Once and Future Hearts Box One
4.0 War Duke of Britain
5.0 High King of Britain
6.0 Battle of Mount Badon
6.5 Once and Future Hearts Box Two
7.0 Abduction of Guenivere
8.0 Downfall of Cornwall
8.1 Touch by Maen Llia
9.0 Vengeance of Arthur
10.0 Grace of Lancelot
11.0 The Grail and Glory
12.0 Camlann
A Historical Fantasy Romance/Ancient Historical Romance series
Touched by Maen Llia was released this morning, on all bookstores, including mine. (Well, you could have bought a copy from me a week ago, but it’s there now, too.)
Buy from SRP!Buy from your favorite retailer! Enjoy!
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July 19, 2022
The SFR Series That Baffles Me
The Endurance series keeps baffling me. When I was putting out books steadily in this series, I got lots of feedback via lack of sales that the series wasn’t going over with you guys.
So I stopped writing it.
Fast forward a year or two, and the steady trickle of emails from readers and questions on social media basically all asking when the next Endurance book was coming out made me start to wonder if there was a silent core of readers who actually wanted me to finish the series.
So I wrote another book, Mongrels United, which was released earlier this year. The sales for the book surprised me. They weren’t JK Rowling level, but they were decent.
For a book in a series that I thought no one wanted.
Anyway, because of the response to the last book (which was a test balloon, I admit), I’ve now put finishing the Endurance series back on my production schedule.
In the meantime, if you’re new to the series, you can jump in with both feet, at a pretty good discount, with the new Endurance Box One set.
________
The first four science fiction romances in a unique series, collected together.
GREYSON’S DOOM
The AI declares Greyson is going to die and he must train his replacement.
Captain Greyson Durant has been in the job for three months, the youngest captain to ever lead the Endurance, when he is assigned to mentor the even younger Emmaline Victore, who resents the disruption to her life and Grey, too…but the longevity of the Endurance depends on them finding a way to work together.
YESTERDAY’S LEGACY
Only Jonah has the potential to save the Endurance.
Tightening food rations, cramped living quarters, unhappy and frustrated citizens. Life on the Endurance is unravelling fast. It is Marlow Fitzgerald’s job to maintain peace, including containing trouble-makers like Jonah Solomon, the radical thinker and society drop-out who just might be able to save the ship…if only she could believe him.
PROMISSORY NOTE
They can change life aboard the Endurance, if only they can work together.
Thanks to a small disaster aboard the Endurance, popular, beautiful and adored Laura Hyland is unable to meet the terms of a promissory note she wrote. The note has been signed over to the horrible Micah Thorn, an elite coder with a dark reputation and no social skills. The note ties Laura to Thorn and forces her to work with him. When she digs into his personal history, though, his work takes on a far deeper meaning…and could change everyone’s life for the better.
QUIVER AND CRAVE
He broke her heart. Tankball made her whole again.
Quiver Sheenan is the most talented topman the Endurance has ever seen. Despite her incredible abilities in zero gravity, she’d rather have a career in the sciences than play for the Dreamhawks while Kallon Crave is their captain.
These are the first four stories of the science fiction romance series readers are calling gripping, superb and fantastic. Written by award-winning SFR author Tracy Cooper-Posey, it is set aboard the marathon-class vessel Endurance, a generation ship a thousand years from its destination. If you like the smart, romantic SF of authors like Linnea Sinclair and Anna Hackett, you will love the Endurance series.__
This boxed set is part of The Endurance SFR series:
0.5 5,001
1.0 Greyson’s Doom
2.0 Yesterday’s Legacy
3.0 Promissory Note
3.1 Quiver and Crave
4.0 Xenogenesis
5.0 Junkyard Heroes
5.1 Evangeliya
6.0 Skinwalker’s Bane
7.0 Mongrels United…and more to come!
A Science Fiction Romance Boxed Set.
__
Praise for The Endurance series:
To all SF fans out there, I highly recommend this be on your reading list. To the author, PLEASE keep giving us these amazing stories.
I cannot wait to read more in this series and learn more about the people that live on the Endurance as it travels through space.
Thank you once again, Tracy Cooper-Posey, for a fun ride!
OMG, I love the Endurance stories!
Even if you think you won’t like sci-fi you will enjoy this book, the whole series. Love found, lost and found again. This series is one of the best I have ever read.
I’ve been following the entire Endurance series and love them all!
_________________
Endurance Box One has just gone on pre-order and will be released on August 25th. And the usual bonus applies if you buy your pre-order directly from me: You get your copy a week before anyone else (that is, on August 8th).
Pre-order directly from me at SRPPre-order from your favourite retail store.
July 14, 2022
AI Made Romance Cover Artwork
I’ve been talking a lot to other authors about Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how it is starting to move in on the indie publishing industry.
One of the posts I put up on Medium recently was about the first AI designed magazine cover, by Cosmopolitan. It was written for authors but you, as a reader, might still find it interesting.
All of us at Stories Rule Press have been playing around with the public, free portal to Craiyon, the AI that built the Cosmopolitan cover. The version the magazine used was more highly trained than the public portal, and quite likely not free, but the free portal gives you an idea of what the editors must have faced when designing their cover.
So I tried designing the artwork for a romance cover.That was interesting.
My first few efforts were abysmal and not worth showing you. I had to play around with keywords to start getting the effect I wanted. And, unfortunately, Craiyon is still not very good with faces. So, I started looking for the sort of head-chopped-off artwork that you can still find on book covers here and there.
My fifth try gave me these variations:
Hey, there’s even a threesome in there!
These don’t look…spectacular. But when you consider a computer designed them from the pixel up — not photo stock manipulations, but pure art — you start to appreciate the AI’s grasp of the essentials of a romance cover.
Also unfortunate; the generator only provides square covers.
SRP author Cameron Cooper was also jigging around with the generator, trying to make it make a science fiction cover. Cam took the time and trouble to crop down the image with the most potential and made up a mock cover. You can see that effort here.
I also kept playing with it, and came up with a piece of artwork (alas, still square) that could, with a bit of a stretch, be used for a romance novel cover:
Like Cameron, I don’t think that AI covers are going to take over Romanceland any time soon.
July 7, 2022
First Chapter (All of it!) Sneak Peek of Upcoming Fantasy Romance
Sneak peek of Upcoming Fantasy Romance
We’re only two weeks away from the release of Touched by Maen Llia, which means it’s time for the first chapter.
If you’re reading the Once and Future Hearts series, this story comes after Downfall of Cornwall, and before Vengeance of Arthur. It’s number 8.1 in the series.
Excerpt from Touched by Maen Llia by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Copyright © 2021
All Rights Reserved.
I
King’s Palace, Maridunum, Kingdom of Dyfed, Britain, 506AD.
When Ianto grew tired of beating her, Catrin crept out to the old orchard where no one else went. She found a patch of shade beneath the apricot tree, and carefully rested her shoulder against the gnarled old trunk. She couldn’t put her back to it.
It was just after the midday meal and the sun was high overhead, blazing in a cloudless sky, beating down upon the dried earth between the trees. The weeds which had once softened the paths between the trees had gasped their last breath days ago, had withered and blown away. The vines on the old Roman walls surrounding the orchard were brittle, the leaves curled. When a breeze caught at them, they clattered, like a drummer’s sticks, but there was no breeze today.
The grapes which grew across the pergola were ailing. The apple tree in the corner drooped. Only the apricot tree thrived in the heat. Some said the apricot tree had been growing in this orchard since before Merlin’s time. They said Merlin had sat beneath the apricot tree and that the orchard had been a favourite place of his. Perhaps that was why it had never been torn down, even though few of the trees bore fruit, anymore.
Catrin wondered if the great wizard had come here to escape, as she did. She suspected not. Who would dare beat Merlin? He would have changed them into toads if they tried.
Thinking of wizards brought her thoughts back to Ianto, with his drooping moustache and cold black eyes. Catrin didn’t want to think about him at all. She hissed her annoyance as the bark on the trunk of the tree dug into a painful spot on her flesh. She shifted so only her outer shoulder touched the tree.
Then she rested her head against it and listened to a cricket swiftly tick in the corner of the little walled garden. Far overhead, a gull cawed. She could smell the heat rising from the soil around her, but it was not rich with earthy, green smells. Instead, it smelled dusty and tickled her nose.
Silence dropped over the orchard, as if the heat had blasted away the wind and rendered every human and creature incapable of movement.
Her senses told her she wasn’t alone anymore. Catrin turned to scan the gate.
The woman standing in front of the just-closing gate was nearly as tall as Catrin, with long silver hair flowing down her back. She favoured blue for her gowns, which tested the dying skills of the women of the court, but the Queen always got her way. The blue matched Eira’s eyes, which watched Catrin steadily. Her crooked fingers gripped the top of the staff she used to help her walk, ever since she had been thrown from her horse twelve years ago.
“My lady,” Catrin said, pushing herself up from the earth. Then she hissed again and paused as her back throbbed. Yet to make the Queen wait brought its own penalties, so she gritted her teeth together and rose to her feet.
“How bad is it?” Eira demanded. Her voice was rough with age.
“It is nothing,” Catrin lied. “Is there something you wish me to do?”
The Queen walked forward, the tip of the staff tapping hollowly on the baked earth. “Let me see this nothing and judge for myself.”
Catrin hesitated. She could not refuse. Eira was a queen. The Queen of Dyfed, at least until the next king was chosen from among the two cousins who claimed the throne was rightfully theirs. On the other hand, Catrin’s status was barely higher than a slave.
She was a bastard, the daughter of a servant. It was only because Queen Eira liked her that Catrin had any sort of position in the King’s house.
Only, revealing her back would be the same as declaring she was incapable of working. To work, to do every task and chore given to her, was why she was allowed to remain in the old Roman villa.
Yet the Queen had commanded. Catrin turned and slipped her arm out of the old tunic, then the other one, and let the tunic fall about her waist.
“Your hair,” Eira said, as she came closer.
Catrin gathered up the red wavy locks and pulled them over her shoulder, her heart thudding.
Eira studied her back for long moments. Then she sighed. “For a man made of naught but bones and skin, Ianto has a heavy hand. Sit on the bench over here. I’ve brought something which will help take the hurt out of the bruises.”
Catrin looked over her shoulder, startled. “You cannot mean to tend my back yourself? I can do it.”
Eira’s faded blue eyes met her gaze. “You can barely get up without help. Who else should do this?”
“Well, I suppose…” Catrin bit her lip. For minor aches and ailments, everyone in the palace consulted Ianto. “This is not proper,” she added, as Eira pushed her toward the bench, then gripped her shoulder with a hand that still had all its youthful strength and pushed her onto the hot stone.
“Oh, hush, child,” Eira muttered, sitting beside her. She propped the staff against the bench and pulled a small pot of unguent out of her pocket and removed the lid. “Turn so I can reach your back. Turn, I say.”
Catrin turned her back on the Queen. “The court would be horrified if they saw their Queen tending a servant.”
“Which is why I followed you to where no one else dares come, for they are all too afraid of the shade of Merlin.” Eira gave a “psh” sound, declaring that fear as nonsense. “You are too useful a companion and the lack of your company would be too great an inconvenience for me.”
The salve did soothe her hurts. It was cool against her heated flesh and spread relief across her back as Eira quickly spread it.
“I will not deprive myself of your conversation because I am too proud to minister to a girl who should know better than to dispute the King’s mage,” Eira added, her tone matter-of-fact.
“But it isn’t the solstice!” Catrin said. “Ianto has the day wrong, I can prove it! Mid-summer is tomorrow.”
“You can prove it, you say?”
“Yes! The sundial and my gnomon stick tell me the solstice is tomorrow. I swear to you, my lady, Ianto has it wrong.”
“Good,” Eira said firmly.
“Good?”
“You said nothing about the sundial and those sticks of yours when Ianto was beating you. I thought that perhaps you’d read it in the stars or some such foolish thing.”
“Magic? I have no magic,” Catrin said swiftly, for Eira had often told her that. “I have mundane knowledge, which you gave me.”
“I gave you books which I cannot read myself,” Eira replied. “I thought you were clever. Leastwise, you’ve always appeared so to me, with your reading and knowledge. Yet to tell Ianto he was wrong in front of everyone… Poor Ban the goose boy would have known to hold his tongue.”
Catrin looked over her shoulder—or tried to. The twisting movement hurt. She hissed again and straightened. “If I had stayed silent, then the mid-summer feast would take place tonight. The gods would not like that. How can I let Ianto expose the kingdom to more bad luck, simply because he has read the stars wrong?”
“You’re a bastard and a girl,” Eira said, in a calm way which took the sting out of that fact. “Ianto is a mage and a wise man. Who do you think the court will listen to?”
Catrin slumped. “Ianto.”
“Aye, and they did. The women will bathe in the Afon Llia at sunset, when the Maen Llia comes to drink at the river and bless them. The mid-summer feast will be held tonight, after the sun has gone. Nothing will change, except that now you have a back that looks like those dried vines over there.”
“It will heal,” Catrin said firmly.
“Aye, the flesh will grow back,” Eira said. “I will pray that your good sense does, too. Put your tunic back on.”
Catrin pushed her arms into the openings in the tunic and carefully pulled it up over her back. Unlike the ladies of the court, her tunic stopped at her ankles, instead of dragging upon the floor and trailing behind them as they walked. Her sandals did not tangle in excess folds and trip her up. She got up from the bench and turned to Eira. “Thank you, my lady.”
Eira grimaced as she put the lid on the pot and the pot back in her pocket. “For the salve or the lesson?”
“Both.” Catrin smiled.
So did Eira. Then the Queen rolled her eyes. “And now, I bid you help me up from this blasted bench. It is far too low for me to spring up the way you do.”
Catrin laughed and helped the old woman rise to her feet and put the staff in her grasping hand. Thanks to the salve, Catrin’s back only twinged a little with the movement. She waited until the Queen was steady on her feet once more.
Eira patted her cheek. “Do as you have always done at mid-summer, child. Do not give Ianto more reason to watch you. Do not give him any reason to think you may have powers which threaten him.”
“But I do not!”
“Yet you let him think you knew about mid-summer because of magic, just now. You did not speak of measuring shadows, as you do.”
“He gave me no chance to explain.”
“Nor will he ever. Ianto is a mage. Magic is all he knows. It gave him his position in my husband’s court. He will not deal with sensible, practical facts. Once I have gone, what protection you have against that drunken, womanizing fool will go, too. Learn to hide from his attention.”
Catrin nodded, for they were wise words. “I will.”
Caught between magic and truth…
Catrin is a handmaiden to the old Queen of Dyfed, whose husband and king, Geraint, has died without an heir, leaving the kingdom ripe for plucking. Yet Dyfed is the birthplace of King Arthur’s enchanter and adviser, Prince Merlin, who travels to the troubled kingdom to settle the question of who should be king.
Marcus Jorath is a newcomer to Camelot and wants only to serve King Arthur, whose peace has brought such a difference to the life and prospects of his family. Yet he is assigned to travel with Merlin to the out-of-the-way kingdom of Dyfed instead.
When the Dyfed mage, Ianto, declares it is mid-summer’s day, the maids of the kingdom visit the Maen Llia to make a wish. Catrin disputes it is the solstice, for she can read and is learned in the ways of tracking seasons and more, but no one listens to her, and she is forced to visit Maen Llia with the other women.
Merlin’s company of armed men come across the women, and Marcus finds himself drawn to the fiery redheaded Catrin and her blunt, direct way of speaking and thinking about the world. Their attraction puts them in the path of Ianto, who is more than the kingdoms’ inadequate mage, and has plans of his own he will not let a mere slip of a girl interfere with…
This story is part of the historical fantasy romance series, Once and Future Hearts, set in Britain during the time of King Arthur.
1.0 Born of No Man
2.0 Dragon Kin
3.0 Pendragon Rises
3.5 Once and Future Hearts Box One
4.0 War Duke of Britain
5.0 High King of Britain
6.0 Battle of Mount Badon
6.5 Once and Future Hearts Box Two
7.0 Abduction of Guenivere
8.0 Downfall of Cornwall
8.1 Touch by Maen Llia
9.0 Vengeance of Arthur
10.0 Grace of Lancelot
11.0 The Grail and Glory
12.0 Camlann
A Historical Fantasy Romance/Ancient Historical Romance series
As always, if you pre-order the book directly from me on Stories Rule Press, you get it a week early — that is, next Thursday.
Buy from SRP!
Buy from your favorite retailer!
Enjoy!
First chapter (all of it!) sneak peek of upcoming fantasy romance
We’re only two weeks away from the release of Touched by Maen Llia, which means it’s time for the first chapter.
If you’re reading the Once and Future Hearts series, this story comes after Downfall of Cornwall, and before Vengeance of Arthur. It’s number 8.1 in the series.
Excerpt from Touched by Maen Llia by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Copyright © 2021
All Rights Reserved.
I
King’s Palace, Maridunum, Kingdom of Dyfed, Britain, 506AD.
When Ianto grew tired of beating her, Catrin crept out to the old orchard where no one else went. She found a patch of shade beneath the apricot tree, and carefully rested her shoulder against the gnarled old trunk. She couldn’t put her back to it.
It was just after the midday meal and the sun was high overhead, blazing in a cloudless sky, beating down upon the dried earth between the trees. The weeds which had once softened the paths between the trees had gasped their last breath days ago, had withered and blown away. The vines on the old Roman walls surrounding the orchard were brittle, the leaves curled. When a breeze caught at them, they clattered, like a drummer’s sticks, but there was no breeze today.
The grapes which grew across the pergola were ailing. The apple tree in the corner drooped. Only the apricot tree thrived in the heat. Some said the apricot tree had been growing in this orchard since before Merlin’s time. They said Merlin had sat beneath the apricot tree and that the orchard had been a favourite place of his. Perhaps that was why it had never been torn down, even though few of the trees bore fruit, anymore.
Catrin wondered if the great wizard had come here to escape, as she did. She suspected not. Who would dare beat Merlin? He would have changed them into toads if they tried.
Thinking of wizards brought her thoughts back to Ianto, with his drooping moustache and cold black eyes. Catrin didn’t want to think about him at all. She hissed her annoyance as the bark on the trunk of the tree dug into a painful spot on her flesh. She shifted so only her outer shoulder touched the tree.
Then she rested her head against it and listened to a cricket swiftly tick in the corner of the little walled garden. Far overhead, a gull cawed. She could smell the heat rising from the soil around her, but it was not rich with earthy, green smells. Instead, it smelled dusty and tickled her nose.
Silence dropped over the orchard, as if the heat had blasted away the wind and rendered every human and creature incapable of movement.
Her senses told her she wasn’t alone anymore. Catrin turned to scan the gate.
The woman standing in front of the just-closing gate was nearly as tall as Catrin, with long silver hair flowing down her back. She favoured blue for her gowns, which tested the dying skills of the women of the court, but the Queen always got her way. The blue matched Eira’s eyes, which watched Catrin steadily. Her crooked fingers gripped the top of the staff she used to help her walk, ever since she had been thrown from her horse twelve years ago.
“My lady,” Catrin said, pushing herself up from the earth. Then she hissed again and paused as her back throbbed. Yet to make the Queen wait brought its own penalties, so she gritted her teeth together and rose to her feet.
“How bad is it?” Eira demanded. Her voice was rough with age.
“It is nothing,” Catrin lied. “Is there something you wish me to do?”
The Queen walked forward, the tip of the staff tapping hollowly on the baked earth. “Let me see this nothing and judge for myself.”
Catrin hesitated. She could not refuse. Eira was a queen. The Queen of Dyfed, at least until the next king was chosen from among the two cousins who claimed the throne was rightfully theirs. On the other hand, Catrin’s status was barely higher than a slave.
She was a bastard, the daughter of a servant. It was only because Queen Eira liked her that Catrin had any sort of position in the King’s house.
Only, revealing her back would be the same as declaring she was incapable of working. To work, to do every task and chore given to her, was why she was allowed to remain in the old Roman villa.
Yet the Queen had commanded. Catrin turned and slipped her arm out of the old tunic, then the other one, and let the tunic fall about her waist.
“Your hair,” Eira said, as she came closer.
Catrin gathered up the red wavy locks and pulled them over her shoulder, her heart thudding.
Eira studied her back for long moments. Then she sighed. “For a man made of naught but bones and skin, Ianto has a heavy hand. Sit on the bench over here. I’ve brought something which will help take the hurt out of the bruises.”
Catrin looked over her shoulder, startled. “You cannot mean to tend my back yourself? I can do it.”
Eira’s faded blue eyes met her gaze. “You can barely get up without help. Who else should do this?”
“Well, I suppose…” Catrin bit her lip. For minor aches and ailments, everyone in the palace consulted Ianto. “This is not proper,” she added, as Eira pushed her toward the bench, then gripped her shoulder with a hand that still had all its youthful strength and pushed her onto the hot stone.
“Oh, hush, child,” Eira muttered, sitting beside her. She propped the staff against the bench and pulled a small pot of unguent out of her pocket and removed the lid. “Turn so I can reach your back. Turn, I say.”
Catrin turned her back on the Queen. “The court would be horrified if they saw their Queen tending a servant.”
“Which is why I followed you to where no one else dares come, for they are all too afraid of the shade of Merlin.” Eira gave a “psh” sound, declaring that fear as nonsense. “You are too useful a companion and the lack of your company would be too great an inconvenience for me.”
The salve did soothe her hurts. It was cool against her heated flesh and spread relief across her back as Eira quickly spread it.
“I will not deprive myself of your conversation because I am too proud to minister to a girl who should know better than to dispute the King’s mage,” Eira added, her tone matter-of-fact.
“But it isn’t the solstice!” Catrin said. “Ianto has the day wrong, I can prove it! Mid-summer is tomorrow.”
“You can prove it, you say?”
“Yes! The sundial and my gnomon stick tell me the solstice is tomorrow. I swear to you, my lady, Ianto has it wrong.”
“Good,” Eira said firmly.
“Good?”
“You said nothing about the sundial and those sticks of yours when Ianto was beating you. I thought that perhaps you’d read it in the stars or some such foolish thing.”
“Magic? I have no magic,” Catrin said swiftly, for Eira had often told her that. “I have mundane knowledge, which you gave me.”
“I gave you books which I cannot read myself,” Eira replied. “I thought you were clever. Leastwise, you’ve always appeared so to me, with your reading and knowledge. Yet to tell Ianto he was wrong in front of everyone… Poor Ban the goose boy would have known to hold his tongue.”
Catrin looked over her shoulder—or tried to. The twisting movement hurt. She hissed again and straightened. “If I had stayed silent, then the mid-summer feast would take place tonight. The gods would not like that. How can I let Ianto expose the kingdom to more bad luck, simply because he has read the stars wrong?”
“You’re a bastard and a girl,” Eira said, in a calm way which took the sting out of that fact. “Ianto is a mage and a wise man. Who do you think the court will listen to?”
Catrin slumped. “Ianto.”
“Aye, and they did. The women will bathe in the Afon Llia at sunset, when the Maen Llia comes to drink at the river and bless them. The mid-summer feast will be held tonight, after the sun has gone. Nothing will change, except that now you have a back that looks like those dried vines over there.”
“It will heal,” Catrin said firmly.
“Aye, the flesh will grow back,” Eira said. “I will pray that your good sense does, too. Put your tunic back on.”
Catrin pushed her arms into the openings in the tunic and carefully pulled it up over her back. Unlike the ladies of the court, her tunic stopped at her ankles, instead of dragging upon the floor and trailing behind them as they walked. Her sandals did not tangle in excess folds and trip her up. She got up from the bench and turned to Eira. “Thank you, my lady.”
Eira grimaced as she put the lid on the pot and the pot back in her pocket. “For the salve or the lesson?”
“Both.” Catrin smiled.
So did Eira. Then the Queen rolled her eyes. “And now, I bid you help me up from this blasted bench. It is far too low for me to spring up the way you do.”
Catrin laughed and helped the old woman rise to her feet and put the staff in her grasping hand. Thanks to the salve, Catrin’s back only twinged a little with the movement. She waited until the Queen was steady on her feet once more.
Eira patted her cheek. “Do as you have always done at mid-summer, child. Do not give Ianto more reason to watch you. Do not give him any reason to think you may have powers which threaten him.”
“But I do not!”
“Yet you let him think you knew about mid-summer because of magic, just now. You did not speak of measuring shadows, as you do.”
“He gave me no chance to explain.”
“Nor will he ever. Ianto is a mage. Magic is all he knows. It gave him his position in my husband’s court. He will not deal with sensible, practical facts. Once I have gone, what protection you have against that drunken, womanizing fool will go, too. Learn to hide from his attention.”
Catrin nodded, for they were wise words. “I will.”
Caught between magic and truth…
Catrin is a handmaiden to the old Queen of Dyfed, whose husband and king, Geraint, has died without an heir, leaving the kingdom ripe for plucking. Yet Dyfed is the birthplace of King Arthur’s enchanter and adviser, Prince Merlin, who travels to the troubled kingdom to settle the question of who should be king.
Marcus Jorath is a newcomer to Camelot and wants only to serve King Arthur, whose peace has brought such a difference to the life and prospects of his family. Yet he is assigned to travel with Merlin to the out-of-the-way kingdom of Dyfed instead.
When the Dyfed mage, Ianto, declares it is mid-summer’s day, the maids of the kingdom visit the Maen Llia to make a wish. Catrin disputes it is the solstice, for she can read and is learned in the ways of tracking seasons and more, but no one listens to her, and she is forced to visit Maen Llia with the other women.
Merlin’s company of armed men come across the women, and Marcus finds himself drawn to the fiery redheaded Catrin and her blunt, direct way of speaking and thinking about the world. Their attraction puts them in the path of Ianto, who is more than the kingsdom’s inadquate mage, and has plans of his own he will not let a mere slip of a girl interefere with…
This story is part of the historical fantasy romance series, Once and Future Hearts, set in Britain during the time of King Arthur.
1.0 Born of No Man
2.0 Dragon Kin
3.0 Pendragon Rises
3.5 Once and Future Hearts Box One
4.0 War Duke of Britain
5.0 High King of Britain
6.0 Battle of Mount Badon
6.5 Once and Future Hearts Box Two
7.0 Abduction of Guenivere
8.0 Downfall of Cornwall
8.1 Touch by Maen Llia
9.0 Vengeance of Arthur
10.0 Grace of Lancelot
11.0 The Grail and Glory
12.0 Camlann
A Historical Fantasy Romance/Ancient Historical Romance series
As always, if you pre-order the book directly from me on Stories Rule Press, you get it a week early — that is, next Thursday.
Buy from SRP!
Buy from your favorite retailer!
Enjoy!
July 1, 2022
Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian Readers — and discounts for *everyone*
— and discounts for everyone!
It’s Canada Day. For certain. I checked. Twice.
If you are subscribed to my email list and receive the BookFunnel giveaway emails, then you already know about my big oops last month and my apology.
If you don’t receive the BookFunnel emails, then you should know I covered myself in (not) glory on June 1st this year by wishing everyone north of the 49th parallel a happy Canada Day.
I write emails and blog posts a long way in advance, and I work seven days a week, so the fact that it was only June 1st, not July 1st, completely escaped me.
The most interesting part about it was the number of non Canadians who contacted me to sweetly point out that Canada Day was a whole month away yet.
Today is Canada’s 153rd anniversary. Therefore, I’m offering a coupon for a 15.3% discount on all my books set in Canada.
They are:
Fatal Wild Child (Romantic Suspense)
Solstice Surrender (PNR, steamy)
Zoe’s Blockade (PNR, steamy)
Dead Drop (RS and an unofficial sequel to Dead Again, and only available on SRP)
Also, as an added bonus, if you like your urban fantasy “straight”, you might be interested in this series from fellow SRP author Taylen Carver, which is set in my home province of Alberta:
The Harley Firebird urban fantasy series:
1.0: The Dragon of Falconer
2.0: The Orc Who Cried
3.0: The Shepherd of Fire
4.0: The Mad Folk of Falconer
5.0: The Badge of Our Tribe
5.5: Harley Firebird Files
6.0: The Firebird’s Regret
The coupon code is TJT2DRQP, and will be active only for this week, and expires at midnight MDT on July 8th. It is only valid for the titles above, on the SRP site.
Enjoy!
June 30, 2022
Use RSS Feeds to Read More Fiction
I spotted this mournful little image online the other day and had to smile, because I’ve never stopped using RSS feeds.
RSS feeds are built into every site that has a blog element to it, and if that site is built with WordPress (most sites are, including this one), then even if there’s no “blog” there, there is an RSS feed.
Think of RSS Feeds as the live streaming version of blog posts. TV series and movies are live streamed and you can watch them if you have a viewer than can handle the live stream. We use an Apple TV device. There are others.
An RSS feed is the live stream that all blogs and many sites send out, that can be “read” by an RSS feed reader.
Google Reader has gone, but there are other readers out there (which I’ll get to in a minute).
First though, why should you care about RSS Feeds if you only read fiction?
Reading via an RSS Feed reader avoids nearly all the advertisementsThis is perhaps the best reason for reading anything via its RSS feed – the ads don’t come along for the ride.
I’ve visited plenty of sites where there are so many pop up ads, internal post ads, sidebar ads and more, that I can’t see the post itself. And if I’m reading it on a phone, sometimes I can’t see or reach the “x” that shuts the ad down.
I usually click away from such sites, but that means, often, I’m missing out on content I really wanted to read.
Reading those same posts via an RSS feed reader means ad-free reading. The one exception to this is if the site only publishes partial content via their feed, with a link back to the site.
But the joys of ad-free reading are so great, that I often just unsubscribe from the sites that will only publish a partial feed, and never go back there.
More reasons you might want to use a feed reader:
There are a TON of Online Fiction MagazinesThey may not call themselves magazines. They go by many names, including “literary journal” and more. But their aim is to publish fiction, sometimes in specific genres, sometimes anything goes.
There are no sites that publish purely romance fiction that I’ve found (but if there is, let me know). However, if you check out the all-genre publications, and roam outside the romance genre, and most especially, if you like reading science fiction and/or fantasy, there is a small mountain of fiction out there. And it’s usually free to read. Even the subscription sites publish a handful of short stories free each month.
Start your search here, or here, or here.
Add long read sites“Long read” sites are sites that publish, well, long read articles. They’re often non-fiction, but they’re thought pieces—well researched, usually thought provoking, and because of their length, often a pain to read right there on the site itself unless you’re reading it on a desktop (and sometimes, not even then, thanks to ads).
These sites are perfect for reading via their RSS feed.
Start with Longform or Longreads, to get a feel for the long form. When you’re ready and curious to try more, search for “longform journalism” and see what pops.
Then there’s the news sitesWhile you’re digging up fiction feeds to fill your reader, and if you like browsing news sites and staying on top of the news, you can also add the RSS feed of news sites to your reader.
Sans ads and other districtions, you can absorb your news undiluted. Try
Top 10 Best News Sites & Sources In 2022, or
Top 15 Most Popular News Websites | June 2022 to get you started.
Eight Free RSS Readers to check outThere are paid version of some of these, and some only-for-pay readers. Once you’ve experimented with RSS feeds, and decide you like them, then consider buying a reader, or paying for the full version of one.
I use InoReader and up until this year, I paid for the pro version, which you can tailor with rules and filters and much more. But I’ve cut back to the simple and free version, and it works just fine, particularly for cellphone reading (unlike the sites where the feeds come from).
June 29, 2022
The Monthly 20% Off Everything Sale has Started
My publisher, Stories Rule Press, started their monthly 20% off Everything sale this morning. As usual, the discount applies to anything available on Stories Rule press, which includes boxed series sets, pre-orders, and books already on sale.
You can use the coupon as often as you want before the expiry date, and pass it on to friends and family. There is no limit to the number of books you can buy with the coupon.
Also, you don’t have to buy just my books. You can buy any book by any author on the SRP site.
Head here to start your browsing. On this page you can search, sort and filter your results.
The coupon code you need to get the 20% discount is CWXAVYRA
Enjoy!
Tracy
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BORN OF NO MAN is on Hello Books today
Born of No Man, the first book in the Once and Future Hearts Arthurian fantasy romance series, is being featured on Hello Books for today and throughout the weekend.
It’s not the only free romance listed there. Every few days, another eight to 10 titles are listed.
Head over to Hello Books and check them out — and pick up a copy of Born of No Man, if you haven’t got around to it yet.
A LEGEND BEGINS…
Can love triumph despite duty?
Lynette, companion to Princess Vivian, has learned to trust the princess’ visions and so, guards the dark and powerful secret of the man in the cave.
Cadfael the Black, battle commander to High King Vortigern, lives only to kill Saxons, to avenge the brutal murder of his family at their hands. At the court of King Gwilym, the very heart of Roman Britain, he meets the beautiful Lynette, a woman who could thaw his frozen heart.
When duty thrusts them together, Lynette’s secret clashes with Cadfael’s suspicious nature and threatens to tear them and the entire kingdom asunder. But, Lynette must keep her secret at all costs to protect Princess Vivian’s unborn child. A child who would become known as…
MERLIN.
This novel is part of the historical fantasy romance series, Once and Future Hearts, set in Britain during the time of King Arthur.
1.0 Born of No Man
2.0 Dragon Kin
3.0 Pendragon Rises
4.0 War Duke of Britain
5.0 High King of Britain
6.0 Battle of Mount Badon
7.0 Abduction of Guenivere
8.0 Downfall of Cornwall
9.0 Vengeance of Arthur
10.0 Grace of Lancelot
11.0 The Grail and Glory
12.0 Camlann
Readers have described Tracy Cooper-Posey as “a superb story teller” and her historical fantasy romances as “written art”. Get your copy of Born of No Man today!
__
Praise for Born of No Man:
Wow … this is a fantastic story. The author takes us straight into the heart of Arthurian Britannia with a tale that gives us the origins of the story of Merlin…Fantastically written and filled with tension. – Dark Ages Romance
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Reader Reviews:
Love, love, love this book! I am amazed at how well Tracy Cooper-Posey has constructed this story to introduce us to Merlin, King Arthur’s magician, through characters surrounding his beginnings.
It takes me back to the magic I felt when reading Mary Stewart’s stories of Merlin. Tracy Cooper-Posey has written another winner!
I was absolutely surprised by how the events unfurled, and if only for that you should read it. I just can’t wait for the next one.
As a long time, self proclaimed Arthurian Legend junkie I couldn’t wait to dive into Tracy Cooper Posey’s new series. Tracy once again proves to be a master story teller as she weaves the delicate threads of this beloved legend into her own.
I love how the legends and historical factual ‘bits’ are interwoven in the story.
Oh my goodness. Of course I was not sure what to expect with this but what I got was a wonderful story set in the time just before King Arthur. Invading Saxons, Romans, Kings, princesses, mysteries, Merlin, and romance? Wonderful beginning to a new series and I cannot wait to read more.
Just loved the book – Tracy always manages to develop great story lines that keep you hooked until the end (thanks for the late night Tracy!).
I also love the fact that her female characters are definitely not boring, whiny or TSTL.
Tracy Cooper Posey is brilliant at weaving stories with individuals that are completely believable in their thoughts and dialogue.
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Click here to get Born of No Man on Hello Books.
Click here to get Born of No Man at your favourite retail store
Click here to get Born of No Man directly from me on my store.
June 23, 2022
This Is How Our Bodies Have Changed Over Time
FRANCE, PARIS – CIRCA 1900: portrait of just married couple. bride and groom wearing vintage clothing. antique wedding photo. nostalgic picture. — DepositPhotosWe’ve all read enough historicals and historical romances to know that the tight-lacing and corsets worn through a lot of history made women’s bodies look…different.
For instance, Edwardian women with their jutting upper bodices (see right). The fashion plates of the day made them appear to be “s” shaped.
Then there was the mid-19th century obsession with tiny waists and enormous hoops.
Regency period fashions look simple, but even then, the women wore corsets to get that flowing long line.
You might be forgiven for thinking that once a woman of those times removed her corset, her body would look more or less the same as a modern woman’s — with all the natural variations.
But an article on Atlas Obscura might make you rethink that.
“The Art of Dressing Mannequins in Rare and Historic Garments” is fascinating not just because “it’s hard” to dress a mannequin in antique fashions.
Met display of vintage gown.Deeper into the article, you can see photos of mannequins that have been hacked and sliced, stretched and bent to accommodate the fashions they’re supposed to display.
Consider the gown on the left. There are images in the article showing how the mannequin was contorted to fit the gown.
It makes you wonder how much the female form has changed over the years, through more than just corsetry.
For instance, I know that modern women have wider waists than our ancestors because we are more active, and exercise the muscles in the abdomen, which strengthens our obliques…and also broadens the waist.
Historically, women were far more active than we modern, climate controlled, instant food women, but they wore corsets while they were doing it, and they never did sit ups or crunches! (Although I bet they were incredibly fit compared to us. Pounds and pounds of gown, undergarment and petticoats, no elevators, and little automation.)
Plus, modern women are, on average, taller. That’s a result of a preference for mates who are tall, which is a modern ideal.
It’s the degree to which the hacking and sawing of mannequins takes place in order for authentically historical garments to fit that makes me wonder what else has changed that we’re not aware of. Are our torso longer? Or shorter? We sit down far more than even the upper class women of the 19th century — have our bodies changed shape because of that?
Food for thought. And a moment to be grateful that corsets are no longer a requirement for gentile ladies!
