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The Cast of Delevan House #12

Mauve is introduced in Delevan House in the chapter ‘Ripples’, during Caoimhe Liùsaidh Delevan’s birth. Mauve, along with Fraoch, are the only two of Lenore Delevan’s flock of crows whose names are shared with our readers in book I.

Her appearance spans several chapters, and readers discover Mauve’s magical creation and naming in ‘Bringing Down the Flowers’ when her energy is shifted from one form to another at the hands of Lady Lenore Delevan during the act that ultimately leads the lady of the house to her captivity in Delevan House and Badb village for the centuries that followed. Her magical naming uttered three times by the mistress before being welcomed into the obsidian wings of the Delevan flock. Conceived of love and aborted through fear, the energy of this character is profound and will be explored further with Brazen Folk Horror in the books and a detailed feature in Mauve and our crows in #BeBrazen. Though very much part of the Delevan family, Mauve is distinctive from her feathered flock in physical appearance, being the only white crow.

We are slowly introducing a few select pieces of Brazen Folk Horror merchandise outside public appearances, conventions and markets. Natasha has a few #BeBrazen Ts available on her Etsy for anyone who just can’t get enough of our sexy Crescent and V-Rod logo.

Clan Witch Etsy

#BeBrazen Saturday

Last week we shared some insight into one of our most loved characters, The Threnody. The character who haunted Ruthann’s dreams, demanding to be created as a conduit between worlds that exist in Delevan House. The Threnody enhances the mother in us both. Perhaps our edgewalker touched your heart too? Please enjoy Ruthann reading an extract from the novel featuring The Threnody.

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The Cast of Delevan House #10

The Green Stones

It’s always interesting when we can assign a personality or humanize the importance of inanimate objects in a story.

There are unusual stones associated with Delevan House in a prominent way, and for some characters, as well as the village of Badb, their meaning is life-altering. Or life-ending.

Using extensive historical research as a basis for not only our Brazen Folk Horror brand symbol of the crescent and v-rod, we dipped into the little-known and used imagery of the earliest Scottish painted- people, the Picts for inspiration.

Finding the subject of their carved-into-stone symbolic language both limiting and fascinating, Natasha and Ruthann designed a divination tool crucial to the backstory of the House and continues the horror of the mythology and folklore that propels the story of our cursed village forward.

Like the better-known Rune Stones, they may hold the secret to the past and future, but we’re unique in our creativity and use.

Both can mark territory, tell stories, and unlock forbidden mysteries.

The attachment of respect and fear to the ritual involving The Green Stones of Badb was great fun not only to write but also in that the authors could play jury, judge, and executioner of our characters. Our Edgewalker choose who receives one. She alone can decipher the depth of their power and meaning.

Is The Threnody our version of The Fates, or is she so much more?

Her ability to connect to worlds beyond the living yet walk among us is terrifying.

We haven’t finished with her yet.

We’ll explore this character more deeply, as she’s Ruthann’s favorite. In an innocent yet insidious way, our seemingly innocent translucent creature holds the keys to what makes Delevan House pulse and feeds its life forces.

You may look at what appears on the surface to be chicken-scratches etches on smooth pebbles very differently going forward and think twice about bringing home those beach vacation souvenirs.

The Cast of Delevan House #9

One Should Keep Walking from a Walker

We all know the easy analogies…like a month to a flame…stand too close to the fire, and you’ll get burned…on and on.

But what IS it in our nature that compels us to cling to the relentless magnetic draw of a person we know is despicable but still ever so attractive to us?

We honestly had no idea about the extreme reactions our character Layton Walker would elicit.

Not only is he generally despised, but some have also compared him to the worst possible man they know and hate.

Our charismatic and dirty devil drove a stake into quite a few readers, leaving raw scars and heavy words to us in his wake.

We are amused and are taking notes to heart.

We like to think we nailed our lousy guy.

As a secondary, for now, and a player in Delevan House, Layton is pivotal in driving our ill-fated Jenna McCray towards her date with destiny and tragic results.

Unabashedly criminal, ferocious, and entirely self-absorbed and motivated, our thug in a designer suit cruises the curled-in edges of decent people and lives, taking at will and leaving nothing but heartbreak and the experience of being manipulated by him behind.

Some will claim it’s better to beg forgiveness than forgo the possibility of great pleasure, and who among us doesn’t want the thrill of dark or out-of-reach desire?

It’s the worst ones who make us feel the most alive while in their orbit.

The seductive ones, by design or effect, often kick at the fragile walls of hearts and physical senses. They challenge us with their auras and intentions.

And they are the ones we long for and miss the most when they throw us aside.

They won’t ever change, but we need to believe that for us, they just might.

Layton Walker may not have intended to drive Jenna away to subsequently land on the shore of a tiny fishing village in Scotland. Still, his emotional abuse, sexual lure, and devastating control over the young woman crushed her spirit, so she ran…away from and to something even more devastating.

Our Layton strolls in, taking no prisoners, and makes no apologies for being exactly who and what he is.

A Celtic saying says: “When you dance with the devil, worry when the music will end.”

It might be the best dance of your life, but there’s always a price to pay.

https://brazenfolkhorror.com/newsletter/

Intermission

With spring holidays on both sides of the Brazen Folk Horror world, which means no breaks for us directly, rather the opposite, we are having a small intermission between the weekly Delevan House cast articles.

For now, feel free to peruse our backlog of reading right here, and, in case you haven’t heard it enough — sign up for the #bebrazen newsletter! We promise our quarterly is not to be missed! With fresh, relevant and exclusive content wrapped in one Brazenly unique package direct to your email.

Don’t pay mind to the Pivonna’s and other such gossips and hear it first and direct only from Natasha & Ruthann. We are Brazen Folk Horror.

The Cast of Delevan House #8

Nicnevin is the absolute source of the immortal characters readers will meet reading Delevan House.

Beyond the epigraph opening the novel, chosen because it is the first documented mention of Nicnevin, a quotation from Alexander Montgomerie’s Flyting against fellow poet Patrick Hume #brazenreaders are introduced to our Nicnevin in the chapter ‘Appellation of Fae and Lady’. Here The Lady of Badb is transformed into an immortal Baobhan Sith, who ultimately becomes the creature Lady Lenore Delevan, all by the magicks of Nicnevin.

Nicnevin is known by many names in the mythologies that she appears.

In Scotland, she is a Witch or Faerie Queen, depending on the tale.

As Faerie, she is the Queen of the Unseelie Court in Elphame (the name given to the faerie realm), governing over all the Unseelie as their Dark Queen. Her army is the fearsome and vile creatures that make up The Sluagh.

Scholars are divided over the origins of Nicnevin. Some support the idea that she was a real woman condemned to death for witchcraft in Scotland, with several potential sources for this version of her name. Others propose her as an entirely mythical goddess, arguing that she is Hecate or Gyre-Carlin — embodying the three goddess forms of maiden, mother and crone.

For more on our Nicnevin and her Unseelie between now and book II, The Delevan Diaries, sign up for #BeBrazen Newsletter.

The Cast of Delevan House #7

Mairi Pivona (Voni) McQueeney was born under a crescent moon on a Wednesday.

At the time, no one celebrating the birth of the screaming girl knew precisely how much woe she’d be capable of.

Some of her Traveller family whisper that knots must have been left tied during her mother’s pregnancy. They were a proud and superstitious bunch of Summer Walkers and lived among the most unsettled and unsettling groups in the Highlands.

Others say it’s because her mother, Eilidh Stewart, married beneath her status, choosing the love of darkly handsome outsider Jack Mc Queeney over tradition and honor within her community.

The child was never sick or unwell, yet she often screamed incessantly at night; a dark force called to her. Wands of protection were frequently reinforced around the Stewart/McQueeney caravan, yet the girl’s screams continued until she could speak.

Voni would tell terrible stories of monsters reaching towards her from the sky, earth, fire, and water with such conviction the old and wise ones avoided eye contact with her during times of song and dance. There was something off about the girl with her strange imagination and rapidly blinking dark eyes.

Growing up, Voni was cherished by all. The girl’s bright eyes and fierce disposition drew attention, both good and not so, to her antics almost every day, and there were few rules other than the traditions they steadfastly preserved. She thrived under the watchful eye of the women, as it was the responsibility of her tribe to ensure that children were allowed to experience the world around them and push boundaries.

As time passed, Voni made boundary-pushing her art. More intelligent, prettier, and more-wild than the other children she grew up with, she often wandered far beyond the established edges of an encampment, making her way deeper into the trees, then laughing when panic ensued from the others, fearing she’d been carried off by an animal or worse. Fearless and unforgiving, there was something unnatural about her, as if she moved in a peculiar bubble of protection or under the wings of the black crows she adored.

Voni preferred the creatures of the woods and her beloved corvids to the company of humans. When it was time to move from one place to the next, depending on necessity, weather, or opportunity, she’d beg to stay behind every time, promising they would look out for her because she believed she was one of them in spirit.

Some of her people would find unusual ways of earning money during the lean months. An unfortunate misunderstanding led to Pivona’s arrival and a subsequent short stay in the rural village of Badb.

While packing up to relocate for the winter, her mother noticed Voni was missing. The young ones knew not to wander off in a village or town, as some would try to take advantage.

Jack had gone ahead a day before with a group of men to find the perfect spot and set up camp. Eilidh told Voni’s older brother, Kayven,  a surly young man with all the chips on his shoulder, to find his teen sister. He was fond of the girl but ran with a rough bunch, and instead of scouring the village to find her, he chose to get physical with a local girl he had a one-nighter with for a final fling.

There was a tricky practice of leaving behind a young one, usually only for a few hours, never longer than day or night, as the tribe’s snake of caravans headed out of town. Someone would quickly return to claim a ransom or retribution after accusing a villager or townsperson of trying to steal one of the members for work or as a partner.

Kayven MaQueeney had an ulterior motive, as he owned some gambling debts for a dice game and had no intention of finding his sister immediately. He knew she’d be fine for a night and planned to claim extra cash from an unsuspecting villager.

He told their mother he’d find Voni and catch up, as she and the other woman were ready to leave before dark, but his selfish plan backfired on both him and his sister, Voni.

Kayven was caught in a smithy’s barn with his pants down. The young woman’s father and brothers threatened to tie him behind his horse and drag him through the fields and out of town if he didn’t make haste and leave. Always looking out for himself first, Kayven mounted up and left, not giving a second thought to his sister, who was cowering behind the dumpster in the back of The Rowan pub in Badb village.

Rather than face the wrath of his parents and the others, Kayven decided it was time he strike out on his own, heading in the opposite direction from the rest of his people, leaving Pivona behind.

Several days passed, and the McQueeneys assumed, or rather, hoped, that Voni was safe with her formidable older brother as the weather turned terrible, preventing them from crossing back over the mountains that surrounded the village to see for themselves. They would reunite with Voni and Kayven when the time was right.

Kayven was long gone.

Voni was strong but not mentally equipped to withstand her abandonment, and part of the teen was broken, never to be the same. She survived, despite her desperation and despair, with the murders of crows who took refuge in Badb as her companions and confidants. Using her wits and will, the girl fed herself, taking advantage of the kindness of a few villagers, and carved out an odd niche as a semi-reliable source of gossip and entertainment.

Arlen Morven, whose mother, Minerva, owned the The Rowan, was fond of the flighty yet resourceful girl and eventually found her a home and a way to make a decent living under the watchful eye of his mother’s keeping.

Pivona is one of the most unique and tragic characters in our story Delevan House, Although her physical presence may end in Book I, much more of her story is coming in Book II and beyond.

Nothing about the House or the Village is predictable.

The Cast of Delevan House #6

Delevan House

Elspeth Jane Ogilvy dropped out of university and disappeared from her life in Glasgow.

The pressure from her family to live her life a particular way was too much. Elspeth knew they’d never respect her decision to leave.

She was an intelligent young woman, but she never had much say in her path in life. Instead, she was encouraged (pushed) into a specific academic path that (her family felt) ensured her stability and success. And would make them proud.

Elspeth never wanted to study law. In truth, she never had the chance to think about what she wanted, and no one ever truly asked. When they did, it was clear that there were expectations on what she should say, and she met those expectations until one day, she couldn’t anymore. She was drowning under the pressure of living a pre-fabricated life that others had designed for her. A life that she didn’t think she wanted.

She packed up a few things, and she left Glasgow. Elspeth left so she could figure out what she wanted and design a plan that was entirely hers without any influences—just for a ‘break’. A recent breakup with her girlfriend, Debbie (whom her family didn’t know about), was the tipping point.

Elspeth left Glasgow, intending to return.

She never did.

Weeks passed. Then months. Then years.

Elspeth Jane Ogilvy was gone without a trace.

This is a peek at her backstory. #brazenreaders meet her for the first time in Delevan House chapter ‘Wolfmoon’ on the Isle of Macha. Here she connects with Caoimhe Delevan and Mauve.

Natasha’s track for Elspeth: Just A Girl – Gwen Stefani

Ruthann’s track for Elspeth: Voodoo in my Blood – Massive Attack & Young Fathers