Guest Blog and Giveaway with J Tullos Hennig

It's always humbling—staggering, really—how creativity channels itself.  Not only in our hearts and minds, but in that undeniable cogency oft known as the 'collective unconscious'.  Things really do bide in the ether, surface for breath in the waters of the subconscious. And as of late, a certain Notorious Outlaw is making the rounds again.
Thankfully, that Notorious Outlaw makes those rounds on a regular basis.  You can peer back through history and see nice, fat clusters of storytelling.  It's brilliant, in every sense of the word.  Because those of us who are fascinated by something, who study it and obsess over it, love, live, and breathe it, are always willing for more.  People who crave a well-told story will visit—and revisit—that story again and again.  Each incarnation gives us new cause for either shattering insight or groans of utter dismay, brings new adventures and causes... all with which we can ponder the outlaw Robin Hood. 

And there is so much to ponder.  So much to explore and discover.  He's in the water, all right: a water horse, a kelpie who'll cozen you to back him then throw you in to drown.  Or even better, a pwca, a trickster who'll give you that wild ride but perhaps relent, share some advice and goodwill to see you back home on wobbly legs.
You see, it was about thirty years ago when I wrote and nearly published my own first invocation and incarnation of Robin (or Robyn, even as the first book has always been called Greenwode).  England's greatest archer was popping his wolfish head above the water then, too.  Some amazing novels came from that particular surge—Parke Godwin's retelling being amongst my all-time favourites of any genre.  There were also movies: one so-so, one not-so.  A man who was to become my friend was, unknown to me and across the pond, working on a very magical Robin Hood at nearly the same time as I was working on mine.  Both of these were (and are) akin in their mix of historical tradition, high romance, and old magic.  His went on to be an award-winning (and breathtaking) television series; mine was not so fortunate, though it did nearly go to contract twice before ending up in a file drawer as the cycle waned.
Such are the hazards of publishing.  Yet bad luck can hold its own share of fortune.  Those books that almost were thirty years ago now are.  I’m a better writer than I was, and Greenwodeand Shirewode are better books than they were, now in release with DSP Publications, with a third in the series slated for Autumn of 2015.  Even more gratifying, when I dusted off an old manuscript several years ago and decided upon a total rewrite and restructure, it seems Robin was also dusting off the old longbow and taking aim back into the collective mainstream.  There’s even talk of a new movie—definite cause for hope and dread and even perhaps a gnash of one’s teeth.  ;)  It's happening again: new tales and retellings, little wildfires popping up here and there... quite apropos to a firebrand archer. 
I'm sure the signs have been there for a while, but admittedly I've been spending more time larking my own 'swete greenwode'.  Amidst my larking I've shaped a story which is garnering some critical acclaim; a satisfying debut for a world that has been poking at my back brain for... well, for much of my life, really.  A strange thought, perhaps, to spend so much time in creation when our modern existence extols "hurry, put it out there, now!"  But I don't find it strange, not at all, and it is my sincere hope many others will find my books, sit back... breathe... and enjoy the ride as much as I have.
Robin Hood (aka Robyn Hode), more than perhaps any other figure from myth or history, is discontent to merely bide in the depths of history.  In a very real sense he challenges it, both flaunts and mirrors those changes history and society would choose to reveal.  How fitting that a figure often connected with the Green Man would be so wrapped up in the spiral of the Eternal Return, both mythic and prosaic.  For someone whose historical existence is ever in doubt, Robin has the ultimateextant power: he sparks stories in those of us who are compelled to tell them.
He's a pwca, all right.

GreenwodeBook One of The WodeJ Tullos Hennig
Genre: Historical Fantasy, Robin Hood
Publisher: DSP Publications
Date of Publication: Oct. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-63216-437-7 PaperbackISBN: 978-1-63216-438-4 eBookASIN:  B00NPD85GU
Number of pages:  350Word Count: 151,000Cover Artist: Shobana Appavu
Book Description:
The Hooded One.  The one to breathe the dark and light and dusk between....
When an old druid foresees this harbinger of chaos, he also glimpses its future.  A peasant from Loxley will wear the Hood and, with his sister, command a last, desperate bastion of Old Religion against New.  Yet a devout nobleman's son could well be their destruction—Gamelyn Boundys, whom Rob and Marion have befriended.  Such acquaintance challenges both duty and destiny. The old druid warns that Rob and Gamelyn will be cast as sworn enemies, locked in timeless and symbolic struggle for the greenwode's Maiden.
Instead, a defiant Rob dares his Horned God to reinterpret the ancient rites, allow Rob to take Gamelyn as lover instead of rival. But in the eyes of Gamelyn’s Church, sodomy is unthinkable... and the old pagan magics are an evil that must be vanquished.
Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/yA7dGnKlASs
Available at Amazon     BN    Kobo    iTunes    Audible   OmniLit


Readers love Greenwode
Winner in the 2013 Rainbow Awards: First: Best LGBT Novel, Best B/T & LGBT Debut, Best B/T & LGBT Fantasy, Paranormal Romance & Sci-fi / Futuristic

“I loved this story for taking a legend and giving it a twist … I have to recommend this to those who love folklore, mystical legends, historicals, fighting for a love against insurmountable odds, danger, betrayal and an ending that is devastating while giving you faint hope.”—MM Good Book Reviews
“This is a gutsy twist on a major classic that works.” —Gerry Bernie
“There is so much good about this book I'm not even sure where to start. … This one is a highly recommended read. Just read it. It blew me away.”—Better Read Than Dead
“Greenwode is legend. It is epic storytelling. It is fantasy and history. It is religion and spirituality. It is a world in which faith is a weapon, faith is a tool, faith is the enemy, and faith is the last vestige of hope… when there seems nothing left to hope for. If you love epic fantasy, I can’t recommend this book highly enough.”—The Novel Approach
“I can assure you the weaving of themes and legends in GREENWODE is mesmerizing. … This novel will always be the one against which I will judge all the others.”—Christopher Hawthorne Moss
“…an interesting, spellbinding read.”—Rainbow Book Reviews
“I highly recommend this any fan of an epic fantasy with historical settings. It is long but worth it. I can’t wait for the second book to come out.”—Hearts on Fire Reviews









a Prelude b

In the Deeps of the Shire Wode1175 ACE
“Wind and water, stone and tree….”Firelight flickered against rock, as if in time to the low melody. Both light and song wavered as they traveled into the depths. Not that the voice was not strong or the fire not warm—the caverns were that deep.An old man, lean and crystal-eyed, stared into the fire. Every now and then the fire would jerk and start, as if some giant had spat upon it, but the cause was natural enough. Thunder rumbled in the forest above, sending puffs of wind through unknown entrances into the caverns. The old man could hear the stones embedded in the earth above him creak, almost in reply; he tuned his low voice as if in reverent time. Those rocks that formed the circle above him might be a tiny imitation of the ring stones on the plain of Salisbury far to the south, but no less eternal in their observance of the powers that he, too, had served for



About the Author:
J Tullos Hennig has maintained a few professions over a lifetime--artist, dancer, equestrian--but never successfully managed to not be a writer. Ever. Since living on an island in Washington State merely encourages--nay, guarantees--already rampant hermetic and artistic tendencies, particularly in winter, Jen has become reconciled to never escaping this lifelong affliction. Comparisons have also been made to a bridge troll, one hopefully emulating the one under Fremont Bridge: moderately tolerant, but. You know. Bridge troll.
Jen is blessed with an understanding spouse, kids, and grandkids, as well as alternately plagued and blessed with a small herd of horses and a teenaged borzoi who alternates leaping over the furniture with lounging on it.
And, for the entirety of a lifetime, Jen has been possessed by a press gang of invisible ‘friends’ who Will. Not. S.T.F.U.
www.jtulloshennig.net
https://www.facebook.com/jtullos.hennig
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