Celts' sacred water

Water was sacred to the ancient Celts.

In my novel I, Rhiannon (Book One: Sleeping with the Enemy) - which from Friday is on sale via Kindle for a special price - I write about Riannon's arranged marriage to a hideous old man who already has several hag-wives. The beautiful young virgin must marry Huw because he is rich and may help the tribe to fight the Roman enemy.

Here is an extract from the story, when the tribe, the Geveni, are walking alongthe river Draig (which means Dragon) to the place where the ceremony will be held:

A pair of red kites spiralled on the currents of warm air over the Draig, circling each other ferociously, each trying to drive the other from its territory. Occasionally they locked talons and twisted in a crimson whirlpool in the blue sky, until one disentangled itself before re-engaging minutes later. Summer had splashed the green hills with wildflowers of every colour and even the air smelt flowery with their breath. But many of the Geveni felt the season’s abundance was unseemly given the circumstances. The Romans, they knew, were more at home in warmer climes and would be at an advantage on firm, dry land. Was Mother Nature herself conspiring against them?

Crossing a small stream, most tossed coins into the water, hoping for luck. They wouldn’t have wasted their money if they hadn’t been worried. Mair herself tossed both silver and gold into the stream and whispered: “May moon and sun shine on my daughter.” Even Dafydd parted with some, only throwing it when he was sure nobody was looking.

A Welsh waterfall in early morning

Magical Celtic Wales

Wales is a place of magic and mystery, even today.

Mists wind themselves round mountaintops and ruined castles appear in every twist and turn of the road.

I, Rhiannon is set in pre-Christian Wales, when the people still believed in fairies and sacred trees, and when the Druids ruled. You can read Book One at a special price on Kindle from Friday.

Here is an extract from the story. The Druid Edern has just sacrified a hind - a female deer - to persuade the Gods and Ggoddesses to protect the tribe from the invading Roman army:

“Spirits of the forest-dwelling creatures, led by this female red deer, going now to Summerland, rush to our aid!” cried Edern The Erudite, his golden sickle still vibrating in the animal's warm body.

“Magic folk of moon, sun, stars, sky, sea, rivers, lakes, springs, wells, mountains and valleys, swarm to our aid!” the others sang, the well-practised words never having been so heart-felt as now. Palms held moonwards, they seemed to absorb the light into their pale skin.

“Gods and Goddesses of the eleven sacred trees succour us in our hour of need.”

Fabulous Snowdon

Celtic heroine takes on Roman enemy

My novel I, Rhiannon (Book One: Sleeping with the Enemy) is available for a special price on Kindle from Friday 29 November.

It tells the story of a beautiful, headstrong Celtic maiden whose virginity is sacrificed to protect the tribe from the invading Roman army.

She is named after the goddess Rhiannon and the tale is steeped in ancient Celtic folklore. For example, did you know that - shockingly - the King of the tribe would mate with a mare and then bathe in her blood to ensure the clan would be safe for another year? Rhiannon discovers this hideous fact from her brother Gwyn, who is styudying to be a Druid.

Here is an extract from the first chapter:

Rhiannon, whose singing birds could wake the dead and lull the living to sleep. Rhiannon, who galloped as fast as the wind. Rhiannon, whose mare the King mated with, so that her strength and his were mingled and the clan would be safe for another year. Gwyn, studying to be a Druid, had told her in secret that after the coupling, the mare was slaughtered so the King could bathe in her blood. She knew her brother had hoped to shock her but she could tell by his face that he’d never witnessed such a thing. He was always accusing her of being insolent and arrogant, with an outsized idea of her own importance, but he’d made her feel more indispensable than ever. As the only Rhiannon in the clan, she was sure the Geveni would starve without her.

Plus-size virgin finds love

Bargain read from Friday

Starting this Friday, 22 November, you can buy my e-book Love, Classified for even less than its current US$2.99.

It's a popular love-story about Virginia Brooks, a plus-size heroine who finds love for the first time.

Here's an excerpt from the chapter, when she's thinking about her life:

 

      "It was high time I grew up. Accepted that no amount of dreaming would actually get me any closer to finding myself any kind of man, much less the perfect stud who lived in my imagination. I could go on a diet. Join a gym. Buy some stylish clothes. Sign up for one of those dating agencies that do dinners for six or outings for twenty or discreet one-on-ones. Or even an online meeting site. But hell, I was close to forty. Thirty-five, actually, but heading for the big Four-Oooh.  I’d done the diets, lost weight for a few weeks or months and then put it all on again plus a few extra pounds for my trouble. If I had a dollar for every time I’d put my name down on a gym membership list over the last two decades I could buy myself a live-in personal trainer and feed him caviar and wagyu beef every night. I’d joined a social club for people my age but I was always the wallflower or the one that other women confided in. The men took one look at me and stayed away..."

 

This is my garden -- where I love to write, with friends like our puppy Max to keep me company

 

Garden makeover

Our pool was getting expensive as the pump and the creepy-crawly cleaner kept breaking down.



So we took it out, and recycled it to another family.

Lucy's design for our new garden

This is our new garden, only a few weeks after the pool was taken out. Max the Pom puppy is growing too!

Ken the gardener, before the plants went in!

Sexy historical romance going cheap

From tomorrow (November 15), and just for a few days, you can buy my novel A Hard Man to Love for a reduced price from Kindle.

Cover design by Erin Steenson

 

It tells the story of Pansy Summers who, when she arrives in outback Australia in 1910 after answering an advertisement for an English governes, finds an unforgiving and barren landscape.  Pansy is angered by her employer's cold and distant attitude towards his daughter and wonders what terrible secret lies behind the enigmatic Rex Falkland's tormented stare.

Gradually, Pansy delights in the beauty of the bush, seen through the eyes of her young charge, while Beacon Hills - and Falkland himself - irrevocably capture her heart.

As fire and famine threaten their existence, will Pansy be able to save the Falkland ancestral home or will its master pursue his own course as its only hope?

Me, the author, in my new garden, with new Pom puppy, Max

New puppy love

The joy of a new puppy is like a toasty fire on a cold day.

We lost our beloved Reggie a while ago and were desperate for another Pomeranian who could be a friend to our pound dog Harley.

Imagine how thrilled we were to find a breeder who had puppies available in only a few weeks' time.

It was a long wait, but finally Max arrived. We've had him for six weeks now but are still no closer to teaching him to go outside to do his business, which is a minor problem compared to how happy he makes us. Harley taught Reggie for us but isn't interested in teaching Max. And we're not great disciplinarians.

Any tips?

Max at eight weeks, on his first day in his new home

Max in the middle, at five weeks, still with the breeder



 

Good news for sexy romance / erotica / Celtic romance Kindle readers

Hello everyone - there's good news for Kindle readers today. And for those of you who don't have Kindle, rest easy. You can download a free Kindle app and use it on most devices.

Kindle have a new deal for readers. It's called Countdown and it gives you the chance to buy books at a discount price - but only for a very short time.

So if you love sexy romance, erotica and Celtic romance, look out for great deals on my books starting from 15 November. 

Here are some of them:

How do you cope with book reviews - good and bad?

As a writer, it's scary waiting for reviews of your new novel.

So imagine how relieved and pleased I was to get two nice reviews of recently launched Stella's Sea this week, in The Age (Melbourne, read it below) and The Post (Perth) newspapers.

This is what The Age had to say:

Stella’s Sea

is a limpid and

unflinching exploration of

a life derailed by

devastating loss. Stella’s

daughter has died in a

motorbike crash and Stella

has fled her marriage. She

moves to a rundown pad in

Cottlesloe, where she can

be seen in mismatched clothing, walking

her daughter’s dog down the beach,

oblivious to the world around her. When

she meets Ari, an ex-con and volunteer

beach cleaner, a tentative connection

forms and Stella is compelled to revisit the

memories she has been avoiding, and find

a way to live with the crushing burden of

guilt and grief that has consumed her.

Sally-Ann Jones’ prose has a quiet

assurance, chiselling brief scenes and

building up the main character’s internal

world with delicate and credible detail. It’s

a novel of considerable emotional and

psychological insight into trauma,

although the plot (such as it is) isn’t as

well-turned as the characterisation.

This is the invitation to the book launch
 

But how do you cope with less than glowing ones like this? http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/10/26/stellas-sea-by-sally-ann-jones/

The answer is, just roll with the punches - and keep believing in yourself and your writing. Hang onto the good things your friends will say (naturally!) about your books. Remember the positive comments and let go of the less than complimentary ones. But let yourself learn something from them too.

I'm really pleased that most people are loving Stella with her bees and wasps - and am already planning my next novel.

 

Me speaking at the launch, with Terri-ann White, Director of UWAP, looking on

Celtic customs

The Celts gave us Halloween - which we've just celebrated - and other amazing festivals as well.

I love researching them for my novels.

Here is a passage from my epic Beyond the Border (Books One and Two are published on Kindle)

Once there was a dwarf who held regular congress with Them Who Be.  At Sundown, between Beltane and Samhain, he  sought the company of the Gitto who lives in the fields. The  Gitto, whose head is that of a horse and whose body is that of a goat, has human speech and laughter but is malevolent and will blight your crops just before harvest.  At the time of the full moon , he courted the Gwragedd Annwn, the golden-haired water fairy who loves to dance but who cannot count beyond five. And in the dead of night he feasted with the Gwyllion, who would die in sunlight and who cares for the wild goats of the mountains.

 

This cover, by Erin Steenson, shows the enemy of the Princess who is the heroine of the story

The story is about a Welsh princess who has to defend her Kingdom against the Vikings.

 

 

 

Halloween, Welsh style

Samhain is the Celtic word for Halloween

So how did the ancient Welsh people celebrate this special night?

My father was Welsh - and all my forefathers - so I'm very interested in Welsh customs, specially those that pre-date Christianity.

For my novel I, Rhiannon (published on Kindle in Books One and Two) I did a lot of research into Welsh life at about the time of the Roman invasion.

The cover of one of my Celtic novels -- by graphic designer Erin Steenson

Some of the most interesting things I discovered related to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which we now know as Halloween.

Did you know that the Celts believed the spirits from the Summerland visited the living on this night? They made special soul cakes - that were almost too salty to enjoy - to honour the Messenger of the Dead. The salt was for purity and preservation.

They used to play games around a big bonfire. One of the games was for the bachelor and spinsters of the tribe. They would get a chance to draw a golden wedding ring from a massive cauldron of mash stirred by the Arch Druid. Whoever got the ring on his or her special carved wooden lovespoon would be the first to wed. The mash, called stwmp naw rhyw, or mash of nine sorts, was made of barley,carrots, turnips, peas, parsnips, leeks, pepper, salt and new milk.

At the very end of the evening, when the fire was just embers, each member of the tribe would take some ash home to protect them against sorrow.

You can read more about this and other interesting Celtic customs in my novels. 

How do you get rid of a backyard pool?

My kids had outgrown our fibreglass pool - not literally - they're not that big! But they weren't using it and while I loved it during a heatwave, I was sick of having to pay the power bills for it. And having to get the equipment fixed. Even the smallest part on the creepy vacuum thing - a tiny yellow bit of plastic for example - was outlandishly expensive.

And I wanted more garden-space, and room for some chooks - rescued battery hens, of course.

So I made a few calls and found John and co at Palm City Pools.

John came and had a look at the pool, which was in our backyard behind our tall house in a narrow street - and said if we could empty it and remove the capping and some of the bricks around it, he could get it out, crane it up over the house, give it a clean-up and sell it to another family.

Here are step-by-step pix of the process, which took a few weeks, but was well worth it. Another day I'll write a post about turning the sandpit into a garden.

The pool emptied, capping and bricks removed, viewed from our top deck

Crowbarring the pool out. It's attached to the crane already

Our pool, airborne!



Jenny, Jason and Nick -- job done and pool on trailer ready to be taken away

 

Barney the bobcat driver supervising the delivery of one of three loads of sand to fill the hole where the pool was

My grand-dogs enjoying having a sandpit in the backyard instead of a pool

Stay posted to see the transformation of the garden.

How do you find ideas for stories?


People often ask me,'where do your story ideas come from?'

The answer is 'just about anywhere'!

For me, a whole novel once grew out of a small personal ad in a community newspaper.

The lovely cover design for this enovel is by Erin Steenson

Originally titled China or Elsewhere then Peru or Elsewhere and now rebadged as a Kindle e-book, Love, Classified, this 200-page story evolved from this ad: Travel Companion: China or Elsewhere, lady 35-50 n/s, gsoh, with guy in next few weeks. Take it from there or move on. VMB 1111. Reply Box No 55.' (For those of you who aren't into personal ad lingo, n/s means non-smoking, gsoh is good sense of humour and VMB is voice mail box.)

My daughter Lucy was reading the personal ads column in the paper after coming home from the beach with her friends (a few years ago now). She was putting on a silly voice and making us all laugh. But when she came across this one, she said: "Mum, you should write a novel about this!"

"But I don't know anything about China," I said.

('Write what you know' is something I believe in!)

"They don't have to actually GO to China, they could just head in that direction," she said.

So I thought about it: what if a 30-something plus-size virgin read the ad and was intrigued? What if she found herself daydreaming of visiting exotic lands with a handsome stranger?

('What if...?' will be the subject of another blog!)

The story almost wrote itself. It was such fun for me to escape into it and many readers have enjoyed it too.

So look out for quirky little lines of text that make you smile - and let rip!

Welcome to Scribblygum for writers, romance-readers, gardeners, animal-lovers, nature-lovers and anyone who treasures our planet

SCRIBBLYGUM





Scribblygum leaves

Welcome to Scribblygum - a blog for writers, readers and anyone who loves Mother Earth.

My name is Sally-Ann Jones and I'm the mother of five adult children - three daughters and two sons.

This is me, Sally-Ann

I also have lots of grand-dogs and cats who often come for play-dates with me and my two dogs, Harley (from Saving Animals from Euthanasia, or SAFE) and Max, a 10-week Pomeranian puppy. Soon I'm getting some chooks - I'm planning to get a few battery hens and give them a happy life in my backyard.

 Max, our newest family member

Soon we'll have some of these in our garden

As well as being a mum, I'm a writer. Last week my new novel Stella's Sea, by University of Western Australia Publishing, was launched at the Grove Library in Peppermint Grove.

My new novel

It was such a happy night, with lots of family, friends (including some Cottesloe Coastcarers), an inspirational beekeeper - and fabulous food including UWAP's Britt's star-shaped cookies.

Most of my family at the booklaunch. Two of my kids couldn't be there :( but most were!

Stella's Sea is about a woman whose only child is killed and who gradually learns to live without her, thanks to friendship and finding out about the beautiful Cottesloe beach environment with its whales and dolphins and fragile dune plants.

I also write sexy romance novels. You can find them on Amazon and buy them for the princely sum of US$2.99 via Kindle or a free Kindle app. I have a Facebook page for my sexy romances.

Professionally, I'm a tutor in creative writing and work in public affairs - as a speechwriter and media liaison. As a tutor, I help my students to come up with compelling stories - to flesh out believable characters, in a compelling setting, all knitted together in a page-turning plot.

Every so often on Scribblygum you'll find how-to tips on aspects of creative writing. And there'll be poems, stories, gardening ideas - and chook updates!

I hope you'll have fun with Scribblygum.