It has been almost exactly a year since Juli D. Revezzo joined the Magic Appreciation Tour with her book The Artist’s Inheritance. Since then I’ve traded comments with her on social media and watched her publish several more books, including House of Cards, Caitlin’s Book of Shadows, and now Keeper of the Grove.
Juli is here today to share her thoughts on the magic of fantasy, which as any regular reader of this blog knows, is one of my favorite topics. You’ll also get a chance to read an excerpt from her newest release, Keeper of the Grove. As a special treat, the Kindle edition is available on Amazon for FREE through tomorrow, September 28, 2013.
Enjoy!
The Lure of Magic
Thank you, Daniel for hosting me.
Every genre has its tropes. For fantasy lovers, no one needs question, the draw is the magic involved. Heck, as I was growing up, the stories that drew me time and again weren’t necessarily the quests across vast, strange landscapes. No, nor the elves and hobbits. Nothing drew my attention so much as the magic involved in these stories.
I mean, seriously, could King Arthur have really achieved so much without Merlin’s help? How about Frodo? Would he have gotten half so far unless Gandalf swooped in behind to clean up whenever he and his friends got into a mess? Wouldn’t it be nice if we had our own Gandalfs and Merlins to help out with our lives?
Even though we live in a bland, magicless world, that doesn’t mean we can’t still dream magic up. I’ve been writing nearly half my life and this is one thing that seems to keep returning in my work. Whatever we human heroines and heroes think we can do, we could always use a little magical help. Though in my latest urban fantasy romance, KEEPER OF THE GROVE, I wrote about a modern woman with a somewhat common life and job, she finds herself thrust through the looking glass, so to speak, into a world where the magic is there, if you know which man has the wand—or in the case of my hero, a magical weapon.
The writers of most fantasy stories usually have a basis for their magic system–myth, a curse or tall tale. For me, I turned to the Celtic myths and their stories of magical beings to create a society of Ogham-wielding Druids and warriors who could, given half the chance, persuade with a love poem, as well as they could protect the heroine with good ole steel and bullets. If love guides their potions and their battles, I ask you, what greater magic is there?
Would you like to see how the mixture came out? Okay, here’s a little taste:
Keeper of the Grove
Stacy Macken has one goal in mind: saving her renowned history center from greedy creditors. Losing it would be a catastrophe—one she doesn’t know how she’ll avoid.
Until Aaron Fielding arrives. To all human eyes, he is just like any man, but he reminds Stacy of one of the fae. He certainly enchants her like a fae lover would. But Stacy suspects there is more to this sexy fellow, with his tales of the Tuatha dé Danann, and magical warriors from Celtic legend who protect humanity from a wicked enemy seeking their destruction. Does his appearance mean the end of the world imminent?
Can she, a studious woman more intent on history books with no training in or love of war, possibly have anything to offer when a long-prophesied druidic battle explodes around her?
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Previously published as Passion’s Sacred Dance by Juli D. Revezzo
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Bonus: Includes brand new flash fiction piece, “About A Warrior”
Excerpt from Keeper of the Grove:
Stacy spied a few tattooed men and women gathered around a small table, discussing a class while slurping cups of coffee. One woman sitting with them had silvery gray eyes that shined like beacons. Hard to miss.
Stacy stared at her a moment longer, trying to figure out the nature of the color—real or fake? Putting the woman’s eye color down to a set of extremely cool contacts, she smiled and gave the woman a jaunty salute then reached out for the empty glasses lining the next abandoned table.
When the hairs on the back of Stacy’s neck prickled, a quick glance over her shoulder confirmed the woman still watched her. Uncomfortable, Stacy strode to the far side of the café to escape the woman’s scrutiny. Something told her to look back.
The woman with the startling eyes stood right behind her, glaring. Her eyes glowed like quicksilver.
Creepy!
Miss Silver Eyes smelled of patchouli, musk, and some other strange scent Stacy couldn’t identify.
The woman leaned close to Stacy’s ear, and her voice sounded raspy when she spoke, “We will have this ground. This harshad time, Stacy Macken, the ground is ours, and they will never dance again.”
Harshad? How did she know about the harshad wars? Had the time truly come, then, already?
Stacy stared as impossibly long incisors slid down from the woman’s gums like snake fangs. Miss Silver Eyes clamped a hand around her upper arm. Shock pulsed through Stacy’s body, rooting her to the spot, despite her mind’s order to flee. The woman’s steely gaze, the ruby and shark’s tooth earring glittering in her right earlobe, and the dark threat mesmerized Stacy.
“No, you won’t have this ground.” A cool male voice brought the silver-eyed woman up short and the fog lifted from Stacy’s mind.
Aaron Fielding stood before her dressed in casual jeans and a gray, cable knit sweater. He seemed right at home here among the students, and yet somehow he also stood apart.
The air shifted. Stacy could have sworn his leather coat, for just an instant, took on the shape of a golden eagle’s wings.
A high-pitched whine scraped from the silver-eyed woman’s throat. She cocked her head as she took Aaron in, a bemused smile on her face as if she were privy to some private joke.
He retrieved an item from his coat. At first, Stacy thought the object might be a baton, then it changed shape and substance, wood to steel. The innocuous baton became a sword.
A hysterical laugh bubbled up inside her and Miss Silver Eyes tossed her aside. Stacy landed hard against a table and gasped at the pain. She rolled over, sitting upright, and pulled her knees to her chest.
Miss Silver Eyes threw a punch at Aaron. He sidestepped her fist and flicked the baton-sword-thing at her head.
“Now, wait!” Stacy jumped to her feet and caught the baton before it bashed the woman’s face in.
Aaron grasped her upraised hand, removed it from the baton, and thrust her behind him. “For your own good, don’t interfere.”
Miss Silver Eyes screamed. Steel glinted from her fists as she rushed headlong at Aaron.
He raised the weapon while muttering something in a foreign language.
Stacy squeezed her eyes shut, too frightened to move. Surely, the woman would knock them both to the floor. The impact she anticipated never came. Instead, an explosion of light split the air. Cringing and blinking in the brightness, she saw that the woman, hands outstretched, had gone utterly still.
Stacy frowned as she studied the woman, wondering what happened.
Aaron repositioned the weapon he carried and shoved it into a hidden pocket in his coat. “Stay back.”
He clasped a hand around Stacy’s wrist and pushed her a little further behind him. Or tried. She dug her heels in and didn’t move. Aaron frowned hard.
“For your own good, stay out of the way,” he said.
“Why should I?” Her heart beat a wicked tempo and panic skittered through her.
“If the spell breaks before I’m done you’ll regret it, trust me.”
If you’d like to read more, Keeper of the Grove is free for Kindle from Amazon until September 28, and coming soon to other venues. I hope you’ll check it out and enjoy the magic!
About Juli D. Revezzo
Juli D. Revezzo has long been in love with writing, a love built by devouring everything from the Arthurian legends, to the works of Michael Moorcock, and the classics and has a soft spot for classic the “Goths” of the 19th century. Her short fiction has been published in Dark Things II: Cat Crimes, The Scribing Ibis, Eternal Haunted Summer, Twisted Dreams Magazine and Luna Station Quarterly. She also has an article and book review or two out there. But her heart lies in the storytelling. She is a member of Independent Authors Network and Magic Appreciation Tour. Keeper of the Grove is her first romance novel.
You can find out more about her at her homepage: http://julidrevezzo.com/
Blog: http://julidrevezzo.com/blog
Like her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julidrevezzo/
On Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5782712.Juli_D_Revezzo
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/authors/a1002694572/Juli-D-Revezzo/
On Twitter: @julidrevezzo
Thank you for hosting me, Daniel!
My pleasure! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on magic and the excerpt. I look forward to reading "Passion’s Sacred Dance."