Friday, January 4, 2013

Running Over Rainbows

Of unicorns and Welsh mountain ponies . . .

 Can a young girl and a sixty-something woman have something in common--say, a white unicorn in the form of a wild mountain pony?



Bil and Bon Franks are thunderstruck at our good fortune of having a four-book saga be accepted by MuseItUp Publishing.
Thanks,  Miriam Newman, for  letting us introduce our first book here on your beautiful site; and for overlooking the niggling little fact that the setting is not “celtic.” Later, yes . . . everyone ends up in St. Patrick’s Ireland.
The centuries old Roman fort of Deva Victrix 
The time is roughly 429 AD. The place, Britannia on the eve of Roman retreat. A 15-year old girl is sent  by her mother to stay for six months with her great-aunt Marrie. She has traveled from the area around the Roman fort Deva Victrix (modern Liverpool) west to the province of Lindum (present day Lincoln).

The crumblng remains of Roman Lincoln (Lindum)

The girl is a hellion, plain and simple. She’s been a tomboy all her life, especially since  the death of her father five years before. Her mother has allowed her to run virtually wild on their ancestral estate. Now, however, she has drawn in the reins in an ancient call to tradition: her daughter Caylith must learn how to become a woman. A landed woman, a woman of influence and means, a woman who will know how to choose a proper mate when the time is right.
So great-aunt Marrie, the aunt of her dead Roman father, is to take the teen into her Roman manor and teach her, among other subjects, money, manners, and proper marriage.
But Caylith has other goals in mind. While her elderly aunt is outdoors where the spirited teen longs to be, she is festering to be free of the linen-storage room where Marrie keeps her busy counting supper towels.
The mischievous redhead cannot be held captive for too long and soon discovers two of her aunt’s long-held secrets.
The book is as much about the elderly Marrie as it is about Caylith. She, too, is a redhead; and she, too, has a certain streak--but she keeps it carefully hidden from everyone. When Caylith begins to discover her secrets, the novel explores the convergence of old and young, reality and magic.
On Christmas Eve, Aunt Marrie schedules a formal dinner for Caylith to show off her newly taught life skills, but Caylith is nowhere to be found. Has she run off to chase a unicorn  . . . or will she manage to save the day, despite still being untamed by her well-meaning aunt?
Our book will debut January 18. Meanwhile, MuseItUp Publishing has given us an early-order buy link with a promise of 20% discount, at this link: http://bit.ly/Z93TBf

Next time we're invited back, we'll publish a short excerpt from the book. We promise, it will appeal to readers from the 'tweens to the twilight years!



The sagas of THE TWILIGHT OF MAGIC




12 comments:

  1. Did someone say scones? Pony? I'm not sure which one will get my attention first, but I'm here, looking and sniffing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Miriam,

      Just the lady we want to thank for this opportunity! Our story puts us in the mood for scones, unicorns and a winter landscape. A white mountain pony in a snowdrift...and a unicorn running over rainbows....What's the difference, anyway?

      Delete
  2. This sounds a lovely series, Erin - all the very best with it! I do love unicorns.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Romy. I really need to confess that the story centers on a mountain pony and two people who see life through the same lens, although fifty years apart in age. The unicorn is merely a symbolic way of bringing them together.

    BilBon Franks

    ReplyDelete
  4. And so it begins ;) This sounds like a wonderful series, I'm looking forward to it

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, Sessha! The series will be wonderful, we hope, in the sense of being "full of wonders," as young Caylith begins to learn more than her selfish life has allowed up until now. Every book will bring her closer to growing up--but never enough to be boring!

    We appreciate your taking the time to comment. Bil and Bon

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sounds like a delightfully refreshing YA adventure, Erin, with plenty of fodder for a series. Best to Bil and Bon and their writing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yay!! Pat, thanks for leaving a comment.

    Yes, the only thing that kept this saga from getting longer was the fact that the heroine was beginning to be 18 and far too beautiful not to get into different kinds of adventures...

    But we're seriously considering a whole 'nother angle that will keep us in Ireland, keep St. Patrick, and include the dwarves with their special talents.

    Congrats to you on your trilogy. You've done it!! Now the hardest part begins, and that's the promotion of all three. *whew*

    Best wishes, and happy new year!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is a beautiful clog, with an awesome promise of a wonderful story. Lovely stuff, and I'm not surprised you were so readily accepted by MuseItUp. Excellent stuff; I can't wait until I've the funds to get myself a copy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you kindly, Ms. Morgann. The story begins here, and continues for another three sagas...and finally ends up in St. Paddy's Ireland. I love this series, and I'm grateful to Bil and Bon for introducing it to the world.

    We all three deeply appreciate your comments, and your taking the time to stop by this lovely blog.

    ReplyDelete
  10. To Paul McDermott...We somehow missed your comment, and we offer our apologies along with thanks for visiting.

    Yes, this book started it all. Four books in the saga...and then another three novels with another author, Erin O'Quinn. Caylith certainly is, for us, an engaging character. But mostly we are drawn to that era, that 5th-century Britannia and Ireland landscape, that has trapped us and bewitched us totally.

    All best on your own writing, Paul!

    ReplyDelete
  11. P.S. To Paul: We enlarged your pic of Deva Victrix on our own blogsite, and even managed to give you photo credit (even though the photo was from you, it wasn't taken by you. So we didn't quite know how to acknowledge it...sorry!)

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete