Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Bull At The Gate – Resurrecting a Celtic Water Goddess

Welcome! Comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of both ebooks. [Thanks, Draw now closed]

This weekend launches The Bull At The Gate, Book 2 in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy following the resurrection of a Celtic water goddess in modern northern England.

The premise is not as fantastical as it at first might seem. Yorkshire has more surviving ancient springs named Lady Well than anywhere in the country – and only the naive believe the Lady in question to be a Christian saint. Across Wheeldale Moor where an arrow-straight Roman Road dog-legged to pass it, can be found a spring named Old Wives Well. In the surrounding alder and birch shrubs can often be seen discreet offerings of fine ribbon or tiny bells. Guarded on three sides by a modern wooden rail, its protective stone slab is covered in Nature’s growth – and crowded with silver coins. After all, when you drop money into a wishing well, whose benevolence are you attempting to invoke?

Each of the novels is set in a university city surrounding the North York Moors – just as mediaeval monks built places of learning and worship closer to what was then a less than hospitable landscape. In Torc of Moonlight the city is Hull, its university campus a green oasis in an urban sprawl containing student housing named after Celtic settlements in the area. It was while researching here that the decision was made to set all three novels in true places that readers could visit, in person or by using Google Maps’ Street View.

At the opening of Torc of Moonlight Nick is a nineteen year old student more interested in the campus’ nightlife than in gaining a degree, but he becomes enamoured with Alice, a studious girl determined to discover a lost Celtic shrine. To get into her bed, Nick helps with her research, slowly becoming aware that incoherent images glimpsed from the corner of his eye is the past reaching out to the present. Lost in her maps, Alice doesn’t notice the change in him, but when a jewelled sword fades in his hand, Nick knows that the thing shadowing him has held it, and bloodied it, long ago. Alice is in danger, but from him or from history?

In keeping with using actual settings, I opted for characters that were as a fallible and flawed as any of us – no alpha males or feisty females with a fast line in snazzy sarcasm – ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances and coping as best they can. Each novel carries three parallel storylines, two contemporary and one historical, and the Celtic power of Three resonates throughout.

The Bull At The Gate opens three years after Torc of Moonlight closes, with Nick emerging from post traumatic stress syndrome and taking a temporary job at York’s university as part of his rehabilitation. But had his diagnosis been wrong? Were the images that plagued him not from memory, but Alice reaching out to contact him?

York is a walled mediaeval city of crooked half-timbered houses and tight cobbled streets where historical re-enactment groups of Vikings thrill the tourists. Yet deep in the crypt of York Minster sit the foundations of an earlier occupation, the Roman fortress of Eboracum that garrisoned both the infamous Ninth Legion and the Sixth Victrix, and the stains of older, sacrificial, deaths lay buried deep in modern cellars. When a female student disappears the police start asking awkward questions about Alice, and Nick finds himself a suspect. Who left him a silver votive plaque? Why has an artefact from the Temple of Mithras appeared on his desk? Could Alice and the girl be trapped together, and if he frees the girl can he return Alice to him?

Torc of Moonlight Book 1 is discounted to 99c/99p for a limited period.
The Bull At The Gate Book 2 is available in ebook only, paperback to follow
All Formats now – filtering through to iBooks, Nook, Kobo in a few days

This post is part of a listed blog tour. For more information on how Celtic imagery is used in the trilogy read Writing About Alternate Realities on Stuart Aken’s site.

For more information catch Linda Acaster on  Website ¦ Facebook ¦ Twitter










16 comments:

  1. Hi everyone! It's late upon a sunny afternoon here in England, but I shall be dropping in throughout my evening to chat if anyone wants to leave a comment. You could win a copy of each of the ebooks!

    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lunchtime here, Linda, and I hope people will take a part of their leisurely Sunday to get a preview of these great books. I'm really excited to see them and can't wait to get into them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're in the running, Miriam. Thanks for all your help.

      Delete
  3. Linda, I love that you use everyday people and I love the symbolism within and throughout the stories. Brilliant, truly. Don't put me in to win. I have them. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a fantastic endorsement, Ella. Thank you very much. Don't burn the dinner as you read. :)

      Delete
  4. Congrats on these wonderful new releases, Linda. I thoroughly enjoy tales with well-researched backgrounds, and you've clearly done your homework here. I look forward to escaping into your stories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for calling in Pat. I know just what you mean. I hate it when I'm immersed in a book and then come across something that I know is incorrect. It ruins the rest for me. Good luck with the draw!

      Delete
  5. Hi to Miriam and Linda! Super blog and this one a super blog entry. I'm always fascinated by the whole pagan shrine, water goddess aspect. This trilogy is wonderful - full of questions, atmosphere, history and shocks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello Lindsay. Great that you've spared the time to come across to support me and the blog. Lindsay was wooed by Torc of Moonlight when it first appeared and has kept nagging at me to finished The Bull At The Gate.

    I agree about the pre-Christian life locked in the British landscape. There's such a fuss made across here about Stonehenge (which is superb and *much* bigger than the stone circles) and the gatherings at the solstices. There are howes and cairns and an abundance of other stone circles, more than anyone could visit in a lifetime.

    It was when I followed an Ordnance Survey map and discovered offerings hanging in the bushes around Old Wives Well (follow the link in the post)... it was like being hit by lightning. The same happened when I ferreted out Newtondale spring (used in Torc of Moonlight exactly as I found it), the landscape seemed to reach out and caress me rather than me just looking at it.

    Ahem... that might be the men in white coats knocking at the door. My mother always said they'd be visiting one day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, Linda! Great post and the stories sound fascinating! I love that you've unearthed these legends- run them to ground, as it were. Definitely going in my TBR stack!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Cathy. TBR *stack* - oh yes, I know that one. Very reminiscent of these Cliffs of Moher that I'm looking at as I type. Awe-inspiring area. I'm pleased it was only a little bit windy when I visited. I'm not a fan of parachuting without... er... a parachute.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very interesting blog, Linda. And of course, I'm fascinated with everything about York. It was our first place to visit when in Hull. I wish you great success with this latest book. I'll be reading both of them and looking forward to number three.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. York is a wonderful city. It would be a place I'd like to live as everything is so walkable and the history is touchable. Who wouldn't want to sit in King's Square where Eirik Bloodaxe made his 'palace' in the remains of the Roman fortress gate? Even if the Square is a triangle - LOL! Okay, so I'm weird...

      I'm writing about the history of York on my blog tour - Wednesday to be precise. Watch out for the announcement, or catch the list on my website.

      And thanks for calling by, LindaS. Great to have your name dropped in the hat for the ebooks!

      Delete
  10. Wow . These books look really interesting and just the type I enjoy! Linking our Celtic past to the present day. So nice too that you've picked some of the lesser known historical spots to raise awareness that there are many more than stone henge :) Can't wait to read both books x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jeanette, thanks for calling in. Totally agree about using the lesser known places in the UK - okay, so York is a bit of a tourist hotspot (LOL!) but there's plenty to see. I am never so engrossed as when I'm poring over an Ordnance Survey map, showing every contour, church spire, bridlepath and Iron-age hillfort. My mind just boggles with 'what if' possibilities.

      Durham is going to feature large in Book 3, which will mean mediaeval pilgrimages, the tourist industry of its time. And leaving aside the relics of saints, most pilgrimages were to springs sacred long before Christianity staked its claim.

      Delete