Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend by Cheryl Carpinello

Chapter 1

The Hunt

Guinevere stared into the shadows along the edge of the forest. She could hear Cedwyn shifting from foot to foot beside her, unable to stand still. She sighed, the bow made of sturdy pine in her hand growing heavier like her heart. Her thirteenth Birth Day was in a few days, but she wasn’t excited. Birth Days were supposed to be fun, but not this year. Not for her, not for a princess.

She frowned as Cedwyn adjusted the leather quiver of arrows on his back again. Sometimes, like today, her patience with the seven-year-old was short.

“Guin’ver?”

“Hush!”

“But ...”

“Hush!”

She stamped her boot on the ground, her displeasure clearly showing.

“Cedwyn,” she snapped. “What is so important that you can’t be quiet?”

“I’m hungry, and the bottoms of my trousers are wet. Can’t we go back to the castle?” His face showed his confusion at her tone.

Guinevere realized that she shouldn’t have directed her anger at Cedwyn. It wasn’t his fault. Glancing down at her own clothes, she saw the bottom of her green ankle-length tunic wet with the morning dew. Her stomach chose that moment to begin grumbling. It started as a low vibration but grew louder as if it hadn’t been fed in days. Cedwyn heard it and started giggling. He tried to smother the sound by covering his mouth with his small hand, but he was too late.

Trying to keep from laughing also, Guinevere shook her head. “How are we ever going to shoot a rabbit with all this noise?” She reached down and tousled his blond hair to let him know that she was not serious and to apologize for her crossness. “Let’s try for just ten minutes longer. Then if we find nothing, we’ll go back. Is that all right?”

Cedwyn shook his head, not wanting to make any further noise. She let her eyes move across the blue sky. The English summer sun had barely reached above the far hills when they had first arrived at the forest. Now, it was well on its way in its climb toward the dinner hour, and they hadn’t even had a proper breakfast yet. Cedwyn’s mum was sure to be upset that they had been gone so long.

“Come on,” he whispered. “The only creatures we’ve seen moving have been badgers and Cornish hens. We could of had five bloody hens by now.”

“I told you, it’s good luck to bag a rabbit on the eve of your thirteenth Birth Day,” Guinevere informed him.

Cedwyn studied her face, unsure if she was telling the truth or not. Then his blue eyes widened, and he grabbed her arm as she turned to continue hunting. “Wait a minute! You promised to help me bag a rabbit on the eve of my tenth Birth Day. You said that was lucky!”

She turned to him, her balled fists on her slim hips. “You need to listen closer when I talk to you. I explained the difference be- tween boys and girls. Boys have to seek luck on the eve of their tenth and fifteenth Birth Days. Since girls are naturally luckier than boys, they only have to seek luck once, on the eve of their thirteenth Birth Day.”

Cedwyn eyed her suspiciously, and then his eyes lit up.

“But I thought that the eve was the night before. Your Birth Day isn’t until the day after tomorrow.”

“That’s true, but the eve of something can also be anytime close to the day.”

“Are you sure?”

Buy Now @ Amazon @ Smashwords

Genre - Arthurian Legend

Rating – G

More details about the author and the book

Connect with Cheryl Carpinello on Facebook & Twitter & Goodreads

Website http://www.beyondtodayeducator.com/

HOW TO BE WORLD FAMOUS – Colin Falconer @colin_falconer

HOW TO BE WORLD FAMOUS

Colin Falconer

(Isabella)

There was a myth for a while that becoming world famous was all about talent.

And then self promotion became the buzz word of the publishing industry, because of the Internet and social networking. Branding became the new wave.

Or is it that new?

Walt Whitman, sock puppeteer

“For artists, the great problem to solve is how to get oneself noticed.’

Who said that? Joe Konrath? Bob Mayer? Amanda Hocking? No, it was Balzac.

Stendahl put it another way: “Great success is not possible without a certain degree of shamelessness, and even of out-and-out charlatanism.”

We all know about charlatans. How many authors game the review system on Amazon? But wait – even this is not a new thing either. Walt Whitman notoriously wrote his own anonymous reviews; “An American bard at last!” he raved in 1855. “Large, proud, affectionate, eating, drinking and breeding, his costume manly and free, his face sunburnt and bearded.”

Captain, my captain; thou art shameless.

In 1887, even Guy de Maupassant joined in, paying for a hot-air balloon to glide down the Seine with the name of his latest short story, “Le Horla,” painted on it.

Paris was also the setting for perhaps the greatest author publicity stunt of them all. In 1927 Georges Simenon – the author of the Inspector Maigret novels – agreed to write an entire novel while suspended in a glass cage outside the Moulin Rouge nightclub.

Members of the public were invited to choose the novel’s characters, subject matter and title, while Simenon hammered out the pages on a typewriter. He had a seventy two hour deadline.

A newspaper advertisement promised: “A record novel: record speed, record endurance and, dare we add, record talent!”

Unfortunately, it never happened; the newspaper financing it went under. Simenon didn’t mind. He pocketed the advance and lived off the publicity forever.

The writer who branded himself best was Ernest Hemingway. People who have never read Hemingway know what about Hemingway.

He was the king of the photo op, posing on safaris, fishing trips and in war zones. He spruiked for Pan American and for Parker Pens; he even appeared in beer ads, for Ballantyne Ale.

Hemingway, staying in brand

“You have to work hard to deserve to drink it.  But I would rather have a bottle of Ballantine Ale than any other drink after fighting a really big fish.  We keep it iced in the bait box with chunks of ice packed around it.  And you ought to taste it on a hot day when you have worked a big marlin fast because there were sharks after him.”

Utterly shameless.

This is not to chide Hemingway. Papa Doc simply wanted more people to read his books, and we are the better for it.

He said once, in his defence: “I have turned down all sorts of propositions, deals, etc. and have kept the product pure. Whatever it is, it is as good as I can make it and I have not corrupted it by working for the coast nor doing things I thought were shitty and would hurt me as a writer no matter how much money they brought in.”

So hats off to Hemmo, then. He simply knew how to brand himself before anyone knew what branding was.

I’ll finish this now. I’m going to grab a bottle of Ballantyne’s and hang upside down naked from the shingle of my local indie bookstore and write haiku in a plexiglass bubble for the next forty eight hours.

It’s my new brand. Wish me luck.

She was taught to obey. Now she has learned to rebel.

12 year old Isabella, a French princess marries the King of England – only to discover he has a terrible secret. Ten long years later she is in utter despair – does she submit to a lifetime of solitude and a spiritual death – or seize her destiny and take the throne of England for herself?

Isabella is just twelve years old when she marries Edward II of England. For the young princess it is love at first sight – but Edward has a terrible secret that threatens to tear their marriage – and England apart.

Who is Piers Gaveston – and why is his presence in the king’s court about to plunge England into civil war?

The young queen believes in the love songs of the troubadours and her own exalted destiny – but she finds reality very different. As she grows to a woman in the deadly maelstrom of Edward’s court, she must decide between her husband, her children, even her life – and one breath-taking gamble that will change the course of history.

This is the story of Isabella, the only woman ever to invade England – and win.

In the tradition of Philippa Gregory and Elizabeth Chadwick, ISABELLA is thoroughly researched and fast paced, the little known story of the one invasion the English never talk about.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Historical Fiction

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Colin Falconer on Facebook & Twitter

Website https://colinfalconer.wordpress.com/