Subscribe to My Newsletter: THE AMALIAD

I'm more than a day late, but it's time to get this ball rolling -- my new Author Newsletter, THE AMALIAD is a GO, and I'd love it if you all would sign up!

I won't be emailing you more than once a month (if that), and ONLY when I have something big to share like a new book, or a big promotion you might be interested in! So have no fear -- I won't be clogging your inbox. And to show my gratitude for your support and interest in following the adventures of Authors!Me, I'm offering subscribers a FREE short story about Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur. (A link will be emailed to you automatically when you confirm your subscription!)

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Buy Now:
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Wrapping TAMER OF HORSES

Theseus and Centaur (photo by Yair Haklai
[CC BY-SA 3.0  or GFDL], via Wiki Commons)

In January, I finally finished TAMER OF HORSES, a historical novel about Hippodamia's marriage to Pirithous, and the war with the Centaurs that followed. I started writing TAMER in 2012 -- prompted by an anthology call for ancient Greek themed romances. At the time I thought that turning a tragedy into a romance was just a question of picking the right end point in the story. There was no way I was going to turn the war with the centaurs into a happily ever after, if I included it in the novella. There was just too much death, too much destruction, and too much STORY to pack into anything with a 40,000 word limit.

So I wrote the romance novella and submitted it. Lucky for me (no, really!), I got the big R. Finally, I had the time and the words to turn that novella into a full length novel and cover the WHOLE story. And I am so stoked that I did. The more I wrote, the more I loved writing it. Hippodamia didn't have to be a typical Greek -- she'd been raised by Centaurs, after all. And with Pirithous came Theseus, and even better, his Amazon wife, Antiope. There is nothing not awesome about getting to write the four of these characters, particularly after I'd written HELEN OF SPARTA. I got to explore what Pirithous and Theseus were like in their glory days, and meet the women who had the strength not only to match them, but even to exceed them. Together, the daughter of the centaurs and the daughter of Ares make a very formidable team!

It was a stop and start struggle to figure out the path of the book and pull all the threads together. When I started during the summer of 2012, I never expected that it would be a two year journey. But I'm pretty proud of the nearly 110,000 words I ended up with! Hopefully my early readers will feel the same way, and after that... well, publishing is unpredictable at the best of times, but whether or not Hippodamia's story sells, I'll never regret having written it!

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Hippodamia (The Centauromachy and Art II)

(crossposted)  

I'm not sure why Hippodamia's abduction by Centaurs is such a popular motif for artists -- just like I'm not sure why Leda and the Swan is even more so -- but this particular sculpture (at the National Gallery of Art) is one of my favorites.

I love the contrast between the grace of Hippodamia's form, all smooth lines and curves, and the emphasis on the Centaur's pure muscle mass, brutish and physically powerful. His shoulders ripple, his flanks and forequarters dimpled and defined. In comparison to Hippodamia, he's massive!

Unlike the centaur in the previous bronze (which was far more Art Deco in style) there isn't anything elfin about his features. Hollow-cheeked and thick-nosed, this centaur is rawly human. A man lost to madness, made all the more clear by the fallen amphorae, spilling wine beneath his hooves.

Hippodamia on the other hand, seems either to have fainted from the shock of her abduction, or else she's flopping like a fish to make herself as awkward to carry as possible. Generally, she's portrayed as helpless -- a damsel in distress. But I can't help but think it must have been more than wine which provoked the centaurs to kidnap one of their own. And I really have a hard time believing that a woman referred to as "kin" to the centaurs and tamer of horses would just give up without a fight.

If the centaurs are uncivilized, brutish and barbaric, how civilized was Hippodamia herself? Why should she have been anything less than wild (by Greek standards), as well?

Maybe that's why I like the myth of Hippodamia -- because there's so much potential there, to build a strong woman from the bare-bones account of her life. What's more, it strikes me as something of an untold story, because the depictions of Hippodamia tend toward the hysterical woman, despairingly throwing herself about while waiting to be rescued by her pirate-hero-king husband, Pirithous.

After all, no "ordinary" woman could really hope to cope with such an outrageous personality as Pirithous possesses, and I'm willing to bet he wouldn't want to be saddled with just any woman for a wife. Hippodamia must be something more, something greater, than what we're given to understand by these works of art, and that is definitely a story worth telling.

Related: The Centauromachy and Art I

Where Centaurs Meet Pirithous, Character is Spawned

Pirithous, Son of Zeus, King of the Lapiths

Photography in this post © me.

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Of Ogres, Orcs, and Beowulf (A Repost)

In honor of the release of Honor Among Orcs, I'm reposting some of my "Orc Romance: In Progress" posts from those days in 2012 when I first began writing it -- with my early thoughts on what makes an orc, and those creatures which seem to have influenced our ideas of them. Here's the second!

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These Beowulf illustrations predate Lord of the Rings by a couple of years, though not Tolkien. In fact, with a publication date of 1908, I almost wonder if Tolkien read this particular edition.

Fangs instead of tusks, but fearsome and very Uruk-hai in style, all the same. Even if Tolkien wasn't influenced by this depiction, it seems to capture the essence of the beast. I'm not sure I subscribe to Grendel as an Ogre, myself. I've always thought of him as more dragon-like, but since he's not all that well-described (and I am known for ignoring description anyway) it could just as easily be a me thing, than anything grounded in fact or literature.

But look also at the image of Grendel's mother in the same book. Green skin, blue-black hair, a long ugly nose. If anything, she's even more orc-like than Grendel, complete with rippling muscles.

We know that Tolkien was studying Beowulf -- and in fact he was one of the first to study it seriously for more than just the evolution of language. Looking at images like this, I can't imagine how the ogre isn't the father of the Orc -- or at the very least, the father of our perceptions of what makes an Orc. It's obvious that as a culture, we were already imagining them in 1908.

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And if you're interested in another reimagining of orcs as we know them, be sure to check out HONOR AMONG ORCS, where Tolkien meets Beauty and the Beast! 

Kindle | Paperback | Nook

After nearly a decade as the king’s whipping-girl, Princess Arianna has no intention of going quietly into marriage to some treasonous noble, or serving obediently as the king’s spy until her death is more convenient. When she discovers a handsome orc, chained and trapped inside a magic mirror, Arianna cannot help but see a lasting freedom from her father's abuse.

Left to rot inside a mirror by the king, Bolthorn never imagined his prayers would be answered by a princess. Nor did he ever expect to meet so worthy a woman after knowing her father’s cruelty. He needs her help to escape the mirror before the king marches against the orcs, but all he can offer Arianna is ice and darkness in exchange for her aid.

If Arianna can free the monster behind the glass, perhaps she might free herself, as well. But once they cross the mountain, there will be no return, and the deadly winter is the least of what threatens them on the other side. 

Of Orcs, Ogres, and Cyclopes (A Repost)

In honor of the release of Honor Among Orcs, I'm reposting some of my "Orc Romance: In Progress" posts from those days in 2012 when I first began writing it -- with my early thoughts on what makes an orc, and those creatures which seem to have influenced our ideas of them. Here's the first!

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A cyclops-esque ogre!

I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this to myself. The what-if kind of took over my brain, I guess. But the end result is that I'm meditating on the semi-fluid definition of what makes an Orc an Orc.

There's the Warcraft definition-- the green-skinned brutes kind of reminiscent of Gamorrean Guards, right down to their tusky-teeth. When I was little, I called them pig-men. But if you go back further, there's Tolkien, and the SILMARILLION tells us that Orcs were elves once, stolen by Morgoth when they wandered too far afield into shadow, and twisted into evil and darkness by torture. In mannerism and behavior, you can see clearly the relationship between Tolkien's Orc and the traditional Ogre of the human consciousness. They're vicious things that like to snack on naughty children when you get down to it.  Not too dissimilar to the idea of the Cyclops of Greek Myth, but with two working eyes, though we imagine them, generally, to be a whole lot uglier.

But isn't that the nature of dark things moving beyond our sight? That what we imagine them to be is often worse than the truth of what they are? An Ogre or a Cyclops has no real redemption. It is what it is, and it is bound by its nature and, in the case of the Cyclops, the gods. But Tolkien's Orcs are something else. They were, once, all that was good and beautiful.

Why didn't he ever use that?

Or maybe the better question is: Can I?

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You can decide for yourself by grabbing a copy of HONOR AMONG ORCS!

Kindle | Paperback | Nook

After nearly a decade as the king’s whipping-girl, Princess Arianna has no intention of going quietly into marriage to some treasonous noble, or serving obediently as the king’s spy until her death is more convenient. When she discovers a handsome orc, chained and trapped inside a magic mirror, Arianna cannot help but see a lasting freedom from her father's abuse.

Left to rot inside a mirror by the king, Bolthorn never imagined his prayers would be answered by a princess. Nor did he ever expect to meet so worthy a woman after knowing her father’s cruelty. He needs her help to escape the mirror before the king marches against the orcs, but all he can offer Arianna is ice and darkness in exchange for her aid.

If Arianna can free the monster behind the glass, perhaps she might free herself, as well. But once they cross the mountain, there will be no return, and the deadly winter is the least of what threatens them on the other side. 

Cover Reveal for Timespell: Perilous Waters!!!

So my fabulous and amazing Critique Partner/Alpha/Beta-Extraordinaire Diana Paz is publishing the second book in her TIMESPELL series May 15th, and I am absolutely THRILLED to be part of her cover reveal today -- TIMESPELL itself was a fantastic blend of timetravel, fantasy, history, and mythology for young adult readers, and I like to think Di's Timespell books are creating readers who will appreciate my FATE OF THE GODS series a few years down the line!

So let's get to business, shall we? FIRST, the cover copy:

After nearly losing their lives defeating the creatures of Mythos in Revolutionary France, Julia and Kaitlyn finally understand what Angie has known all along… being a Daughter of Fate isn’t so fun when one mistake can mean their deaths. Haunted by visions and horror-filled memories, the girls have spent the summer honing their newly discovered magical abilities, determined to grow in power and prepare for the uncertain time when the Fates summon them to their next mission.

But their protector Ethan, still embittered by Julia’s betrayal, refuses to engage in the girls’ magical research or power-enhancing spell practice. That is, until his brother’s loyalty to Julia causes him to unwittingly uncover ancient magic greater and more binding than any force the girls have encountered so far. Before the girls or Ethan grasp the full extent of what his brother has done, the girls are jettisoned through time into the madness of the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy.

Only by working together can the girls harness the full power of their magic and secure the world timeline, but with the lives of those close to Angie and Julia at risk, and Kaitlyn designing a dark agenda of her own, all three girls harbor secrets that threaten to drive their fledgling trinity apart. Small treacheries, mounting fear, and the use of dark magic have not gone unnoticed by those trapped within the Nether… those who would stop at nothing to unleash their destruction upon the world once more.

Publication date: May 15th 2014
Add it on Goodreads

And if that doesn't sell you, here is the FANTABULOUS cover art for TIMESPELL: PERILOUS WATERS!

More about Diana Paz:
Diana Paz writes books about magic, adventure, and romance. She was born in Costa Rica, grew up on Miami Beach, moved to Los Angeles in high school, and went to college in San Diego. Basically, she’s a beach bum. Diana graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts. She loves old movies, epic fantasy, all kinds of music, and heading to the beach with a good book. Preferably sipping a highly sweetened iced coffee. Find her at her blog: dianapazwrites.blogspot.com or on Twitter @dianapazwrites

I can't wait for this book to come out!! And if you haven't read TIMESPELL, don't worry -- there's a giveaway for that! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Honor Among Orcs Sketch Party (II)

As long time readers of the blog might realize by now, sometimes I like to draw. I am not great at it, nor am I at all disciplined in the art of... arting... but every once in a while I come up with something I'm proud of, and this happens to be one of those times -- even if it is a little bit fanarting of my own book, because excess of enthusiasm.

ANYWAY. I'm going to share it, because this is my blog, and if I cannot have an excess of enthusiasm for my own forthcoming release here, in this space, where can I? And why should you be excited if I'm not?! So without further ado, I present to you, my hunky orc, BOLTHORN (take three, according to my sketchbook, and you can compare it to take ONE from way back in February of 2012, where I also talked about the tattoos on his face.)

cover art for the e-edition!
Created by Melissa Stevens:
The Illustrated Author

I'm not going to lie, I never expected to be writing about orcs. I never EVER expected to be inventing an entire orcish culture. But I was caught by this idea of a world wherein a human and an orc might get together in a manner that didn't involve sexual assault. What would those orcs be like? Would that particular orc be an exception or the rule? That was the seed from which HONOR AMONG ORCS sprouted into something so much larger. Because my orcs didn't exist in a vacuum, and the more I wrote, the more I realized how much they struggled against themselves, and the ideas of their selves which had been imposed upon them by Others. When everyone looks at you as the monster in the night, how does that affect your feelings of self-worth? When everyone judges you as good for only one thing, do you begin to discount all the other things you might be capable of?

And the more I wrote, and the more questions I began to ask, the more I fell in love with these characters, this world, this book.

It's my hope that on April 1st, when HONOR AMONG ORCS releases, you'll fall in love with it, too!

(In the meantime, you can totally add it on goodreads, or hit up the Orc Saga page to see my other ruminations on the topic of orcs!)

The Token Female Character

Scroll down for a SNEAK PEEK of the cover art for Honor Among Orcs!

I grew up watching a lot of cartoons -- it was the golden age of Saturday mornings and After School television, in my humble opinion, with shows like Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles and Gargoyles and Biker Mice from Mars. I was such a sucker for those beastly male bands and their solitary friend in the outside world, who was, it seems sometimes, ALWAYS a woman. April O'Neil, the lab assistant turned reporter. Elisa Maza, the police detective. Charlene Davidson, the mechanic.

It's easy to consider, and even treat these women as throwaways. The Token Female Character in a male-dominated world. There just to pretend like they were considering girls as an audience, or at least not ruling them out of possible co-existence. But these women served a valuable, even indispensable role in the story. They were the connection with the rest of the world, the protector and keeper of the secret of their existence, the partner in their continued adventures. Sometimes they needed saving, sure, but mostly they provided a lot more benefits to the team than the team gave them back. And not only that, they were the lens through which we saw the reasonable acceptance of the other. They were the stand in for all those little boys who imagined discovering the sewer lair of mutant-monsters-who-fought-for-good.

Think about that. For a period of time in the late 80's and 90's, it was totally legit story telling to allow a woman to be the lens through which we, as the audience, experienced something new. Imagine if it still were! Imagine if the live action Transformers movies had, in place of Shia's hapless Sam Witwicky, included a street-smart female mechanic as the main character through which we met and befriended these strange aliens (and not just the love interest and sexual object for Sam).

Oh, we still see it sometimes -- Jane in the Thor films, for example -- but often times, instead of the woman being a bridge for the Other, instead of being a capable every-man lens through which we're watching the film and experiencing something new, she's now relegated to the role of love interest, or T&A for the male audience. And we're INTENSELY critical of her character. Why is Thor interested in Jane Foster at all? Who needs Lois Lane when Superman could be with Wonder Woman? Or worse, we see books and movies where, because that lens through which we experience the Other is female, the entire story is classified and sold solely to a female audience -- as if men could not possibly have any interest -- or even, never made at all because "no one wants to see an action movie with a female lead."*

But why? Where did this idea come from? If we were all raised on these cartoons "for boys" with April O'Neil and Elisa Maza, and those cartoons certainly had no lack of success, why should the same formula not be totally legitimate now in modern film, television, and movies? Why do we need Sam Witwicky when we could have Charlene AKA Charley the Biker Mice From Mars Mechanic? Are we more accepting of the Lady-as-Lens when she's facing off with an OTHER which is so strange we can't imagine any feelings beyond friendship? And if so, why? Or is it just that now we're more accepting of a Lady falling in love with a Beast/Monster/Mutant, and so the Lady-as-Lens isn't safe anymore, because of some potential idea of sexual attraction? But why does that matter, either? Why does a romance invalidate female characters as capable everyman stand-ins?

I'm not going to lie, one of the things I wanted to see MOST in Gargoyles was Elisa and Goliath finally getting together. I would have had no problem seeing April pair off with one of the Ninja Turtles, either -- though I'm not sure about the mechanics, for either pairing. But I also didn't have any problem with women and men as friends, creating and building community between them that had nothing to do with sex or romance. In fact, I think it's underrated, and we could use a lot more of it in our television, films, and books.

But of course, I say this as someone whose next book, Honor Among Orcs, is another beauty and the beast story** that doesn't shy away from the romance. And speaking of which -- Tune in THURSDAY (Thor's Day!!!) for the fabulous and fantastic Cover Reveal for the first book in the Orc Saga! And check out this sneakiest of peeks in the meantime!

*There are exceptions to this too, characters like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, for example, which is definitely a property that's geared to appeal to a male audience, in spite of the protagonist's gender. But look at how Hunger Games is marketed. Would we be merchandising with cover girl if Katniss had been a boy? If Peeta had been the protagonist instead? You could change the perspective from which the story is told -- send Gale to the Arena instead of Peeta, and written from Gale's Point of View, and still have told the exact same story.

**TMNT, Biker Mice, and Gargoyles are ALL 100% beauty and the beast stories, imho. What is more OTHER than human sized mutant animals, or mythological monsters?

A Winter's Enchantment and Taming Fate!

I'm back! Again! Because this Hiatus is a big lie and don't forget to sign up for the No-Kiss Blogfest Go! Go! Go! and I'm here to tell you about my NEW Fate of the Gods novella, Taming Fate! It's part of WWP's A WINTER'S ENCHANTMENT anthology, and I am in fantastic company with Kristina Wojtaszek and Elise Forier Edie. (For those of you who are always telling me I need more description, you will be very content with their work! Both are very atmospheric writers with beautiful prose!)

So let me share a little bit about each of the stories in A Winter's Enchantment, so you can be confident in your purchase:

The Devil in Midwinter by Elise Forier Edie.

December in the orchard town of Mattawa, Washington, is usually quiet, and the biggest stories in the local newspaper center on the annual Midwinter Fire Festival. But a murder, sightings of a fantastic beast in the orchards and the arrival of a handsome new vintner in town have kindled reporter Esme Ulloa’s curiosity—and maybe her passion as well. However, the more she untangles the mystery, the more the world she knows unspools; until she finds herself navigating a place she thought only existed in storybooks, where dreams come alive, monsters walk the earth and magic is real. When tragedy strikes close to home, Esme finds she must strike back, matching wits with an ancient demon in a deadly game, where everything she values stands to be lost, including the love of her life.

Taming Fate by Amalia Dillin.

In 15th Century France, Eve would have burned as a witch if it hadn’t been for the too-timely arrival of the Marquis DeLeon to save her skin, but their hasty marriage is off to anything but a smooth start. As tensions in the town grow, Ryam DeLeon knows if he and Eve cannot find common ground, their first Christmas may be their last. (This novella can be read as book 2.5 in the Fate of the Gods series.)

Opal by Kristina Wojtaszek.

White as snow, stained with blood, her talons black as ebony… The worlds of Fae and Men collide. The daughter of an owl, forced into human form by the death of her Fae mother, must seek the truth of her parentage. The son of a king, deep in the snowy woods, finds the love he’d only dreamt of in the arms of a Fae shapeshifter. The past is shrouded in secrecy, and the future wrapped in snow.

Digital and trade paperback editions are available NOW! So treat yourself to a little bit of Winter Romance (with more than a splash of Fantasy) this season, and don't forget to leave a review!

Kindle | Barnes and Noble | Amazon (paperback)

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled Santa Thor Holiday Hiatus.

(But seriously, No-Kiss Blogfest guys. Sign ups are now.)

Cait Greer talks GARGOYLES!

This is our second post on Monsters of Myth. The first, by Diana Paz, covered the Snake Ladies of Classical Mythology. Today, we have Cait Greer to talk about one of the mythological monsters in her book, Para Wars: Uprising, the noble Gargoyle! I had the pleasure of reading an early version of this book, and let me tell you, the way Cait mixes her monsters is a LOT of fun.

Amazon|B&N

Gargoyles. Stone beasts built to guard.

As far as the mythology behind them goes, there isn’t a lot to go on. Architecturally, the name refers to a grotesque, or a stone figure, with a carved spout. They were designed to carry rainwater away from masonry walls, keeping it from eroding the mortar.

Boring, I know. But that’s hardly the whole story.

It all goes back to a French legend, from around the 7th Century. The story is about a dragon, La Garouille, that lived in the River Seine. It terrorized the village of Rouen, until the Archbishop St. Romanus killed it. They set the dragon’s body on fire, but the head and neck survived, and were then mounted – you guessed it – on the wall of the newly built church, so that it could ward off evil. And the legend was born.

When I started writing ParaWars, I knew it would turn into my own little mythological playground. I didn’t want to focus on just one paranormal family, and I was just as tired of vampires and werewolves as everyone else. Angels, demons, and ghosts were quickly following in their footsteps. More than anything, I wanted something new, something I could have fun with. The broad scope the idea of a war between mythological/magical/paranormal/supernatural beings and humans gave me was exciting, but I still needed a para main character to counterpart my human MC.

I wanted a guardian and protector, a para that wasn’t fighting his nature to protect my heroine. And what better than a gargoyle, whose entire mythology is built around protection and warding?

But I didn’t want some clown- or demon-faced statue. I needed a guardian the story could sympathize with. So my gargoyles look a lot like us. They use the same kind of glamour magic that the fae use. They can look like the classic grotesque, or they can look like people. They can hide their wings, or show them. And at night, they change from stone to flesh.

But even stone, my leading gargoyle Axel has a beating, bleeding heart, and I can’t wait for you all to meet him.

If you want to learn more about PARAWARS: UPRISING, check it out on goodreads, or pick up your copy online on Amazon or Barnes and Noble! But here's the blurb for an immediate fix:

The Paranormal Uprising brought myth and legend out of the shadows and into real life. The war that followed tore the world apart. Two years after the Uprising, twenty-year-old Kendry is learning the hard way that the battle lines aren’t as clear-cut as human versus para. And the hard way means being hunted down by both human militants and para separatists. Trouble is, she has no idea why.

On the run with only her mysterious gargoyle guardian, Kendry knows that finding out why she’s on everyone’s most-wanted list will be no easy task. It means charging headlong into a war she’d hoped to avoid, and is woefully unprepared for. So when she realizes that everyone in her life has been lying to her, discovering that she’s somehow the key to ending the war is the last thing she needs. With both sides tearing up the world to find her, it’s decision time for Kendry—keep running, or stand up and fight.

Diana Paz guest posts: What’s With All The Lady Snakes?

[note from Amalia: In honor of Diana Paz and her book birthday for TIMESPELL, she's telling us a little bit about the monsters of mythology -- more than a few of which appear in her book! Leave a comment and I'll send one lucky commenter a Timespell sticker and bookmark! Plus maybe a Forged by Fate something as well.]

In Greek mythology, animal-like creatures are part of nearly every legend. Whether it be centaurs, satyrs, or the famed Minotaur, Greeks of old were plagued by numerous part human, part beasts who reared their beastly (or humanoid) heads throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.

I’ve always been fascinated by these monster-humans, so when I thought up the kinds of beasts my main characters would be up against in my novel, Timespell, I knew they would be perfect. Creatures of Greek mythology could have the intelligence and cunning of a human, but with the fearsome horror of a mindless beast, all mixed into one. Not to mention, incorporating mythology into my fiction is always a win.

But as I researched, I noticed two things. One, there was a ton of snake action going on in ancient Greece, and two, most of the creatures involving snakes were either female or possessed typically feminine qualities.

This led me to wonder, what’s up with all the lady snakes in Greek mythology? Here are a few of the ones I found the most intriguing:

Gorgons

From wiki commons

The most famous of these being Medusa, she and her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, all three had writhing, living snakes growing like hair out of their skulls. Born of Phorcys and his sister Ceto, these monstresses turned men into stone with only a look. Although they're originally depicted as gruesome and horrific, Ovid gives Medusa’s origin story a tragic spin, and one I’m not sure I buy into. Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden who was raped in Athena’s temple by Poseidon. Athena became furious and punished Medusa by turning her hair into snakes while making her face so beautiful to behold that any man who looked at her would turn to stone. I don’t know about that one. Athena, goddess of wisdom… she doesn’t strike me as the type who would punish a maiden like this, but moreover, what about Medusa’s sisters, then? Ovid claims that only Medusa had snake hair, but it still doesn’t jive to me.

Erinyes

Known as the Furies in Roman mythology, the horrifying Erinyes didn’t make it into the first Timespell novel, but they will definitely show up throughout the series. Depending on the origin story, the Erinyes were either born of the blood of Uranus when his unmentionables were cast into the sea by his son, or they were born of Nyx. Sometimes referred to without number, the three named Erinyes mentioned in ancient texts are known as Alecto, Magaera, and Tisiphone. Sometimes depicted with bat wings or canine bodies, the one thing these ladies always have in common—other than having eyes that drip blood—is that their waists, arms, and sometimes hair are wrapped with snakes. They were in charge of meting out punishment, particularly for crimes against nature, such as patricide and matricide. They also oversaw netherworld torture.

Echidna

I really like this mega monstress, and as soon as I read about her I found a place for her in Timespell. Echidna was depicted as a beautiful, fair-cheeked nymph from the waist up, and from the waist down she was a snake—sometimes a two-tailed snake. She was often referred to as the mother of all monsters because she gave birth to so many. She was also a she-dragon, also known as a drakaina. There are so many cool things about her, as a monstress villain, particularly that she devours raw flesh. I love this idea for an evil creature… this lovely, sweet-faced nymph just horrifically chasing mortals down and eating them raw. That’s some scary stuff!

So, what is with all the snakes in Greek mythology and their tendency to be linked up with homicidal females? What is it about snakes and serpents that lend themselves to feminine horror? In looking for great monsters to include in my novel, I ended up with a lot of female snake monsters, and it left me wondering… what kind of godly psychology might have been behind the creation of all of these female snake beasts?

In TIMESPELL, the brash and impulsive Julia must team up with her sweet and straight-laced best friend, Angie, and the malicious and power-hungry Kaitlyn in order to keep the witch-like powers of her inheritance. But these powers come at a cost. The girls are bound to serve the Fates, and their first mission sends them back in time to Marie Antoinette’s Paris and eventually, into the chaos and war of the French Revolution.

Buy it now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,

or your favorite book retailer!

And you can find more of Diana Paz at her website!

[Winner announced HERE on Friday -- comment before 11pm Thursday night! if you don't claim your prize within 7 days, I'll pick someone else!]

Sirens vs Mermaids

Because I've been thinking a lot about Homeric stuff lately, while I take this Coursera class on Ancient Greece (which of course started with the Bronze Age!) and, tweeting a lot about it, I just wanted to cover this briefly here. What it comes down to is this (totally my pet peeve, not going to lie):

SIRENS =/= MERMAIDS

And just to make it as absolutely clear as possible, allow me to include some illustrations!

In Classical Mythology, a Siren looks like this:



Or, maybe, like this (winged bird-ladies, my friends. WINGED.):



And this is what a Mermaid looks like:



So, as you can see, Sirens and Mermaids are two very, very different things. Possibly even OPPOSITE things, because what is the opposite of a fish, if not a bird?

And now you know (assuming you didn't already! -- I'm guessing a lot of you already did, but whatever! consider this a PSA.)

The Nix of Tiveden

While writing the Orc Romance, I found myself researching place names, particularly in the Saga of the Volsungs, since I have it so conveniently close to hand. King Volsung ruled over a land called Hunland, and his enemy and son-in-law, King Siggeir, ruled over Gautland, a land associated not just with the Saga of the Volsungs, but Beowulf (the Geats of Geatland) and Roman history (the Goths of Gothia). But more importantly, it happens to be bordered by a forest called Tiveden, and the lakes of Tiveden have a Nix.


I had never heard of a Nix (aka Näck, among other variations) until I found Tiveden, but now I kind of want to make one into the main character of a story. (Or I would if I wrote fantasy of that kind. Orc Romance not withstanding.) The Nix is the Germanic water spirit, sometimes a merman but mostly a shape shifter, which puts me almost directly in mind of the river gods in Classical myth (especially the story of Poseidon impersonating the river god to get into Tyro's pants). 

The water-horse version of the Nix, with a boy

In Scandinavian folklore, they are supposedly great musicians, often appearing as a man with a violin (though their name comes from a word meaning river horse) able to enchant their listeners with their music. They can be jerky, making demands and luring people to drown in the water, or friendly and even willing to teach others how to play as well as they do. And the story of the origin for the red water-lilies in Tiveden forest? It's just heartbreakingly fascinating. 


Guys, I have not delved deeply into the research (wikipedia so far), but so far, I'm taken. 

What's your favorite folklore-ish water-related creature?

In Progress: Orc Romance

I'm writing a short story. A romance, I suspect. An Orc Romance.

Now, those of you who follow the blog fairly closely might remember when I discussed my lack of appreciation for mythical beasts-- centaurs, satyrs, hydras, etc. I just don't find them all that compelling as a writer. Yes, I did write a story for Ariadne and the Minotaur in Crete. It was an exception, and really, the more fascinating element to me was Ariadne's struggle against Minos. But the problem is, that lack of appreciation for GREEK mythical beasts and monsters? It totally extends to things like Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Elves, Fairies, etc. Some people can write them well, and make them interesting to me, but for the most part, I'm just not interested in digging into that myself. Elves are too perfect, Goblins and Orcs and Trolls are too boringly evil, it's just all been done and done-over, I don't have anything new to contribute. In fact, I even swore to myself I'd never write fantasy of that nature.

And now.
Now I'm writing an Orc Romance.

I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this to myself. The what-if kind of took over my brain, I guess. But the end result is that I'm meditating on the semi-fluid definition of what makes an Orc an Orc.

this ogre is totally Cyclops-esque

There's the Warcraft definition-- the green-skinned brutes kind of reminiscent of Gamorrean Guards, right down to their tusky-teeth. When I was little, I called them pig-men. But if you go back further, there's Tolkien, and the SILMARILLION tells us that Orcs were elves once, stolen by Morgoth when they wandered too far afield into shadow, and twisted into evil and darkness by torture. In mannerism and behavior, you can see clearly the relationship between Tolkien's Orc and the traditional Ogre of the human consciousness. They're vicious things that like to snack on naughty children when you get down to it.  Not too dissimilar to the idea of the Cyclops of Greek Myth, but with two working eyes, though we imagine them, generally, to be a whole lot uglier.

Polyphemus, the cyclops from the Odyssey (Roman Fresco)

But isn't that the nature of dark things moving beyond our sight? That what we imagine them to be is often worse than the truth of what they are? An Ogre or a Cyclops has no real redemption. It is what it is, and it is bound by its nature and, in the case of the Cyclops, the gods. But Tolkien's Orcs are something else. They were, once, all that was good and beautiful.

Why didn't he ever use that?

Or maybe the better question is: Can I?

We'll find out shortly, I guess! Orc Romance, here I come.