A Faery in the Flesh

The Fair Folk. The Good People… Faeries.

Though they are known by many names and take many faces, both grotesque and frighteningly beautiful, they are largely responsible for the backbone of modern fantasy. For that, we have Tolkien to thank, who was inspired by the stories of faerie when creating Lord of the Rings.

Originally orated, the history of faerie spread through songs, tales and bawdy rhymes told over too many drinks in rumbling, darkened taverns, and sung on roads by weary travelers.

They’ve captivated, mesmerized and seduced us, as anyone who has read Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses can contest (Hello Rhysand, I’m looking at you).

But what are the faeries, really? Is there any truth to the myths that spellbind us? Or are they simply the fantastical and whimsical explanation for an earlier existence that was often fraught with danger and lacking in justice?

We’ll probably never know. But isn’t it fun to speculate? 🙂

Today’s blog post takes inspiration from the fantastical world of the whimsical Fae, bringing the usual format of The Prattler, but with a fun faery twist I hope you all enjoy.

In Eats, Sweets and Treats: a brown butter honey cake recipe, the perfect offering to ward off those nasty goblins and placate the brownies.
Just don’t forget your manners, the good people value courtesy.

From Do.It.Your Self-Care: a honey rose clay facial that’ll have you preening like a pixie after just one use.

At The Book Nook: a review of The Stolen Heir by Holly Black. All hail Holly Black, the Faerie Queen.

The Writing Corner Presents: the announcement of my new novella anthology, The Heart light Series.

Home is where the heart light lives. It beats between those four walls.

No visitors can enter through its doors in darkness.

And so, one must remember to turn on the light.

But that’s easier said than done for two orphans who have never had a family, or a heart that’s been lit by their true love.

Can Flick and Evie find the way home to each other before their own darkness is too much for the light?

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Book one of The Heart Light Series, Snatching Starlight, is an enemies-to-lovers Faery shifter romantasy novella, set in Newfoundland, Canada. It features two orphans burned by their sordid pasts, who try and fail to ignore the unearthly pull they feel to each other.

Flick has a savior complex. Evie is hyper-independent.

All of Faerie is out to get them both.

She just wants a night out on the town to forget about her cheating ex-boyfriend, Josh.

He just wants to collect his last two human souls.

Neither of them wants the nightmare that befalls them both the moment the pair meet, but sometimes destiny is something you NEED.

❤️⭐❤️⭐❤️⭐❤️⭐❤️⭐❤️⭐

Follow Evie and Flick in this first installment of The Heart Light Series, Snatching Starlight, as they face their fears, and find safety in each other, one catastrophe at a time.

Read more about Evie and Flick’s story in The Writing Corner, and check out the cover reveal for Snatching Starlight. Coming Nov.2024.

Faeries young and old eat white cream, cakes of honey and fruits of gold *

They are a hedonistic lot, given to fits of merriment, brazen sexual congress and mischievous caprices. Theirs is a feast of the most decadent foods. Rich, fatty, sweet, and piled high at their many revels, they glut themselves, even as they dance until dawn. Humans are spirited away to these parties, made to drink on faery wine and dance until their feet bleed. Sometimes until they die.

I’d like to think this brown butter honey cake would fit right in on one of their buffet tables. At the very least, it belongs on yours 😉

Faeries are ageless beings, immortally stunning, and infinitely youthful; recalled and remembered by their beauty, if by nothing else.
The Fae allure is and was a coveted one. Not just for the charm of their faces and their lithe, shapely bodies, but for the stunning things they created. The music, their whimsical moonlit dances, the lyrical poetry.
Men and women worshipped the folk for it, blessed them with offerings and artistic depictions of their own, revering them in statue, painting and prose.

While this facial mask won’t have anyone leaving an offering on your doorstep, nor have your beauty remembered in song, it will leave your skin ageless, moisturized and buttery smooth, just like the elusive Fae.

If The Stolen Heir speaks to you, check out the rest of Holly Black’s Folk of the Air series. The Cruel Prince trilogy is among my favorite fantasy series of all time. I promise you won’t regret picking it up!

I’ve quietly been working on this project, weaving heartstrings from my chest into its pages month-by-month. There are many dark moments on the road to publishing your first novel. Minutes where you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I’m there… I am finally there.

I created The Heart light Series for the lonely hearts. People who want love, but can’t seem to go about finding it because of their past.

Have you ever felt held back by your circumstances?
Was there a heartbreak that changed you forever?

That’s how it is for Evie and Flick. And a pair of orphans know heartbreak better than most.

Cover Reveal:

Official Synopsis for Snatching Starlight:

Evie

There is no upside to being an orphan.

The pay sucks.

There’s no good publicity.

And everyone looks at you with those sad, baby cow eyes the second they find out you have no family.

I wonder how they’d look at me if they saw the scars beneath my skin?

My boyfriend Josh sees them, and I don’t know if he’ll ever look at me the same way again.

Maybe the lonely just aren’t built for intimacy… maybe I’m not.

Flick

Faerie children aren’t like human children, they don’t need a mother’s love to grow.

My stick-limbed scarecrow’s body ran wild and muddy between the trees, feeding on deer milk and twig berries until she found me: Faerie Queene Rhea.

She made me hers in every way, an assassin to fill her darkest shadow.

Rhea’s brutal love is worth any punishment. It’s the only love I’ve ever known, and I need it. I need to save her. Almost as much as I need to save myself.

Flick of the Wilds just wants to go home.

Fae Magic isn’t the same at the boundary line, it’s weaker, a failing sort of trickery. But a banished elf has limited options, and Faerie Queene Rhea presides over them all.

He has 2 years, 2 months and 2 days to collect 200 human souls for the one girl-child he failed to silence. Only one remains when he meets her, the woman who sparks his heart light to life. Yet no human has ever been soulbound to one of the Fae. So how can this mere human light him up thus, and why does he feel this surge of familiarity whenever he looks at her?

Evie just wants to forget about Josh (preferably with a drink the size of her head) when she’s plunged into Flick’s world of magic, monsters, and Faerie madness.

But she can definitely save herself, OK? No damsels here.

That is, if she can manage to stop Flick from making her one… and he’s so sure she needs saving.

The Heart light series is a romantasy novella anthology set in Newfoundland, Canada.

This Faery shifter romance has all the star-crossed enemies-to-lovers drama dark romance readers love.

There will be tears. There will be fights, and a whole lot of hot, hot spice.

He has a savior complex. She’s hyper-independent. And the crown of Faerie wants them both dead, cursed, or captured. Whatever keeps Queene Rhea on her briar throne, and the power of Faerie in her well-kept pocket.

Scenes from Snatching Starlight:

Snatching Starlight is coming soon to Kindle unlimited. Nov 2024.

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