Hope Restored Release Day

Hope Restored, the third and final novella in my Divine Temptation Series, released today from Ellora’s Cave and is topping the EC’s top rated list. For those who’ve read Thirteen Nights and/or Life Reignited, this is Marta’s story.  Everyone deserves their happy ending.

Marta’s hero is Paean, the brooding, exiled demigod, proudly displayed on the cover.  

Blurb

Marta, an Amazon warrior, is going insane. Born an empath, she cannot block the emotions of others. As the Greek gods she serves go mad from the loss of their powers in the modern world, they are dragging her down with them. Her only hope—find Paean—the demigod of healing, banished centuries ago from Olympus for crimes long forgotten.

Paean wanders the earth an empty shell. Stripped of his powers, cursed with immortality and the relentless carnal hungers of a god, he finds escape only in his music. Until Marta finds him. Her love-making restores his magic and her courage gives him something to believe in again.

When the Roman gods attack and weaken the Greeks, the Olympians wants Paean back. They will do whatever is necessary to keep him there.

Buy Links

Ellora’s Cave (Excerpt Available)

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

All Romance (Excerpt Available)

Brooding demigod anyone? #coverreveal

And so my non-writing life has been packed to the max, taking on that almost nonsensical level of busyness that marks the 21st century where the digital product has taken its role in the pantheon of gods.

Somewhere, somehow, stealing five minutes here and five minutes there, I completed the third and final novella in my Divine Temptation Series, Hope Restored. For those who’ve read Thirteen Nights and/or Life Reignited, this is Marta’s story. Its about time, don’t you think? Everyone deserves their happy ending.

Marta’s hero is Paean, the brooding, exiled demigod, proudly displayed on the cover.  Their story releases from Ellora’s Cave on July 24rth. I hope you pick up a copy. 

Blurb

Marta, an Amazon warrior, is going insane. Born an empath, she cannot block the emotions of others. As the Greek gods she serves go mad from the loss of their powers in the modern world, they are dragging her down with them. Her only hope—find Paean—the demigod of healing, banished centuries ago from Olympus for crimes long forgotten.

Paean wanders the earth an empty shell. Stripped of his powers, cursed with immortality and the relentless carnal hungers of a god, he finds escape only in his music. Until Marta finds him. Her love-making restores his magic and her courage gives him something to believe in again.

When the Roman gods attack and weaken the Greeks, the Olympians wants Paean back. They will do whatever is necessary to keep him there.

What are you thinking?

Looking for Beta Readers for EC Fantasy Romance

Hi out there.

I have a draft of Hope Restored, Book 3 in the Divine Temptation Series from Ellora’s Cave. Since I’ve been off the writing circuit for a bit, I want more folks than usual to take a look at the document before I submit it. (Thanks to those who already have).

Its Marta’s story, the evil sister in Thirteen Nights.

 

Marta shows up again in Life Reignited, a little softer this time, but still not quite there.

Hope Restored is a novella so its not a long read–about 20,000 words. Let me know in the comments if your interested in taking it for a test run or email me at sabrinagarie@gmail.com.  You must be over 18.

T is for Themis..cyra #AtoZChallenge

For the A to Z Challenge today, I’m doing two Ts:  Themiscyra and Themis

Themiscyra is the mythological capital of the Amazons, which is believed to be somewhere in Asia Minor, near the city of Troy, which would be modern day Turkey.  The Amazons took part in the Trojan War on the side of Troy. That is pretty much all I could find without doing some pretty heavy research.

So, I will also highlight Themis, the Greek Titan goddess of divine order, law and custom who held sway over the oracles.  Notably, she delivered justice for divine law, not human rules and regulations. Some tales say she is the mother of the fates.

I use Themis in Thirteen Nights to preside over the tribunal which determines the fate of Annie and Tai. Nothing like a Titan goddess of justice to add a little mystery to the outcome. For fun, here’s an excerpt where Themis has her cameo.

 

Just as the Elder warriors looked ready to storm out, Themis hit a gavel on the table. “I will pass judgment now.” The Elders sat, respectfully—powerful as they both were, neither were strong enough nor stupid enough to defy the Titan goddess of justice, the mother of the Fates and the ruler of the oracles. Even if the magic of the pantheon gods was waning, Themis remained formidable.

“Antiope, you carry the descendant of Hippolyta, the greatest of all Amazon queens.” Annie nodded, but Tai felt her shoulders and back stiffen. Themis was the most powerful deity in the room, her mind her own, her decision final, and they had no clue how this would play out.

P is for Phoebe #AtoZChallenge

The name Phoebe shows up a lot in Greek mythology.  She is, among others:

• One of the Titans. Mother of Leto. Grandmother to Apollo and Artemis.
• An Amazon who fought Hercules when he came to claim Hippolyta’s girdle.
• A sister of Helen of Troy.
• An epithet for Artemis and for Selene (goddess of the moon).
• One of Saturn’s outer moons (see below, most of her crater’s were given names from Greek mythology as well).

The name means bright and shining.  Phoebe is also an Amazon in my Divine Temptation Series.  She is the mother of Tai, the hero of Thirteen Nights. She gets her own love story in Life Reignited, releasing September 3, as part of Ellora’s Cave Vavaboomers series, which covers love and lust for the over 50 baby boomers.

O is for Oracle #AtoZChallenge

Oracles are central figures in mythology.  They take many forms with an emphasis on their ability to predict the future or serve as agents to speak for the god.  They often raved, as if mad, or their words were cryptic, at time indecipherable, so that they had to be interpreted by priests, omens or signs.  They are such figures of awe. Thus, its  not uncommon to weave these figures into modern stories, such as the oracle in the Matrix films (whose name happens to be Niobe).

An oracle serves as one of the key threads that weaves together my Divine  Temptation series with Ellora’s Cave. Her name is Sylla, and she is half oracle and half siren. Not only does she tell either the hero or the heroine that they have a role to play in the destiny of the pantheons on earth, she has the power of voice. She can draw the truth from them with a word. Come meet her in Thirteen Nights, and she” be back again in Life Reignited, which releases in September.

N is Niobe of the never-ending tears #AtoZChallenge

Niobe, the Queen of Thebes, weeps to this day. In a moment of human arrogance, she bragged of her fourteen children to insult Leto, daughter of Titans, who only bore two offspring, Apollo and Artemis.  In revenge, Leto had Apollo kill Niobe’s seven sons and Artemis kill her seven daughters, a scene often captured in classic art. Here’s an example.

Desolate (as if there truly was a word to convey the sorrow of a mother who lost all her children to her own vanity), Niobe fled to Mount Siplyon and turned to stone.  A stream formed from the rock, and is continuously replenished from Niobe’s never-ending tears. There is a weeping willow that bears her name-the Niobe weeping willow.

Niobe is the second historic female figure from whom water flows, the result of the loss of children.  So many myths teach of the sin of hubris–thinking we are better than the gods. But I think what they are really trying to tell us is that hubris is simply thinking we are better than others. From that simple assumption, so much tragedy ensues.

Do you agree?

M is for Molpadia #AtoZchallenge

M is for Molpadia, the Amazon who killed, Antiope,(A in my A to Z Challenge) when trying to rescue her from, well uh, marriage.   According to myth, when Molpedia found Antiope in Theseus’s castle, Antiope refused to return with her to the Amazons.   Molpadia killed Antiope and then is herself killed by Theseus.

In Thirteen Nights, I reimagined Molpadia as Marta, Annie’s sister.  Marta tries to prevent Annie and Tai from getting together. While she’s the nasty in the first book, there is a reason and she softens in the ensuing books. Currently, I am writing her story,  Hope Restored, because everyone deserves their HEA.

L is for Lampedo (Who is she?) #AtoZchallenge

Lampedo is another Amazon Queen. I found her interesting enough to give her a post simply because she is identified in Roman historical writings. My knowledge of Amazons comes mostly from Greek mythology.

Having said that, her name means Burning Torch in Greek, which is thought to be a reference to the torchlit processions held on nights of the new moon in honor of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt.

We don’t know a lot about her, but she supposedly ruled with her sister, Marpesia, and extended the reputation of the Amazons into wider Europe and Asia Minor, spreading fear and terror.   The two sisters are below. I was pleased and surprised to find this on wikimedia commons. You can scroll over for more information.

 

If you have time, why not stop by some of the other A to Z Bloggers.

G is for Gaia #AtoZChallenge

Gaia is one of my favorite godesses. Like Eve, she is the start of everything.

Gaia is a primordial deity, which means she mothered the earth and all its inhabitants. Its no surprise then that Gaia means earth. For all you sci fi lovers (like me), her Roman equivalent is Terra. She conceived Uranus, the god of the skies, then, with him, bore the Titans, the parents of the greek gods and goddesses we love to follow (Zeus, Juno, Apollo etc..), the giants and the sea-gods. The pantheon gods are definitely a randy bunch.

Her name, and essence, were given to the Gaia theory or principle which posits that the organic (living) and inorganic materials on the earth interact to create a single, complex interactive environment that offer the conditions that enable life on earth.

Mythology sometimes serves as the foundation for understanding our life today–both stories and science.  So much for thinking life and narrative are actually linear.

Thoughts?  Do you see life as linear or a series of circles or dimensions or what else?

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