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Awake in Purple Dreams - ***Cover Reveal*** - Book Two

A different kind of fairy tale for adults. 

Awake in Purple Dreams is a story about love overcoming all obstacles. Elements of fantasy weave with reality in this epic romance derived from ancient folklore. An enchanted but a brutal tale of a soul trying to find its way back home.

Blurb ~
Having thought that she had finally escaped the past, Bea finds herself hunted down by an unknown enemy who violently rips her life apart. The harsh changes that follow catapult her on a journey which not only brings personal transformation but one that marks a new era for two worlds.

Secrets long hidden are finally revealed and a war like no other is on the horizon.
Karma never forgets and until the cycle of a soul is complete, the past will never fade away.

The final book cover was a collaboration with Rebecca covers HERE

Below, my early design using free commons images. 

I couldn't get the title to stand out but loved the different colour tone in the font. In the end, I thought it best to stick as closely to book one as possible and so decided to keep the text white. I also needed help with placing stars in the background and with book formatting for print. Rebeca was wonderful and so here we are ~ a completed cover design. 

Early Designs 

Front and Back

Placing the early design next to Book One for comparison ~ 

Did they compliment each other enough to be visually recognised as the same in a series? 

Yup! I think so. 😁

The silhouette of the couple sets the theme of romance and their souls. The purple flowers reminiscent of 'A Carpet of Purple Flowers', a place which echoes in both books. The stars and cosmos giving a subtle message of the story being Otherworldly. 

Want to find out more about book two? 

Click HERE

Will be available to Pre-order on Amazon in late summer 2017.

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

Awake in Purple Dreams - Book Two (A Carpet of Purple Flowers) - Prologue excerpts from the first draft

Storybook Inspirational Visual designed using Polyvore Digital Collage

Prologue ~ Book two introductory section

(First Draft)

Karian stood allowing the bitter wind to bite into his skin. His eyes watered from the chilling harshness wailing against his body, now turned partially numb. The vacant space in which he stood, barren and cold, had remained uninhabitable since the ancients returned from Earth. It was known as Nede then, the garden of splendour, where their world's pole joined to Earth’s Eden via a portal known as the axis mundi, the navel of both realms. Within the ice-capped mountains the stone circle that he used to hear stories about when growing up still existed, but its power long gone. The Sindria elementals had closed the portal path of Nede to earth. Once a land of beauty until destroyed by violent storms, caused by the sudden Sindria withdrawal which had a devastating ripple effect on earth. Floods removed much of the evidence of the otherworldly beings ever having lived amongst humans. It was as if they never were and that same sentiment stirred within Karian’s soul. It’s what brought him here, a feeling of something that never was. Standing at the edge of time, a place between worlds, attached only by memory. Everything white, desolate, and hundreds of feet below, a snowy blanket stretched out for miles. One step and his torment would end. He felt a strange comfort in the thought, but he didn’t come here to die. He came to cold-burn her soul from his own and would continue to stand until the frost fully penetrated the warm flesh covering his heart. He waited, begging for the pain to bleed into ice where he could crack it open and remove the pieces of her that remained - a sting he welcomed to be rid of her once and for all.

Nede

*** Below, Spoiler Alert - Book One***

Chance had bathed for hours soaking in the Heaven Stone's temple floral waters trying to remove the earth stench, as much for his own sanity as for others, but removing the grime of earth didn’t remove the pull it had over his heart. He felt tainted by more than Bea’s world. Seeing her in Karian’s arms had left a stain on his soul that he couldn’t reach. He would have to work harder to overcome the haunting image of them together and eradicate the hurt of her teary eyes meeting his before he faded into the portal flames.
As he walked through the wide corridors of the Seelie Court to the Queens Hall, heads politely turned in a desperate attempt to avoid any further intake of a place they hated. Humans wouldn’t notice the odour, but the Sidhe only knew the sweet smell of home and earth carried the pungent aroma of their shameful past. Chance did not miss the hierarchy snobbery of Court life and didn’t want to stay longer than needed. Beithir normally took care of such matters, but due to his own communications with the queen while on earth, she requested an update on his mission’s outcome, personally. Their conversations on earth had been easy, brief, with no eye contact involved. The energy links were made mentally, and with only a few spots on earth that had enough energy to tap into for such conversations, he was thankful. It had been an excuse he often used to avoid further talk of Bea and the queen’s Alithia, but today there was no such escape. He wondered whether she would see failing in his eyes. Pushing the thought from his mind, Chance nodded at the two guards outside the throne room and waited for his arrival to be announced.
“Will you inform the queen of all your endeavours?” Saras's quipped.                                   “Including your own conduct at the glade?” Chance didn't mean to snap, losing his reserved calm, but he wasn’t in the mood for snide threats and had not forgotten the Heaven Stone warriors that fell under Saras’s blade at Coldfall Woods.
“We’re at war. " Saras shrugged, manoeuvring past a guard, now closer to Chance. "Lord Karian is an enemy of our Court, of our race, and if rumours are true…” He trailed off with a smug glint in his eyes. Chance’s stomach knotted, he had heard the slander but refused to give Saras the pleasure of knowing it had crushed him. He remembered everything, especially Karian’s hands on Bea in the glade, but refused to believe it was anything more than a display of misplaced love. The Court chatter of a human, Bea, carrying Karian’s child made him feel physically sick. He was about to retaliate when the doors flew open. He had seconds to re-compose, no doubt Saras’s intention.

Seelie Court Grounds

Amazon 

Book Website

Note: The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, centre of the world, world tree), in certain beliefs and philosophies, is the world centre, or the connection between Heaven and Earth. More HERE. 

You are my heaven... (in Calageata)

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

Book Stuff. How important is a book blurb?

Often it is the editor or some other person from the publishing house who writes the book blurb/jacket description. The publisher usually has a better idea of what elements of the story will most appeal to readers who pick up the book at a glance.

Below is an example of how important it is to get the blurb right. A professional reviewer and author, Christina Philippou, gave ACoPF a wonderful 5-star rating and listed it in among the top 10 books of 2015 on her blog - Wow! But this shows how the blurb can give a wrong impression that could ultimately repel potential readers ~

'From the blurb, I expected a kind of ‘Twilight for adults’. What I got was intricately-imagined fantasy, suspenseful action, two beautifully interwoven love stories (not the kind of paranormal love triangle I was anticipating), and a lot of well-crafted drama. Brilliant – I want more!'

Read HERE

In hindsight, I should've definitely re-written the book's blurb - shown below:

‘Every Unknown is a Beginning’

Bea lives a simple life residing in a South London second-hand bookshop. It had been an especially difficult year, first with Bea’s uncle dying, then splitting up with Brandon, her philandering, druggie boyfriend. The shop's trivial daily conversations, local faces and calm were all she desired, but that was all about to change.

No-one expects to bump into supernatural beings, let alone two opposing sects of a forgotten race. Bea’s quiet existence turns into turmoil as she slowly starts to unravel a secret past. A lost history in which love, revenge, betrayal, magic, power and karma are not mere cycles of a soul, but a sacred journey upon a web of many possibilities.

The future is not set in stone and the choices that Bea makes ripple through the cosmos. As the secret unfolds she realises that no matter what form your soul takes there are consequences for one's actions in which time has no relevance – we call it karma, they call it Vororbla.

Will she cope with the heartbreak and truths before her?
What would you do if your very existence came into question?
Join Bea as she uncovers the truth of her past via A Carpet of Purple Flowers.

To something like this, perhaps?

Discover a new fantasy world with a unique love story.

'Four Souls & Three Hearts' 

No-one expects to bump into supernatural beings, let alone two opposing sects of an otherworldly race. Bea’s quiet existence as a bookshop owner in SW London turns into turmoil as she starts to unravel a lost history. Reality quickly becomes blurred with folklore, and as the secrets unfold, she realises that no matter what form your soul takes, there are consequences for past actions in which time has no relevance – we call it karma, they call it Vororbla.

What would you do if your very existence came into question? 

Hmm. I'm going to work on book two's.

FICTION BLURB TIPS - T K. H

Note that the goal of the blurb is NOT to summarise the book. Rather, the goals are to:

• Implicitly reveal the genre or subject. This should reinforce the message conveyed through the title and visually by the cover.
• Entice the reader to look inside.

That’s it!

Here is a fiction blurb checklist:

• Be concise. Did you say anything that was unnecessary?
• Arouse curiosity. Did you give anything away? Does it read like a summary?
• Genre. If strangers can’t read the blurb and guess the precise sub-genre or have some idea as to the content, your blurb has miserably and utterly failed to be an effective sales tool.
• Engage. You need to draw interest immediately; most customers won’t be patient and let you build things up (true of your Look Inside, too). Come out swinging with your best stuff, but also pack enough punches so that you can engage interest throughout. When you run out of punches, stop writing your blurb.
• Flow. Check that it flows well. A hiccup, such as when a reader has to stop and figure out how to correctly parse a long idea, is like stumbling on your way to the cash register.
• Spellcheck, aisle three. If you can’t get the spelling and grammar right in a hundred words or so… Look, it’s not an option. You have to get it right.
• Vocabulary. It needs to match your target audience. Words they don’t understand can scare them away (but if such words are common in the prose, you also don’t want to create false expectations).
• Research. Do your homework. Check out blurbs of successful books similar to yours.

Feedback. Ask for opinions on your blurb. Before you publish, this can help you generate buzz.

Did you know Amazon has 30,000,000 different books to choose from? Wow! 

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

The Tale of Beren and Lúthien

The Tale of Beren and Lúthien is the story of the love and adventures of the mortal Man Beren and the immortal Elf-maiden Lúthien, as told in several works of J. R. R. Tolkien. It takes place during the First Age of Middle-earth, about 6500 years before the events of his most famous book, The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien wrote several versions of their story, the latest written in The Silmarillion. Beren and Lúthien are also mentioned in The Lord of the Rings.

The first version of the story is the Tale of Tinúviel, which was written in 1917 as a part of The Book of Lost Tales. During the 1920s, Tolkien started to reshape the tale and to transform it into an epic poem which he called The Lay of Leithian. He never finished it, leaving three of seventeen planned cantos unwritten. After his death, The Lay of Leithian was published in The Lays of Beleriand, together with The Lay of the Children of Húrin and several other unfinished poems. The latest version of the tale is told in prose form in one chapter of The Silmarillion and is recounted by Aragorn in The Fellowship of the Ring. Furthermore, it was the model for "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", which is told in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings.

Synopsis

As told in The Silmarillion, the later version of the tale:
Beren was the last survivor of a group of Men led by his father Barahir that had still resisted Morgoth, the Dark Enemy, after the Battle of Sudden Flame, in which Morgoth had conquered much of northern Middle-earth. After the defeat of his companions, he fled from peril into the elvish realm Doriath. There he met Lúthien, the only daughter of King Thingol and Melian the Maia, as she was dancing and singing in a glade. Upon seeing her Beren fell in love, for she was the fairest of all elves. She later fell in love with him as well, when he, moved by her beauty and enchanting voice, gave her the nickname "Nightingale." As Thingol disliked Beren and regarded him as being unworthy of his daughter, he set a seemingly impossible task on Beren that he had to achieve before he could marry Lúthien. Thingol asked Beren to bring him one of the Silmarils, the three hallowed jewels made by Fëanor, which Morgoth had stolen from the elves.

Beren left Doriath and set out on his quest to Angband, the enemy’s fortress. Although Thingol tried to prevent it, Lúthien later followed him. On his journey to the enemy’s land Beren reached Nargothrond, an Elvish stronghold, and was joined by ten warriors under the lead of King Finrod, who had sworn an oath of friendship to Beren's father. Although Fëanor’s sons, Celegorm and Curufin, warned them not to take the Silmaril that they considered their own, the company was determined to accompany Beren. On their way to Angband they were seized by the servants of Sauron, despite the best efforts of Finrod to maintain their guise as Orcs, and imprisoned in Tol-in-Gaurhoth. One by one they were killed by a werewolf until only Beren and Finrod remained. When the wolf went for Beren, Finrod broke his chains and wrestled it with such fierceness that they both died.

When she was following Beren, Lúthien was captured and brought to Nargothrond by Celegorm and Curufin. Aided by Huan, Celegorm’s hound (which according to prophecy could only be defeated by the greatest werewolf ever), she was able to flee. With his aid, she came to Sauron’s fortress where Huan defeated the werewolves of the Enemy, Draugluin the sire of werewolves, and Sauron himself in wolf-form. Then Lúthien forced Sauron to give ownership of the tower to her. She freed the prisoners, among them Beren. Meanwhile, Sauron took the form of a vampire and fled to Taur-nu-Fuin.

Anke-Katrin Eiszmann

Beren wanted to try his task once more alone, but Lúthien insisted on coming with him. However, they are attacked by Celegorm and Curufin, who have been exiled from Nargothrond. Beren was wounded by Curufin, but Lúthien healed him. Through magic, they took the shapes of the bat Thuringwethil and the wolf Draugluin that Huan had killed. Thereby they were able to enter the enemy’s land and at last came to Angband and before Morgoth’s throne. There Lúthien sang a magical song which made the Dark Lord and his court fall asleep; then Beren cut a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown. As he tried to cut out the others, his knife broke and a shard glanced off Morgoth's face, awakening him. As they attempted to leave, the gate was barred by Carcharoth, a giant werewolf, who was bred as an opponent to Huan. He bit off and swallowed Beren’s hand, in which Beren was holding the Silmaril. Carcharoth was burned by the pure light of the Silmaril and ran off madly. Eagles then helped Beren and Lúthien escape.

Beren and Lúthien returned to Doriath, where they told of their deeds and thereby softened Thingol’s heart. He accepted the marriage of his daughter and the mortal Man, although Beren’s task had not been fulfilled. Beren and Huan participated in the hunt for Carcharoth, who in his madness had come into Doriath and caused much destruction there. Both of them were killed by the wolf, but Carcharoth was also slain. Before he died, Beren handed the Silmaril, which was recovered from Carcharoth's belly, to Thingol.

Luthien and Beren by highlandheart1968

Grieving for Beren, Lúthien also died, and came to the halls of Mandos. There she sang of her ill fate, that she would never again see Beren, who as a mortal Man had passed out of the world. Thereby Mandos was moved to pity. He restored Beren and Lúthien to life and granted mortality to the Elf. Lúthien left her home and her parents and went to Ossiriand with Beren. There they dwelt for the rest of their lives, and both eventually died the death of mortal Men.

Significance in the legendarium

After the recovery of the Silmaril by Beren and Lúthien, many people of Middle-earth sought to possess it, and there were wars between the Sindar, the Noldor and the Dwarves, in which the Sindar were defeated. The Silmaril was taken by Eärendil, who sailed to Valinor with it and persuaded the Valar to make war on Morgoth, which led to the latter's defeat in the War of Wrath.

The marriage of Beren and Lúthien was the first of the three unions of a mortal Man and an Elf, of which came the Half-elven, those who had both elven and human ancestry. Like Lúthien, they were given the choice of being counted among either Elves or Men. The extended live-action film of The Fellowship of the Ring would make this connection through a song Aragorn sings at night in Elvish. When questioned by Frodo, he simply explains that it relates to an Elven woman who gave up her immortality for the love of a man.

Inspiration

The Tale of Beren and Lúthien was regarded as the central part of his legendarium by Tolkien. The story and the characters reflect the love of Tolkien and his wife Edith. Particularly, the event when Edith danced for him in a glade with flowering hemlocks seems to have inspired his vision of the meeting of Beren and Lúthien. Also, some sources indicate that Edith's family disapproved of Tolkien originally, due to his being a Catholic. On Tolkien's grave, J. R. R. Tolkien is referred to as Beren and Edith, as Lúthien.

The tale of Beren and Lúthien also shares an element with folktales such as the Welsh Culhwch and Olwen, maybe its main literary inspiration, and the German The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs and The Griffin— namely, the disapproving parent who sets a seemingly impossible task (or tasks) for the suitor, which is then fulfilled. The hunting of Carcharoth the Wolf may be inspired by the hunting of the giant boar Twrch Trwyth in Culhwch and Olwen or other hunting legends. The quest for one of the three Silmarils from the Iron Crown of Morgoth has a close parallel in the search for the three golden hairs in the head of the Devil. The sequence in which Beren loses his hand to the Wolf may be inspired by the god Tyr and the wolf Fenrir, characters in Norse mythology. Tolkien also got inspiration from the great love story of Romeo and Juliet.
Dior Eluchíl, son of Beren and Lúthien.
Source HERE

 The names of Beren and Luthien are on the Tolkiens gravestone.

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

J.R.R. Tolkien reciting "Namárië"

Tolkien is one of many writers that inspire me, and I'm so grateful that he shared his love of folklore with us all. Old myths retold in his own wonderful magical way, igniting the muse in others.

"Namárië" is a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien written in Quenya, a constructed language, and published for the first time in The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 2, Chapter "Farewell to Lórien"). It has the subtitle "Galadriel's Lament in Lórien", which in Quenya is Altariello nainië Lóriendessë. The poem appears only in one other book by Tolkien, The Road Goes Ever On.

The Quenya word namárië is a reduced form of á na márië, meaning literally "be well", an Elvish formula used for greeting and for farewell.

The first stanza of "Namárië" written in Tengwar script.

"Namárië" is the longest Quenya text in the The Lord of the Rings and also one of the longest continuous texts in Quenya that was ever written by Tolkien. It was rewritten many times by Tolkien before it reached the form that was published (see Early versions below). Many Tengwar versions were made by Tolkien. An English translation is provided in the book.

TNamarie in Tengwar. Handwritten and decorated by SoigneCalligraphy

The first version of "Namárië" was published in The Treason of Isengard pp. 284–285.

Namárië was set to music by Donald Swann with the help of Tolkien. The sheet music and an audio recording are part of the book The Road Goes Ever On. In a recording, Tolkien sings it in a Gregorian manner.

Excerpt: Namárië, Swann, 22.

From 1997 to 2005 the Danish Tolkien Ensemble published four CDs featuring every poem from the Lord of the Rings, amongst them two versions of Namárië, both composed by the ensemble leader Caspar Reiff: The first, sung by Signe Asmussen, sets the original Quenya text to music; the second version features the English translation spoken by Christopher Lee. HERE

Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima

HERE

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvóreva
Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
ómaryo airetári-lírinen.

Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?

An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo
ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë,
ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë;
ar sindanóriello caita mornië
i falmalinnar imbë met, ar hísië
untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë.
Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar!

Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar.
Nai elyë hiruva. Namárië!

The song translates into English thus:

Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The years have passed like swift draughts
of the sweet mead in lofty halls beyond the West,
beneath the blue vaults of Varda
wherein the stars tremble in the song of her voice, holy and queenly.

Who now shall refill the cup for me?

For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the Stars,
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds,
and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
and out of a grey country darkness lies on the foaming waves between us,
and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
Now lost, lost to those from the East is Valimar!

Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar.
Maybe even thou shalt find it. Farewell!

Varda

J.R.R. Tolkien singing "Namárië" (Rare recording)

Ainulindalë (J.R.R Tolkien Short Animation)

Storybook Inspiration: I get so wrapped up in this kind of story, and being a deep thinker, I developed a creation tale for ACoPF, not sure if I will add it to the second book as don't want to complicate the overall story. So I may add the tale to the website at a later date. We'll see. :o) 

Writers have so much background knowledge enabling them to understand characters, worlds, etc, it always seems a shame to leave them out. 

The more I research certain aspects of the story, the more I appreciate that everything is connected. I've always known it, but writing about it is quite a magical, moving, and humble experience. I wouldn't say that I'm an especially spiritual person, but I feel drawn to the mystical areas of life and the nerd in me loves to delve into science. This, with the love of folklore, inspired me to write a story of karma. I only hope that I can write it as well as I see it. Still learning. I think that's the hardest part, remembering the reader cannot fill the gaps, and to try and capture the special beauty of the mystical. It has been quite a challenge to combine a spiritual undertone with a normal 'Joe bloggs' life, but it's been fun. :o) 

The Passing of the Elves by Moondusts #Deviantart

J.R.R. Tolkien

Below is one of my favourite fan videos of  

'The Silmarillion' 

I haven't fully explored this website, but it appears to be a grand place for information relating to everything Tolkien.              Tolkien Gateway~  Link HERE

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo