GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ Historical Fantasy Author Rayna Noire talks about Gardens and Faeries + giveaway + excerpt | I Smell Sheep

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Historical Fantasy Author Rayna Noire talks about Gardens and Faeries + giveaway + excerpt

Gardens and Faeries
Did you know that Faeries will help you with your garden? They were the first gardeners. You may consider Faeries children of Eve, or the Celtic Goddess, Danu. All the same, they are master gardeners. Here are some ways to attract them to your garden.

1. Faeries love birds. Put up birdhouses, bird feeders, and a birdbath. (Remember to change the bird bath water daily.)

2. Plant flowers. Roses are a special favorite, along with sunflowers, honeysuckle, rosemary, tulips, and pansies.

3. Streams and creeks attract the magical folks. You can build a water garden, goldfish pond, or even an outdoor fountain to create the same effect.

4. Faeries also enjoys statues of elves, fairies, and gnomes

5. They like colorful garden flags too.

6. Oak trees are sacred to the Faeries. If you have one, you’re in luck.

7. While a tidy yard is preferable, leave a small, ungroomed patch of wildflowers. The bees, butterflies, and Faeries will appreciate it.

8. Be kind to the animals that frequent your yard this includes the squirrels, rabbits, and mice.

9. Fairies love child-like energy. Don’t have children, then release your inner child by singing, laughing, whistling, playing, and even dancing in your garden.

10. Faeries love sparkly things. You can strew some crystals in your garden or shiny rocks with mica flecks.

11. Share your celebrations. A thimble full of lemonade and some crumbs from a birthday cake go a long way toward making a Faerie feel included.

12. Faeries are music lovers. They appreciate shiny wind chimes that make a harmonious sound.

13. Keep the grumpy people away. This could involve checking your attitude while weeding or commenting on a four-legged garden visitor.

14. Avoid use of toxic pesticides and herbicides.

15. Welcome them. Fairies visit those who believe.

Tales vary about the actual appearance of the sought after guests. Some believe they are tiny dots of lights. Others see them in the hummingbird and the butterfly. Fewer observe their clever faces in flowers or tree leaves. What you can see is where they’ve been from increased animal visits to blooming flowers. Don’t forget to reward the faeries. While they’re fond of teeth, most of us don’t have any to spare. Leave a tiny lid of milk or honey. Plant flower bulbs in a small circle, creating a sacred space for their celebrations. Best of all, have a sense of wonder.
Images are cco from https://pixabay.com/


Faerie Lights: Glimmer (Faerie Lights Book One) by Rayna Noire
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Publisher: Sleeping Dragon Press
August 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-944712-99-0
ASIN: B01IODFZAY
Number of pages: 278 (est)
Word Count: 84,059
Cover Artist: Dawne Dominique
Historical fantasy set against the backdrop of WW1.

For seventeen years, the convent walls kept Meara Cleary from the secret of her own parentage.The sisters regard her with a cross of disdain and fear. Only among the trees by the gurgling creek does she find acceptance. A bearded stranger claims she’s his niece and promises to take her home. Before he can, a cataclysmic event thrusts her into a war-torn world.

Meara vows to journey to Ireland to find her uncle, unaware of how perilous a journey it will be. Her Druidic father guides her through dreams, explaining her magical heritage. Her dead parent can’t help her with the intricacies of village life, especially when she catches the eye of the very engaged Braeden Douglas.

A whirlwind composed of equal parts menace, romance, and revelation sweep Meara across the continent while gathering allies and enemies with equal speed. Her intent to return to her family turns into a fight to survive her own destiny.


Excerpt:
England 1915
A snap of a tree branch signaled Meara wasn’t alone. Her breath caught in her lungs and swelled her belly as she waited. A tiny thrill danced up her skin, leaving the hairs on her arms upright. Mother Superior strictly forbade the sisters from entering the woods. She called it going into the world, and they’d renounced the world when they entered the convent walls. The rule was for the sisters, not her, an orphaned child who by chance had been born within these same walls.

A speckled fawn stepped into the sun-dappled clearing, allowing Meara’s breath to escape in a whoosh. A deer, a baby, which meant the mother wouldn’t be far behind. The doe stepped out from the brush, giving the girl leaning against the tree a speculative glance before foraging the mosses and delicate wildflowers. If she stayed still, the skittish forest inhabitants would ignore or possibly accept her. It meant a great deal that they accepted her in an offhand way.

Birdsong accompanied the play and the chuckle of the nearby creek. The area around the convent walls drew her. Here, she felt at home. It certainly felt more right than walking in straight lines with the sisters chanting somber words to an unseen male deity who demanded constant homage in the form of prayers six times a day. Her hand covered her mouth, hoping she hadn’t said such a thing aloud. Even thinking it was a sin, but speaking it would result in excommunication and horrible punishment.

Sister Thomas reminded her, anytime she’d made the mistake of complaining about the endless monotony of convent life, that her mother died a painful death in childbirth due to her sins. A few sisters whispered bastard, changeling, dark whelp within her hearing. Perhaps, they needed to point out she was different, as if she couldn’t have figured that out herself.

Outside the walls, she’d slip off her shoes feeling the cool spongy moss under her feet. It tickled, but more importantly, it lived and touched her. The lack of physical touch within the cloistered walls intensified her yearning for something to touch her, even if the touch was passive as she trod upon it.

The tiniest shift of light motes moved through the air, forming and reforming, flying or tumbling through the air. The grass beside her pushed down similar to something landing beside her. Although her eyes did not convey such information, she knew, the same as she knew her mother did not die from any great sin. Dozens of Hogstead village women died in childbirth as Sister Gabriella explained when she found Meara crying in the garden shed.

A warmness crept over a body, a comforting peace that somehow came from the unseen presence beside her. To speak of it would destroy it. Even Sister Gabriella, who was bolder than the other sisters—since she took an angel’s name as opposed to a saint’s—wouldn’t understand.

The lengthening shadows indicated the vanishing afternoon. Soon the bells would toll for the three o’clock service, and her absence would be obvious. She stood, brushing the leaves off her plain brown tunic before giving a head bob to the area where she’d been sitting.

“Good day to you.”

Even though no human words rode the air, she felt a response, one of respect and care. Her measured footsteps allowed her to move past the wildlife without sending it fleeing. Once she cleared the woods, she grabbed the hem of her tunic and ran.


About the Author:
Rayna Noire is an author and a historian. The desire to uncover the truth behind the original fear of witches led her to the surprising discovery that people believed in magick in some form up to 150 years ago. A world that believed the impossible could happen and often did must have been amazing. With this in mind, Ms. Noire taps into this dimension, shapes it into stories about Pagan families who really aren’t that different from most people. They do go on the occasional adventures and magick happens.

Tour giveaway
(2) $50 Amazon giftcard among other prizes

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3 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing. I would have sent you some photos if I had thought about it. Rayna

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the chance to win but these are new authors for me and I haven't had the chance to read the books so I cant do the reviews :(

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  3. Very interesting combination of imagination and gardening.It was very interesting to read about flowers, but some of them I do not know so next time I will use plant identifier.I hope to hear many more stories from you.

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