Guesting in Siân Glírdan’s Green Room #RRBC

March 19, 2017March 18, 2017 ~ John W. Howell ~ 12 Comments

Today I have the pleasure of being a guest of Siân Glírdan in her green room before taking off on a fabulous adventure. I have been given the opportunity of taking a trip to an exotic destination which is explained in the post. I also am allowed to take anything I wish to enhance my experience. So come over to Siân Glírdan’s place and see where I’m going and what I’m taking with me. Here is the link http://wp.me/p7wYAB-f4,

About Siân Glírdan

Siân Glírdan is the fusion persona of the elven roleplay character, Janowyn, High Bard of the River Kingdom and her ‘real world’ creator, author, Jan Hawke. Glírdan is the elven word for ‘songsmith’, and Sîan is a Welsh variant of Jan (in case you were wondering!).
When it became obvious to Jan that Jano had a far better handle than she could ever have on writing in the fantasy genres, Sîan was born, fully formed and raring to go. A Freebooter’s Fantasy Almanac, which is basically the manual on how Jano was brought into being and developed, is Sîan and Jano’s first official collaboration. They’re currently working hard on an epic future fantasy series, loosely based on the ancient Celtic world. The first volume should reach the shelves at the end of 2016.

Freebooters Fantasy — Click cover to visit Amazon

Jan Hawke (Siân Glírdan) is also the author of Milele Safari

A Big Thank You to Jan Hawke( @Janhawke ) for Helping Introduce #Newbook Our Justice

September 9, 2016September 8, 2016 ~ John W. Howell ~ 2 Comments

Jan Hawke

without Freebooter's guide

Thank you, Jan Hawke for your post announcing the launch of Our Justice. You can go to see the post HERE.

The Fantasy Freebooting Tour with Jan Hawke #RRBC

June 30, 2016June 26, 2016 ~ John W. Howell ~ 61 Comments

Please join me in welcoming Jan Hawke to Fiction Favorites. She is on a 4Wills Publishing Tour and I’m so happy she decided to make my place one of her stops.

Fan fiction as backstory

Because we weren’t allowed to play even minor characters from the original books (and films) we were given a pretty free rein with creating our own ‘original’ characters. Who you chose, and where and how you decided to play them was up to you. Some people only wanted to play in classic canon style threads and so their hobbits, elves or dwarves etc, tended to retain the original profiling as written by Tolkien – salt of the earth hobbit types like Sam Gamgee, or enigmatic, serious Rangers like Aragorn. You knew where you were with that kind of character.

For a Bard like Jano, you were of course expected to sing and tell stories, and so that was an opportunity for you to build up your own backstory as well. When I was playing to strict canon rules, I had the chance to wow people with my versions of the older tales from the legendarium, and for that I could, of course, name drop like crazy. It was in fan-fiction that you could really start to cut loose however.

Before I began to get into roleplay, my first piece of fan-fiction wove baby Janowyn firmly into Minas Tirith, right after the Battle of the Pellennor Fields. I had her mother give birth in the Houses of Healing after being saved by a cavalryman of Rohan as she lay injured in the ruins of a tower destroyed by a Ringwraith (this really ‘happened’ in the Return of the King, so I simply had Jano’s mum standing on the roof terrace of the tower when it fell). This man, who became Jano’s stepfather, was also harmed during the battle (being me, I gave him PTSD rather than a flesh wound!) and so he was also with the Healers, acting as a messenger for the Lady Eowyn… And because it wasn’t part of a game thread, I could put in as much canon character interaction as I wanted.

Some of my writing for Jano was not so ardently plagiarised however. I killed Jano’s natural father off just before she was born, but I still wanted to let him have some part in Jano’s history, so I wrote this short piece for her to roleplay at a tavern. The canon bending was very minimal, because I made her father a cousin of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth (who’s barely mentioned in passing in the books), but when they were young boys on a sailing trip. The following was therefore never written by Professor Tolkien…

The Sea Horse

On this day, Erlrohil and Imrahil decided to go sailing in their glider, the Princess, taking care not go too far out to sea as the currents there could be treacherous. At first all was well and the wind took them scudding across the waves faster than a gull can fly. They did not intend to stray too far from the shoreline, but after they had been out for an hour, what seemed to be a light mist surrounded them. For a while they could still see the shore and all they had to do was hold the course they were taking. So, when the mist got thicker and the beach gradually disappeared, they held their tiller steady, still unafraid until suddenly they were aware that their craft was travelling much faster.

Try as they might they could not turn the little boat to the starboard to hug the coast. The current held them for several minutes longer, but then, as suddenly as it had begun, it released them into clear sunshine once more and their small vessel slowed. Looking around them, the lads saw to their relief that they were in a beautiful sheltered bay they had never seen before. Realising they had come much further than they had intended, they decided they would head in towards the shore and then follow the coastline back to their summer home.

As they turned toward the shoreline they saw some horkas leaping in and out of the water not far from their boat. They smiled at each other as these small blue-grey dolphins were thought to be lucky creatures. The wind was getting strong again, and, as they did not want to be blown back into the current they decided to take the sail down. Regrettably Erlrohil, who had not often seen horkas, and could not resist looking at their agile jumps, did not concentrate enough on the task in hand. A strong gust suddenly snatched the sail and boom, which Imrahil was trying to tie down, and swung it sharply in Erlrohil’s direction. He had turned away again and did not realise his peril, despite Imrahil’s loud cry of dismay, as the boom hit him squarely in the shoulder and sent him flying through the air and into deep water.

He fell with a great shout and splash. There was a strong undertow and he was dragged irresistibly underwater back out towards the main current. Had the blow been to his head there is little doubt that he would have drowned. As it was, he was fighting for air as he finally surfaced almost back where they had arrived, far from the Princess and still being pulled away out to sea. Erlrohil was a good swimmer and struck out for the little boat, but his shoulder ached horribly and the current was far too strong for him.

He could see but not hear Imrahil, yelling at him, ashen-faced, and desperately trying to reset the sail to follow him. Seawater was filling his nose and mouth and he was pulled under once more. He could hear a hollow clanging sound and felt something swim between his legs. Instinctively he tried to grasp hold of the object, which he suddenly realised was a horka’s head and beak. The creature, supple and smooth as leather to the touch, seemed to understand his distress, and positioning itself beside him, nudged him none too gently until he took hold of its high dorsal fin. The animal immediately surged off in the direction of the Princess, Erlrohil clinging frantically to the rigid fin. It took him a while to realise how powerful the fish was. It almost felt like he was riding a horse as the horka flexed itself in an up and down rhythm through the waves, and he gradually realised the creature had actually pulled him out of the current and was taking him back towards the Princess.

As the little dolphin, barely as long as Erlrohil was tall, neared the small boat it began to slow. Imrahil, seeing what had happened, had stopped struggling with the sail and was reaching out toward him. The horka’s beaky mouth was almost touching the hull of the Princess as Imrahil, leaning over, grasped Erlrohil’s lower arm with both hands. Erlrohil almost reluctantly let go of the slick, warm fin and clasped one of Imrahil’s arms firmly as the little creature rose beneath him, boosting him out of the water.

“He’s smart!” Erlrohil shouted, teeth chattering, as Imrahil hauled him into the boat.

“Just as well he is!” Imrahil yelled angrily back at him. “Why didn’t you watch what you were doing!” then he clutched Erlrohil to him fiercely and burst into tears. “I thought you would drown,” he sobbed.

They were both crying with relief now. The horka was chittering at them, head bobbing a few yards away from the prow now, it’s long beaky mouth almost smiling at them. They both turned and watched laughing, as the horka made one huge leap into the air, twisting away from them as it hit the water and swam furiously back to its family, who were still playing their leaping games off in the distance.

“That fish just saved your life!” Imrahil’s voice was filled with wonder.

“It let me ride on its back!” Erlrohil spluttered, shivering violently. “It’s not a fish! It’s a sea horse!”

In A Freebooter’s Fantasy Almanac, because I couldn’t use any canon names at all, I changed Erlrohil’s name to Ruari, and Imrahil’s to Ærdhen. These are two of the main characters from my new (and wholly original) fantasy series, still being written, The Tomes of the Havenlands.

Bio

Siân Glírdan is the fusion persona of the elven roleplay character, Janowyn (Jano), High Bard of the River Kingdom and her ‘real world’ creator, author, Jan Hawke. Glírdan is the elven word for ‘songsmith’, and Siân is a Welsh variant of Jan (in case you were wondering!).
When it became obvious to Jan that Jano had a far better handle than she could ever have on writing in the fantasy genres, Siân was born, fully formed and raring to go. A Freebooter’s Fantasy Almanac, which is basically the manual on how Jano was brought into being and developed, is Siân and Jano’s first official collaboration. They’re currently working hard on an epic future fantasy series, Tomes of the Havenlands, loosely based on the ancient Celtic world. The first volume should reach the shelves at the end of 2016.

A Freebooter’s Fantasy Almanac back blurb

This is poetry, wrapped in fantasy, within a memoir… Or, to put it another way, it’s a true tale that might well apply to many fantasy fans and gamers who can’t be bothered with keeping their realities separated from their more lurid imaginings.
In my case, this is a sort of ‘real’ cyberspace profiling, during a phase of my life when roleplay truly did need to be therapy, because what was happening around me for real was not what I wanted to participate in. So, buckle up your swash and prepare to witness a titanic battle played out on the field of sanity – where what happens in your head is the only truth that matters.

Book links

Amazon (eBook only for now) – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H3R5K7K
Amazon Bio – http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01H3UVW06
A Freebooter’s Fantasy Almanac blog – http://freebootersalmanac.blogspot.co.uk/

Social Media links
Twitter – @SianGlirdanBard (https://twitter.com/SianGlirdanBard)
Facebook Author page – https://www.facebook.com/SianGlirdanAuthor/

“The tour sponsored by 4WillsPublishing.wordpress.com.”

A Huge Thanks to Jan Hawke for the His Revenge Launch Help #RRBC

November 4, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 4 Comments

Jan Hawke is helping launch His Revenge. You can visit her post HERE. I want to thank her for helping and to give you a little information about her.

Jan Hawke is the author of Milele Safari: An Eternal Journey. (click the cover to visit Amazon)

She is also a very supportive member of Rave Reviews Book Club and I have appreciated all her tweets and wonderful sense of humor.

Here is what Jan says about herself.

“Pretty basic for now – I’m Jan, English, retired but hoping to be writing full-time from now on.
I live near Launceston in Cornwall UK with Toby and Benji the Springer Spaniels – it’s a tie between the boys as to who’s maddest, but as I outrank both of them in being weird anyway it’s not open to debate really.

I’m physically lazy with things that don’t hold much interest for me (so that’s mostly housework and, increasingly, cooking…), but I love where we live, mainly because I chose it for being so quiet and off the beaten track, very close to the moors and quite near to the sea.

I also love books, both to write and to read, the latter of which can be very eclectic (I enjoy Julian Barnes, Kate Atkinson, Jeanette Winterson and will happily admit to Jilly Cooper too) but in the main I’m heavily into SF&F, particularly Tolkien, Terry Pratchett and Julian May, although I can pass on Zombie Apocalypses fairly easily…

…how I’ve chosen to write about Africa for my first novel may be something of a surprise to my friends, but if you read it you may find that all of the above information manifests in there somehow!”

Tuesday – Anything Possible – #RRBC Author Jan Hawke

June 30, 2015June 29, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 43 Comments

I am so pleased to Welcome author Jan Hawke to Fiction Favorites. Jan is on a 4Wills Publishing MILELE SAFARI Blog Tour in celebration of her book Milele Safari a wonderful fictional African story. Jan the post is yours to give some background to your book.

Thanks, John Tanzania was somewhere I always dreamed of going to one day. I wanted to see the Great Migration (vast herds of wildebeest, zebra, gazelles and antelopes) across the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater and onwards to the north across the Mara river into Kenya’s Maasai Mara. A childhood spent avidly watching

Tanzania was somewhere I always dreamed of going to one day. I wanted to see the Great Migration (vast herds of wildebeest, zebra, gazelles and antelopes) across the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater and onwards to the north across the Mara river into Kenya’s Maasai Mara. A childhood spent avidly watching Daktari, various film incarnations of Tarzan, safari movies like The Snows of Kilimanjaro, or King Solomon’s Mines, and, above all, David Attenborough’s wonderful wildlife excursions, meant I had high expectations and when I finally got there, these were more than met. Rather too much in some instances, as the latter half of the holiday, further south exploring the Selous wilderness where licensed game hunting still went lucratively on, provided several eye-opening reality checks on how some of the other half lives in Africa.

Enough has been written of the Serengeti National Park to need little embellishment on the beauty of its landscapes and denizens, but it nevertheless left us with a deep impression of the fragility of the eco-system and how hard it was to make it a sustainable world heritage region in terms of climate and economic factors. The brochures were full of luscious descriptions of the exclusive game lodges that you could stay at and, by and large these were delivered, even if the upkeep of them proved less than adequate. The Great Migration the time we were there had not yet happened, as the animals were elsewhere on their journey following the water trail, so we didn’t see the vast herds of ungulates that we craved, but we did see territorial animals such as leopard, cheetah and lion as well as some of the usual antelopes, elephants, giraffe and indeed zebra and gnu that had passed on the annual procession for whatever reason. The lack of rains also meant that game spotting was pretty simple as our elderly Tanzanian guide, Muhammad, simply visited the places he knew would still have water.
I saw sights I’ll never forget, such as a cheetah stalking and bringing down a sleepy Thomson’s gazelle, where I cried and nearly fainted with excitement as I forgot to breathe, just like the sprinting predator was doing. We saw a truly superb leopard up a tree, on whom ‘Moll’ in the Perfect Day chapter is based, and rare black rhino and lion – so many lion, in the Ngorongoro Crater.

Our accommodation choices were not as advertised exactly, but added to the sense of adventure in that lack of water oddly meant fairly high humidity, even on the high plains and one of my abiding memories of the country is the faint to overpowering scent of mildew in our rooms or tents. We went for lunch at one of those luscious panoramic glass and timber hotels with a swimming pool embedded in a kopje and found the ‘lido’ several years into being dried up and one of the ground floor ablutions areas looking like it had been invaded by several rather cross rhinos…
Our trip to the Selous in the non-hunting jungle-like reserve north of the Rufiji River was heaven and hell in comparison, with heaven being what at first seemed to be a very basic tented camp, but had a licence to shoot game for the pot. It was there that we dined like kings on catfish cakes, wildebeest liver and onions and warthog sandwiches and then curry. Divine after our other venue, an ex-camp for Scandinavian engineers working on a dam project that never got built. The manager did his best to run what was billed as ‘luxury’ guest accommodation in rusty-roofed chalets with re-cycled fuel cans for lavatories and an almost non-existent food budget, except for a rather pathetic vegetable garden, a few elderly and very muscular hens that had stopped laying, and copious supplies of discount corned beef – which did at least make a fairly good spaghetti bolognese for lunch.

We dined out on the Tanzanian experience for some time back home in Kent and, looking back on it we did have a great time, even the bad bits, because it really was authentic travellers fare and brought home to us exactly what Africa meant for the people who had to live there. It was just a pity we’d had to spend a small fortune for the experience.

Excerpt from The Land of Nod
Terry sighed with impatience. ‘We must be able to do something surely?’ It was the fiftieth time she had said something like this since she’d pulled herself together Tom thought. Henryk appeared to concur as Terry joined Christian at the window. The old German spoke with authority still despite his dejected looks. ‘So long as they are just talking we should wait. If we interfere it may make things worse. You know this as well as I Teresa…’

Barely a second after he said it both Christian and Terry jumped and drew breath sharply. ‘He is hitting her!’

Christian’s appalled exclamation was drowned out by Terry’s outraged shout ‘Stop that you filthy animal!’

Nobody was quick enough to stop her as she hurtled past an open-mouthed Tom and out of the door, deftly evading the one militia man left guarding them. Briefly he trained his weapon after her, but the others were all on their feet and Tom was halfway towards the door himself. The young Matu was wide-eyed and frightened and swung the gun around nervously as Tom came to an abrupt halt with the three others cannoning into his back. They could all hear Terry yelling like a banshee and the clergyman screaming back at her in rapid French. Their guard was getting a grip and gestured fiercely for them to get back. They all hurried back to the little window, all four of them craning around to try and see what was happening outside.

‘They are not wicked! They are frightened you devil-spawn!’ Terry’s eyes blazed with fury. ‘What did they ever do to you?’ Her French was suddenly fluent again after all these years. She was still scared as hell, but her anger was aflame now and it carried her on, passionately determined to stop this craven traitor who dared to declare himself a Man of God, no matter what it took.

‘Keep out of this you snivelling worm!’ he snarled. ‘These women are less then pigs and they must come back to Zyanda with us!’ He snapped at one of the men with a rifle. ‘Get this stupid foreigner back inside or kill her!’ He turned his mad eyes back on Terry. ‘Go back to your no-good ghosts before I really lose my temper!’

……………

Tom’s gaze strayed to the window again to the women and girls cringing away from the Matu guards. They were looking at the nun as though she were mad. Never, never again did he want to see people that petrified with terror. He turned back to Henryk and saw his own concern echoed. ‘She is my best friend and the kindest, strongest person I know. I love her like my sister and I’ll do anything I can to help her.’ Henryk smiled up at him. ‘She deserves to have such good friends Tom.’

‘He says you can both go out to get the lady.’ Christian’s voice broke in on them. He looked worried and tired too. ‘He says his grandfather is the one holding the rifle – that he will not hurt her, but the other one – their leader – he is a very angry man who will listen to no one. He will kill her himself if she does not stop. You must hurry.’

Henryk sighed and looked at Tom then back at Christian. ‘Thank you my friend. And tell the young soldier thank you also for us please. You will look after my wife for me until I get back?’ Christian smiled shyly and nodded his head at the two Europeans.

‘You take much care Pastor, and you my friend.’

Tom forced a big smile at the quietly spoken young man and at the guard as he and Henryk walked calmly out of the school house into the strong African noonday sun.

Other Tanzanian chapters
Here be Dragons – Sophie arrives in Tanzania to take up her new post at the Teresa Olatunde Community Hospital, helping others come to terms with terrible memories even as she lays her own past to rest.

Hard Rains – the rains come late and hard and Sophie is caught up in a natural disaster, just after a herdsman is brought in with gunshot wounds after a brutal encounter with hardened, well-equipped poachers.

Angels of the Abyss – as police arrive at the devastation, it emerges that the poachers have far more sinister origins and Mgakera sends a convoy with food and shelter for the stricken community, while Luey flies more medical aid in.

Author Bio:
I live near Launceston in Cornwall, UK with Toby and Benji the Springer Spaniels – it’s a tie between us all as to who’s maddest, but as I outrank them in being weird anyway it’s not open to debate really.
I’m physically lazy with things that don’t hold much interest for me (so that’s mostly housework and, increasingly, cooking…), but I love where we live, mainly because I chose it for being so quiet and off the beaten track, very close to the moors and quite near to the sea.

Future projects include a futuristic fantasy series, loosely grounded in Celtic myth – The Shadow Chronica (http://havenlands.blogspot.co.uk/), which is kind of stalled at present, but I’ll be dusting it off as summer gets in full flood with the first novel hopefully available at the tail end of 2016.

Book Blurb:
Milele Safari back blurb – Milele Safari – An Eternal Journey …twines around a single day, in an unremarkable border village that snuffs out the lives of four people and shatters many others, only to draw the survivors back to a different time and, perhaps, a hope of atonement and peace. Step out on the journey and discover an Africa that could have been, is and might one day come to be.

Book links –
Amazon (print & eBook) – http://www.amazon.com/dp/0992747201/http://www.amazon.com/dp/0992747201/
Barnes & Noble (print only) – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/milele-safari-an-eternal-journey-janette-mary-hawke/1117529970?ean=9780992747206 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/milele-safari-an-eternal-journey-janette-mary-hawke/1117529970?ean=9780992747206
Milele Safari blog – http://milelesafari.blogspot.co.uk/p/taster-1.html http://milelesafari.blogspot.co.uk/p/taster-1.html
Book Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkJsS5vtJjg