Myths, Legends and Folklore

How many of us remember our school days, when we dipped our toes into the fascinating world of Greek and Roman myths – and then promptly forgot them when we stepped out into the real world?

I certainly had until I visited Holland in 2010. Wandering around museums I was struck by images of Leda and the Swan and looked up the legend of Zeus descending to earth as a swan.

 

Even then the idea of writing magical realism didn’t occur to me. Having written thrillers for both Children and YA’s for a decade, why should I do anything different?

 

But then, whilst taking a trip through the Dutch countryside, the tourist coach visited an island, which, twice a day, was connected to the mainland by a causeway. The houses on it were tiny, wooden buildings separated by narrow alleys, little wider than rat runs. Suddenly, there I was in a different century, a different person standing in a place of darkness. I sensed people moving in the darkness and something else ... fear! Ideas stormed in, pictures flashing before my eyes of stately Dutch homes, canals and in the midst of this ... a legend of something – something that didn't belong to our world.

 And so, The Year the Swans Came was born. And with it a heroine, Maidy, which means ... little unmarried one. A shy quiet girl who looks on and sees everything.

My book on Amazon

Excerpt: "Maybe I could fit into Ruth’s pocket for I remained a little squiddy thing; tall enough perhaps, but slight and finely built, with a mane of dark hair that tumbled in an unruly mass down my back whenever dampness crept into the air. Very different from my brother and sister; a comfortable plumpness clothes Berthe’s limbs, leaving them rounded and shapely, and Hans will resemble Pappy one day, short and stocky, although now he possesses the slight form and energy of youth.

Ruth would never fit in anyone’s pocket. With a figure like the hourglass of sand that sits on our mantelshelf, her skin is flawless and lightly touched with sun, as if she inhabits a distant land in which the sun shines every day."

 This is the burb:

Ruth and Maidy are best friends. Slightly the older, Ruth is stunningly beautiful, rich and wilful, and has always insisted she will marry Pieter, Maidy’s eldest brother, only to have him vanish the year swans first visit the city. Feared as cursed and birds of ill-fortune, six years later, on the morning of Maidy’s sixteenth birthday, they return.

For Maidy they usher in love and the return of her beloved brother, Pieter. For Ruth only destruction as she captivates every boy around, including Pieter and the enigmatic and mysterious Zande.

Excerpt: "By the by, we did meet before,’ Zande continued, nothing in his voice now except friendship and maybe a certain curiosity, as if I puzzled him.

‘I don’t remember.’ I kept my gaze focussed on the rivulets, watching them break into a kaleidoscope of sparkling colour as they washed across the pebbles on the shoreline.

‘You were angry then, too.’ He squatted down on his haunches by my side, his dark curly head on a level with my arm. ‘Why did you tell me your name was Magrit – it’s Maidy, isn’t it?’ He plucked idly at a daisy, inspecting its tiny petals closely.

‘Maidy is only a nickname for friends.’

‘May I be a friend?’

The words were softly spoken and, once again, they sounded sincere. You could never doubt. I felt my breath desert me."

What can I say about the novel: besides telling you that loads of people have now read it and loved it and are haranging me for the sequel. And yes, that will be out in March 2021.

So to answer your questions: is it descriptive – yes; romantic – definitely; magical – absolutely; tragic – yes.

Is that it?

Of course not, because the writing of The Year the Swans Came has spawned another legend – The Children of Zeus. A prequel to The Year the Swans Came, this 3-book series is set in France in 1934, and travels to Holland just before the onset of WWII. 

My book here on Amazon 

Click of a Pebble at Amazon

 

About Barbara Spencer : First published in Fashion Magazine in 1969, Barbara Spencer embarked on a highly colourful career spanning three continents in which she was caught up in riots, wars, and choosing Miss World. An award-winning children’s author, Barbara is now writing fantasy/magical realism for an older audience.

Barbara Spencer
Award Winning Author
www.barbaraspencer.co.uk
Connect with me on:
Twitter: @BarbaraSpencerO
Facebook: facebook.com/BarbaraSpencerAuthor and Facebook.com/BarbaraSpencerO

Blog spot: barbaraspencerauthor.blogspot.com

The Golden Age of Reading

 

One of the benefits to growing old is an ability to glance back over one's shoulder at a huge span of time to which is added a certain amount of gloss as if a duster and spray polish have been used. Nevertheless in terms of literature whereas the early naughties mostly belonged to JK Rowling, the rest especially the years from 2008 to 2015 were undoubtedly the golden age of reading as far as young adults were concerned.

And my thrillers Running, Time Breaking and Turning Point were part of this, and their suceess took me, almost every Saturday, into a Waterstones store where I had been invited for a book signing. 

Living in the county as I do, most often that meant a 6 am start to catch a train from Bath. (Lovely in summer but not so pleasant in the winter when trying to cross the Mendips in surroundings solid ice and the windscreen completely fogged up. Even so, I much preferred to drive particularly if it was a straight forward run and the store not too far away, perhaps Plymouth on the south coast or Cheltenhamm in the Cotswolds, becasue then I could set out at a more reasonable hour with my trusty thermos flask full of coffee at my side to make sure I arrived by 10.30 for an eleven am start. 

Why the golden age of reading for YA's? Because these were the years teenagers read and loved books. Of course that was before mobile phones destroyed both their concentration and an ability to get out of bed before noon, to visit the town shops including Waterstones. And stores catered for this mass of young people - vast bays set aside marked YA rather than the paucity of shelving that you find today in stores and libraries .

I remember on one occasion, a girl spent 3 hours in Waterstones and read an entire book - and no she didn't buy it.

The phenomenon orginated with a series of amazing writers who picked up the vampire ball and ran with it. Yes, maybe vampires had been around since Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897, but in a very modest and low key way. Then in 2005 Stephanie Meyer stepped into the limelight with Twilight followed by a swarm of YA fans. But it was Cassandra Clare who first brought Shadow Hunters to our attention, and Maggie Stiefvater who introduced the shape-shifting wolves in Shiver. And let's not forget The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins!

Seated in a chair in the middle of the store, I was ideally placed to watch teenagers drag their reluctant parents over to the shelf which had The Hunger Games on it. 'You have to read this,' they exhorted. And parents did and they loved the series equally as much as their children had. That is the astonishing thing about YA books, they appeal to all ages.

At the same time Rick Riordan was introducing us to Percy Jackson and the gods of  Mount Olympus and Anthony Horowitz to Alex Rider, and Barbara Spencer to Scott Anderson.

If you haven't yet read Running the first thing you should know is that it is as true today as it was then, with the UK reduced to island status and EuropeTop Dog - the big banana - the bossman. And a computer virus, Styrus, so powerful it can penetrate any computer and steal its secrets. Of course everyone wants to get their hands on it, especially those who want to rule the world and  don't much care how they go about it. (But you need to read Turning Point to find that out.) (And by the way, I dedicated the book to my daughter because she sat up all night reading and I hadn't given her the last chapter! I won't mention her language on that occasion - that too is the subject of another story!)

 

This is the blurb:

A Boy. A Missing Computer Scientist. A Secret so dangerous it must stay hidden from the world.

 Scott Anderson has a secret so big he daren’t share it even with his best friends; Jameson, Travers and Mary. He and his dad are American. If you’re American, you don’t talk about it. If you don’t talk about that, you don’t talk about any of the other secrets that haunt your life – that your dad’s really a computer scientist and people are searching for him.

 When Bill Anderson disappears, Scott is determined to find him. He has already lost his mother. She disappeared in the California earthquake, when ninety percent of the world’s computer scientists were killed; a tragedy for which America is held responsible. But there’s little for Scott to go on, a scrap of paper left in a printer and a poster pinned to the wall.

And now someone’s looking for Scott, too.

 

I found my Saturday forays into the world of Waterstones quite thrilling and between signing copies of my books, I would chat to customers or sift through the books on the shelf. And it was at a book signing that I met two of my cover artists: Jessica Carreras and Katie Beltrami. Aimee Hibberd who designed the cover for Running, I met in a field. Don't ask - that's the subject of another story.

 

I stil find it sad that most teenagers bow  to peer pressure when they reach secondary school and they stop reading. 'It's not cool,' is the reason they give when I ask. And their teacher will say, quietly, when no one is listening, 'Some do still read but they won't admit it.'

How sad, if only they knew as I do that as you go through life and age ... and we all age ... reading becomes the most delightful and satisfying of occupations - especially at night in bed. Then it's wonderful.

 *******

 

Barbara Spencer
Award Winning Author
www.barbaraspencer.co.uk
Connect with me on:
Twitter: @BarbaraSpencerO
Facebook: facebook.com/BarbaraSpencerAuthor and Facebook.com/BarbaraSpencerO Blog spot: barbaraspencerauthor.blogspot.com