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Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Guinevere: Bright Shadow by Sarah Provost - Book Tour - Blurb Blitz - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hi, lovelies!!  It gives me great pleasure today to host Sarah Provost and her new book, “Guinevere: Bright Shadow,” here on FAB!!  For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $25 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!  Also, come back daily to interact with Sarah and to increase your chances of winning!!

Thanks for stopping by!!  Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!

Guinevere: Bright Shadow

by Sarah Provost

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GENRE:    Arthurian Fiction, Fantasy

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BOOK BLURB:

“You may think you know my story. My name has been bandied in ballads and jests, for good and (mostly) for ill. High Queen, priestess, adulterer… but first and always a woman. Courage and honor shaped me; ecstasy transported me; grief, betrayal and terror tempered me.

“My loyalty to the Goddess was supreme. But as the new religion took hold, the pagan way was threatened with extinction. There were those on both sides who would use me as a pawn in that battle, even if it meant taking my life.

“Yes, I bear my portion of blame. I loved Arthur, and I loved Lancelot, will I or no. But that was only one element in the impending chaos. Britain was divided, my love was divided, and such divisions cannot endure. I did everything in my power – and learned new powers – to prevent an all-out war. But would it be enough?”

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EXCERPT THREE:

I was torn from my peaceful sleep by a sense of foreboding so dire, so overwhelming, that I could not stop screaming, even when Catlin and Wynyth and others burst in. “What, lamb, what is it?” Catlin folded an arm around me and smoothed back my tangled hair. “Shh, shh. What, my dove?”

“I don’t know I don’t know!” I babbled. “A snake. A sword. We are lost!”

She pressed my head to her shoulder and rocked me like a babe. “Only a dream it was. That’s all, only a dream…”

At last I calmed. The sky was greying quickly, so I was about to start the day, but Catlin insisted I take a while to gather myself. She went off to bring me a cup of wine. I was lying on my pallet, drained, when I heard her returning. Her footsteps stopped. She gasped. And the cup hit the stone floor.

She stood like a statue in the passageway, staring out the casement. Far to the east, we could see a great cloud forming, but from the ground, not the sky. Faintly, a whisper, a murmur, a rumbling was carried to us on the morning breeze. It was the sound of men and horses screaming, of clash of arms, of pain and fury and destruction, all gentled by distance. Then the sun sent a finger of light over the horizon, and the great cloud turned red.

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AUTHOR BIO:

Sarah Provost is a poet, playwright, screenwriter and novelist, currently living and working in upstate New York. A collection of poems, Inland, Thinking of Waves, was published by the Cleveland State University Press. Her stage plays have been produced off-Broadway, in London, Los Angeles, and states beginning with K. No screenplays have been produced, but she made a decent living writing for Paramount, Disney, HBO and others until Hollywood broke her heart. After a period of recuperation and relocation to a place with much worse weather, she began writing Guinevere: Bright Shadow, her first novel. A second novel, The Real Girl, is in progress.

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CONNECT WITH SARAH:

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BOOK BUY LINKS:


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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Sarah will be awarding a $25 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.  This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome giveaways on here**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.

15 comments:

  1. Hello, friends. Thanks for stopping by. And a big THANK YOU to Ally for hosting. Are you interested in Arthurian matter in general, or is Guinevere a particular interest? I've always felt that she was unfairly blamed by (mostly male) authors for the fall of Britain, when those who were more directly responsible got a pass. I've always wanted to tell her side of the story.
    I look forward to your comments and questions!

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  2. Hi Sarah. What was your inspiration for this latest book?

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  3. I've always been interested in this material. Almost all of the older literature assumes two things: that Arthur was a Christian king, and that Guinevere was to blame for his downfall. The more I read, the more I saw that she was being scapegoated. Merlin, Mordred, and Arthur himself were the true sources of the tragedy. Arthur turned to Christianity to gain forgiveness of his sins. The change from paganism to Christianity was not peaceful, and it had a particularly bad effect on women. I felt that story needed to be told.

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  4. I love this whole idea -- the feminist, goddess-centered Guinevere. Looking forward to reading my copy. What was the research like?

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  5. It was a lot! I did a great deal of detail-oriented research, about wildflowers, falconry, armor, food, architecture, clothing, etc., but the central concerns were researching paganism and early Christianity, and being careful with the language.
    The etymology website was my constant companion. I tried not to use any word that didn't exist at the time, such as "noon" or words that had a very different meaning. "Fun" for instance, meant trickery, so I had to use "merriment." When I couldn't find a good alternative, I allowed myself to use words that came from Latin roots, since the Romans had recently occupied Britain.
    The canon always assumes that Arthur was Christian. The concept that he converted in search of forgiveness for his sins is mine.
    Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy your reading.

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  6. I love the cover ! Do you have an interpretation of the grail/chalice? I have ordered the book, but have not yet read it.
    Thanks for hosting these great book spots!

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  7. That beautiful cover was done by Cherie Fox. I don't deal at all with the Grail quest, since that didn't involve Guinevere. I told the art director that fire was a recurring theme/image in the book, and this was Cherie's interpretation. I love it!
    Thanks for ordering, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

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  8. This sounds like an interesting book.

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    1. Thanks, Sherry. I certainly enjoyed writing it!

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  9. Thanks again to Ally for hosting, and to all who stopped by. Happy New Year, everyone!

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  10. Do you find parallels between any dynamics in your book and the present day?

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  11. This sounds like a very good read.

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  12. The book sounds fascinating. Love the cover!

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  13. This sounds really good, thanks for sharing an excerpt

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