The Celtic Tapestry Blog Tour kicks off with Elodie Parkes

Moon Rose Publishing has just released their newest book, A CELTIC TAPESTRY! An anthology between eight authors, each one has taken their own twist on one of the Celtic festivals of the year. From sunny spring to chilly winter, everyone’s favourite season is given a fresh and enticing take in this wonderful collection. To celebrate, Moon Rose Publishing is also hosting a fabulous giveaway as part of the release!

Blurb

The wheel of the year turns, bringing the joy of spring, the warmth of summer, the richness of autumn, and the merriment of winter. But eight Celtic festivals link these seasons together, bringing with them romance, lust, danger, and even magic. From a city under threat from night-time creatures at Ostara, to a selkie caught by the light of the Lughnasadh moon, to a writer caught in the flames of a fiery goddess at Imbolc.

Eight authors have come together to give their own twist on these festivals, weaving each story with a blend of myth, magic, and contemporary telling…to create A Celtic Tapestry.

 The Trailer!

Excerpt (The Picnic, Elodie Parkes)
Morgan looked around at the saplings he had planted in the spring. They were healthy and strong, he decided. Summer was virtually over and he could see the first signs of autumn around him. He was in tune with the forests, and he smiled as he gazed around. To say Morgan was in love with trees and all the things that grew and lived in forests was an understatement. They were his reason for living.

He ran his hand through his thick dark hair and sat down on a nearby fallen tree. The trunk was still thick where he sat, but it was fragile further along. The tree had fallen from age. This part of the forest that Morgan tended had some of the oldest trees in the country growing within it. Morgan liked to think it was because of him that they achieved such great age. He took out his thermos of coffee and poured himself a cup. A leaf sailed down from a nearby oak. It was a pale, golden-orange color, and it landed at Morgan’s feet. He looked up at the vivid blue sky through the canopy of the trees around him.

“Give it another week, and there’ll be more leaves falling,” he said to the forest, and in answer a soft breeze ruffled the bright leaves of the nearby birch and Morgan’s hair.

The breeze flew on through the forest and down into the nearby town. It played with a discarded chocolate biscuit wrapper, pressing the silver and purple paper up against a railing before flowing on. As Ava came down the steps of the town council office it lifted her skirt. It heralded autumn, and yet summer had not been kind that year. Ava would have liked a little more warmth before the end of September, but it didn’t seem that was going to happen. It was just over a week to the autumn equinox, and Ava had noticed that already some trees in her garden were beginning to look a little less green and a little more golden.

She sighed, and her sigh was picked up by the soft breeze as it rounded the corner of the building and brushed her shoulder as she entered the car park. It took a tendril of her dark auburn hair, held back by a tortoiseshell comb, and wrapped it around her face. Ava pushed the hair back behind her ear and opened her car door. She threw her bag onto the passenger seat and slid her laptop case along behind it. She sat in her car for a few seconds, just looking out at the row of rose bushes that fringed the car park. The breeze was busy in the high street, where it had gathered speed and was whipping along a plastic bottle that once held spring water with a spritz of lemon.

Ava had driven home by the time the breeze had moved on down the valley to the next town. She opened the front door of her cottage, and after putting her bag and laptop down on the hall table, she shrugged off her jacket and stepped out of her high-heeled shoes.

Ava went straight into her kitchen and filled the kettle to make a cup of tea. As the water boiled for her tea, she ran up the stairs to her bedroom and changed into jeans and a jumper. She padded downstairs in her bare feet carrying a pair of socks, having decided to go for a walk. The meeting had been stressful, and she felt restless. She made her tea, and then sat down on one of the kitchen chairs to pull on her socks and the short boots she wore to walk.

She glanced at the digital clock inset in the glass door of the electric oven, and without drinking the tea she had made she picked up her keys and cell phone. She slipped them into her pocket and closed the cottage door with a small thud.

Ava lived only five minutes from her favorite walk. There was a path that crossed a field and then wound into the woods, and Ava took it. She liked the path through the field especially when the poppies grew wild as it lay fallow, but she didn’t classify her favorite walk as such until she was in the woods.

*‘Copyright of Elodie Parkes*

 

 

Author Bio

 
Elodie Parkes lives in south east, rural England, but close to a famous city. She works with antiques on the outskirts of the city in an emporium. She has two dogs, Dalmatians, Celt and Chaucer and says she would be lonely without them. She loves reading, movies and the countryside, and that’s where you will find her when she's feeling stressed.

Elodie writes romance, contemporary, and erotic with a twist of mystery, suspense, or the paranormal, now and then. She likes to make the story unusual in some way, by a quirk in the tale.

Author Interview

 

1. What inspired you to be a writer?

People and emotions inspires me. The complexity of life spurs me to write. People inspire me, just in general life. Art is a favorite of mine but it has not so far inspired a book. I think it’s life and the way we all live. I write romance, erotic romance because I think we need more love in the world. Real love I mean, acceptance, caring and camaraderie.

 

2. What does your daily writing schedule look like?

 

I write when I have the time between everything else.

3. What would you consider essential elements of a good story?

 A tremendously interesting plot. Very well drawn characters that readers can empathize with. A couple of twists. A shake of humor and loads of love.

4. What has been your most memorable interaction with your fans?

 A short message saying how much they enjoyed a book and that the story was so emotionally driven they couldn’t put the book down, that’s about The Horoscope Writer.

 

5. Would you like to see any of your books made into movies and if so, which ones?

 I’d like to see The Horoscope Writer and my story in A Celtic Tapestry.

6. What book would you agree to live in for a month and why?

 I’d live in The Horoscope Writer, Dominic is my wish he was real guy.

7. If you could co-write a book with a famous author, who would it be and why?

 That’s a hard one. Maybe Christine Feehan she can write a love scene that’s not between a billionaire and some sappy girl.

8. In your book Two of Them, which character do you favor the most, Jet or Falcon? Why?

 I can’t choose and I have to say both are my loves, my darlings just like all my characters. I might only wish Dominic was real but I still love all the others including the female characters.

9. The leading male character, Dominic, in your book, The Horoscope Writer, is an author himself. Did you base his character on your personal experience as an author?

 I didn’t really. I do know what a rave rejection is though LOL

10. Where did your inspiration for Millie Reinvented come from?

 I was talking to a young woman who was in the antiques shop where I work and she was buying a little sculpture of two lovers kissing. She said she had to have it because it was so nice to look at, as her husband didn’t even kiss her anymore. I couldn’t say anything I just wrapped the item, and stored the thought until the story burst out onto my laptop.

11. Your write an array of genres including romance, contemporary, erotic, mystery, suspense, and paranormal. What is your preferred genre to write and why?

 I write contemporary erotic romance with a twist of any of the above. I prefer contemporary erotic romance because I like to write love stories and happy endings.

12. Do you have a favorite book/series or author that you enjoy for pleasure reading when you’re not writing?

 I read heaps and sometimes far into the night which make it hard to get up the next morning LOL Here are some authors I read.
•Robert Goddard
•Ruth Rendell
•William Gibson
•Colin Dexter
•Philip K. Dick
•Sue Grafton
•Christine Feehan
•Sherrilyn Kenyon
•Keri Arthur
•Stieg Larson

13. What is your favorite type of genre to read?

 I read almost every genre, yes I just read a blurb if it grabs me, buy the book (smiles)

14. Do you buy books from second-hand bookstores?

 Not anymore. I only buy ebooks.

15. Do you let other people borrow your books?

 Used to: now no

16. If you could choose 1 supernatural creature to really exist, what would it be and why?

Dragons, the ultimate pet, hopefully. Optionally unicorn, I mean really how gorgeous.

Author Links:

Blog: http://elodieparkes.blogspot.co.uk/

 MRP Website Author Page: http://www.moonrosepublishing.com/#!elodie-parkes/cys4

Website: http://elodieparkes.webs.com/

Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114681167004175190514/posts


Book buy links:
MRP Website link: http://www.moonrosepublishing.com/#!a-celtic-tapestry/cayu







And now for the giveaway! Well, what IS the free stuff? Moon Rose Publishing, as part of the A CELTIC TAPESTRY tour, is giving away a ton of good stuff. You could win a print copy of A CELTIC TAPESTRY, a sticker pack, bookmarks, a beautiful necklace and jewelled bookmark from Tara S Wood, or an e-book of the anthology!

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