Ceci Giltenan, Author

Take a moment to calm yourself, to breathe and clear away the clutter from your busy day. Breathe in and out, and prepare yourself to go somewhere else, somewhere fantastic. I want you to imagine…

You’re ten years old, and your home is a grand castle. And it’s not just your home: it’s your inheritance. Your life is magic, wonderful, and full of secrets…secret trips to the forbidden Groves where you spy the abandoned outposts of the Dwarf Men, a secret friendship with a woman of mystery, secrets kept by your family about your birthright…

Think of all that. Now, imagine losing it in a few hours. It happens so quickly. You count your heartbeats and your footsteps as you flee your home, expecting death at any moment, but fate has other plans. You survive. You’re ten, and you don’t understand. You’re alone, and you’re running in the night, wondering what all those secrets meant.

What is courage? Some think it’s bravery in the face of danger, others think it’s heroism, the kind that charms the rescued. It is. But it can be subtler: the courage to go on, to head into the dark and trust that somewhere beyond there is light…that is true courage—the will to not give up.
Will Lesterall, the hero of The Pact, embodies this. He isn’t bold or daring, nor is he fearless. Yet there is something about him that I, the humble scribe who wrote his tale, find remarkable, and it’s his courage. In my mind, he’s a true hero, even if he’s the most unlikely kind.

I hope, dear readers, that you will find inspiration in his tale, and appreciate the unique aspect of courage he shares as he invites us into his life, on the night everything was taken away. I hope, while you read the 48 pages of this tale, that you will become young again and remember what it’s like to look at the world with awe and wonder, and to find the courage to reclaim that in a harsh world that lies and tells us to awaken. To find courage means becoming a child again, defying the world and living for what you believe in—living for your dreams.

SYPNOPSIS
For two hundred years, Fort Lesterall has been immune to surrounding world of warring kings and Unborn creatures in the nightmare Mountainlands. The Pact has kept it safe—an agreement between Goblin diplomats and the cunning Lesterall forefathers.
But on a night of celebration, when nobles and well-to-dos gather for festivities, darkness gathers, and Will Lesterall, the castle’s youngest prince, senses something is amiss. His fears are soon confirmed when a knight interrupts, followed by the remains of his battered army, with news that the Unborns have declared war on Fort Lesterall. The Pact has been broken.
Join an unlikely hero as destiny pulls him into the middle of an ancient conflict between fallen gods and ambitious women, one that demands blood, both holy and wicked, and the power of an ancient fire bound in steel. As swords clash below a watching wood, hope and betrayal war as fiercely as fear and valour.
Whether he lives or dies, Will Lesterall will never be the same.

To learn more about Graeme Brown, and The Pact, visit his website http://www.graemebrownart.com

Welcome to the Love Struck Valentine’s Blog Hop

The grand prize is a Kindle Paperwhite filled with 43 electronic books! For a chance at the grand-prize, be sure to enter here Love Struck Entry.

I am also giving away a free electronic copy of Highland Solution to a randomly selected reader who leaves a comment on my blog between February 9th and midnight on February 14th. If the winner already has a copy of Highland Solution, that person will receive a copy of Highland Courage on its release day instead.

I have been featuring a “Month of Courage” on my blog in anticipation of the March 3rd release of Highland Courage, the second book in my series of medieval Highland romances. Acts of courage can be bold and heroic, like rescuing someone from a burning building. But often courage simply involves overcoming a fear. Highland Courage tells the story of Mairead Mackenzie who must learn to overcome her fears with the help of the man who loves her.

Sometimes courage simply involves taking the first step.

Don’t be fall’n in love as she’s walking away when your heart won’t tell your mind to tell your mouth what it should say.
-Zac Brown Band – As She’s Walking Away Lyrics

You are at a middle school dance…a high school dance…a honkytonk…a nightclub…the venue doesn’t matter; there are members of the opposite sex and music. You want to dance. More specifically, you want to dance with a certain someone. Perhaps he or she is an old friend or even someone you have never met. All you need to do is approach that person and ask “Do you wanna dance with me?”

That shouldn’t be so hard, but we all know it is. All of our doubts and insecurities creep in. What if she turns to her friends and laughs? What if he says no? What if I trip and fall on my face walking across the room? What if–? You fill in the blank; I’m sure it is easy to do because the “what ifs” are endless.

It takes courage to put aside all of those embarrassing things that might happen and ask anyway. The fact is, no one has ever died of embarrassment and while it can be instantly painful, embarrassment fades over time. Usually when we are worried about those painful “what ifs” we forget about the wonderful “what ifs. What if he is trying to find the courage to ask me to dance too. What if she turns out to be my soul mate. We usually only remember these possibilities after it is too late–after “she’s walking away.” We have saved ourselves from the risk of temporary embarrassment only to be left with regrets. Sadly, regrets often linger and become more bitter over the years. As the Zac Brown song goes on to say:

Don’t you let regret take place of the dreams you have to chase, ask her to dance…Go on son you might fall down on your face, roll the dice and have some faith”

So, have courage my friend! Whether you want a dance, or a date, or a partner for life, don’t let the opportunity pass. Gird your loins and summon up the courage to ask.

Don’t miss the other stops on this blog hop for the chance to win other great prizes.

Celia Breslin
Pippa Jay
Mimi Sebastian
Cecilia Dominic
Jude Johnson
Isabella Norse
Dani Harper
Rita Bay
Allison Knight
Joyce Proell
Holly Hunt
Ute Carbone
Cassiel Knight
Audra Middleton
Angela Kay Austin
Morgan Wyatt
Liz Crowe
Susan Frances
January Bain
Linda Rettstatt
Dani Collins
Kelly Martin
Pauline Creeden
Christina Cole
Graeme Brown

I recently saw this poster on Facebook.

It occurred to me that it takes courage to laugh at one’s self. Sometimes this is simply a matter of taking ourselves less seriously. We are all human, we all make mistakes. Being able to laugh at them is a way of staying humble.

I know you will find this hard to believe, but sometimes when I am talking, I have trouble finding a word, or I just say the wrong word altogether. We moved into a new house this past September. The new house has a wet bar that contains storage for bottles, glasses and other barware and a mini-fridge. For some reason, over Christmas, instead of calling it “the bar” or even “the liquor cabinet” I kept calling it “the medicine cabinet.” My family just thought this was hysterical. Every time I said it, they laughed and I got mad and saying “Dammit, you know what I mean.” I finally gave up, laughed and now we just call it “the medicine cabinet.”

Once I was directing a children’s choir during Mass and my son (maybe 12 at the time) was the cantor for the Mass. I was in the choir loft in the back of the church, he was on the altar. It was time for him to stand and announce the closing hymn. Lost in a daydream, he was not paying attention and try as I might, I couldn’t get his attention. I can’t remember if I eventually was able to catch his gaze or if I simply announced the hymn myself. As fate would have it, the hymn was “How Can I Keep from Singing.” The joke in the family became “Just don’t stand up.” He laughs with the rest of us.

I think Katherine, the heroine in Highland Solution, has the ability to help Niall laugh at himself in some situations when he is behaving particularly arrogantly. In Highland Courage, Tadhg Matheson has the same skill. He advises “Niall, my friend, ye are going to have to scrape off some of your crust and find a sense of humor.”

It is easy to get angry and perhaps sometimes natural to be embarrassed, but it takes courage to accept our own fallibility and laugh.

My friend Rhonda offered me this definition of courage. It speaks for itself.

Ceci

Please welcome my fellow Champagne Book Group author, Olga Godim. Olga is a freelance writer and journalist from Vancouver, Canada. Her articles appear regularly in local newspapers, but her passion is fantasy fiction. Her short stories have been published in Lorelei Signal, Sorcerous Signals, Aoife’s Kiss, and other publications. In her free time, she collects toy monkeys and bemoans Vancouver rainy weather. Almost Adept is her second novel.

This goal of blogging about different aspects of courage has been enlightening so far. Today, Olga discusses how one person’s view of courage can vary, perhaps drastically, from another’s. As with many things, courage can depend on one’s point of view. She examines this concept as it related to a character in her fantasy novel, Almost Adept.

According to a dictionary, courage is “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc.” When the choice is clear, I agree with this definition. But sometimes, the choice is not so transparent, and the notion of courage becomes dependent on the point of view. What one person or one social group considers courage, another might regard as stupidity, or conformism, or even cowardice.

Kealan, one of the protagonists of my fantasy novel Almost Adept, finds himself in such a contradictory situation. Ten years before the novel starts, his small country was overrun by an army of a much more powerful empire. For ten years, Kealan has led the resistance; he fought together with his comrades to free his land. It hasn’t happened, and he is tired of being an outlaw. He has stopped believing that freedom is achievable some time ago. And if they can’t drive the occupants out, maybe it’s better to stop the fighting and learn to survive under the new regime, to find a new direction. Maybe choosing peace over strife is the right course, the brave compromise?

Self-doubts gnaw at him. Some of his mates accuse him of betraying the cause, of being a coward. Are they right? Is he indeed a coward and a collaborator? On the other hand, most of the country is moving forwards, trying to forget the horrors of war, to blend with the occupants. Most of Kealan’s neighbors, the local merchants and peasants, want the resistance to disappear, and so does the empire. Both sides want peace now. Would Kealan betray the majority of his people, if he kept the resistance alive? Would he betray his friends if he let it go? The choice he faces is complicated and ambiguous, with no definitive answer, as political courage is often muddled by contingencies and trade-offs.

But when he is presented with a simple choice of a warrior, his decision is equally clear. When a group of rabid terrorists kidnaps an innocent child, and the governor threatens bloody retribution, Kealan is willing to sacrifice his life to avert the disaster. Without hesitation, he rushes to the rescue, disregarding his own safety. In the ensuing fight, his personal courage is beyond questioning.

Is he an intrepid leader or a cowardly traitor? Or a confused man searching for the right thing to do? It’s for my readers to decide.

Almost Adept – Back Blurb
To prove her Adept potential, seventeen-year-old mage Eriale embarks on her first magical quest. She expects a glittering foreign escapade but ends up in Grumesh, the land rife with poverty and violence, where local courier Kealan becomes her only friend and ally. Together, they survive an explosion, a treacherous incarceration, and a daring escape. Sparks of interest ignite between them, but before Eriale can explore her attraction to Kealan, she discovers blood magic running amok in the city. Her priorities must change. As an aspiring Adept, she is duty-bound to find and eliminate the blood mage of Grumesh, or the blood magic will taint the entire land. No matter the cost—her life or her heart—she can’t let the vile mage win.

The author’s website: http://olgagodim.wordpress.com

Her novel Almost Adept can be found at Burst, Amazon Almost Adept
and other retails of electronic books.