Goddess Fish: "To Dance in Liradon" by Adrienne Clarke Book Tour/Guest Post/Giveaway (Ends 2/15) WW

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Seventeen-year-old Brigid O'Flynn is an outcast. A chance encounter with the Faerie Queen left her tainted in the eyes of the villagers, who blame the Faerie for the village’s missing women and children. Desperate to win the village’s acceptance, Brigid agrees to marry her childhood friend: Serious, hardworking, Connell Mackenna. But when Connell disappears before their wedding, Brigid's hopes are shattered. Blamed for her fiancé’s death, Brigid fears she will suffer the same fate as the other village outcasts, the mysterious Willow Women. Lured into Faerie by their inhuman lovers, and cast out weak and broken, the Willow Women spend their lives searching for the way back into Faerie. When Connell suddenly reappears, Brigid is overjoyed, but everything is not as it seems. Consumed by his desire for beauty and celebration, Connell abandons his responsibilities, and Brigid soon finds herself drawn into a passionate, dangerous world of two.

When Brigid discovers the truth behind Connell's transformation she’s forced to choose between two men and two worlds. Brigid’s struggle leads her into glittering, ruthless Faerie, where she must rescue her true love from a terrible sacrifice or lose him forever.

Excerpt

Connell was waiting for her when she arrived. He took her hand without speaking and led her into the forest. Once they were safely inside the trees’ protection, Connell removed something from the heavy cloth sack he wore around his waist tied with a silken cord. It was a harp, the most beautiful instrument Brigid had ever seen. The tuning pegs looked to be made of gold and the strings of pure silver. When Connell touched them with his fingers, the music made her want to weep and sleep and laugh, all at the same time. She reached out to touch it, but Connell snatched her hand away.

“Forgive me, my love, but I cannot let you have it. As pretty as it is, it would burn your delicate fingers.”

“Why should it burn me and not you?” She thought it would be worth the risk to run her hands along the deep U of the harp’s neck.

“‘Tis no ordinary harp. It will only endure the touch of its owner.”

“How did you come to have it?” 

Connell brushed his fingers gently across the strings. “It was given to me as a gift.”

“By whom?” Brigid asked, bewildered. There was no one in the village save for the lord himself who could afford such an instrument.

Connell leaned towards her. “‘Tis a secret.”

“If I am to be your wife, there must be no secrets between us.”

Connell seized Brigid’s hands and pulled her towards him. “I am not myself,” he whispered in her ear.

"I think I became a writer because the world inside my head was so real and vivid, sometimes more so than the outside world. In some sense I have lived parallel lives, present in my real and imaginary lives in different ways. Because much of my childhood was spent searching for faeries or reading about them, it is natural that my work encompasses fairy tale themes and other magical elements. In the words of Tennessee Williams, forget reality, give me magic!"

Adrienne has previously published short stories in The Storyteller, Beginnings Magazine, New Plains Review, and in the e-zines A Fly in Amber, Grim Graffiti, Les Bonnes Fees, The Altruist, The Devilfish Review, and Rose Red Review. Her short story, Falling was awarded second place in the 2008 Alice Munro short fiction contest. To Dance in Liradon is her first published novel.

An avid reader of fairy tales and other magical stories, a thread of the mysterious or unexpected runs through all of her work. When she’s not writing Adrienne can be found searching for faeries along with her daughters Callista and Juliet.

Author Links:

Website: http://www.adrienneclarkewriter.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/ToDanceInLiradon

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6436251.Adrienne_Clarke

Twitter: https://twitter.com/clarkeadrienne

Inspiration is Everywhere (by the author)

Inspiration is everywhere. Really, I mean it. No matter how ordinary or mundane the surroundings there is always a glimmer of truth waiting to be illuminated by story. Although some writers might live extraordinary lives that provide the raw material for their work, I think most of us rely on our imaginations, our curiosity, our compulsion to ask: What if?

Sometimes it is the very ordinary nature of our lives that encourages us to take flights of fantasy, to go places we might never dare to go in real life. In many ways writing is about the unlived life. This is one of the reasons writing is so exhilarating, but it can also be frightening. Sometimes, random inspiration can take us places we’d never dare to go in our daily lives. The most authentic writing pushes us into dangerous territory by encouraging us to explore our deepest desires and darkest fears. The idea for one of my short stories came to me while I was at the park with my daughter. There was a woman there, alone, who struck me as terribly sad. I immediately began to wonder: Who was this woman? What was her name? Why did she come to the park alone? 

My curiosity about a stranger resulted in a short story called Quiet Play about a woman who’d lost her husband and child that was at times painful to write. But that’s what writers do, they create stories by asking questions and daring to live the unlived life, and if they do their job well enough they take readers on that journey with them. One of the greatest gifts of reading is the ability to experience the world from a different point of view.

For me, the best source of inspiration is tapping into peoples’ longing. Regardless of who we are, how much we have, or what stage of life we’re in we all long for something. The best stories explore that longing, whether it’s physical or spiritual, wonderful or destructive. Once we know what a character longs for we understand them, and when we relate to a character powerfully enough we share that longing, at least for a little while. The kind of longing I always come back to in my work is the longing for true love. I think that’s because it’s the one thing I believe no one should live without.

There. Now you know a little bit about what inspires me, but what about you? Where do you find your inspiration? Drop me a line. I’d love to know.

Adrienne will be awarding winner's choice of a Kindle touch, Nook Simple Touch, or a $100 Apple gift card, and one crystal Faerie necklace similar to what Brigid wore to the Faerie ball to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.  Be sure to follow the tour for more chances to win!