Halloween Week Guest Blog & Giveaway Day 4: Robin Owens

UPDATE: The winner of a book of their choice from Robin D. Owens's backlist is Tannun! Congrats! Please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

My "Heart" series of fantasy romances are set on Celta, a planet colonized by people with psi powers that have essentially developed into magic. Animals have developed some sentience, enough intelligence that they have become Familiar Companions. I've written of cats with attitude (redundant), puppies and noble hound and the occasional fox. These make appearances as friends, mentors and tricksters.

The holidays of Celta are based on general and popular opinion of ancient Celtic and Druidic culture. Since it's my world, what I want that society to be like, and how I've made the planet turn...

A Glimpse @ Samhain (November 1), as celebrated on Celta:

The twinmoons are high and golden in the sky this chill midnight when Halloween tips over into Samhain. Soon the ritual to honor those lost in the past year and to bless the new year will begin. This is the last harvest festival, summer's end the acceptance that winter is coming. An altar has food for the living...and a platter for the dead on this night when the walls between the worlds are thin.

At first the people in the grove are quiet as the circle is made, then the bonfire is lit and stories of those who passed away are recounted. Toasts are drunk and written regrets from the past are tossed into the fire. The new year is embraced. Stars – galaxies – seem to whirl through the sky, spinning white and bright as people circle the fire, hand clasped to hand, dancing.

Laughter and fellowship are celebrated, friends and family eat and drink of the harvest bounty. Cider – soft and hard – lays tangy on the tongue, ready to be followed by savory meat pies, then sugar-dusted pastries.

After sharing food comes meditation, and some may stare into the bonfire and try to see the future in the flames. Again people stand linked and let their magic and their hopes and dreams for themselves and their loved ones flow around the ritual circle. Then the circle is opened and folk will slip from the night and the silver and shadow grove into the warm and welcoming house.

Or they will teleport to their own special places and other, more intimate celebrations may commence...

May you enjoy whatever holidays you celebrate, and always make them your own with your own traditions.

Robin

Excerpts: http://www.robindowens.com/reads/reads.htm

Blog on Writing & Publishing: http://robindowens.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.robindowens.com/home.htm

HALLOWEEN WEEK CONTESTS: Remember, there are TWO ways to win! Each day this week (Oct. 26 thru Oct. 30th) a guest blogger will give away a signed book to one person randomly chosen from the comment section. Today's prize is a book of YOUR CHOICE from Robin Owens's backlist. Check back in this post tomorrow to find out if you are the winner!

Also, at the bottom of each post there is a scavenger hunt question. The answer can be located somewhere on the author's website. Send in all 5 correct answers* to the scavenger hunt questions, and you will be entered in a drawing to win a $50 Visa gift card!!!

SCAVENGER HUNT QUESTION (4 of 5): What is the title of Robin's book with the following cover blurb: Twins, both with a healing gift, are Summoned to another world to fight a disease sent by the Dark to weaken Lladrana. They must use all their resources to save lives. And one twin will risk her own on an experiment that might doom them both....

*Please note, that the correct answers to the scavenger hunt questions must be sent in at one time. You must collect all 5 answers and send them in one email. Entries for the scavenger hunt will be accepted from Friday, October 30th thru Sunday, November 1st at midnight. The winner will be announed on this blog Monday, November 2nd, 2009. If you have any questions about this contest, please contact contests(AT)knightagency.net.