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.

Take Home Tuesday x 2

UPDATE: The winner of the February 17th edition of "Take Home Tuesday" is Jeanne Ryan. Congrats! I know you will enjoy both of these awesome books :). Please email your physical address to contests(at)knightagency(dot)net. Thanks to all our participants!

RWA's Houston Bay Area Chapter awarded Melissa Mayhue's SOUL OF A HIGHLANDER second place and Robin Owens's KEEPERS OF THE FLAME fourth place in their "Judge a Book By Its Cover Contest." In honor of their win, we are giving away both these titles in today's edition of "Take Home Tuesday." Remember, Melissa Mayhue is chatting online with us this Thursday @ 9pm ET. She'll be giving away an autographed set of her ENTIRE series. Click here to bookmark the chat room!

Leave your name in the comments below to enter the book giveaway for SOUL OF A HIGHLANDER (Pocket Books, June 2008) by Melissa Mayhue and KEEPERS OF THE FLAME (Pocket Books, January 2008) by Robin Owens. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning.

Nine years ago, Faerie Magic saved Mairi MacKiernan at the cost of her dreams of happiness, snatching her from her life in 1272, and depositing her in the twenty-first century. Now, she must save the last Daughter of the MacKiernan family...who was murdered in 1295. Transported back in time at her request, Mairi finds herself captured by the same evil men as before! Is this the price the Faerie magic requires of her this time?

Ramos Servans has dedicated his dreams to service as a Guardian, but when he discovers the evil unleashed on the Mortal Plain by his father and their people, he swears he will atone by ridding the world of Nuadian deceit. Part of his mission involves rescuing a lovely Highland lassie, and in the passion that grows between them, Ramos and mairi find a new dream.

But falling in love can be dangerous when Faerie Magic is involved. Dreams may not be the only cost... _________________________

Two sisters born to serve…
The sorcerers of Lladrana have already Summoned three women to help fight the evil attacking their world. Yet their fourth Summoning brings the unexpected—twin sisters. And ones with strong ties to Earth.

Both have a special gift to heal. But while Brigid Drystan has explored that gift through unorthodox means, Elizabeth has poured herself into getting a medical degree and denying her powers.

Now, stuck in a strange land, fighting a plague 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.…

Heart Fate on Amazon's Best of 2008 Top Ten Romance Book List

HEART FATE, Book 7 in the CELTA'S HEARTMATES series, has been named one of Amazon’s “Best of 2008” top 10 romance novels. Written by award-winning author Robin Owens, the futuristic novel came in at a respectable #6 on the list. The book chronicles the story of Lashin D’Yew, a woman who must overcome her troubled past and forgive her Heart Mate’s deception in order to realize her true destiny. When asked how she felt after learning of the Amazon honor, Robin says, “The news hasn’t quite sunk in. [I feel] very, very lucky. Hopeful. Dizzy. All of the above.”

Next year, Robin’s fans have a lot to look forward to. The last book in her SUMMONING series, ECHOES IN THE DARK, will be published in January by Luna, and she’s currently hard at work on HEART CHANGE, due to be released by Berkeley in November. Also on the horizon, readers will be treated to a special free story on her website from the viewpoint of Zanth, her first FamCat.