MARIAN by Gayle Feyrer

  

MARIAN

by Gayle Feyrer

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

GENRE:  Historical Romance 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

BLURB: 

Warrior. Spy. Marian Montrose dons silk or chain mail with equal aplomb. Sent by Queen Eleanor on a mission to Nottingham, Marian is waylaid in Sherwood Forest by the infamous Robin Hood. Her companions are stripped of their riches, but from her, Robin steals only one brazen kiss.

 Seething with anger at the thief’s presumption and the haunting memory of his searing embrace, Marian arrives at the castle to find the sophisticated and seductive Sir Guy of Gisborne a welcome distraction. Guisbourne would be the perfect ally against the Sheriff and Prince John but he believes he’s already picked the winning side. Deft at games of intrigue, Marian discovers Guisbourne’s involvement in plans to steal the ransom meant to free King Richard the Lionheart.

 Conquering her misgivings, Marian returns to Sherwood and recruits Robin with the promise of a pardon for him and his men. Now they are allies in the fight to return the king, but Robin wants far more from Marian. First, she resists his almost magical allure, then succumbs, then resists again, distrusting the elemental power he has over her. Guisbourne may be lethally dangerous, but Robin threatens to consume both her body and her soul.

 Danger surrounds them. Betrayal separates them. But desire—and fate—will not be denied.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 EXCERPT 

Simon of Vitry was a dead man. His rush was telling on him. In his eagerness for the kill, Vitry had expended too much energy. As he thrust at her again, he stumbled over a root. He recouped before she could counterattack, but Marian regained her balance and her surety. She saw that the great sword had grown heavy for him, showing its weight in his faltering backhand. Deliberately she edged around him, letting him follow with his strongest cuts, then quickly reversed direction, playing to his weakest manoeuvre. The backslash came at her, aiming to open her chest. She brought her own sword under his blade and turned it, then instantly drove her point home, taking him deep in the belly. Vitry screamed, surprise and outrage rising to a shrilling agony as she pulled her weapon free. With a surge of cold triumph, she saw him fall to the ground. He lay at her feet, clutching the wound and thrashing. She did not answer when he begged her for his death.

 Implacable as fate, Marian sat by the edge of the pool and watched Vitry die, wondering if her father had taken as long. After an hour it was over. Rising, she went to stand over his corpse. Though all around the bright May greenery fluttered in the breeze, looking down on him she felt encompassed by winter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Ten of My Favorite Poems

 

I love poetry, so much that my friends and I held small poetry and literature salons, where we read aloud, sometimes even memorized and performed.

Choosing just ten was really impossible! Too many were left out.

 

Mary Oliver: Peonies

My favorite poem by my favorite poet. I cry at the end. Every time.

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready

to break my heart

as the sun rises,

as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers… Click the peonies to hear a reading. The complete text: https://www.best-poems.net/mary_oliver/peonies.html

 

Keats: La Belle Dame San Merci

I’ve loved this poem for decades. It’s one I’ve recited myself, by candlelight, at my friends’ poetry salons.

It’s also inspired several gorgeous paintings.

I met a lady in the meads, Full of beautiful, a fairy’s child

Her hair was long, her foot was light, and her eyes were wild…   Click the image for a reading of the poem.

 

Baudelaire: L’Invitation au Voyage

This is my favourite Baudelaire poem. He’s very dark and cynical, but this poem is one of his most exquisite and romantic.

It plays a role in the third book of my Paris Trilogy, A Harmony of Hells (available in 2024).

The poem always seems to me to be set in a mythical Venice.

…Drowned suns that glimmer there

Through cloud-disheveled air Click the image to hear it in French—why not hear the original!

Here is the Richard Wilbur translation. It far surpasses any other English version:

https://voetica.com/voetica.php?collection=1&poet=44&poem=1066

 

Lewis Carroll: The Walrus and the Carpenter

Another poem that I performed at a poetry salon. I did the narrator in a vaguely Deborah Kerr sort of voice, very proper. The Carpenter was as close as I could get to Peter Lorre. The Walrus was Mae West, dragging out the syllables seductively. Ooohh, oyssstas.

Click Mae for a good theatrical reading of the poem.

You can find the weirdest things on the internet. Betty Boop does Lewis Carroll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHhQ6WRWEBM

 

Alfred Noyes: The Highwayman

I first heard this in a movie version of the story. I was about six years old and loved it. Loved it just as much when I discovered the actual poem many years later.

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor

And the highwayman came riding, riding,

Up to the old inn door.

Click the picture to hear Lorena McKennitt sing the poem, combined with some images from the old film.

Her version fascinates me. It’s gorgeous but she stresses totally different words than I do when reading the poem.

 

Federico García Lorca: Romance Sonámbulo

Green, how I want you green

Green wind. Green branches.

The ship out on the sea

And the horse on the mountain.

With the shade around her waist

She dreams on her balcony,

Green flesh, her hair green,

With eyes of cold silver…

Click the image to experience a poem video in Spanish.

Complete translation by William Bryant Logan: https://poets.org/poem/romance-sonambulo

As I was reading it, a favorite Bob Dylan song came to mind, that has a similar surreal quality.

Joan Baez sings Dylan’s Farewell Angelina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwP2ulxDdY

 

W. H. Auden: Musée des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wrong,

The old masters…

Click the painting by Peter Breugel that inspired the poem, a meditation on art, life, and myth. Jodie Foster reads.

 

Shakespeare: Sonnet 129

Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame…

Click the Egon Scheile painting to hear Ralph Fiennes recite the sonnet.

Very dark and bitter poem! It reminds me of a favorite song by The Eurythmics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6f593X6rv8

 

Gerard Manley Hopkins: Spring and Fall

 

I’ve seen this poem on the shortlist for the most beautiful poem in the English language.

Hopkins does exquisite, often strange poems with haunting alliteration.

Margaret are you grieving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leaves like the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

 Click the painting for a complete reading.

 William Blake: The Tyger

Tyger, tyger, burning bright,

In the forest of the night

Click the image for a poem video.

When it was written, the readers wouldn’t have shunned rhyming symmetry with eye.

 

I’ve also written a few poems, though it’s not a comfortable genre for me. Marian has several poems I wrote based on the forms of the medieval troubadors.

I did do a poem video for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWiwFccrehs

My mystery, Floats the Dark Shadow, has a poem I worked on with my friend, poet Mary Eichbauer, to make the French and English versions work.

I’ve also done several poem videos inspired by my Paris mysteries, written under my nom de plume, Yves Fey.

This is a very dark one, by Victor Hugo, done in honor of Poe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAud94oSl-4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links: 

Gayle Feyrer began drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon and writing when she was twelve. She holds a Bachelor's in Pictorial Arts from UCLA and an MFA from the University of Oregon in Creative Writing. In her varied career, she has been a tie-dye artist, go-go dancer, baker, creator of ceramic beasties, illustrator, fiction teacher, and finally, novelist. A Libra with Scorpio Rising, Gayle’s romantic nature takes on a darker edge.  She hopes these shadows bring depth to her romances.

 A world traveller, Gayle has visited Paris, England and Italy numerous times.  She lived for two years in Jakarta, Indonesia, with many trips around Asia. She currently resides across the bridge from San Francisco, with her husband and their two rescue cats, Charlotte and Emily, the Flying Bronte sisters, half Siamese and half tabby.

 Amazon Author Page: 

Goodreads: 

Facebook: 

Instagram: 

Marian book trailer 

 Troubadour song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWiwFccrehs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

 The author will award a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn host.

a Rafflecopter giveaway