Rebel Review by Vicki Taylor

Linda Windsor rounds out her Brides of Alba Series with an action-packed story of political intrigue and spiritual warfare. Rebel steeps Alyn O’ Byrne and Kella O’Toole in the mire of the last days of King Arthur’s reign. From the intricacies of the royal court to the revelation of personal secrets, this book is a page-turner from start to finish, especially for those who enjoy the romance of Arthurian legend.

Though significantly different from the Arthur taught in college lit. class, this series sparks a renewed interest in the facts surrounding the legend. Windsor places Arthur’s Court in the late sixth century, congruent with the only documented account of the historic Arthur. Though the characters and conflicts are similar to the stories found in classic British literature, Rebel’s basic premise revolves around the fight for Britain’s ecclesiastical future. 

The story opens with the death of Merlin, the leading druid/Celtic Christian priest in the kingdom. His absence creates a void of spiritual leadership that Modred, a high priest in the Celtic church, believes he has the right to fill, but Arthur’s preference for this honored position is Roman archbishop Cassian. The battle for power between the British and Roman churches ignite the struggle that eventually rips Arthur’s kingdom apart.

Main characters Alyn and Kella are thrown into the middle of the fray when Queen Gwenhyfar entrusts the two with ensuring the safe transport of historical church documents. The relentless antagonism between King Arthur and his cousin Modred has sparked religious discord among their countrymen that incites full civil unrest. With the population divided from within and the threat of the invading Saxons from without, Alyn and Kella embark on a perilous journey.

But completing this royal quest isn’t their only challenge. Alyn, a scholar of both religion and science, must overcome the guilt he feels over the death of a friend and accept his role as God’s prophet to the rulers of his generation. Kella, hiding the secret of an unplanned pregnancy, entreats Alyn to help her find her father and her betrothed, both of whom are missing from battle and presumed dead. Desperate to find hope for the future, these two old friends are forced to face outlaws, traitors, and the truth about themselves. It is in that truth that they find the freedom to love and the strength to overcome all the obstacles they face.

 Rebel is an incredible story with a perfect balance of action and romance and more than a hint of insight into the politics of religion that continues to impact our society today. Linda Windsor does a masterful job of weaving history, legend, and imagination into a narrative that brings the Arthurian legend to life like few others. I highly recommend this book and its counterparts in The Brides of Alba Series.

To find out more about Linda and her books, you can visit her website or make plans to meet her in person at this year’s conference. We hope to see you there!

UnWrapping of a Story

I suppose I was always a writer. It just took me a long time to admit it. It took me even longer to realize that writing was never really about what I thought it was. The first hint that I had of the truth came the year I became a follower of Jesus. To say my life had changed would be an understatement. In less than eight months I had gone from working as an engineer to enrolling at a seminary. My family and friends could not quite believe it. They were no more surprised than I. 

My first Christmas as a Christian came upon me quickly. I was half a continent away from my past life. I was not going home for Christmas. There was no money for gifts, and I was not expecting anything. I thought of all the Christmases I had spent without knowing my Lord and decided to write a poem for Jesus as my gift to him. It seemed easy enough. 

Days went by, and not only did I not have a poem, I did not have a line.  Then one night, at just about this time of the year, I did something that was radical for me.  I asked God to forgive me for being so cocky as to think I had anything to give worthy of him. I could only give him something worthy of him that he had first given to me.  I asked him if he would forgive me and help me write my poem.

When I set down my pen that night I had written a mere sixteen lines, and everything I thought I knew about writing had changed. My poem, rather than being my gift to God, had become God’s gift to me.

That poem, which was somehow never edited, was published the following year. It marked the official beginning of my journey as a Christian writer.  I now realize that writing is not so much my gift to him as it is His gift to me.  It is a present I enjoy unwrapping every time I pick up my pen for Him.  

Donald Hasselman, author of Tracks and Ties , published by Xlibris is a member of the SDCWC board.

It's Always the Primroses

When I was lifting flats of just-planted seeds onto a shelf in our basement cold room one February a couple years ago, my hand slipped.  One of those flats abruptly upended and strewed Pro-mix and seeds all over the old picture frames and rusty bird cages stacked on the cement floor

There go the primroses.  I knew that with sinking certainty, even before I looked at the label on the flat.  After all, it's never the seeds you don't particularly care about -- like cabbages or cauliflowers -- which get spilled.  It's always the gold-laced primroses. 

I told myself firmly at the time that I couldn’t complain about losing one type of flower, when I had so many more.  Just as I couldn’t complain about recently losing my job of ten years, because it was a good job while it lasted, and supported me when my career as a novelist seemed stalled. 

I couldn’t even complain about the weather.  It had been an unusually mild winter, just as my problems were mild when compared to other people's.  But even a mild winter seemed to drag on forever when I was waiting, on potential employers and editors or on seeds slow to sprout. 

I always sow the most difficult ones early every year, because I know it will take weeks of cold conditions for some of them to germinate.  I started my writing career early too, knowing it might require years of difficulty before I saw growth. 

There have been a few successes.  Sometimes, however, promising sprouts damp off and shrivel -- leaving me no choice except to start over again.  The pre-germination period the second time around always seems even longer.

I know, however, that I have to keep planting seeds, even when a change in the weather seems unlikely.  Otherwise, I’ll have nothing to contribute when spring finally. . .well. . . springs. 

I can’t be sure which of those seeds will sprout, though, or when.  The charm of  all real life, after all, lies in its unpredictability.  I may never get gold-laced primroses or a success-edged career.  But perhaps something else will bloom for me that I'll love far better.  That's what the waiting that irks us writers so much should be all about.  Not assurances, but possibilities.

That February, I gathered what I could find of the scattered Pro-mix and returned it to the flat.  I’d like to be able to report that my writing life has blossomed since then.  No such luck!  But, strangely enough, the seeds which had been spilled were the only primroses that sprouted for me that year.  Although those poor plants got scratched up by our chickens while they were still young, I’m sure there’s a lesson in that! 

Audrey Stallsmith, St. Davids Registrar, is the author of the Thyme Will Tell series of mysteries from WaterBrook Press and The Body They May Kill from Thomas Nelson.  Her work has also appeared in periodicals such as Woman’s World and Birds & Blooms.  She writes articles for Demand Media and Dave’s Garden, as well as her own sites, Thyme Will Tell and Inklings of Truth.

Deadlines, Schmeadlines!

I'm not always good with deadlines, especially if they're my own. If I've told myself to get that old furniture up to the attic by Thursday, you can bet it'll still be sitting in the hallway on Friday ... five years later. I can't even trick myself into honoring my own deadlines because I know they're fake. I know I won't punish myself if I miss a deadline that I created randomly just to guilt myself into finishing something. It has to really bother me before I'll take it seriously.

Which probably means I shouldn't be a freelancer. And yet, I am.

Why? Because missing other people's deadlines does bother me. And I'm grateful for that easily poked guilt and shame sometimes. As a Christian, I suppose I ought to find ways to get rid of unwanted or overblown guilt. Christ paid for my sins, right? And yet, too many times it's precisely my sense of never-ending guilt that gets me to do something on time. Either way, it's a good thing my husband and I don't rely on my income to pay the bills. Otherwise, we'd be living in the back of an old 1989 Ford Escort we bought for $200 about a decade ago. (Don't ask—it's now serving as an inadvertent planter out on his grandfather's property a few miles from here.)

As a writer who is not writing for a newspaper (deadlines!) or a magazine (more deadlines!), I find that my writing comes in fits and starts. (Lots of fits. Several starts. Fewer finishes.) There's only one time of year when I churn out writing consistently, in a way that makes me feel as if I'm a Real Writer. That's always in November ... yes, during National Novel Writing Month.

This is my tenth consecutive year doing NaNoWriMo, and I can confidently state that the combination of discovering NaNoWriMo and also Alphasmart devices in 2004 was a writing epiphany for me. Prior to November 2004, it had taken me fifteen years to write my first novel, which clocked in at a mere 55,000 words. I'd been editing the thing to death. Suddenly, I had a distraction-free writing device and a ridiculous deadline of 50,000 words in a single month.

That deadline was the most freeing thing that's ever happened to my writing. I soared through the month easily, and when I finished that novel a little while later, it went on to place as a top-four runner-up in Jerry Jenkins's Operation First Novel in 2006.

And, for the record, I've hit that 50,000-word goal for NaNoWriMo every year since. Looks like this year will be no exception. Deadlines, it turns out, can be my friends.
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 Linda Au’s short humor essays have garnered numerous awards. Two books of her humorous essays, Head in the Sand…and other unpopular positions and Fork in the Road … and other pointless discussions, are currently available on Amazon.com and BN.com. 

Linda works behind the scenes in publishing as a proofreader, copy editor, and typesetter. She has worked with publishers such as Carroll & Graf, Shoemaker & Hoard, Crown & Covenant Publications, Christian Publications (now WingSpread/Zur), Pegasus Books, and F+W Publications.