This week, we're welcoming author Kim Headlee, who takes readers to an ancient time in her novel DAWNFLIGHT. The author will offer a free copy of the book to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:
Gyanhumara “Gyan” nic Hymar is a Caledonian chieftainess by birth, a warrior and leader of warriors by training, and she is betrothed to Urien map Dumarec, a son of her clan’s deadliest enemy, by right of Arthur the Pendragon’s conquest of her people. For the sake of peace, Gyan is willing to sacrifice everything...perhaps even her very life, if her foreboding about Urien proves true.
Arthur map Uther is the bastard son of two worlds, Roman by his father and Brytoni by his mother. Denied hereditary rulership by the elders of Chieftainess Ygraine’s clan, Arthur has followed Uther’s path to become Dux Britanniarum, the Pendragon: supreme commander of the northern Brytoni army. The Caledonians, Scots, Saxons, and Angles keep him too busy to dwell upon his loneliness...most of the time.
When Gyan and Arthur meet, each recognize within the other their soul’s mate. The treaty has preserved Gyan’s ancient right to marry any man, providing he is a Brytoni nobleman—but Arthur does not qualify. And the ambitious Urien, Arthur’s greatest political rival, shall not be so easily denied. If Gyan and Arthur cannot prevent Urien from plunging the Caledonians and Brytons back into war, their love will be doomed to remain unfulfilled forever.
**Q&A with Kim Headlee**
Please
tell us a little about Dawnflight
Dawnflight
is the first installment of The Dragon’s
Dove Chronicles, a series that I hope will
span at least eight volumes, including two which precede Dawnflight
in terms of the characters' chronology. Dawnflight
features the romance of Gyanhumara (“Gyan”) and Arthur beginning
in the aftermath of the first of Arthur's twelve battles, in which he
defeated her people and established the treaty clause that she must
marry a nobleman from his side of the border.
Of course, treaties, like
all other rules, are indeed meant to be broken. The trick lies in how
to break them without creating calamity for all involved. Throw in an
enemy invasion for good measure (battles two and three on Arthur's
list of twelve), and Our Heroes have quite the conundrum, indeed.
What inspired you to
write it?
A combination of factors
contributed.
When I was 7
(I'm dating myself, but I stopped caring about such things decades
ago), my parents took me to see the movie Camelot
in the theatre. The two images I liked best from that first viewing
were Guinevere in her white fur wrap and the knights fighting on top
of the Round Table and breaking it. Both foreshadowed the direction
of my Arthurian fiction.
At age 9, I
read a modern-English rendering of Malory’s Le
Morte d’Arthur cover to cover and became
hooked. I began devouring every Arthurian title I could lay my hands
on. In those days, that meant editions such as The
Boy's King Arthur, a version of Malory
illustrated by Howard Pyle, an umpteenth reprinting of A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,
and an almost-umpteenth reprinting of The
Once and Future King.
In high
school, my parents gave me a first-edition copy of The
Hollow Hills, which made me thirst after
historical adaptations. The highest compliment any reviewer has paid
my work to date is to give it a favorable comparison to Mary
Stewart's novels; she was my primary literary hero in those days. She
still is, come to think of it.
High school
was when I first started writing my own version of the
Arthur-Guinevere relationship. I still have a couple of drafts of
that—and read them recently, in fact. What a hoot! 100% teenage
girl, no question about it.
Then Marion
Zimmer Bradley came out with her iconic entry into the Legends (Mists
of Avalon and, yes, I have a first edition
of that, too), which concentrated on "rehabilitating" the
reputation of Morgan le Fay.
Through all
of this—and I include the works by Nancy McKenzie, Persia Woolley,
Sharan Newman, and Helen Hollick—I couldn't find a rendering of
Guinevere that I well and truly liked. So, as the adage goes, "If
you want something done right..." :D
What’s different
about this new version from the award-winning one released in 1999?
Glad you asked!
The most
obvious difference at first glance is the inclusion of my digital
line-art renderings of images engraved on Pictish standing stones
found throughout Scotland, plus some of my original artwork inspired
by said stones. These drawings function throughout the text as clues
to the reader of an imminent viewpoint shift: the doves represent
Gyan, the dragons Arthur, and so forth. With more than ten viewpoint
characters, I decided my readers could use a bit of help!
Linguistically—aside
from tighter wording and hotter sex—I have expanded my characters'
vocabularies to include additional epithets, endearments, insults,
and mythology in order to more richly define their world. I never
would have dared to do this had I not decided to include a glossary.
Since my work has truly epic scope, I also include an index of
characters who appear or who are referenced in the book. This index
defines each character’s function in the story and gives other
pertinent details.
I’ve heard you say
that yours is a Guinevere “people will actually like.” What do
you mean by that? What makes her different?
She's smart
(and sometimes a smartass!), she's strong willed, she has a fairly
firm idea of who she is and what she wants from life—and from her
life-partner—and yet all that strength forms a shell around a
compassionate, vulnerable core. She wants to do the best thing for
her people but sometimes doesn't have the first clue how to
accomplish it and seeks approval along the way. Consequently, she is
mercilessly hard on herself when she perceives that she has failed to
meet others' expectations. In short, she is very much a woman that
female readers can relate to despite the fact that most of us don't
rule clans or collect heads. I once described the book to a coworker
as, “a female assertiveness training manual.” It’s not far from
the truth. Male readers can simply sit back and enjoy the view, along
with the battles and political intrigue and whatnot.
What made you choose
Scotland as the location for your novel when England is the
traditional setting?
Several
research works I read in the 1980s—before Dawnflight
first took shape upon the page—suggested to me that the Border
Country was an ideal location for Arthur's military operations. Plus,
I was attracted to the cross-cultural aspect of having Arthur be a
Romanized Celt and Gyan a Pict (or "ban-Caledonach," as she
would call herself in my newly invented Pictish terminology). In
fact, the more I delve into Scottish Gaelic to create Pictish terms
for place-names, the more I am convinced that southern
Scotland/northern England was Arthur's home turf, in spite of what
others may insist. The wording, in comparison to traditional
Arthurian place-names and battle sites that nobody can identify with
anything approaching certainty, fits far too nicely to be mere
coincidence.
And, yes, I firmly believe
Arthur, his wife, and their associates existed. To do anything less
would be a gross disservice to my writing and to my readers.
I’ve read that you
purposefully stripped your tale of the magic usually associated with
Arthurian legend to focus more on the history. Why?
Oh, the
magic is there, trust me! But it is the magic of visions and
prophecies, the magic of prayer, the magic of curses and blessings,
the magic of herbal lore...and most of all, the magic that happens
when two charismatic individuals unite to forge a better world for
themselves, each
other, and their people.
The summary for your
book puts forth an interesting premise: Gyan (Guinevere) marries
someone other than Arthur. What made you choose such a bold departure
from previous legend?
Good
question! I think it may have been inspired by some obscure, ancient
tale...after having studied the Arthurian Legends for more than four
decades, it's safe to say that I've forgotten far more than most
people know about the subject.
Actually, to
be fair—and this isn't really a spoiler alert—Gyan is betrothed
to Urien. After she and Arthur meet and become attracted to each
other, they spend the rest of the book trying to figure out how she
can extricate herself from the betrothal without making Urien start a
civil war.
Dawnflight
has a sequel, correct? What can you tell us about this book and when
it will be available?
Morning's
Journey
picks up the morning after Dawnflight
leaves off and follows Gyan & Arthur through more battles and
family changes and triumphs and tragedies. And it delves a little
farther into the relationship of Gyan and Angusel (Lancelot).
Morning’s
Journey
will be available as soon as I can get a cover commissioned &
delivered, since my copyeditor has given me her input.
Learn more about author Kim Headlee: www.kimheadlee.com
Amazon Authors Central: http://www.amazon.com/Kim-Headlee/e/B001KE2LK2
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kimheadlee/
Read DAWNFLIGHT now and learn more: www.dawnflight.com
See the Book Trailer on YouTube:
Amazon.com link to all available editions:
